Grants to support community projects will be kept at the same level after a campaign to prevent them being cut.
Grants to support community projects will be kept at the same level after a campaign to prevent them being cut.
Devon’s county councillors each get £8,000 a year to spend on supporting local causes, but the cash was under threat because a proposal to slash them to £5,000.
Cllr Jacqi Hodgson (Green, Totnes and Dartington) fought for the pots of cash – officially called locality budgets – to be held at the current level in the next financial year that begins in April.
Cllr Hodgson suggested that the £180,000 needed to plug the budget gap by not cutting £3,000 for each of the 60 councillors could come from another pot of money set aside for grants for community organisations.
“That would leave that community grant budget at just under £1 million, which is still a lot of money and could be used to support some good work,” she said at Devon County Council’s full council meeting last week, as the draft budget was agreed.
“I feel using that money to help maintain the locality budgets at £8,000 per councillor is sensible as the cash can be used at the local level and means councillors can respond to things that are important in their area.”
While there was broad support for Cllr Hodgson’s amendment, some raised concerns the idea could impact organisations like Citizens Advise Bureau (CAB).
But Devon’s finance director, Angie Sinclair, assured councillors that there would be no impact on CAB.
Cllr Phil Twiss (Conservative, Feniton and Honiton), cabinet member for finance, had previously said because some councillors didn’t use all their locality budgets each year, it made sense to reduce them.
However, his fellow Conservative Cllr Colin Slade (Tiverton East), said he “commends Cllr Hodgson’s amendment”.
“Some councillors might not spend all of their locality budgets, and I suppose I’ve failed this year too as my closing balance is 59p,” he quipped.
“Having the locality budgets is important.”
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