Agenda and minutes

The Panel received a report of the Director of Community and Cultural Services which outlined the applications made for funding and the grants-based service level agreements to be awarded for the 2009/10 financial year.

Resolved to RECOMMEND: (to Cabinet)

That (1) organisations currently receiving a grant through a three-year service level agreement as listed in Appendix 1 of the minutes continue to receive funding with inflation additions to salaries, with the exception of, Harrow Association of Somali Voluntary Organisations, Harrow Sports Council, Harrow Weald Common Conservators, in the 2009/10 financial year;

(2)  a grant of £15,000 be awarded to the Harrow Heritage Trust from the Council’s Capital Programme for the 2009/10 financial year;

(3)  the recommendations detailed in Appendix 1 of these minutes be agreed.

[Reason for Recommendations:  To enable the allocation of funding to voluntary organisations for 2009/2010.]

(See also Minute 156)

An officer presented a report of the Director of Community and Cultural Services that requested for additional funding of £10,000 from the total underspend of £11,034 in 2008/09 to be allocated to the Welldon Activity Group to enable them to pay rent to their landlord.

Resolved to RECOMMEND:  (To the Portfolio Holder for Community and Cultural Services)

That (1) an additional grant of £10,000 be awarded to the Welldon Activity Group to pay rent on their premises in Hindes Road, Harrow; and

(2)  in the event that a COMPACT challenge on the award is successful, the Chairman should have delegated authority to liaise with Harrow Association of Voluntary Services (HAVS) or a similar organisation to ascertain the possibility of administering the unallocated underspend of £11,034 to the voluntary sector, subject to a criteria for allocation and the suspension of an administration fee being agreed with the Council.

[Reason for Recommendations:  (1)  To utilise the unspent grant budget from 2008/09, which according to Council guidelines cannot be carried forward into the 2009/10 grants budget if it remains unspent.

(2)  To enable Welldon Activity Group to continue providing their service and care to the 8 service users with disabilities that are referred through Harrow Council}

(See also Minute 157)

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)              if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Member:-

To receive declarations of personal or prejudicial interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Committee, Sub Committee, Panel or Forum;

(b)               all other Members present in any part of the room or chamber.

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 19 January 2009 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 19 January 2009 be agreed, subject to the following amendments:

Recommendation 1

That the wording of the first recommendation should read, ‘Harrow Agenda 21 Environmental Forum be modified from casual use to designated desk accommodation and officers be authorised to amend the Facilities Use Agreement accordingly with immediate effect’.

Recommendation 3

That the following statement be included before the last sentence of the second paragraph of the minutes to read, ’…That the Voluntary Sector adviser to the Panel advised that the Panel should consider deferring funding for some groups rather than reducing it for all groups…’.

That the following statement be included in the minutes before the last sentence of the fourth paragraph of the minutes to read, ‘…The Adviser to the Panel opposed the inclusion of this application on the grounds that it was unfair and other voluntary community sector groups had not had the opportunity to have potentially exceptional circumstances represented…’

Minute 139

Minute 134 of the minutes for the previous meeting held on 20 November 2009, at the fourth paragraph should read, ‘The Panel unanimously requested that no applicant should be written to in advance of the relevant Panel meeting and that all applications should be recorded in the report’.

To receive questions (if any) from local residents or organisations under the provisions of Advisory Panel and Consultative Forum Procedure Rule 16 (Part 4E of the Constitution).

RESOLVED:  To note that no public questions, petitions or deputations were received at this meeting under the provisions of Advisory Panel and Consultative Forum Procedure Rule 16, 14 and 15 respectively (Part 4E of the Constitution).

Report of the Director of Community and Cultural Services.

Further to Recommendation 1, a Member of the Panel requested for officers to look into how funding should be allocated to the Harrow Heritage Trust for the 2009/10 financial year. He added that the funding could not be monitored effectively by grants officers as it was part of the Council’s Capital programme.

Another Member of the Panel commented that organisations met the grants funding criteria, if it was based in Harrow and 80% of the beneficiaries of the service provided were Harrow residents.  The Member added that allocations of grants should be fair and equitable.  A discussion took place on the allocation of grants to groups, such as, Girl Guiding Middlesex North West, which fell outside the published criteria and Headway and St. Luke’s Hospice, who were based in Harrow followed.  The Panel referred to copies of the original grant applications contained in the exempt documents and to an email sent by officers to Members.  The adviser to the Panel recommended that if a group that did not meet the criteria and were allocated funding on an historical basis, it could cause resentment to other organisations who had not received a grant for not meeting the criteria.  The Legal officer advised that all organisations should be considered fairly.

The Chairman added that exceptional circumstances would be required before the Panel should allocate funding.  Another Member commented that they should allocate funding to Girl Guiding Middlesex North West as they felt that organisation provided an important service to the 50% of its beneficiaries who were Harrow residents.

Upon a vote, the Panel resolved to recommend to Cabinet that a grant be provided to Girl guides Middlesex North West.

RESOLVED:  That the comments be noted.

Report of the Director of Community and Cultural Services.

(See Recommendation 2)

To resolve that the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business, on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of confidential information in breach of an obligation of confidence, or of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972:

RESOLVED:  That the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items for the reasons set out below:

Which cannot otherwise be dealt with.

A Member asked officers on whether grant papers could be circulated shortly after applications for the following financial year had been received, so that the Panel had a longer period of time to consider them.  An officer advised that, the team had endeavoured to analyse and process the applications, so that papers were forwarded for Members to consider at the earliest opportunity.

RESOLVED:  That the comments be noted.

Report of the Director of Community and Cultural Services.

The Panel received exempt Background Papers to Grant Applications 2009/10 to the report on Grant applications.

RESOLVED:  That the exempt background papers be noted.

Report of the Director of Community and Cultural Services.

The Panel received exempt Appendices to the report on Welldon Activity Group (Additional Funding).

RESOLVED: That the exempt appendices be noted.

In accordance with the Advisory and Consultative Procedure Rule 13 (Part 4E of the Constitution) it was:

RESOLVED:  At (1) 9.55 pm to continue until 10.30 pm;

(2)  10.29 pm to continue until 11.00 pm.