Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Turan.

There were no declarations of substitute members

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

·         if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

·         you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

*(a)Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b)   Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c)  Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d)    Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e)    Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f)   Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

(g)   Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital.  

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 11 July be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

Executive Member for Housing and Development informed the committee of the latest 54 councillor funding recommendations for formal approval noting the 11 NLWA cost of living applications, 4 ward partnership applications, one coronation application and two project changes already agreed are also included in the report for information only.

Meeting was advised that further applications have been received for projects addressing the cost of living crisis up to the value of £1000 , that this will continue to be considered by officers on an ongoing basis in between VCS Committees but will not be funded from the Local Initiatives Fund budget subject to sufficient extra funding being available .

RESOLVED: 

a)    To consider the new proposals and changes to previous proposals submitted by ward councillors as set out in Appendix A and to agree these proposals in principle subject to the Corporate Director of Community Engagement and Wellbeing being satisfied that the necessary checks have been made and any other issues resolved.

b)    To note the declarations of interest made by councillors due to having a connection with organisations that they are recommending funding for. These are detailed at paragraph 4.3.

c)    To continue with delegated authority to the Corporate Director Community Engagement and Wellbeing, in consultation with the Executive Member for Homes and Communities, to make changes to the use of previously awarded funding.

d)    To note that further applications received for projects addressing the cost of living crisis up to the value of £1000 will continue to be considered by officers on an ongoing basis in between VCS Committees but will not be funded from the Local Initiatives Fund budget subject to sufficient extra funding being available. This is detailed at paragraph 3.11.

e)    To note that authority was delegated to the Corporate Director Community Engagement and Wellbeing, in consultation with the Executive Member for Homes and Communities, to award funding to projects related to the Coronation of King Charles III.

Reasons for decision – as specified in the report

Other options considered – none

Conflicts of interest/Any dispensations granted – none

RESOLVED:

a)    To approve the award of Community Festival Fund grants for 2023 – 2026 to the values requested for the festival proposals submitted by four organisations as outlined in the following table stated in the report:

b)    The above dates in the report are only indicative and may be subject to change depending on external circumstances.

Reasons for decision – as specified in the report

Other options considered – none

Conflicts of interest/Any dispensations granted – none

Meeting was reminded as part of the Labour Party’s manifesto a commitment, of £2.7m is to be invested to support VCS organisations, noting that although the current grants will end on 31 March 2023 there is a recommendation for Council to launch the next programme for 2024-28 in the next few weeks.


RESOLVED:

a)    To approve the development of the Council’s VCS Partnership Grants Programme, enabling consultation and co-production of the programme with key stakeholders, including elected members, council departments, CCG (Islington Integrated Care Group) and VCS partners.

b)    To recommend to the Executive the maintaince of theexisting council budget of £2,696,000 from General and Housing Revenue Account funding streams for 2024/25.

c)    To agree the outline timetable for the development and delivery of the 2024 – 28 grants programme as outlined in appendix 1.

d)    To approve negotiations with Islington CCG to seek commitment to continue joint funding for Advice provision in the borough at existing levels (£119K per annum) throughout the duration of the 2024-2028 programme.

Reasons for decision – as specified in the report

Other options considered – none

Conflicts of interest/Any dispensations granted – none

Meeting was advised that the report highlights the number of applications which were received for DRR in the first round which ran from 1 February 2023-31 May 2023, with recommendations for reconsideration.

87 applications out of a total of 120 applications from schools and nurseries , VCS organisations, leisure centres and community centres are recommended for approval, 30 recommendations are pending investigations and 3 were rejected.

The next round of DRR is open which will run from 1 June 2023-31 December 2023.

RESOLVED:

a)    To agree DRR awards to the organisations listed at Appendix A for 3 years from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2026. 

b)    To agree DRR awards to the organisations listed at Appendix B for 3 years from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2026 subject to valuations of the premises falling within the threshold for DRR as outlined in the policy (Appendix E). 

c)    To agree DRR awards to the organisations listed in Appendix C for 3 Years from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2026 subject to further clarification on the kind of investigations taking place for their organisations.

d)    To agree the rejection of DRR award to the organisation listed at Appendix D as the organisation does not meet the eligibility criteria. 

 Reasons for decision – as specified in the report

 Other options considered – none

 Conflicts of interest/Any dispensations granted – none