Minutes:
3 NCIL Fund questions and feedback
Q: Noted that the Forest Hill Children’s Library application included funding for new artwork to be commissioned. Was the funding granted sufficient to enable this?
A: The costings provided for the project have been assessed as deliverable.
Q: If a project which is being recommended for funding will need to order materials with a long lead-in time, can they order in advance of Mayor and Cabinet on 9 March?
A: No – funding will not be released until after 1 April 2022, following the signing of grants agreements. The grants are being made in respect of projects expected to be delivered from April 2022 to March 2024.
Q: It would be helpful to understand the rationale behind the decision not to recommend certain projects.
A: The process consisted initially of a very strict scoring system based on criteria applied equally across all applications. This was followed by a further process of assessment which looked at wider considerations such as feasibility of delivery, balance of projects across individual wards, and enabling the maximum number of projects to receive support. The fund was very highly oversubscribed, and it would not have been possible to fund all projects, therefore difficult choices had to be made.
With reference to Forest Hill Ward specifically, the following projects are not being recommended:
Forest Hill Society Traffic Monitoring – this was not one of the higher scoring projects. Highways Panel experts assessed it and advised that it was not recommended.
Rock-iorganisation Community Wellbeing project – this project will be delivered outside of the ward, from Ewart Hall in Crofton Park ward. The project has been recommended for funding from Crofton Park Ward.
Sustainable Christmas Tree – an alternative funding stream has been identified for Christmas Trees, this project will be signposted to that funding source.
Lewisham Homes Community Ball Court – this project would have required significantly over half of the Forest Hill Ward NCIL funds available, if fully-funded. Lewisham Homes submitted a number of bids in wards across the borough. Managers will be holding discussions with them on the ways forward.
It was also noted that those projects not recommended for Ward NCIL funding, will be offered a programme of on-going support with bid-writing techniques, together with information sessions and workshops on identifying suitable funders including different council funding streams. This is additional to the support which has previously been provided at the bid preparation stage.
Q: What processes will be carried out now to ensure those recommended for less than they initially requested will be able to deliver their projects?
A: Decisions on reducing recommended amounts were made following intense scrutiny of bids, to identify areas for reduction which would not compromise the integrity of their projects. For example, some project budgets were “modular”, enabling a substantial part of the project to be implemented with less funding. Discussions will take place with groups following the Mayor and Cabinet meeting on 9 March, to establish and agree deliverables and agree targets for monitoring purposes.
Q: When and how will the recording of the meeting be made available?
A: The recording is only being made for checking accuracy of notes. It will not be made public. The notes will be available on the council website in the usual way.
Other Feedback:
Four (4) participants commented on the very well-run process which was seen as extremely rigorous, and thanked the council for the support for those preparing bids. Favourable comparisons were drawn with other large grant-making bodies of which some participants had experience.
Four (4) participants made specific comments supporting the programme of recommended projects.