Agenda item

Report of the Director of Open Spaces.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Open Spaces informing Members that following the corporate cross cutting review of grants, the Open Spaces Committees agreed to establish a working party to consider the current position and to make recommendations in respect of establishing a ‘jointly governed and accessible to all’ grants programme for open spaces.

Members thanked Officers for compiling the report and noted that the City of London, acting through the Common Council was the corporate trustee of the open spaces charities and under the current Committee terms of reference delegated the exercise of those trustee functions to various Committees of the Common Council.

Members noted that currently there was very limited monitoring in place and grants were given without outcomes being specified and agreed.  Officers said that Members may find it helpful to consider instructing Officers to develop a consistent and proportionate framework for specifying and monitoring outcomes for grants. 

The Working Party noted that currently the open spaces committees provided some £90,000 of grant funding to local groups, however Members noted that a number of these grants could be considered ‘commissioned projects’ or ‘events supported by the City of London Corporation’. Members noted that the majority of the grant funding was provided to the Field studies Council, Lower Mole Countryside Management Project and Downlands Countrywide Management Project.

The Director said that a further £140,000 was provided through benefits in kind. The Superintendent of Epping Forest informed Members that some of the amounts listed were currently being reviewed, such as the benefit of providing land for parking; this would be considered by the Epping Forest and Commons Committee in due course. In response to a query regarding providing insurance to friends groups and volunteer organisations, Members suggested that Officers should investigate the use of protocols signed by all major groups obliging the group to provide insurance for their volunteers.

In response to a query, Members noted that the open spaces charities did not all benefit from endowment funds to meet the relevant charity’s objects and where they did those funds were inadequate to meet the current costs of administering the charity and funding current activities.  That deficit was met by the City from City’s Cash.  Resource allocation was the responsibility of Policy and Resources Committee, and budgets for Departments and Spending Committees were set by Finance Committee

Discussions ensued regarding the development of a grants policy statement and the potential to adopt a “de minimis” position in respect of small scale grants which were in line with this agreed policy. Membered noted that in effect grants would be removed from the Open Spaces local risk budget and management committees would be asked to make a bid to the Resource Allocation Sub Committee to support the new grants programme. Members agreed that Officers should be instructed to investigate the possibility of developing this policy and update Members at the next meeting of the working party on 25^th November 2015 at 3:30pm.

Resolved – that Members views and guidance were sought on the following issues, mindful of the Charity Commission guidance:

·       The current position in respect of grant giving;

·       The development of a grants policy statement and the potential to adopt a “de minimis” position in respect of small scale grants which are in line with this agreed policy;

·       Monitoring and effectiveness; and

·       Operation of a grants programme.