Mayor Statement regarding Local Community Fund

Mayor John Biggs said:  ‘’Through our Local Community Fund we are investing £2.7 million annually to 50 organisations over the next three and half years. We have maintained our financial support to the Voluntary and Community Sector despite our core funding from government being 64% less compared with 2010, while other local authorities have cut this.

Our focus has been on how this funding will deliver outcomes for our residents, and we consulted for 2 years on the new fund. The programme was four times oversubscribed, with over 230 bids from 131 voluntary and community sector organisations amounting to £10 million, so there were always going to be extremely difficult decisions and good projects which were unsuccessful.

Following the political interference in the council’s previous grants programme it was right there was a competitive process with organisation bids scored objectively.

I welcomed the input of our Overview and Scrutiny committee. I’ve committed an additional funding pot and through our £180,000 small grants programme and council contract opportunities we will continue to work with our valued community groups to deliver for residents’’.