Issue - meetings

Area Based Grant Allocations 2008/09

Meeting: 22/04/2008 - Cabinet (Item 144)

144 Area Based Grant Allocations 2008/09 pdf icon PDF 24 KB

(Cabinet Member with Special Responsibility Councillor Roger Mace)

 

Report of the Corporate Director (Community Services)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

(Cabinet Member with Special Responsibility Councillor Roger Mace)

 

(Councillor Evelyn Archer declared a prejudicial interest in the following item due to her being a member of the Poulton Neighbourhood Management Board and left the meeting.  It was noted that Councillor David Kerr had previously declared a personal interest in this item). 

 

The Corporate Director (Community Services) submitted a report that sought approval for the allocation of the City Council’s Area Based Grant (ABG) for 2008/09, in particular to provide continuing support for Neighbourhood Management commitments in Poulton and the West End of Morecambe. 

 

The options, options analysis, including risk assessment, were set out in the report as follows: 

 

Option 1: Use the ABG allocation to continue to fund Neighbourhood Management in Poulton and the West End as outlined in Appendix B.

 

Option 2: Allocate the ABG for other purposes, and develop an exit strategy for the existing Neighbourhood Management Project.  Realistically, existing commitments could equate to the amount of ABG, but a full analysis would be needed to determine this.

 

Option 3: To top slice the ABG sufficient to pay any redundancy costs at the end of the Poulton Neighbourhood Management project, to use the ABG to fund existing commitments to Poulton and West End Neighbourhood Management, and to identify the opportunities to use uncommitted ABG to develop options for Neighbourhood Management across the District.

 

The key risks and opportunities of not using the ABG for continuation of Neighbourhood Management are :

 

·                     Limited savings potential in 2008/09, as funds are already committed.  This would mean that there may be little left for allocating to alternative initiatives for that year, although it would give greater choice and flexibility for 2009/10 onwards.

 

·                     Other works in Poulton and West End would be unfinished, and this could have an adverse impact on the perceived success of the projects to date.  There may be reputational risks for the Council in this regard, although this will depend also on the perceived value of the works not completed.

 

·                     Work to roll out Neighbourhood Management to other parts of the district would not be finished and lessons learned/best practices may not be maximised.

 

·                     There could be an adverse effect on local communities in Poulton and West End which are now showing signs of cohesion (especially in Poulton).  Funding (either in 2008/09 or future years) would be freed up, however, giving the opportunity to provide or safeguard other services, in either the same or alternative communities.

 

The preferred officer option was option 3.  This ensured that existing commitments are met with further options for sustaining Neighbourhood Management and for determining the future use of ABG being brought back to Cabinet as part of the further report requested by Cabinet on 18th March 2008. 

 

It was moved by Councillor Roger Mace and seconded by Councillor David Kerr: -

 

“(1)   That Cabinet notes that Area Based Grant (ABG) is no longer ring-fenced.  

 

(2)     That Cabinet approves the allocations for Winning Back Morecambe’s West End in 2008-09 and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 144