LOCAL ACTION FUND

In the 2025/2026 budget, the ruling Labour group passed a budget line giving each ward an amount of £50,000 to be provided to community groups. I had set up meetings with Cllr Kerr & Cllr Cooper. Unfortunately, Cllr Cooper didn’t manage to attend either of these meetings and myself and Cllr Kerr had positive discussions on where the funds could be best used.

Cllr Cooper then sent a proposal to the relevant team stating I was in agreement with her proposal to provide the full £50k to only one group. This was never the case as I was left out of that meeting.

There are simply too many voluntary groups throughout Ward 5 and it’s therefore impossible to reach out to each one. If we did so, we would have then run the risk of missing some groups. This is why the decisions had to be made by the ward councillors.

There were 3 proposals for ward 5, one from each councillor and this should have been decided at a meeting of the executive group on Thursday 28th August. Cllr Cooper requested this to be delayed until the September meeting so a more general consensus could be discussed. I wasn’t keen on pushing this back any further as I am aware of some groups waiting on decisions being made. However, if I hadn’t agreed to this, no decisions would have been made. I therefore requested a formal meeting take place between the councillors and to include our Head of Legal. I hope this meeting can produce a positive outcome for groups within the area. I shall let you all know what date the meeting in September is. Remember, you can attend these meetings in the council building or watch these on YouTube.