 Good morning members, officers and other members of public who are viewing the live streaming of this meeting. Welcome to this meeting of the Grants Advisory Committee. My name is councillor Sue Allington and I am usually the Vice-Chair of the Grants Advisory Committee. However, the usual chair, Councillor Jos Hales, is not with us today so I will be chairing this meeting. For the information of the public the role of this committee is to consider and make recommendations to the lead cabinet member for resources, Councillor John Williams, on applications made under the Council's Grants Scheme. Councillor Williams then makes his decision taking into account our recommendations. May I remind all those in attendance to keep their microphones closed to them and close to them and speak clearly throughout the meeting. Right, with item one, do we have any apologies Lawrence? Thank you Chair, just the one apology today from Councillor Jos Hales. Thank you. I can confirm that the meeting is quarreled. Item two is declarations of interest. Do any members have interest to declare in relation to any item of business on this agenda? If an item subsequently becomes apparent later in the meeting, please would you raise it at that point? Nobody speaks, that's okay then. Right, the minutes of the previous meeting. We have the meeting, minutes of the meeting held on 26th of October up for approval today. Does anyone wish to make any amendments to the minutes? And you haven't heard anybody? Right, thank you. The minutes, can I take the approval of these minutes by affirmation? Thank you. So the minutes of the meeting held on the 26th of October are approved. So item four is the six month progress report on the service support grants to the voluntary sector, which updates us on the progress of the programs funded by the Council in this financial year. I'll now hand over to Emma to introduce that report. Okay, thank you chair. So on page five, this service support grant report is for information only, it's an update report. Six month reports are requested from organisations who received £10,000 for more per year. So this report and report reflects quarters one and two this financial year. And there's three organisations that fit into this category. We have Cambridge Council for Voluntary Service, CCVS, they were awarded £11,400 per annum and that is for support for voluntary and the community sector. Second organisation is Citizens Advice, they are awarded £100,000 per annum for advice services. And then we have Homestart Royston, Buntingford and South Cambridgeshire, Homestart Cambridgeshire who are awarded £13,711 per annum. This is to provide early intervention, volunteer-led, home visiting support and specialised family support groups for vulnerable people that often have complex issues. So as far as offices are concerned, all three organisations are on track and achieving their objectives. Just want to quickly note on page nine within the Citizens Advice Agreement, outreach was suggested for locations where this might be best placed. We've had some recent discussions with their CEO and we've agreed that they will work with us to devise a plan of outreach in the six locations in the reports with sourced and continuing funded by the John Huntingdon's charity. And this will be either in-person sessions or online with a person on a screen on the other side. So that's just a little bit of further information and what we'll do is we'll also arrange another meeting in January 2024 just to monitor progress on that aspect of the agreements. I'd welcome any questions. Thank you. Excellent. I was very impressed with the reports I have to say. Any member want to have a word? They seem to have listened to us really. Yeah, they seem to be doing more in our district, which is very welcome. I was impressed that they are covering a significantly wide area of our patch and that they were seeing for the money that's available. It's not, I mean, it is significant, but for the money that's available, the case studies and so on are really helping people who need help. And I'm very aware that there are an awful lot of people out there who need help. Peter. Thank you, Chair. Yes, I'm always impressed with the capacity of citizens' advice to support so many residents. I know I've sent a couple of people to them in recent weeks for advice on various matters, so that's definitely money well spent, I think. Yeah. Welcome, Sunita. Sorry about that. It's fine. The traffic and the roads at the moment are not necessarily as easy. Yes, I was really impressed. And the home start in Royston covering our patch. Again, they really do play a significant role. I know it's not council's business, no primary business to help, but that's what we do as a district council to ensure communities and individuals within that community have as much support as possible. And I think we should go on doing it. And finally, the Cambridge Council for Voluntary Services. Again, a really good report, and it's well worth people reading it and realizing quite what they do and knowing where to go to get help for your residents as a council. So thank you very much for that. I'm a little concerned that we shouldn't move on to our decisions. Well, we will make our recommendations to him. So apologies have been received from Councillor John Williams. He's feeling unwell. So we will continue with the community chest grant funding applications. And no doubt he'll be able to look online and see what we said before he makes his decision. So Emma, would you like to take the first one from Water Region Land Beach Action for Youth? Sorry, can we just confirm on the options in the report that we're happy to note the progress of the funded projects? Oh, yes, I do apologize. And by the sounds of it, we don't need to highlight any concerns for further investigation or action as you're concerned. No, we're agreed. Thank you. Sorry Lawrence. Right, so moving on Emma. Just firstly, I'd just like to mention that two community chest projects have not progressed as expected. And as a result, this funding has been funded to us. That's £2,000 from Longstown to Grasshopper's Cricket Club. That's the whole amount that came back to us. And then £360 and 24 pence, which is part of the award that went to Cockwheel Counseling. So what we've done is we've added this to the totals for the general community chest fund. This gives us an updated balance of £21,027.45. We've received two applications this month, totaling £4,000. And yeah, so I'll just go into the first one, which is on page 27, which is Water Beach and Land Beach Action for Youth. This is a free youth club benefiting 136 young people aged between 11 and 16. It's open twice a week. And regular activities include sport, art and craft. And sometimes they put on additional activities such as music, tuition, youth social action and pastoral support. And funding is needed to run a cooking project once a week. That's for 48 weeks. This is for the years, seven and eight members on how to make nutritious low cost meals whilst utilising food that has been donated. Total costs for this project are £4,252.80 and £2,000 has been requested from the community chest. Water Beach Parish Council contributed £2,000 and Let's Cook have funded £250. Just to note that they received funding from us through Children and Young People's Grant. That was back in January 2022. And this was something similar, which was their creative cooking programme, which was open to all children. So this funding is more specific for years seven and eight. Thank you. Thank you. Any comments members? Peter? Thank you, Chair. Yes, this seems like a really good project. Those of us who attend the Climate Advisory Committee have heard councillor Dr Bhattacharya on several occasions telling us that people just don't know how to cook these days. And I think this is a good step to get the younger generation cooking for themselves, rather than buying pre-packaged food. So, yeah, I definitely support this one. Sneeta? I like this project because it just doesn't focus on how to cook. It focuses on nutrition and therefore I support it. Yes, I support it too. And it's good to see that the Parish Council there is giving substantial support. That's to be applauded too. Yes, I was impressed with that. And those of us who went to school some years ago and learned to cook, and we were at school, but perhaps not there. But there weren't quite so many fast food outlets at that time. I don't think, certainly not on the farm that I have done. So are we happy to agree this nods all around? Thank you. Yes, we agree that. Can we move on then Emma? Yep, page 28. This is from Social Enterprise East of England C. It was set up to promote and power connects and grow the social enterprise sector in our region. They benefit from wealth experience in this sector with experienced consultants delivering their research training events and other activities. And what they'd like to do is create a supportive network of social enterprises, also with other organisations and individuals. And this would basically create businesses as well as address local social challenges. They're already in contact with some local organisations that are familiar to us, such as CCVS and Camber to Acre. And they held their first engagement event in Camborn Community Centre that was a couple of weeks ago, which showcased businesses that are helping communities and how to support local residents in challenging times. And what they'd like to do is they've applied for £2,000. And this is for eight days of one to one follow up support for people that went to that event. And this basically runs one staff member at £250 a day to provide that support. I did go back to them and said, what exactly would you do within this support? And they've given us some examples, which would be including digital tools, working with some of our micro care enterprises, you might be familiar with as well, and various other support like grants, you know, who wants grant applications and things like that. So it's quite bespoke to that particular individual. Thank you. Thank you. Any comments from anybody? I suppose my first thought was social enterprises east of England, which seemed to be a very large area. And I wondered how and what evidence they had for focusing here and at Camborn to provide this service, if you understand me, why did they suddenly decide that Camborn was the place where they should be supporting and helping a community centre and getting things off the ground? And did they provide any evidence to show that it was a need? They haven't. But what I understand is that obviously this is one event that took place in the east of England. And this is what they would be doing in other areas as well. And this funding would go specifically towards organisations in South Cambridgeshire. So I could go back and find out a little bit more if you wanted me to, of course. It seems like an extremely good idea. I just thought they seemed to have sort of landed. Do you know what I mean? It troubles me a little. I mean, the idea is great. But follow-up engagements after the event slightly concerns me whether or not you should have been before the event. And can we monitor what the money is used for? Is that something that's possible? I'm not sure. I'm quite, I'm meant to be convinced about this. Did we have any support from any of our councillor colleagues for this? I don't believe Jane. I don't think no, not on this one because it's a general, it's not for a specific parish. So in those instances, we don't tend to do that. Yeah, I'm also sort of sitting on the fence this one. I mean, the line I'm looking at is catering £1,200. You can get a lot of sandwiches for that. I do, right? I think they just gave us a breakdown of everything, including what they needed for the event, but the specific funding this would go would be that one-to-one support. It's a follow-on support. There's a general reluctance here, and I think this is where we would have gone to John and said, how did he feel about it? Can we leave it with us being, having some concerns and perhaps wanting to follow up a little bit more specifically about why they landed on Campbell, and a bit more evidence about them and where they're coming from and where we're going to about it, and see, and also some feedback from John about how he feels about it. Yes, Chair, I think that's a good way forward. I mean, what probably concerns me most is, I mean, and I'm perhaps asking Emma this question, did they come to us in before the event for any kind of financial support? Because I'm slightly nervous about, you know, the things being done and gone, and now they want some money to follow up. And I just think that if they'd fully funded, if they had a fully funded event, that would have been part of the fully funded, you know, the funding. It seems almost an afterthought, give us some money. Yeah. And I'm just not comfortable with it. No. Emma? The application came on the 3rd of November. I think I believe the event was on the 14th, so it was quite, it wasn't that long before obviously the event, so maybe they only just found out about the community test. I don't know the whole reason why, but it was before. Yes. Everybody happy to defer at the start? Not a straight no, but definitely a defer. Okay. And those were just the two that we've got. Yes. That's one for the question. Emma, you say that we have two projects that we've returned the money. Did they give any reasons for this, or is it just? So, the Longstown to Grasshopper's Cricket Club, I think that was for netting, if I remember rightly, and I think they needed some permissions, and I think that was the problem, I think working with the, I think the parish council or somebody was against it, or it was a reason why they couldn't do it. Cogwheel counselling was a small proportion, because they were awarded 1,400 and 360 came back to us. I don't know the whole reasons, you know, why, but I think that they have continued with the project, but just a small amount had to come back, so. These things happen sometimes. Yes, yes. And you put in for a grant, but you also, at the same time, go through the process of getting permission from this, that and the other, so I can understand that. So, the next meeting is scheduled for the 25th of January, so I could wish you all a very happy Christmas, and say thank you very much, and that was the shortest meeting in history.