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.

 

a)      The Members Support Officer will give an update on the latest position with the Community Meeting budget.

 

b)      The following applications for grants are submitted for consideration:

 

Application 1

 

Applicant:       Application completed by Shelly Osborne, Community Development Worker, Thurnby Lodge Children’s Centre

 

Proposal:       Parents get active in Thurnby Lodge!

 

Item	Cost   £	Estimate or actual cost?
Venue Hire (£9.10 per hour)		£273.00
Instructor Costs (x2 per week @ £20hr)		£600.00
Equipment		£300
Free Child Care		In Kind
Free Walk Leader Training		In Kind
Total		£1,173

Amount:         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary:       Four week taster sessions were organised at Thurnby Lodge Children’s Centre and free child care was offered to the parents during each session.  These sessions saw 15 regular parents each week and a waiting list of parents wanting to be part of the sessions.

 

Taking these sessions forward, the parents would like a more long term solution on their journey to lead a more active lifestyle so linking in with Leicester City Council’s 3x30 Pledge Campaign.

 

The Ward funding would go towards two weekly sessions in Thurnby Lodge over a period of 15 weeks. The money will go towards a larger venue to enable more parents to attend these sessions.  In turn the Children’s Centre will continue to offer free child care during one of these sessions, to overcome the barrier of child care. The two sessions we are looking to fund are Aerobics, to be held at the Thurnby Lodge Neighbourhood Community Centre, and the third session will be a led buggy walk, where parents and their children can take part.  We will be looking for a parent to take a Walk Leader course (at no cost to them) to then deliver this session weekly from the Sure Start Centre. This will mean parents attending these three sessions will be hitting their recommended 3x30, which will enable them to receive the rewards associated with this scheme. The parents have agreed to contribute £1.00 per session, so this would go into a pot for the group to continue to sustain the sessions after the Ward funding has finished.

 

The funding also will help towards venue hire, equipment for the group and Instructor costs.

 

The success of this application can be monitored through the 3x30 pledge campaign as users can be tracked at each completed stage over a 36 week period.

 

If this application is successful, the work to get the sessions up and running would happen straight away. These sessions will be open to all the community in Thurnby Lodge, with the option to parents from Thurnby Lodge Sure start Centre to use the free crèche facilities if required.

 

 

Application 2

 

Applicant:       Christchurch PCC

 

Proposal:       Refurbishment of Chairs at Christchurch, Thurnby Lodge

 

Amount:          £1,500 + VAT

 

Summary:       The church chairs at Christchurch are badly in need of re-foaming and re-upholstery.  Most of the chairs are fraying and splitting at the corners of the seats.  The foam has virtually disappeared.  Anyone using the church, (eg, the usual congregation, weddings, funerals, baptisms and the Sunday School), will feel the benefit immensely. 

 

We are trying to raise funding through voluntary contributions and table top sales.  So far we have raised approximately £500.  Should we be successful in our bid we would like to offer to the Ward Community Meeting free use of the church hall for any future meetings, which may benefit all concerned over a period of time, negotiable between the parties concerned.

a)     Ward Budget 2010/11 – Latest Position

 

Mary-Louise Harrison, (Members’ Support Officer with Leicester City Council), updated the meeting on the Ward budget for 2010/11, as follows:-

 

13,835 remained for the current year, which was broken down as:

·        £9,860 in the Ward Action Plan;

·        £2,000 in Community Cohesion Fund; and

·        £1,975 in Community Fund

 

Mary-Louise Harrison also explained that expenditure to date included £140 that had been fast-tracked since the last meeting for weed killer for use on the allotments at Colchester Road. 

 

b)     Grant Applications

 

i)      Parents Get Active in Thurnby!

 

The meeting was reminded that this application had been considered at the last meeting, but a decision had been deferred, as more information was needed, (Minute 11(d), “Budget – Parents Get Active in Thurnby!”, 5 July 2010 referred).

