Agenda and minutes

1.1.  Cllr Kalu welcomed attendees to the meeting, introduced her Councillor colleagues - Cllrs Kelleher and Openshaw, and advised that the meeting would be recorded for accuracy purposes and anyone not wishing to be on film, to turn their camera off.

1.2.  Cllr Kalu ran through the Agenda for the meeting, and introduced Sakthi Suriyaprakasam and Katie Drew as the Co-chairs for the next section of the meeting.

2.1      Sakthi Suriyaprakasam introduced herself as Community Development Service Manager and spoke about the role of the Community Development Team in administering the NCIL fund in addition to their work in Local Assemblies and the Main Grants programme, and liaison with the voluntary and community sector within the borough.

2.2      Some issues with accessing the meeting by fellow residents were shared by attendees and the link to the meeting was circulated via email and WhatsApp to allow other attendees to join.

2.3      It was clarified that some questions had been raised about Assemblies and whether they were continuing. The cuts to the council and to the assemblies programme was outlined. It was confirmed that the Council are committing to two assembly meetings per year but are looking at how they can work with communities to have additional meetings that are more community led.

2.4      Officers shared the NCIL presentation (n.b. slides will be made available via the Local Assemblies page for Evelyn ward). This presentation outlined:

·      The purpose of the assembly meeting

·      The background to NCIL, the strategy for allocating funds, the support and assistance available

·      Evelyn’s NCIL priorities (identified via Commonplace), the funding criteria, the CIL regulations that needed to be met

·      The timeline, the scoring process and the next stages

·      An overview of the projects and the process for decision making

·      A description of each of the 20 projects recommended and the level of funding total

·      An overview of the 13 non-recommended projects

2.5      Attendees were requested to raise hands and ask any questions/make comments. Questions and comments both spoken and in the meeting chat broadly fell into the following categories:

1.      Advance promotion of the meeting in the ward

2.      Practical questions about the format of the meeting and clarifying follow-ups

3.      The NCIL allocation process and the wider CIL programme   

4.      The application process

5.      The overall programme      

6.      Specific projects and their suitability for NCIL funding 

7.      Specific projects and whether there is a local need      

8.      Concerns over reduced/non-funded projects     

9.      Comments in support of NCIL programme and recommendations for Evelyn

10.   Comments in support of NCIL process

2.6      Summaries of the main points raised in each of these areas, and officer responses are below:

2.6.1        Advance promotion of the meeting in the ward:

A number of residents expressed concern that households had not received the invitation via post, and that the timing of the delivery may not have allowed sufficient time to adequately review the project information prior to the meeting. It was commented that this was an ongoing issue within the ward.

Officers apologised, explained the delivery process, and acknowledged the importance of local networks in helping to promote local meetings to fellow residents and ward members.

2.6.2        Practical questions about the format of the meeting and clarifying follow ups:

The use of Eventbrite was questioned, and attendees asked whether the presentation would be shared after the meeting. The point was also made that the use of the digital platform for the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

3.1.       Cllr Kalu encouraged residents to get involved in Borough of the Culture (BoC) and introduced Katie Drew

3.2.       There was a brief presentation of the day-one events being held locally and more widely, details on how to get involved, and a link to the BoC Bop were shared.

3.3.       One question was asked by an organisation wishing to be involved in the Borough of Culture and how they can do this. Officers offered to share contact details with the organising team for Borough of Culture.

3.4.       Officers spoke about strands of BoC for increasing the representation of creative artists in certain parts of the community, and encouraged attendees to look out for forthcoming strands to engage with

4.1.     Officers shared details of the Meet the Mayor session in Evelyn. The Mayor will be attending all of the assembly meetings in Lewisham. He will be presenting the Council’s priorities for the next year, and will be seeking the views of residents on these.

4.2.     Officers encouraged all residents to attend and confirmed that invitations would be circulated by mail and online.

Community Updates

5.1.     Officers invited attendees to share any updates on forthcoming activities.

5.2.     The Vietnamese Family Partnership sent publicity for some forthcoming events, which was circulated with a request for onward sharing.  

5.3.      SELCE requested that anyone knowing of residents requiring their service to please refer them, as they are funded until the end of March. There is also a current scheme to support private rental and owner occupiers with energy saving measures. 

5.4.      Tamsin Kayembe – project lead on Second Wave project – working locally for a number of years. They spoke more about the Second Wave project, how they develop community champions, share insights with others, and spoke of the key nature of this project for young women locally, developing confidence and resilience, and leadership. They also shared that they wrote the song for the LBOC Bop, and shared the some of the possible opportunities for local organisations to get involved in the Borough of Culture.

Officers thanked her for her comments.

A.O.B.

5.5       A resident asked if updates on the projects will be bought back to the community, so that the assembly could see what was supported and how it has been delivered.

Officers responded that it would be our intention to bring back a report showing outcomes to enable review, and to show accountability.

5.6.      A number of potential future developments and the challenges to existing residents was raised, and the need to work in a more coordinated way, through NCIL.

Officers noted the points raised and expressed that NCIL presented the opportunity to work with a range of stakeholders in a way that may be different to the way we have worked together before.

5.7.      It was asked when the next round of NCIL would be made available. Officers responded that NCIL is collected on an ongoing basis, and as yet, when and how the next allocation to be awarded has yet to be decided.

Officers shared that the following considerations will need to be made before embarking on future rounds - assessing 250 applications, and applying the process described was very time consuming, though very worthwhile and important, given there are two years for the projects to be delivered, there will be a need to review delivery and think about how we can do things better.

Officers will keep communicating any decisions made in relation to future rounds.

5.8       Councillors were asked how they stay abreast of what is required in the ward, and some discussion was undertaken with an offer to meet with the resident asking the question outside of the meeting.

5.9       The Chair reminded attendees that the final decision relating to NCIL will be taken by Mayor and Cabinet on 9^th March, and that other funding avenues may be available for those who were not successful on this occasion.

A reminder was also given for the Meet the Mayor session on 24^th February.

5.10    The Chair thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.