Friday 15 June 2012

FIrst Panel Meeting

The first Panel Meeting was held at 10.30am on 15 June 2012.

Present at the Panel Meeting: Ivan Freeman, Lindsey Guy, Pearl Mann and Vidah Owusu

There have been 4 applications to the Picton Panel.

1  Liverpool Community Spirit

The Panel was happy with the application and understood clearly the aims of the project, but would like assurances and evidence that all of those benefiting from the funding would be Picton residents. For £1,470 the project would provide 2 courses of 7 weeks and benefit 50 people, which equates to approx. £30 per place. This was thought to be good value for money. Recommended for approval.

2  MEDS

The Panel was concerned that the project was more about employment, rather than community.  The area of benefit is unclear especially as the application clearly stated ‘Princes Ward’, not Picton.  The amount requested, £2,500 for 12 places, did not seem like good value for money. Not recommended for approval but the applicant should be encouraged to reapply.

3 Grantox Charitable Trust

Lindsey Guy is Honorary Company Secretary of Grantox Charitable Trust. She declared an interest and took no further part in the discussion or decision of this item. The Panel was happy with the application and understood clearly the aims of the project. The application was £2,000 for activities for young people during summer holidays.  The project is to benefit 150 young people and 15 adults.  This equates to approx £12 per beneficiary and was thought to be good value for money. The Panel was concerned that the young people of Picton had missed out on the half term activities owing to funding cuts. Recommended for approval.

4  Culture2Culture

The Panel had a number of concerns. The application appears to be from an individual, rather than a bona fide community group. The application stated that only 2 people would benefit from funding of £2,500, which does not represent good value for money. The grant would be spent on the purchase of a camera and notebook computer. Rather than pay for such equipment outright, the Panel might expect to fund the short term rent or loan of equipment (for the short duration of the project). Not recommended for approval but the applicant should be encouraged to approach local organisations for short term loan or rent of equipment.

The 2 projects recommended for approval have now been forwarded to the Community Development Foundation for their consideration.