Agenda item

To consider community grants with the opportunity for questions from the public.

Salisbury Area Board members made the following decisions:

The Chairman invited a representative from each of the grant applicants to give a brief overview of their project to the Board.  After each of the applicants had spoken the Chairman invited questions and discussion, then asked for a show of hands from those present to reflect public opinion. The Board members then voted on each application.

Decision

Bemerton Community was awarded £4,000 towards undertaking a feasibility study for converting St John’s Church Lower Bemerton for use by the whole community, following full or partial deconsecration.

Reason – The application met the Community Area Grants Criteria 2010/11 and would support this project, which would benefit the whole community of the Bemerton area.

Having declared a prejudicial interest in the following application, Councillor Mary Douglas left the room for consideration of the application.  In her absence, the Vice-Chairman, Councillor Chris Cochrane, took the Chair.

Councillor Cochrane in the Chair

Decision

Salisbury Street Pastors was awarded £500 towards training volunteers in conflict management.

Reason – The application did not meet the Community Area Grants Criteria 2010/11, in that it was a project which had already started.  However, the Area Board considered that wider community benefit would be realised by the additional training and the way in which this would develop the success of the project to date.

Councillor Douglas in the Chair

Decision

Salisbury Late Night Economy (LNE) Working Group was awarded £1,350 towards providing registered taxi marshals in Salisbury city centre on 13 key dates between October 2010 and August 2011.

Reason – The application met the Community Area Grants Criteria 2010/11 and would support this project to ensure the safety of those using taxis late at night.

Having declared a prejudicial interest in the following application, Councillor Chris Cochrane left the room for consideration of the application.

Decision

Harnham Memorial Hall was awarded £2,006 towards repairing and modernizing the drains and relocating the soakaway.

Reason – The application met the Community Area Grants Criteria 2010/11 and would support the maintenance of the community facility.

In relation to the application from Salisbury City Community Area Partnership, concern was raised regarding some of the figures on the application form.  It was noted that the in-kind match funding from Wessex Community Action and Salisbury City Council was for volunteer work and City Council officers’ time spent on the project.  However, this did not equate to the printing and postage costs listed in column A of the form.  Councillors considered that this was a technical issue and that the grant should, nevertheless, be supported on this occasion, and the Chairman proposed that an informal meeting be arranged between Area Board members and SCCAP to determine future funding and partnership working arrangements.

The Area Board thanked the volunteers and others who had given up their time to work on the project thus far.

Decision

Salisbury City Community Area Partnership was awarded £4,950 towards producing a questionnaire to enable a new Community plan for Salisbury to be produced.

Reason – The application met the Community Area Grants Criteria 2010/11 and would support the production of the community plan, with the eventual clarity in terms of local priorities and objectives that this would bring.

The Chairman reported that Thursday 14 October was the deadline for grants to be considered at the November Area Board meeting.