Following advice provided by the Monitoring Officer regarding Members’ outside interests, Councillors Carole Jackson, Ben J Martin, Hannah Perkin and Tim Valentine left the meeting for this item.

Councillor Julian Saunders stayed for the introduction and then left the meeting for the remainder of the item.

The Chairman explained that the Eastern Area Committee had been given a total of £48,000.00 of funding to allocate in the 2020/21 financial year.  At the previous meeting the Committee allocated £837.00 to Doddington Allotment Association which left £47,163.00 to be allocated at this meeting.  A public call resulted in 10 applications of funding which totaled £98,702.20.

The Chairman and the Vice Chairman had asked officers to carry out a scoring process on all the applications received, based on the criteria set out in the application guidance notes.  This was to ensure that the process was impartial and as objective as practicable.  Officers produced a paper which set out the scoring for each application and provided notes on previous funding applications awarded by Swale Borough Council.  A report was also included from the Council’s Air Quality Team about an application received from Lynsted with Kingsdown Parish Council for Air Quality Monitoring.

The Chairman and Vice Chairman used this report to propose 3 options on how the funding could be allocated.  All options were based on the officer scoring, but option 3 also took account of other funding sources. This was circulated to members of the Eastern Area Committee and they were invited to propose further options.  A fourth option was proposed by Councillor Ben J Martin.  The final 4 options were tabled as an additional paper before the meeting.

A discussion ensued about the different options and Councillor Mike Whiting proposed a fifth option which was to amend Option 4, to become Option 5, by removing the application reference EAC008 from Faversham Town Council, giving Citizens Advice and GEM72 the full funding they requested, and giving EAC009 the Lynsted with Kingsdown Parish Council application the remaining funds.  Further discussion took place on the Air Quality Team report in response to the application.  On being put to a vote, it was agreed that Option 5 would not be put forward for consideration by the Committee.

Comments were made that the Committee were not consulted about the process for additional criteria for Eastern Area Committee, in particular the minimum spend of £5,000.00.

On being put to the vote the proposal for Option 3 was agreed.

Resolved:

(1)  That the £47,163.00 funding be awarded to projects in the following proportions:

(a)  Faversham Town Council Parishes to Town Project - £12,500,00

(b)  GEM72 – mobile youth provision - £10,000.00

(c)  Boughton-under-Blean outdoor gym - £14,663.00

(d)  Oare Parish Council – regeneration and rewild the village - £5,000.00

(e)  Abbey Physic Community Garden – repair/refurbish entrance - £5,000.00