Agenda item

Members of the public will receive an update on the Evington Community Meeting Budget.

The following applications have been fast tracked and approved for payment.

Art in the Park (Craft and Chat) – Art and Craft Cupboard and contents;

Submitted by Miss Betty Hunter

Amount requested and approved: £160

Leicester Caribbean Cricket Club – Summer break session

Submitted by Leicester Caribbean Cricket Club:

Amount requested: a total of £1500 from Coleman, Evington and Spinney Hill Wards. £500 approved.

The following applications will be considered at the meeting:

Evington Asian Gardeners Group

Submitted by: Shanti Chauhan

Amount requested: £650

Details of the funding application as submitted by the applicant:

The project is to create opportunities to engage the Asian men and the women to learn to theoretically participate and learn about vegetable gardens as well as enhance their appreciation of the green environment. Also room hired to entertain and engage in discussions about the on-going developments nationally regards green environment.

Presently no facilities exist due to closure of evening classes at our land language barrier. There are a lot of individuals who would like to engage in such activities to achieve the following:

Raise their profile and self-esteem within the local community in Evington area.

Regular practical workshops would benefit the participants in social interaction across communities to establish networks to improve their chances of employment.

The participants would benefit in terms of enjoying improved health due to regular physical and mental exercises.

Community Cohesion would be enhanced as gardening has no religious or cultural barriers.

The workshops would be hosted in a local facility with professional tutors coaching the participants preparing them for a celebratory concert/event whereby VIPs and local members of the community would see and appreciate the diversity of Indian vegetables and also see the members of their own community integrating with others at a working level. This would further boost the community integration and higher level of participation if Ethnic Minorities in the mainstream organisations.

The success indicators of the project would be:

No of participants involved in the project.

The social interaction and integration of diverse members of Ethnic Minority groups to extend to some of these members integrating with mainstream organisations in Evington and Leicester.

Regular workshops on weekly / fortnightly basis start in Autumn / winter 2012.

A celebratory event in form of a presentation.

The project may be repeated locally to motivate and engage future participants thereby ensuring that this project becomes a permanent feature within the activities of the community of Evington.

The Residents of Ellwood Close (Evington) for Diwali – Festival of Light Street Party.

Submitted by: Harshad Solanki

Amount requested: £500

Details from the funding application as submitted by the applicant:

I will organise with the help of my neighbours, a street Diwali party to celebrate the festival of light. We are a group of residents, with about 15 houses on our cul de sac. This would be a good way of building further relationship for all our residents on Ellwood Close.

Firstly,I will talk to some of the residents get some ideas off them, and agree a date for the street party, and then plan how to organise the day. Provide food , games and secondly, for safety tell all the residents to move their cars off the road and out of the way.

There is a mixture of elderly people and working family parents and their children, who all go to the local nearby schools of Whitehall Primary School and Judgemeadow Community College.

I will organise the event and request help from my neighbours. They will assist me in the food preparations and organise activities for the little children.

I will buy all the food and prepare the venue on our cul dec sac. I will verbally inform all my residents in my street

This street party is a rare chance to meet all the neighbours and meet the neighbours and to play with the kids together in a traffic free street for a change.

Majority of the Asian parents will be off for the extended Diwali five day festive break and weekend.

Francis Connolly, the Member Support Officer to the Evington Community Meeting presented the Community Meeting budget. He explained that each Ward had been allocated £18,000 for the year, and with a small under-spend from 2011 / 2012, the budget for the current year totalled £18066.

Francis explained that three funding bids had been fast tracked and approved for payment:

Art in the Park (Craft and Chat) :Art and Craft Cupboard and contents: £160

Councillors’ Roller Banner for Ward Community Meetings / Surgeries: £425

Leicester Caribbean Cricket Club Summer Break Session- £1500 requested from three Wards: £500 supported from the Evington Ward.

In response to a question, Francis explained that the cricket summer break event was located in Evington and approximately third of the participants came from the Evington Ward. The funding application had been fast tracked because the event was planned to take place during the schools’ summer holiday.  A member of the public requested that more information on fast tracked funding applications be included in the agenda in future.

The following funding applications were then presented.

Evington Asian Gardener’s Group

Submitted by Shanti Chauhan

Amount requested: £650

Francis explained that funding bid was for room hire to enable the group to meet at Evington Park House. He explained that the Councillors had agreed to support the funding bid and requested that feedback from the group be given at future community meetings. They also requested information as to how the group encouraged new members.

Shanti Chauhan explained the Gardener’s Group was a new initiative for elderly people in Evington and the funding would help them use their skills for the good of the community.  Members of the public suggested that the group could join in with the Evington Village Fete and it was also suggested that they might wish to work with the existing Gardening Club in Evington. Shanti explained that in order for the group to develop it needed funding for somewhere to meet but added that it would be good to join in with the Evington Village Fete and to share ideas with the existing gardening club.

RESOLVED:

that it be agreed that the funding application for the Evington Gardener’s Group be supported to the value of £650.

The residents of Ellwood Close (Evington) for Diwali – Festival of Light Street Party.

Submitted by Harshad Solanki

Amount requested: £500

Francis explained that the Councillors had agreed to support this funding application.

RESOLVED:

that it be agreed that the funding application for £500 for the residents of Ellwood Close for Diwali (Festival of Light) Street Party be supported.

Francis explained that although Councillor Singh was not present, he had discussed the applications before the meeting and stated that he was in support of both of them. The funding bids as discussed at the meeting would still need to be endorsed by him outside of the meeting, after which they would be forwarded to the Assistant Mayor (Health and Community Involvement) for approval.

A member of the community stated that the £66 underspend from the previous year had been promised for the purchase of hanging baskets at the Ethel Road flats but this had not happened.  Francis responded that this money would be ring-fenced and set aside for the hanging baskets for the following year.