Thursday 21 March 2013

Fifth Panel Meeting

The fifth Panel Meeting was held at 11.00am on 21 March 2013.

Present at the Panel Meeting: Ivan Freeman, Pearl Mann and Vidah Owusu
In attendance: Cllr Nathalie Nicholas

There have been 9 applications to the Picton Panel.

1 Sanctuary Family Support

The application was to fund residential weekends. Whilst the Panel appreciated the merit of this, they did not believe it had a good fit with the fund's priorities.Not recommended for approval but the applicant should be encouraged to reapply.

2  Brouhaha International

The Panel supported the application but one element of the budget is for artists' fees and therefore ineligible. Recommended for approval subject to revising the budget.

3  St Anne's Catholic Primary School

This application included two elements: indoor work and outdoor work, establishing a garden. The Panel supported the latter element only. Recommended partial approval with a reduced grant amount and budget.

4  Afro-Caribbean and Friends Lunch Club

The Panel supported this application but noted that one item in the budget did not fit the priorities. However, another element was under-costed and this offsets. Recommended for approval, subject to small revision to the budget.

5  Earth Works Liverpool

The Panel supported this project which had a good fit with the priorities. However, owing to the nature and location of the project, the Panel wanted to liaise with the city council's Neighbourhoods Team to see if further assistance could be offered. Recommended for approval subject to this being satisfactory.

6  Asylum Link Merseyside

The Panel believed this application to be worthy but there were a number of issues which would need to be resolved before the Panel could support the project. These included: how to ensure that asylum seekers 'with no recourse to public funding' could not benefit from the project; and how to ensure that the support was restricted to Picton residents, given the transient nature of asylum seekers. Not recommended for approval: applicant to be contacted to see whether application can be reworked.

7  St Dunstan's Church

The Panel noted that the largest budget item was to pay an event management company, an ineligible cost. They also were concerned about potential duplication with the application from Brouhaha International. Not recommended for approval and applicant should be encouraged to work with Brouhaha International.

8  Al Ghazali Multi-Cultural Centre

The largest part of the budget was to pay for instructors' fees and therefore ineligible. Not recommended for approval.

9  Friends of Smithdown

The budget was to pay fees to a fitness coach and therefore ineligible. Not recommended for approval.

The Panel noted that applications too often included professional fees, salaries or similar and asked the Panel Partner to try to discuss these with applicants before the Panel Meeting.