Agenda and minutes

Councillor Smith declared a personal interest in Item 5, the Lewisham

Disability Coalition appeal, as a friend of the representative.

The Mayor outlined to Cabinet and officers that each appellant would be granted a 10 minute slot, 3 minutes allocated to the appellant to make their appeal presentation and 7 minutes for Cabinet to ask questions of the appellant. The Cabinet agreed that discussion of all appeals would be held after all appellants had been heard.

The current main grants programme was agreed by Mayor and Cabinet

Contracts on 13 May 2015. Funding was provided over four themes:

·         Strong and cohesive communities

·         Communities and care

·         Access to advice services

·         Widening access to arts and sports

Mayor and Cabinet (Contracts) agreed 2016-17 funding to 60 organisations on 17 February 2016. Funding was awarded for 2 years and 9 months, from July 2015 to March 2018 due to the overall financial position of the Council Mayor and Cabinet have agreed to reduce the funding to the grants programme by £1m from April 2017. This equates to around 25% of the overall mains grant budget.

Five organisations appealed their recommended allocation. Two of these organisations (Lewisham Disability Coalition and Voluntary Services Lewisham) are recommended for a pro-rata reduction. Voluntary Services Lewisham have since withdrawn their appeal.

Following the consideration of all the appeals, the Mayor and Cabinet will make recommendations to the subsequent meeting of Mayor and Cabinet (contracts) on 7 December 2016 regarding any changes to the original allocations.

Grove Park Community Group

Councillor Suzannah Clarke, a local Ward member spoke in support of the Grove Park Community Group. The Community Development Officer from GPCG gave a presentation to the Mayor and Cabinet.

GPGC kept in touch with the local community to find out their needs. There are a lot more activities going on at the centre as an outcome of the last communication regarding the grant. The CDO has been working with all the other services in Grove Park ward although there has been some difficulty in bringing them together. There has been funding support from GPCG to the over 60s club. There is a preschool running in the under 5s Respite Care which was previously closed, which GPCG has also supported financially

The Mayor and Cabinet thanked the appellant for their presentation

IRIE!

The Chair, Artistic Director, Community Allocations Officer, a member of the IRIE board from IRIE! gave a presentation to the Mayor and Cabinet.

Since 2012 IRIE! have been positioning themselves for the future with sustainability at the forefront. The Moonshot centre, which is the IRIE! hub was specifically built for the African-Caribbean Community and is the only remaining purpose built centre for this group in South-East London. IRIE are on track to meet all 2016-17 targets. The organisation is aware of its core business and have robust plans in place for the significant developments in hand and for the future, and have processes in place to quickly re-evaluate processes and themes. There was difficulty with one

The Mayor and Cabinet thanked the appellant for their presentation.

Mencap

A volunteer at Mencap, gave a presentation to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 148.

This item was contained additional information relating to the previous item,

the Main Grant Funding Appeals.

The meeting ended at 4.45pm