I have just been looking at the Reading Borough Council website at minutes of meetngs and decision books and I noticed on Decision Book 362 dated 15th July 2011 that the council is awarding a Community and Contingency grant of £1,000 to the Reading Pride Charity. Reading through the document which is based on an application that has been submitted, the decision has been made in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Public Engagement and Health (Bet Tickner).
The Document can be found here but for those that don’t want to open a pdf the detail is below.
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1 This report sets out the decision to award Community and Contingency Grants to a number of organisations, to be funded from the Community Grants Budget. The decision has been reached based on the applications submitted and has been made in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Public Engagement & Health.
Appendix A details the applications submitted and the awards to be made, up to a total of £1,551.
1.2 All applications were made in respect of the Reading Pride event (see Appendix A for further details).
2. DECISION
2.1 It is the decision of the Head of Policy, Performance & Community, in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Public Engagement & Health, to award Community Grants (as listed in Appendix A) to the following organisations, up to a total of £1,551 to be funded from the Community Grants Budget as follows:
2.2
Reading Pride £1,000 for event infrastructure
BeYou £170 for event participation
Reading Gay Chorus £186 for event participation
Thames Valley Positive Support £195 for event participation
3. POLICY CONTEXT
3.1 Provision of grant aid is made in line with the major corporate and service policies to match service priorities and is undertaken in the context of the draft commissioning framework agreed by Cabinet on 29 November 2010. The Voluntary & Community Sector (VCS) is both a service provider for and a customer of the Council. As a customer, it values transparent and consistent funding processes to access opportunities for both contracts and grants.
3.2 On 17 January 2011, Cabinet agreed the budget allocation for grants for
2011/2012 and this was ratified as part of the overall budget of the Council on 22 February 2011. Within the overall grants budget agreed, new revenue and capital funding streams have been created to be distributed to the VCS throughout the financial year to support the delivery of the priorities of the administration which include:
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Better value for our residents
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Fairness for all our residents
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Pride in our town and ambition for its future
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Innovation in all aspects of the Council to bring about positive change to its operations and service provision
4. THE PROPOSAL
4.1 To provide grant aid:
- to contribute the cost of first aid cover and insurance to allow the Reading
Pride event to run in a safe manner; - to provide in kind support for Reading Pride in the form of park hire subsidy to the value of £1,666
- to support the cost of microphones, publicity, information and related
materials to enable three groups to take part in Reading Pride.
4.2 Applications are described fully in Appendix A appended to the report.
5. CONTRIBUTION TO STRATEGIC AIMS
5.1 In awarding grants through the Borough Council’s Grants Service, priority is given to groups that operate in accordance with Reading Borough Council’s Equal Opportunities statement.
6. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND INFORMATION
6.1 By awarding the grants as recommended, the Council will be supporting and strengthening the rôle of local communities in sustainable development by
encouraging community action.
7. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
7.1 Reading Pride – Local Government Act 2000 Section 2
7.2 BeYou – Local Government Act 2000 Section 2
7.3 Reading Gay Chorus – Local Government Act 2000 Section 2
7.4 Thames Valley Positive Support – Local Government Act 2000 Section 2
Due to wordpress resrictions I haven’t been able to add the tables that form appendix A. What that table tells us is how much Readignn Borough Council has given to each of these organisations though:
August 2006 – Reading Pride recieved a Community Grant for £800
July 2007 – Reading Pride recieved a Community Grant for £1,000
June 2008 – Reading Pride recieved a Community Grant for £1,000
July 2009 – Reading Pride recieved a Community Grant for £1,000
August 2010 – Reading Pride recieved a Community Grant for £1,000
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that Reading Borough Council have given a grant to Reading Pride but what concerns me is the amount compared to other organisations and events in the Borough.
Here are some examples:
Whitley Art Festival was awarded £6,000 on 25th March 2011 (Decision Book 351)
On 25th February 2011, the Indian Community Foundation was awarded a grant for £1,000 for infrastucture and £,3000 towards stage hire as part of the East Reading Festival.
I’d have many more examples but the Council website seems to be playing up whilst I do my research!
To me there seems to be some inequality around how the grants are awarded especially when you consider the amount of money the Reading Racial Equality Council recieve and getting the new adminsitration to reverse an exisiting decision on their funding. We do know that they were helping the Labour Party canvas in the ward of Redlands on Polling Day – coincidence?