Call to create community chest for unspent council cash in Lincolnshire
A COUNCILLOR has called for unspent community grant money to be made available to other councillors for projects in their wards.
Councillor Steve Palmer put a motion to East Lindsey District Council that unspent councillors' community initiative scheme grant money should be made available for other members to bid for and added to their allocation.
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East Lindsey has 60 councillors who each have £2,000 to award to causes in their wards.
In 2011/12 £6,382 of community grant money went unspent.
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Councillor Palmer, who was elected in October in a by-election for the Sutton on Sea North ward, said: "The councillors' community initiative scheme is superb and an effective way of helping to start community projects. I have been told there is normally an underspend.
"This should be put in a pot to enable other councillors to bid for it to use in their communities.
"We may find from this that there would automatically be no underspend in future years."
Councillor Terry Knowles who supported the motion said: "This money we give to our communities is very well spent and it is vital. To have it not spent in the community is wrong and we have to put it right."
Some councillors were surprised there was an underspend with many saying they could easily use their allowance twice over from the number of projects requesting support.
Councillor Neil Cooper said: "It is incumbent on all of us to find projects for the money. Small amounts of money do make a huge amount of difference in the community.
"I am amazed that councillors are struggling to spend it."
But Councillor Steve O'Dare said the underspend is not down to councillors not supporting community projects, but down to constraints such as deadlines and projects falling through if they need to match funding.
The East Lindsey Labour group supported the sentiment behind the motion but did not want to see councillors enter a bidding war for the extra cash.
They called for the council to nominate an agreed community organisation and suggested the community larder initiatives in the district.
Councillor John Upsall, portfolio holder for finance, said the underspend is not 'lost money' as it has secured the £2,000 allowance for each councillor this financial year as it was likely to be cut to £1,500.
He said: "It is not lost money as it was transferred back into the budget, otherwise the allowances would have been cut down. I'm sorry but I cannot give it twice."
Councillor Fiona Martin, who is chairman of the authority's overview committee, said she was unhappy they were being asked to make council policy 'on the hoof.'
After hearing the debate, Councillor Steve Palmer later withdrew the motion to enable it to be properly looked into by the Overview Committee with the view that the council could then formalise a new policy.
4 Comments
by Letshavetruth
Thursday, March 07 2013, 11:06AM
“The whole question of the administration of these grants needs looking at afresh, when a district councillor can award a substantial sum to an organisation, where he is both the chairman of the association and leader of its political wing.
All grants should be at arms length to avoid criticsm from the public as has been the case in that particular instance.”
by Letshavetruth
Thursday, March 07 2013, 11:05AM
“The whole question of the administration of these grants needs looking at afresh, when a district councillor can award a substantial sum to an organisation, where he is both the chairman of the association and leader of its political wing. All grants should be at arms length to avoid criticsm from the public as has been the case in that particular instance.”
by Letshavetruth
Thursday, March 07 2013, 11:04AM
“The whole question of the administration of these grants needs looking at afresh, when a district councillor can award a substantial sum to an organisation, where he is both the chairman of the association and leader of its political wing. All grants should be at arms length to avoid criticsm from the public as has been the case in that particular instance.”
by Bolshie
Thursday, March 07 2013, 8:32AM
“Unbelievable innefficiency - There you go; £120K, divvie it up between you and do something with it, doesn't matter what, just make yourselves and us look good to the simple folk in the Boroughs.
Having access to funds to kick start community projects is a great idea but surely there should be a simple mechanism that allows projects to be quickly evaluated, prioritised and funded from the central pot - in that manner they could then do things of higher priority that cost more than £2K and not 'waste' blocks of cash of up to £2K doing things that don't need doing in places that don't need it; or are a lower priority in a financial year. We won't then need to read a story in which a councillor embarrasses himself saying money is being 'wasted' by not spending it - when quite the opposite is true, not spending money is 'saving'; spending without purpose or due consideration is 'wasting'.
I bet if we were to look closely at ELDC this is the tip of the waste and innefficency iceburg. Which begs the question 'what exactly do these 60 councillors do?'”