Agenda item

A report by the Local Communities Officer and Administrator of the BTAC Small Grants Scheme

The Local Communities Officer and Administrator of the BTAC Small Grant Scheme presented the report confirming that a review had been undertaken of the Small Grants Scheme with the options for recommendations noted for committee determination.

The BTAC Small Grant Scheme was for community groups and organisations wanting to contribute to their town centre community.  The scheme was operated using BTAC’s Small Grants Policy with a scoring matrix based on the requirements of the Committee that it be consistent with BTAC’s Terms of Reference and constitution respectively.  It was easy to understand; flexible and inclusive; and included a pre-assessment process carried out by officers so that only those applications scoring above a defined threshold are considered by a Working Group of up to 5 members of the committee which makes decisions on awards offered which are then submitted to the full committee for endorsement.

Community Groups and organisations could apply for funding up to £1,000 through the submission of a simple application form.  Community groups and organisations are also able to apply to BTAC for grants in excess of the £1,000, which the small grant scheme allows if the project directly benefits the town centre wards of Boston and is innovative and supports the objectives of the Committee.

This process, currently, invited applicants to write directly to the Chairman of the Committee and it was at the Chairman’s discretion as to whether it is submitted to the full committee for consideration. 

There were currently no checks or balances and it was not reviewed through an application form or considered by the Small Grant Working Group.

Each financial year £9,000 was committed towards offering small grants to community groups operating in and for the benefit of the 8 Town Centre Wards of Boston. The scheme had been in operation since 2005.  Prior to 2019/2020 all BTAC small grant underspend was returned to the BTAC reserves at the end of each financial year, with £2,046 being returned in 2017/2018 and £3,368 in 2018/2019.

In 2020, due to Covid-19 and the following restrictions, the small grants programme was effectively halted for the entire year. A small number of applications were process from the previous financial year.

Therefore £18,000 (including the £9,000 from 2020/2021 budget), plus underspend from 2019/20 was made available to spend in 2021/22. A Record of 13 applications had been submitted in Round 1, where £12,680 worth of grants was awarded. Projects did not have to fit any new criteria for covid-19 recovery but this was taken into account when reviewing applications.

At the end of the financial year, the scheme has £3,698 of unallocated funds to carry over into 2022/2023.

During 2021/2022 The Chairman of the Committee received 3 requests for funding in excess of the £1,000 maximum allowed for the small grant scheme.  All 3 requests were for funding up to £5,000.

2 out of the 3 applications were rejected by the Chairman who had followed the basic principles of the small grant scheme guidelines. The 3^rd application was considered by full committee but had not been supported.

BTAC currently had no budget allocated to support applications for funding in excess of £1,000 maximum per grant and any funding agreed in excess of £1,000 maximum per grant has to be found from their main budget.

Committee deliberation followed which included:

On asking how frequently applications for larger grants were submitted, the

Local Communities Officer and Administrator of the BTAC Small Grant Scheme advised that in was infrequent but that three such applications had been received last year for up to £5000.  The Officer further noted that they were unsure as to why applicants thought they could apply for funding in excess of £1000.  When a project would have an effect across the whole BTAC area then there was the facility to bring it to committee for consideration however there were no such checks or balances required for such submission. 

In response to what checks were made on applications that had been granted the Local Communities Officer and Administrator of the BTAC Small Grant Scheme confirmed that for the small grants each scheme was followed up 3 months after it was granted and evidence of the event taking place was sought.  That included proof of spend, invoices, beneficiary support such as letters of thanks and also photographic evidence if available.  However, no request had been made to the Officer to provide any reporting on funding in excess of £1000.

Committee agreed the need to be cautious in not increasing the budget being mindful of the current economic climate and of the unallocated funds currently available.  However, they further noted the potential need for increased applications due to the same economic climate in that more small organisations might need to submit applications.  As such whilst they agreed no increase in the £1000 budget per application, a suggestion of increasing the actual amount of funding to £12000 from £9000 was agreed to enable more applications to be tabled. 

Clarification was also provided that the Small Grants Scheme did make the decision on the submissions:  the only reason the report of their decision came back to full committee was for information purposes and for the committee to ratify the decision.

RESOLVED:

That BTAC agreed that it retain current small grant offer of applications to a maximum of £1000 but that it Increase the BTAC small grant budget to £12000 to allow more applications to be supported.

It is noted that at this part in the proceedings Councillor Neill Hastie addressed the meeting in respect of a request to position a bench on a highway within the town.  The Chairman confirmed that the highway belonged to Lincolnshire County Council and as such the applicant would need to apply direct to the Borough Council to seek a submission on their part.  BTAC could do nothing to assist being a committee of the Borough Council. 

The Local Communities Officer and Administrator of the BTAC Small Scheme confirmed at this point that she was aware of the request and that the applicant had initially been a recipient of a small grant which in the initial submission indicated placement on BTAC grounds.  As this had change to a highway siting, she would look to steer the applicant to the correct department within the Council to take the matter forward.