20th February 2024
Parish Council’s grant policy under scrutiny
MORVAL Parish Council has decided not to alter its policy that relates to making grants to local organisations – but it will be tightening up procedures, and ensuring that every application for financial assistance fully meets its criteria.
At present, the Parish Council sets aside £1,000 a year of Council Tax-payers money to reward what it describes as ‘voluntary groups or charitable organisations working for the benefit of the parish and its community.’
The full policy wording police can be view on the Council’s website at: https://www.morvalparishcouncil.org.uk/data/uploads/786_275497371.pdf
At the council’s February monthly meeting, held in the Village Hall, Widegates, the Clerk, Samantha Pengelly, referred to points ‘4’ and ‘5’ of the policy and sought guidance from councillors.
The relevant points read: (4) ‘The Parish Council reserves the right to recall a grant if it is not used for the purposes or within the conditions stated’ …and… (5) ‘If the group is unable to use the award for the stated purpose, all monies must be returned to the Parish Council’.
The Clerk asked councillors if they wished her to take action over grant money that may have been spent on things, other than which had been mentioned in the original grant applications, and also whether she should pursue applicants for their accounts (another stipulation in the grants policy).
In some cases, she said, it could involve a lot of council hours and expense, for sums as little as £150.
Council vice-chairman John Collings felt that the council should fully enforce the rules going forward but not investigate historic grant applications.
He was also concerned about another aspect of the policy (No.11) which said that an article ‘recognising the support of Morval Parish Council must be provided for inclusion in the next edition of the Outlook magazine’.
Cllr Collings pointed out that, since the council had no jurisdiction over what was printed in Outlook, it was unfair and unrealistic to insist that such articles ‘must’ be published, since the decision over what to print in Outlook rested with the magazine’s editors, not the recipients of the council’s grant scheme.
Councillors, however, voted in favour of no changes being made to the existing policy at the present time.
But they did ask the clerk to chase the receipts for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 grant applications after hearing that one application ‘may’ have been identified as an incorrect spend.
On the proposition of Cllr John Kitson, seconded by Cllr Clive Pearn, the council ruled that because public/council tax-payers’ money was involved, it was only right and proper that more information should be sought.