 

It was noted that the current bid was significantly lower than the previous application, being for £1,173 towards the cost of two weekly fitness sessions in Thurnby over a period of 15 weeks.  Shelley Osborne, (Community Development Worker at Thurnby Lodge Children’s Centre), advised that these sessions would be available to Thurncourt residents.  However, as she was employed to work with residents from the Humberstone and Hamilton Ward, the crèche would have to be open to these residents as well, although it was felt that, due to the distance they would have to travel, they would be unlikely to attend.

 

The meeting considered that it should only be supporting activities that were of benefit to the residents of the Thurncourt Ward.  It therefore was

 

RECOMMENDED:

that funding of £1,173 from the Ward Community Fund be supported for the provision of two weekly fitness sessions over a period of 15 weeks by “Parents Get Active in Thurnby!”, on the condition that this be only for residents of Thurncourt Ward, this to be achieved through using a venue in Thurncourt and using people’s post codes to ensure that residents live in the relevant area.

 

ii)     Christchurch Parochial Church Council

 

The meeting was reminded that an application from the Christchurch Parochial Church Council for funding for the refurbishment of chairs had been circulated with the agenda.  Examples of the current condition of the chairs and how they looked after refurbishment were shown to the meeting.  It was noted that the chairs had been second hand when bought and had been well used since then, both by church members and members of the community who hired the premises for various functions.

 

It also was noted that the cost of new chairs had been calculated as £1,405, plus VAT.  A breakdown of these costs was tabled at the meeting and is attached at the end of these minutes for information.

 

To date, approximately £500 had been raised through voluntary contributions from church members.  Fundraising activities already were undertaken to meet normal running costs of the church, so it was difficult raise funds for special projects such as this.

 

RECOMMENDED:

                                  that funding of £1,405 from the Ward Action Plan be supported for the refurbishment of chairs at Christchurch.

 

iii)    Thurnby Lodge TARA (Friday Club)

 

It was noted that, since the agenda had been circulated, applications for funding had been received from the Thurnby Lodge Tenants and Residents Association (TARA) for £300 to help establish a Friday Club, (a new social club), and hold a Christmas party for its members.  Details of these applications were tabled at the meeting.

 

The applications were introduced by representatives of the Tara, who drew particular attention to the following points:-

 

·            £98 had been requested to help finance the first three months of operation;

 

·            The Friday Club had started with 5 members, but now had approximately 20;

 

·            Members would be asked to pay £4 each;

 

·            It had been hoped that the Friday Club would encourage the use of the Community Centre and membership of the Centre already had increased;

 

·            The Friday Club was affiliated to the TARA, so was not constituted separately; and

 

·            The Treasurer of the TARA had agreed to maintain the financial records of the Friday Club and would meet the leaders of the Club regularly to advise on the best use of funds.

 

RECOMMENDED:

                                  that funding of £300 from the Community Cohesion fund be supported towards establishing a Friday Club in association with the Thurnby Lodge Tenants and Residents Association and holding a Christmas party for the Club.

 

iv)    Thurnby United Reserves – Football Kit

 

It was noted that, since the agenda had been circulated, an application for funding had been received from the Thurnby United Reserves football team for £250 to buy new football kit for the team.  Details of this application were tabled at the meeting.

 

Particular attention was drawn to the following points:-

 

·            The team had raised £50 itself, so had applied for the balance of the cost;

 

·            Most of the players were out of work, so it was hard to charge them a full subscription.  At present, the organisers paid for a lot of things themselves;

 

·            The kit being used was very old and so had become very worn;

 

·            Approximately 90% of the team’s members lived within Thurncourt Ward;

 

·            The team played at the Boys Club; and

 

·            In the longer term, it was hoped that the club could expand and run more teams.

 

RECOMMENDED:

that funding of £250 be supported from the Ward Action Plan towards the purchase of kit for the Thurnby United reserves football team.

