My Council funding – where did the money go?

Over the last few months I have worked with various applicants to allocate my ward fund of £2000 from Mendip District Council’s Community Environment Fund (CEF) to the following projects, which will benefit the local community:

• Frome Community College: purchase of new computer equipment to support a new student mentoring and counselling facility being developed at the College (jointly with cllr Helen Sprawson-White).
• Positive Action on Cancer: purchase of new counselling chairs, to replace worn out furniture, to better help people receiving counselling for cancer related illnesses. PAC provides free, professional counselling to anyone affected or bereaved by cancer or other life threatening illness – see http://www.positiveactiononcancer.co.uk/
• Fair Frome: purchase of a new container so Fair Frome could have somewhere to store its foodbank, to help local people in need. Fair Frome was set up to support local people to bounce back from the difficulties of living with poverty, and runs a local foodbank which now regularly helps dozens of families – see http://www.frometowncouncil.gov.uk/community-projects/fair-frome/
• Frome Children’s Festival: funding to enable environmental education workshops (‘Forest School’) to be held in the first ever Frome Children’s Festival in August 2014 – see .
• Packsaddle Community Group: funding to support community activities, including a community tea party in March 2014 (attended by dozens of local residents) and equipment to support future community events.

The Community Environment Fund was provided by Mendip District Council to all 47 ward councillors as a one-off grant that would be allocated by councillors to local community projects between 2013 and Feb 2015 (see http://www.mendip.gov.uk/communityfunding). The CEF, together with the Local Legacy Fund (which provided £250,000 in 2013 and £200,000 in 2014 to larger local community projects) was funded through the New Homes Bonus funding from Government. The NHB funding is now being incorporated into the Government’s annual grant to local authorities, and Mendip District Council’s Cabinet decided in January to phase the NHB grant into general revenues over the next three years. MDC’s funding of community grants schemes will be determined annually in future, and I await the reports to the next meeting on 23 February 2015.