Agenda item

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk which provided information of the action taken by the Town Clerk since the last meeting of the Committee, in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman, in accordance with Standing Order 41(a). The decision had been to donate £25,000 to the British Red Cross and Manchester City Council’s We Love Manchester Emergency Appeal.

The Chief Grants Officer informed the Committee of the work that the City Bridge Trust had undertaken in responding to terrorist attacks in the UK, highlighting the charity’s work as part of the London Emergencies Trust and in providing assistance to colleagues in Manchester in the creation of the We Love Manchester Emergency appeal. He explained that, in addition to the £25k donation which had been made from the Finance Committee’s contingency fund to the We Love Manchester Emergency Appeal, the City Bridge Trust had donated £75k in response to the Westminster Bridge attack in March 2017.

In the context of these donations, that Committee discussed whether it would be appropriate for the Finance Committee to make a further donation from its Contingency Fund to the Red Cross’s UK Solidarity Fund, which had been created to assist those affected by acts of terror across the UK.

The Committee commented that the amount of money donated by the City Corporation to these appeals was relatively small in the context of the overall amount raised, but there was value in the City Corporation leading by example by making donations to such appeals.

The Committee agreed that, in light of the work being done by the City Bridge Trust to support the charitable response to those affected by terrorist attacks in the UK, it was not necessary to make a donation to the UK Solidarity Fund at this time.

RESOLVED – That the Committee notes the report.