Agenda item

The Council’s lottery scheme generated funds for the Tandridge Together Community Fund (i.e. 60p per ticket sold unless the purchaser nominated a good cause, in which case the amount was reduced to 10p). The Tandridge Health & Wellbeing (THWB) Board was engaged to assess and recommend grant allocations from the fund. In June 2019, the Committee agreed that the minimum annual budget for the fund should be £20,000, with any shortfalls being made up by the Council.

The Committee was informed about the allocation of grants from the 2020/21 fund, which totalled £24,500, including a £1,500 donation from Ridge Radio. 47 applications had been received, resulting in full or partial grants to 17 local organisations. Several recipients had been unable to spend their grants due to the pandemic and had been given an additional 12 months to proceed with their projects.

The Committee was asked to consider the community fund grants process for 2021/22.  The THWB board had recommended that the existing criteria should continue to be applied, subject to an extra clause to requiring national charities to demonstrate that  grants would be used to support the health and wellbeing of Tandridge residents. Organisations which had received funding in previous rounds would continue to be ineligible and a maximum cap of £2,000 per application would remain.

The report also provided an update on the Council’s (Tandridge Together) lottery scheme. This confirmed that 168 good causes had signed up, many of which had been receiving £100 per month from ticket sales (50p per ticket). There had been a significant decline in sales at the beginning of the first lockdown in 2020, although purchases had recovered slightly in 2021 and officers were confident that at least £20,000 would be available for the community fund in 2021/22.   

During the debate, the geographical spread of community fund grant recipients was discussed. Officers explained that, while several organisations were based in a particular location, many of their services were District wide.

            R E S O L V E D – that:

A.     the application process follows the timetable set out below:

·         application forms to be made available from the beginning of September 2021

·         end of November 2021 deadline for the submission of applications 

·         a sub-committee of the Health & Wellbeing Board to review applications in November / December 2021

·         the sub-committee’s recommendations to be referred to the Health & Wellbeing Board in January 2022

·         applications determined by Executive Head of Communities in February 2022 and reported to Members thereafter;

B.     the overall total small grants budget be determined in December 2021, based on the money in the Tandridge Together Community Fund (this will be a minimum of £20,000, with any shortfall being met from the Council’s future budgets);

C.   the criteria for assessing grant applications for the 2021/22 process be as per Appendix B of the report; and

D.   the award of any grants to be considered by a sub-committee group of the Tandridge Health & Wellbeing Board before being taken to the full Board in January 2022 to agree a formal recommendation – the recommendations to be submitted to the Executive Head of Communities for formal agreement.