 

v)     Leicester East Dance/Theatre Group – Sadlers Wells Experience

 

It was noted that, since the agenda had been circulated, an application for funding had been received from the Leicester East Dance/Theatre Group for £1,670 towards costumes and bus hire.  Details of this application were tabled at the meeting.

 

Jill Coe, of the Leicester East Dance/Theatre Group, advised the meeting that the Group had been invited to showcase its work at Sadlers Wells.  It was hoped that as many students as possible could be included, but some parents could not afford to pay for this experience.  Approximately half of the Group’s members lived within Thurncourt Ward, the remainder coming from Humberstone and Hamilton Ward.

 

Jill Coe explained that the Group had now paid £495 towards bus hire and would continue fund raising to meet as many of the remaining costs as possible itself, but would welcome any assistance that could be given.

 

RECOMMENDED:

1)     that, in view of the number of members of the Group who live in Thurncourt Ward, funding of £580 be supported from the Ward Action Plan to the Leicester East Dance/Theatre Group towards the cost of costumes and bus hire for a Sadlers Wells Experience; and

 

2)     that the Leicester East Dance/Theatre Group be advised to apply to Humberstone and Hamilton Community Meeting for additional funding, but if not funding is available from that source, a further application for funding will be considered by this Meeting.

 

Action	Officer Identified	Deadline
Leicester East Dance/Theatre Group to be advised to apply to Humberstone and Hamilton Community Meeting for additional funding	Mary-Louise Harrison / Francis Connolly	As soon as possible
If no funding is available from the Humberstone and Hamilton Community Meeting, a further application to be made to this meeting if wished by the Leicester East Dance/Theatre Group	Francis Connolly	As needed

 

vi)    1^st Thurnby Lodge Brownies – Pack Holiday

 

It was noted that, since the agenda had been circulated, an application for funding had been received from the 1^st Thurnby Lodge Brownie pack for £1,495 towards its annual pack holiday.  Details of this application were reported at the meeting.

 

Representatives of the Brownie pack explained that some parents could not afford the estimated cost of £140 per person, but if they were able to attend this would be the only holiday that some of the Brownies had.

 

RECOMMENDED:

                                  that funding of £1,495 be supported from the Ward Action Plan to the 1^st Thurnby Lodge Brownies towards its annual pack holiday.

 

vii)     Other Applications

 

Although no formal applications for funding had been made, the Meeting was asked if it would give in principle support to two applications from the Thurnby Lodge Youth and Community Centre.

 

Representatives of the Thurnby Lodge Youth and Community Centre explained that users of the Centre were able to borrow a wheelchair owned by the Centre.  This could be used at the Centre, or in the community in an emergency.  The service had been well used and the wheelchair was now in a state of disrepair.  It had not been possible to find replacement parts, so the Centre was considering buying a new wheelchair at a cost of between £175 and £286.  The Meeting expressed the view that this was the type of application it was likely to support, but no commitment could be given until full information was known.

 

Representatives of the Thurnby Lodge Youth and Community Centre also explained that fruit currently was being picked from people’s trees and bushes, but the freezers used for food for the Tuesday Lunch Club were full.  It therefore was proposed to buy a chest freezer, at a cost of approximately £435.  There currently were approximately 30 – 40 members of the Tuesday Lunch Club, so the freezer would be well used for food bought in bulk throughout the year.

 

It was noted that the freezer was needed quickly, but the Community Meeting could not approve retrospective funding if it was bought before the next meeting.  However, as the amount to be requested was less than £500, there was provision for the application to be fast-tracked between meetings.

 

The Meeting expressed the view that this was the type of application it was likely to support, but no commitment could be given until full information was known.  The Centre therefore was recommended to submit an application for funding as soon as possible for consideration through the fast-track process.

 

Action	Officer Identified	Deadline
If an application for funding of less than £500 is received from the Thurnby Lodge Youth and Community Centre’s Tuesday Lunch Club for the purchase of a chest freezer, this to be considered through the fast-track process	Mary-Louise Harrison / Francis Connolly	As soon as possible