The Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

Apologies were received from Councillors Ferguson and Doyle with Councillor Goldman attending as a substitute for Councillor Doyle. An invitation to attend the Committee had also been extended to the Leader of the Council but the Chairman of this Committee had agreed that he did not need to attend. Invitations were also sent to a number of organisations that had applied for grants from the Council and apologies had been received from the following organisations: the Lemmings, Headway Essex, Inclusion Ventures and, ATF (Achieve, Thrive, Flourish). It was highlighted that albeit representatives from Headway Essex and Inclusion Ventures weren’t in attendance at the meeting written material had been circulated to the Committee from those organisations. 

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on 15 October 2024.  

It was RESOLVED that the Minutes from the meeting of the Committee held on 15 October 2024, be approved as a correct record and be signed by the Chairman.

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Personal Interest, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest by Councillors in relation to any items of business on the agenda for this meeting.

Subject to providing two working days’ notice, a Member of the Committee may ask the Chairman of the Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the Tendring District and which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee.

On this occasion no Councillor had submitted notice of a question.

To enable the Committee to consider the Council’s approach to grants, the relationship between other grant funding organisations and to the extent which gaps in funding have been identified and addressed.

To introduce this item to the Committee the Chairman invited the Portfolio Holder for Partnerships, Councillor Gina Placey and the Head of Health & Community, John Fox to speak to the Committee. The Portfolio Holder advised the Committee that the report highted the significant work the Cabinet considered in respect of use and allocation of grants on 19 April 2024. The Portfolio Holder further advised that, within the report submitted to Cabinet, it identified the types of allocation of funding, it also included a flowchart to identify possible funding routes and set out parameters for allocating funding to ensure a consistent approach was being followed. The Council’s Head of Health & Community then addressed the Committee by highlighting the importance of the Grant Funding process being closely linked to the themes that make up the Council’s Corporate Plan, such as ‘working with partners to improve quality of life, to achieve the Council’s expectation of ‘good’ governance and to meet the objective of financial sustainability. The Chairman of the Committee then invited the Deputy Chief Executive and Corporate Director for Place & Economy, Lee Heley, to speak to the Committee. He highlighted the importance of the process of grants being allocated in an effective way to support the Council pursue its Corporate Plan.  

Following the introduction of the report, the Committee then asked questions of the Portfolio Holder that has been formulated at their informal meeting on 9 January 2025. These questions and answers are set out in the table below.