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 budget applications will be considered:-
Application 1
Applicant: Centre for Indian Classical Dance
Amount: £500
Proposal: The proposal is making a giant “Hanuman” puppet, a very popular character from the Diwali story, Ramayana.
Summary: The project will involve a professional visual artist working with children and young people in the creation of it as part of the Spark Children's Arts Festival 2011. The project will take place at Curve Theatre during the half-term break in May 2011; a full day for a period of one week.
This will be delivered in partnership with the Spark Children’s Arts Festival, Curve Theatre, Action Deafness and local artistic organisations. They also deliver workshops in schools and communities in the Castle Ward Area such as Hazel Primary School, Jain Community Centre and Swaminarayan Centre. The Spark Children's Arts Festival will be helping in publicising this event so that it reaches everyone in the Ward.
The £500 would go towards transportation and some expenses to volunteers who would be working with the visual artist, children and young people for making of Hanuman puppet at Curve Theatre.
This would be used as part of the Diwali Festival, and would also be toured to other festivals, such as, Castle Park, Riverside, Caribbean Carnival and Christmas in the Town Centre.
A register would be kept of young people participating in the project.
Applicant: Leicester Pride Festival
Amount: £1,000
Proposal: Support to cover the cost of sound monitoring and clearing up following the event.
Summary: The overall aim of this project is to bring together Lesbian. Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people along with their friends and supporters to create a supportive and cohesive community. The LGBT community is very diverse and is made up of many different equality strands from the black and ethnic minority communities to disabled and members from a variety of faith groups. The project will have specific aims to ensure that the whole community is supported, especially the hard-to-reach.
The organisers of the event wish to pose minimal detriment on neighbouring residents, and this proposal is requesting funding particular towards the cost of sound monitoring of the event, and for tidying up afterwards.
Application 3
Applicant: Residents in Clarendon Park, via Leicestershire Police.
Amount: £975
Proposal: Install two alleygates on St Leonards Road in Clarendon Park.
Summary: This project is for the installation of two lockable metal alley gates to replace existing dilapidated wooden gates at the rear of 43 St Leonards Road. This location has been identified by crime pattern analysis as a burglary hot spot. The alley provides access to the rear of approximately 16 houses on St Leonards Road and Hartopp Road. It is also possible to garden hop to other premises on either of these roads in order to commit crime.
It is anticipated that the instillation of secure gates at this location will lead to a reduction in crime and provide much needed reassurance to local residents.
Minutes:
Francis Connolly, Members Support Officer, introduced this item of business. He noted that there was £4,002 left in the budget prior to the meeting.
Members considered the following applications:
Centre for Indian Classical Dance – request for £500 to make a giant ‘Hanuman’ puppet as part of the Spark Children’s Arts Festival 2011
Councillors were keen to support a proportion on this project on the condition that the Festival’s organisers worked with Hazel Primary School to deliver the work.
RESOLVED:
that the application be supported and a sum of £300 be allocated from the Ward Community Cohesion budget, subject to final approval from the Cabinet Lead for Front Line Service Improvement and Neighbourhoods, the Cabinet Lead, Community Cohesion and Human Resources and the Leader of the Council.
Leicester Pride Festival – request for £1000 to cover the cost of sound monitoring, the provision of bins and clearing up following the event.
Councillors spoke of their support towards the festival, and proposed to fund the sound monitoring and clearing-up elements of the application.
RESOLVED:
that the application be partly supported and a sum of £625 be allocated from the Ward Community Fund and £75 be allocated from the Ward Community Cohesion budget, subject to final approval from the Cabinet Lead for Front Line Service Improvement and Neighbourhoods, the Cabinet Lead, Community Cohesion and Human Resources and the Leader of the Council.
Installation of a double alley-gate on St Leonards Road/Howard in Clarendon Park- request for £975 from residents in Clarendon Park via Leicestershire Police
It was made clear that this location had been identified as a burglary hot-spot, and that the installation of secure gates would lead to a reduction to crime and provide reassurance to local residents.
RESOLVED:
That the application be supported and a sum of £975 be allocated from the Ward Community Fund budget, subject to final approval from the Cabinet Lead for Front Line Service Improvement and the Leader of the Council.
Installation of two further alley-gates on Montague Road - request for £1,000 from residents in Clarendon Park via Leicestershire Police.
This application was targeted towards two further for location for alley-gates that had been identified by both residents and the Police as hot-spot areas.
RESOLVED:
That the application be supported and a sum of £975 be allocated from the Ward Community Fund budget, subject to final approval from the Cabinet Lead for Front Line Service Improvement and the Leader of the Council.
Replacement Concrete Bin, Howard Road – request for £400 for a replacement of the small plastic bin with a larger and sturdier bin from local residents in conjunction with Environmental Services.
RESOLVED:
That the application be supported and a sum of £400 be allocated from the Ward Community Fund budget, subject to final approval from the Cabinet Lead for Front Line Service Improvement and the Leader of the Council.
The Centre Project – request for £2,106 for a contribution towards the proviso of fresh ingredients for the project’s lunch club and towards overheads.
RESOLVED:
That the application be partly supported and a sum of £600 be allocated from the Ward Community Cohesion Fund budget, subject to final approval from the Cabinet Lead for Front Line Service Improvement and Neighbourhoods, the Cabinet Lead, Community Cohesion and Human Resources and the Leader of the Council.
Following a number of queries from residents, Councillor Senior explained the process of how applications for grant money were dealt with by Community Meetings. She also went on to explain the difficulty Members for Castle ward had in filtering bids for projects based in the city centre that benefitted other wards in Leicester. Members stated that they intended to ensure that such applications be dealt with by a separate mechanism in the new financial year, as well as continuing to look to see if there are other funds that could be used, for example, by the Joint Action Group Policing Fund. It was noted that the Police had been generous, but JAG money had run out for this financial year. One project JAG money had assisted with was to change the yellow lighting to white lighting on Victoria Park, which helped make the area safer.