Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Deputy Ken Ayers, John Bird and Deputy Revd Stephen Haines.

The Chairman welcomed Alderman Peter Hewitt to his first meeting of the Committee.

Deputy Edward Lord declared a personal non-prejudicial interest in respect of the application at Annex 4 by virtue of knowing the organisation’s Director.

Alderman Alison Gowman also declared an interest in respect of the application at Annex 8 as a member of the Guildhall School Trust.

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 26 April 2012 (copy attached).

The public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 26 April 2012 were approved.

MATTERS ARISING

(1) Financial Observations (p4) – the Chairman advised that a meeting between relevant officers and himself had been arranged to take place in June in order to resolve the issues concerning the financial observations accompanying each grant application.

(2) British Red Cross (p3) – A Member asked whether the requested information had yet been received and the associated funds released to the organisation, to which the Chamberlain advised that the matter was still unresolved. A Member asked if it would be possible to provide a short “outstanding actions” report to future meetings identifying such issues and allowing Members to better track progress; the Town Clerk undertook to look in to this and provide a suitable document.

To receive a progress report of the Chief Grants Officer (copy attached).

The Committee received the regular progress report of the Chief Grants Officer which highlighted the various activities that were on-going or had recently concluded.

RESOLVED: That the contents of the report be noted.

To consider the Chief Grants Officer’s reports on grant recommendations, as follows (copies attached):-

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Grants Officer, introducing the grants programmes and stating that a total of forty-three applications would be dealt with at the meeting, of which one was a strategic initiative, fifteen were recommended for grants and twenty recommended for rejection, with a further four to be withdrawn.

RESOLVED: That the contents of the report be noted.

          The Committee considered a report of the Chief Grants Officer recommending grants to organisations.

          During consideration of the applications before the Committee, the following comments were made by Members of the Committee and relevant officers:

·         In respect of Annex 1 (Vallance Community Sports Association Ltd), it was clarified that the recommended grant was lower than the amount which had been originally requested because the initial bid had been based only on indicative budgets with rounded figures. Following debate, Members suggested that the grant be increased to match the initial request, and it was subsequently agreed that the grant awarded be increased to £38,847. A pending application for further funding from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets was also noted, and it was requested that an update on this and the organisation’s financial position be provided in September.

·         An update on the financial position at Annex 2 (Active Communities Network) was provided, with it being noted that a £30,000 surplus was now anticipated for the current year, rather than a break-even position.

·         At Annex 4 (Faith Matters) it was advised that the accounts for 2011/12 had now been received and the grant was accordingly agreed subject to these proving to be satisfactory. It was noted that this funding was for the third and final year of the grant.

·         In relation to the list of other grants previously received by the organisation at Annex 5 (Three Faiths Forum), the Grants Officer advised that the list for 2010/11 had inadvertently been omitted. The relevant information was subsequently provided, identifying grants from the Sir Sigmund Sternberg Charitable Foundation of some £114,878; from the Pears Foundation of £75,842; the Edmond & Benjamin de Rothschild Foundation of £32,240; and a number of other smaller donations totalling some £205,932 in addition to the three larger grants.

·         Members

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Grants Officer seeking funding for the City Bridge Trust to participate in the 2012 Lord Mayor’s Show.

RESOLVED: That Members approve a grant of £24,110 towards the Trust’s participation in the 2012 Lord Mayor’s Show, in partnership with the charity, Heart n Soul, costed against the budget for Strategic Initiatives 2012-2013.

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Grants Officer recommending twenty grant applications in the Working with Londoners programme be rejected for the reasons identified in the schedule attached to the report.

A discussion was had as to the feedback provided to organisations when their applications were rejected, with Members requesting that the reasons for rejection listed in this report be intimated to the applicants at the time of rejection so as to further demonstrate the transparency of the Trust and assist organisations with future submissions.

RESOLVED: That the grant applications detailed in the schedule attached to the report be rejected.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer advising Members of three grants, totalling £8,350, which had approved by the Chief Grants Officer under delegated authority since the last meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer relative to four applications that had been withdrawn by the applicants.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer advising Members of variations to two grant agreed by the Chief Grants Officer since the last meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer relative to two visits that had been undertaken.

Reference was made to the list of planned monitoring visits for the forthcoming year which had been circulated to Members at the previous meeting, with the Chairman thanking all those who had expressed an interest to date and encouraging any other interested Member to contact Tim Wilson to register their interest.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Report of the Chief Grants Officer (copy attached).

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Grants Officer informing Members of the closure the Council for Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisations and seeking approval to transfer the remaining six months of a grant (£20,000) previously agreed by the Committee to the Volunteer Network Centre Newham, in order that the funded project could be completed.

RESOLVED: That Members approve the transfer of the remaining six months of a grant (£20,000) originally awarded to the Council for Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisations to Volunteer Network Centre Newham.

Sustainability           

A  Member noted the requirement for applicants to list what they were doing to reduce their carbon footprint when applying for a grant, asking what steps were taken to ensure this was appropriately monitored. The Chief Grants Officer advised that the Trust had pioneered an eco-audit scheme to encourage organisations to be as green as possible, with the question on the application form to which the Member referred a part of the process designed to reinforce the issue. This then allowed the Trust at the end of each grant period to monitor the organisation to see what change had taken place and how they had improved, so that tangible change could be measured and evidenced. However, this could well be an issue that Members might wish to consider further as part of the quinquennial review and implement additional measures if desirable.

There were no urgent items.

MOTION – That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act as follows:-

Item No                                                                                   Exempt Paragraphs

 11                                                                                                       3

RESOLVED: - That under Section 100 A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act as follows:-

Item No                                                                       Exempt Paragraphs

11                                                                                              3       

There were no questions.

There were no urgent items.