Agenda and draft minutes

To note any substitution of Board Members made in accordance with Council Procedure Rules.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Watson.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 7 February 2024 (previously circulated).

The mintues of the meeting held on the 7^th February 2024 were approved as a correct record.

There were no notifications of urgent business.

To note declarations of Members’ disclosable pecuniary interests, non-disclosable pecuniary interests and non-pecuniary interests in respect of items on the Agenda.

There were declarations of interest by members.

The Assistant Director (Leisure, Community and Cultural Services) provided a presentation setting out the role of the Grants Board. The following key points were highlighted:

·         The Grants Board oversee the Council’s Annual Grants Programme and make recommendations to Cabinet on the award of the Annual Grants, and oversee the One Welwyn Hatfield Community Lottery

·         There are typically four meetings per year. These meetings will review the grants criteria, receive updates on the lottery, review applications and discuss funding awards and agree the grants for the following year.

·         The current eligibility criteria was set out in the agenda pack and is used to ensure every organisation which receives funding is compliant.

Members had a discussion regarding the eligibility criteria. It was felt that given the feedback provided by organisations it would be useful for applications to include a minimum amount that could be used to fulfil projects. Concerns were raised that enforcing a 12 month wait as this may stop useful projects taking place, however, it was also discussed that this would diversify the charities supported.

RESOLVED:

The Grants Board agreed to reduce the maximum amount of funding per application to £15,000 from £20,000.

The Assistant Director (Leisure, Community and Cultural Services) provided an update on the Community Lottery. It was noted that the Cabinet had agreed to introduce the Community Lottery in February 2023 to replace the small grants Fund. The Council had successfully obtained a Gambling Licence in May 2023 and the lottery had commenced in October 2023.

The aims and criteria for the lottery were set out in the agenda papers.

The lottery had been audited by the HCC Shared Internal Audit Service in October 2023 and received a substantial assurance.

The Assistant Director (Leisure, Community and Cultural Services) provided an update on the Annual Community Grants 2023/24.

The following points were highlighted:

• The Grants Board meeting had taken place on 22^nd June 2022.

• £73,000 was ring fenced for the Annual Grants for 2023/24.

• 13 applications were taken to the board, which totalled £202,437.98.

• This was £152,437.98 over the total amount of funds available.

• 6 applications were approved and totalled £73,000.00. The details of the success of each organisations projects were set out in the agenda pack.

Feedback had been received from organisations on the difficulties of not funding the whole project applied for.

ACTIONS:

1.    Further details including the numbers supported were requested from the Welwyn Hatfield CVS.

2.    The scoring matrix to be circulated to members.