Agenda item

Councillors are reminded that they will need to declare any interest they may have in budget applications, and/or indicate that Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

The following applications for grants are submitted for consideration:-

Application 1

Applicant:       Love Hoops Foundation

Proposal:       Active Women

Amount:          £250

The total project cost is £2,000 but applications for funding are being made to 8 Community Meetings, (namely Aylestone, Beaumont Leys, Braunstone and Rowley Fields, Eyres Monsell, Freemen, New Parks, Western Park and Westcotes)

The costs can be broken down as follows:-

Summary:      

Love Hoops Foundation is part of the street games consortium that successfully bid to Sport England for funding from their Active Women programme, which targets disadvantaged women.

Under this project, over 360 young women in Leicester will be offered coaching and playing opportunities.  They then will have the opportunity to take coaching and refereeing qualifications, aiming to establish 6 new basketball clubs in the City.  Mentoring will be provided by the Love Hoops Foundation.

The project hopes to overcome the following barriers:-

·            Access to sports facilities.  Sessions will beheld in young people’s own communities

·            Finance.  The funding will help those in communities where low income families often have very little money to pay for sporting activities

·            Cultural / Religious.  The project aims to address young women’s perceptions of sport, including letting them know that sport is an option for them.  There will be female coaches from the area, who will act as positive role models

The project’s targets are to:-

·            Put 12 Level 1 coaches and 6 Level 2 coaches through the programme

·            Have a minimum of 2 volunteers from each centre, but hopefully more

·            32 champions, 2 from each city, to be the project’s “eyes and ears”

·            Train 12 NATO qualified table officials and 12 referees, as well as the coaches mentioned above

·            Establish 6 new clubs.  These initially will have central administration, but will become self sufficient at the start of Year 3, looking for at least 12 players to register for each team

·            Have 10 sessions of coaching for each group as part of the programme.  It is likely that further funding will be requested, once established, to carry on the programme, leading to club establishment

·            Take part in monthly tournaments over the two years, once the teams are established

·            Retain 100 new players over 2 years, measured as NGB registrations.

The following funding has already been promised to this project:-

Sport England Active Women Grant           £5,156

Love Hoops Foundation                               £2,920

City of Leicester Lady Hoops                      £5,380

                                                TOTAL:           £13,456

Application 2

Applicant:       Police and Community Support Group

Proposal:       100% Best Attendance Project

Amount Requested:        £500

Summary:      

The Best Attendance project, which has been successfully run for two consecutive years, was set up and run by the Police and Community Support Group, in order to improve attendance within primary schools on the Welford Road LPU area, (11 schools at that time).  The project is supported by the schools and the Police.  With the boundary changes to wards, the number of schools that would be invited to be involved this year would be 9.

The way the project works is that the school children are given the target of achieving 100% attendance over the school year coupled with a record of good behaviour and work achievement, suitable for each child (determined by the schools).  Those that achieve this are rewarded with a school outing.  In previous projects, this outing was to the cinema.  The project this year will be a trip to see a show/pantomime in order to keep the project fresh and interesting to the children.

It has been proven that this project has successfully boosted attendance in schools, with letters of thanks being sent to the Support Group afterwards, commenting that the number of pupils achieving 100% attendance and improved behaviour was unprecedented.  These letters requested that the project continue in future years.

By children attending school regularly, they are not taking part in truancy. This reduces reports of anti social behaviour and each child can achieve more in school by being there more often to learn. This also reduces anti social behaviour and crime.

This project also can give children a new experience that they might not otherwise have, particularly in the more deprived estates. This project will be offered to every primary school on the four wards of the Welford Road area, so that every child has the opportunity to take part. 

The nine schools that take part will allocate the number of children they believe will win a place, so the number of children that will go on the trip depends on how many children achieve – the project has been costed so that an equal number of children to previous years can be taken on the trip.

The minibus hire that JAG funding would cover will be provided by Confidence Buses, as in previous years.  They have offered a very good competitive rate to help keep the project going.  The other costs will be met by funding to be sought elsewhere (cost of places at the theatre, advertising, etc).

Jerry Connolly, the Member Support Officer for the Freeman Community Meeting presented the Community Meeting Budget and explained that there was some dispute with central finance over the balance of the budget.  The figures from central finance indicated that there was an overspend on the budget, however the Member Support team had disputed this, as they believed that finance had counted in some funding applications twice.  The issue was still being investigated, but as further funding applications had been received, these would still be considered with the hope that the dispute would be resolved.

Jerry presented the following budget applications and the Chair asked members of the community to indicate whether or not they were in support of the funding bid:

Love Hoops Foundation: Active Women

The Love Hoops Foundation had submitted a funding application for £250 for the Active Women programme, which offered basketball coaching and playing opportunities to disadvantaged women.

Jerry suggested that the funding bid be deferred to the new financial year and could be fast tracked, because £500 or less was being applied for.

RESOLVED:

that the application for £250 be supported but deferred to the new financial year 2011/12 and be considered under the fast track procedure at that point.

Police and Community Support Group: 100% Best Attendance Project

The Police and Community Support Group had submitted a funding application for £500 to improve attendance within primary schools on the Welford Road LPU area.

Jerry suggested that the funding bid be deferred to the new financial year and could be fast tracked, because £500 or less was being applied for.

RESOLVED:

that the application for £500 be supported and deferred to the new financial year 2011/12, and be considered under the fast track procedure at that point.

Jerry explained that the following funding applications were received after the agenda had been prepared:

Linwood Centre Chairers and Carers Group: Pampers Day, Celebrating motherhood.

A funding application for £300 had been submitted for an event to celebrate motherhood and parenting and which would also consider healthy eating and nutrition, raise awareness of health issues and promote the Linwood Centre. The event would be for local mums of all ages and would be held on 1 April 2011.  The Eyres Monsell Community Meeting had agreed to fund £100 towards the event, and therefore £200 was requested from the Freeman Ward.

RESOLVED:

                        that the funding application for £200 be supported.

Saffron Fete Committee / Saffron Community Enterprises Ltd

A funding application for £1400 had been submitted to stage the Saffron Fete on Aylestone Recreation Ground on 20 August 2011.  The Eyres Monsell Community Meeting had agreed to fund £400 and Jerry recommended that the Freeman Community Meeting agree to support £600 towards the fete.

A member of the local community questioned whether the Aylestone Community Meeting had agreed to support the fete and the Chair explained that Aylestone had been approached in the past, but they had previously declined to support the funding bid and therefore they had not been approached this time.

RESOLVED:

                        that the funding application be supported to the value of £600

Post meeting note: After the meeting, this was subsequently amended to £545 which was the balance remaining in the Community Meeting Budget.