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.

Francis Connolly, Member Support Officer will give a brief overview on the current position with regard to the Community Meeting budgets for the current financial year.

The following applications have been received for consideration at this meeting:-

B1) Queens Road Traders Association– request for £3,800 for installation of Christmas trees and decorative lighting.

B2) Leicester Sikh Centre Lunch Club–request for £2,000 to support the provision of lunches.

Councillor Kitterick, referred to an application for an autumn fair which was approved at the last meeting. He informed the meeting that this would now be a Christmas fair, being held on 5 December.

Francis Connolly, Member Support Officer updated the meeting on the current position with regard to the budget. There was £17,000 at the beginning of the year, there was now £11,000 left. The following applications had previously been approved:-

£2168 – Lighting in St. Georges

£3000 – Queens Road Autumn Fair (now Christmas Fair)

£1000 – towards the Highfields area plan

The following applications were considered at this meeting:-

Queens Road Traders Association – request for £3800 for the installation of Christmas trees and decorative lighting.

A resident commented that a similar request was received last year and she felt that the decorations should be retained from one year to the next.

RESOLVED:

that the application be supported and a sum of £3800 be allocated from the Ward Action Plan budget, subject to final approval from the Cabinet Lead for Front Line Service Improvement and Neighbourhoods and the Leader of the Council.

Leicester Sikh Centre Lunch Club – request for £2000 to support the provision of lunches.

It was noted that the club was open to all sections of the community, but it would be South Asian food that was served.

A resident commented that other lunch clubs had been refused funding from the Council and as this lunch club had received funding, it was suggested that they receive £1000. Councillors considered this suggestion.

RESOLVED:

that the application be supported and a sum of £1000 be allocated from the Ward Community Fund budget, subject to final approval from the Cabinet Lead for Front Line Service Improvement and Neighbourhoods and the Leader of the Council.

The Centre Project – request for £3000 for building repairs, redecoration and improved facilities.

Eric Waneru from the project was at the meeting. He explained that the Centre project was a place where people who were isolated could get support, counselling and a hot meal.

Councillor Senior explained that the Councillors welcomed the work that the project did and felt that it was very worthwhile. They did however note that it was one of many worthwhile projects which were based in the ward, some of which had been turned down for funding. With projects such as this, it was often difficult to quantify how many residents from the ward were being supported by the project.

Councillors originally proposed to support the project at £400, but increased this to £500 and with a promise to consider a further application at the end of the financial year if there were remaining funds.

John Coster suggested that CitizensEye, the community news reporting website could put a message out to seek further funding for the project.

RESOLVED:

(1)   that the application be supported and a sum of £500 be allocated from the Ward Community Fund budget, subject to final approval from the Cabinet Lead for Front Line Service Improvement and Neighbourhoods and the Leader of the Council; and

(2)   that consideration will be given to a further application if there is funding available at the end of the financial year.

Holy Trinity Area

Some residents expressed a concern that plans for alley gates and guttering in the Holy Trinity area hadn’t come forward. Councillor Kitterick commented that he had been speaking to an officer from the planning department about this, but she had now left the Council. He said that it wasn’t possible for him to put in the application and that it would need someone to lead on the application. He said that Councillors were supportive of an application for alley gates. Francis Connolly, Member Support Officer agreed to speak to the residents to look into how the application could be taken forward.