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.
Steve Letten, Members Support Officer, will give an update on the latest position with the Community Meeting budget.
The following applications for grants have been submitted for consideration:
Application 1
Applicant: Highfields Area Forum (HAF)
Amount: £2,666
Proposal: Highfields Area Plan
Summary: With the support of SRB 2 funding, HAF commissioned Waverley Consultants to prepare an Area Plan and this was completed in early 2004. Unfortunately, this coincided with the severe reductions to Leicester City Council funded services in this area and it was decided to shelve the Plan’s launch.
Six years later and in the absence of any substantial updated information about the area, HAF have prioritised the updating of the 2004 Area Plan. This will involve employing a consultant over a 6 month period to:
1. Review the 2004 Plan
2. Update the information with current information
3. Arrange a series of meetings with major service providers to identify and assess their responses to the Plan
4. Produce a draft Plan for consultation with HAF members
5. Convene a day conference to discuss the Plan with key stakeholders, including local residents, agencies and businesses
6. Prepare a report, identifying priority actions and time scales for implementation
7. Circulate 200 reports to all local agencies and the relevant service providers and other key stakeholders.
Application 2
Applicant: Kim Gordon
Amount: £440
Proposal: Leicester Inter-Faith Gardening Work Project
Summary: Each year volunteers undertake practical gardening tasks in thegrounds of different places of worship inLeicester. The project enables faith communities to work together.
Application 3
Applicant: DANSOM
Amount: £2,700
Proposal: Youth and Adult basketball
Summary: We want to run this Project for Basketball group including young people over 16 and adults up to 60 years and most of them are over 50. They will train once a week together in Highfields Centre for two hrs.. This project is partly for community cohesion so the adults and the young people can create good relation to each other and the adults are always there for the young people when they need help and advice. This project plays big role in health improvement and integration of the young and the adults.
The participants come from deprived areas of Spinney Hill Ward. Most of the adults are job seekers or income support. Most of the youths’ parents are income support.
We will spend most of the money for the rent of the premises and small amount for equipment.
The above-mentioned group will benefit from this project and they will benefit as soon as the project starts and as long as it is going. We will inform you the progress of the project twice; at the mid-term evaluation and the final evaluation.
Application 4
Applicant: Essensual Rejuvenation Dance and Fitness (ER Dance)
Amount: £1,843
Proposal: Community Pod Village
Summary: What we would like to do is host a Community Pod Village event on 10th and 13th August 2010, in partnership with the local organisations and community groups.
The Pod Village is a brand new initiative that we have piloted in The Braunstone Area with huge success and support from local voluntary organisations & public sector.
We have been approached by a number of partners in the Spinney Hill area (Bouncing Fit) who have heard about the positive benefits of the Youth Pod events and want to help organise and deliver community focused events during the school summer holidays to target and engage with hard to reach Communities.
The pod villages are a mix of different size portable pop up shelters, each shelter host a different activity and includes something for everybody from DJing workshops, Cheerleading, Aerobics’, Street Dance, Boccia (Disability Sport), Arts & Crafts partnership information and joined up working with the local Police (Contact - Will Cheshire). And Fire service (Contact-Dave Everett)
We monitor all the work we provide by photographic and video evidence, we record the total number of people who attend and we record age, ethnicity, sex and postcode for each participant of an activity. This enables us to evidence the success of each event.
The main target groups for the pod villages are disengaged young people, ethnic minorities and females.
We are also seeking to hold similar community-based activities in Evington and Humberstone. We have also applied to these wards separately for funding under the Ward Community Fund.
Application 5
Applicant: Muslim Burial Council
Amount: £1,968
Proposal: Multi-Lingual Educational Publication Project
Summary: To help us in preparing educational publications for the benefit of the various newly arrived communities (such as the Somali, Afghan and Iraqi etc) in accessing service provisions in relation to death and bereavement.
The publications will also help existing residents in recognising the differences between differing faiths.
The publications will take the form of leaflets and more importantly a guide that will comprise of sections dedicated to eight major faiths and of people with no faith.
The publication will also be targeted to the statutory and voluntary agencies such as the police, Church’s, Gurdwara, Mosques and Temples etc top assist them in understanding the ‘other perspective.
MBCOL is a ‘ not for profit’ Charity working with its main partner, Leicester City Council, Police, registration Service, NHS and the Ambulance service and more importantly the various faith communities.
Minutes:
Steve Letten, Member Support Officer, reported on budget applications that had been received. Applicants who were in attendance were invited to explain their bids and applications were discussed as follows:
Application 1
Highfields Area Forum – Highfields Area Plan - £2,666
Priya Thamotheram stated that it would be a relaunch of the updated Area Plan, as a previous version in 2003 had been abandoned due to severe cuts to services in the area.
RESOLVED:
That the application be supported for the full amount of £2,666 and it be noted that although this is in excess of the preferred general bid amount of £1,500, it would have strategic benefit for the whole area.
Application 2
Leicester Inter-faith Gardening Work Project – Kim Gordon - £440
RESOLVED:
That the application be rejected.
Application 3
DANSOM – Youth and adult basketball - £2,700
Mr Abda stated that the project aimed to bring together young and older people once a week in the Highfields Centre. The funding would cover one year’s running costs. Staff had been trained and people in the Spinney Hills Ward would be the beneficiaries.
RESOLVED:
That the application be supported to the sum of £1,500 on the expectation that every attempt be made to open the project up to the broad community.
Application 4
Essensual Rejuvenation Dance and Fitness – Community Pod Village - £1,843
RESOLVED:
That the application be rejected.
Application 5
Muslim Burial Council
It was reported that this application sought to expand an educational and awareness programme and would cover Coleman, Stoneygate and Spinney Hills wards initially, but would eventually be rolled out across the city. A multi-faith guide would be produced explaining how to access service wide provision.
RESOLVED:
That the application be supported to the sum of £657, which is a one-third share of the application.