Funding boost for Northampton community groups with extra £2k for each councillor to spend

The borough council’s cabinet agreed last week (July 22) to increase the Councillor Community Fund by £2,000 for each of the authority’s 45 councillors – meaning an extra £90,000 will find its way into the hands of community groups in the town.

Elected members can allocate the funds to community groups in their local area with a minimum of £250 for each successful group to apply. The funds have to be used between the end of July and the end of October.

Cabinet member for finance, Councillor Brandon Eldred, said: “We had long discussions about how the borough council can actually start helping with community groups and smaller groups that we deal with on a daily and weekly basis.

“It’s the groups like the Scouts, the Girls’ Brigade, church groups and community centres, groups like that just to name a few. Those groups have not been given any money to help them through a difficult period. This is the time of the year where they might hold a jumble sale to get them money to help them through the year.

“We will discuss how the scheme will really work and will refine it to make sure everyone fully understands how it will work over a three month period.

“But this is there to help those kinds of groups who don’t qualify for any grants and have missed out on holding fundraising efforts. It’s important we don’t forget them. It’s nice to give something back.”

The cabinet was told that the £90,000 funding will come out of the council’s reserve funds. The reserves are already being used to deal with homelessness issues, and will also be used to deal with the financial impact of coronavirus, with the borough council estimating it will be £2.5 million in the red at the end of the financial year.

But Councillor Danielle Stone said she wanted to see funding for community groups go down a different route where each applicant was means tested, saying that community groups in some of the town’s more deprived areas had very high needs.

The Labour leader told cabinet: “You might think I’m pleased about this but actually I’m quite concerned about it. I understand the argument and that there’s lots of voluntary groups that need support.

“But I really like our equalities assessment of needs that goes on through the Small Grants panel. I think the borough council does that extremely well, and because the emergency has been so impactful on lots of different groups then I think that’s the route that we should have gone down.

“I’m a bit bothered about how this is going to happen, because if we look at wards like Castle and Semilong, and places in the Eastern District, then the need there is very very great. So I think if that initial funding was subject to a proper equalities impact assessment it would be allocated in a different kind of way.”

Responding to her comments, Councillor Eldred said that because the Small Grants panel only met a few times a year, there was a possibility that a number of groups could miss out at a time when they need the funding the most.

He added: “That’s why we’re empowering councillors with this, because you know your community better than anybody and you will know what they need and what they are short on.”

Councillor Anna King, the cabinet member for community engagement, said she was 'delighted' with the move as councillors had been inundated with requests from groups.

She said: "Some councillors in some wards have probably spent out all their money this year, and it will be great to support other projects."