Agenda and minutes

            No apologies were reported.

            Alderman Kingston declared an interest in relation to item 2a – Covid-19 Community Support Funding, in that he worked on a part-time basis for the Forward South Partnership, one of the nine strategic partners referred to within the report, and left the meeting whilst the matter was being discussed.

            The information contained in the report associated with the following two items is restricted in accordance with Part 1 of Schedule 6 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014.

      Resolved – That the Committee agrees to exclude the members of the Press and public from the Committee meeting during discussion of these items as, due to the nature of the items, there would be a disclosure of exempt information as described in Section 42(4) and Section 6 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014.

            (Mrs. A. Allen, Neighbourhood Services Manager, attended in connection with this item.)

            The Committee was reminded that the Council, at its meeting on 19th November, in passing a motion on Food Poverty, had agreed to create a fund of £300,000 to provide additional and holistic support to those who were in need this Christmas. £150,000 of that had been allocated to the Salvation Army and the St. Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeals.

            The Committee was reminded further that, at its meeting on 26th November, it had agreed that the remaining £150,000 be shared between the nine strategic area community partners across the City, based on the allocation method of 50% population and 50% need, using multiple deprivation as a proxy.  It had agreed also that £100,000 from anticipated funding of £505,000 from the Department for Communities, aimed primarily at addressing food poverty and financial hardship over the Christmas and New Year period, be allocated at risk to those partners, using the same allocation method. 

            The Neighbourhood Services Manager reported that the Department for Communities had since confirmed that the exact amount which it would be allocating to the Council would be £470,000. In addition, officers had been made aware of the potential for various units within the Department for Communities to provide the Council with additional funding, to focus upon the same high level priorities, with a requirement that it be utilised in full by the end of March, 2021. She provided details of the level of funding which would be likely to be forthcoming, subject to all formal agreements being put in place, and explained that, for the purpose of allocation, those had been merged into three distinct streams. Accordingly, she recommended that the Committee agree:

Funding Allocations

1.      Stream 1 - Food, Financial Hardship, Warm, Well and Connected (approximately £676,300)

a)     to allocate £353,800 to the nine area based strategic community partners, using the allocation method of 50% population and 50% need, with multiple deprivation as a proxy, to enable them to extend the reach and scope of their existing service provision;

b)     to allocate £322,500 immediately to thematic community/voluntary partners to support to the following organisations: