Community projects funding deadline extended

Nicholas Thomas, local democracy reporter

Councillors have been given until the end of 2024 to find community projects eligible for grant funding.

Caerphilly Cabinet members previously had issued a “use it or lose it” warning to councillors over unspent Community Empowerment Fund cash.

The fund gives each representative more than £3,000 annually to support voluntary work within their wards.

Claw back

But Caerphilly County Borough Council, which is facing a multi-million pound hole in its budget for next year, wants to claw back any money that hasn’t been spent.

That move, however, has proved unpopular with other councillors who said they should have been given more opportunities to consult with the cabinet before the decision was made.

They “called in” the decision and urged cabinet members to reconsider their plans.

At a cabinet meeting, on Wednesday October 16, Cllr Eluned Stenner, the cabinet member for finance, said unspent pots of money “don’t benefit our communities at all”.

£90,000

Council officer Kathryn Peters told those present there was currently around £90,000 in the fund that had been unspent.

At a meeting of backbench and opposition councillors, in September, some said the council should show more “flexibility” in handling applications, and complained that the process could sometimes take several months.

The cabinet heard at this week’s meeting that officers had taken those suggestions on board for future applications, and guidance would also be provided by voluntary association GAVO and the council’s own Caerphilly Cares staff.

Ms Peters said councillors had already received a “guidance pack” on the fund when it was launched, or after the last local elections if that was when they took up their seats.

Each representative is also emailed after each funding round to let them know how much money they have left to allocate, she added.

Support

Cllr Jamie Pritchard, chairing the cabinet meeting, remarked there had been a “vast amount of support that officers have given local councillors”.

“I’m particularly struck by the sheer amount of unspends,” he added. “We’ve got to understand that underspend after underspend… has got to come to a stop at some point.”

Cllr Stenner said the council’s new policy would be to extend the time limit for applications to the end of December this year.

“Any funding not utilised after that date will be placed into the general fund,” she said, adding that the deadline would only apply to money unspent from previous years’ funding rounds – and not to the current financial year.