Councillor funding pot scrapped despite pleas to ditch the ‘mean spirited’ policy
Despite opposition from councillors, the Membership Empowerment Fund at North Northamptonshire Council has ended
By Sarah Ward
North Northamptonshire councillors will no longer be able to hand out small grants to community projects in their area, as the authority’s leadership scrapped the pot this morning.
The long running Membership Empowerment Fund, which allocated £2,000 to each of the North unitary’s 68 councillors to spend in their ward, will stop with immediate effect after the Reform UK executive voted to remove the fund and replace it with a smaller amount of £68,000 for the authority’s youth council to spend.
The proposal to ditch the fund had been widely criticised before the meeting, with many councillors and former councillors making a plea in the council chamber this morning to keep it, but the executive, led by Cllr Martin Griffiths, decided to go ahead with the plan.
The fund has been underused for many years, with in the 2022/23 financial year only a third of the £136,000 allocation being spent. Finance cabinet member Cllr Cheatley said that on average £70,000 each year has remained unspent.
The proposal to scrap the fund was against the recommendation of the council’s own scrutiny committee.
Leader of the Green group, Cllr Emily Fedorowycz ( Kettering North ward) said:
“What is being presented today is not only deeply damaging to our communities, but it is entirely at odds with the council’s own scrutiny process. Why send a decision to scrutiny to completely ignore the outcome?”
She said:
“This is not a saving. The Institute of Volunteering Research shows that every pound invested in voluntary sector organisations generates over five pounds in value. Cutting the funding to absorb what is a negligible amount to us, means a real world net loss of over a quarter of a million pounds that will be felt across North Northamptonshire. This is not a small decision. This is a deep and far reaching one that will break trust on this authority and hit people hard, right at a time when things could not be tougher.”
Her Green Party colleague Cllr Steve Geary accused the council of being ‘pennywise’ and said people were ‘struggling with the reasons behind this’.
Conservative councillor for Thrapston, David Brackenbury claimed the policy was ‘mean spirited’ and said:
“This ill-conceived measure is a genuine cut for small organisations and groups that cannot always secure funding from elsewhere.”
Lib Dem councillor Cllr Simon Fairhall (Oundle ward) said the fact that £362,0000 from the fund had not been allocated in the five years of the authority’s existence was ‘shocking’ and ‘an indictment on our performance as councillors.’
Cllr Julie Lumsden (Corby West ward) was the only Reform UK councillor to speak against the proposal, warning her senior colleagues that to remove the fund would remove vital funding from certain areas. She said she had worked cross party with the other councillors in her ward to spend the funding.
The council’s head of legal Kamila Coulson-Patel said the move to cut the funding had come following an executive directed review and that to continue with the fund plus the new youth scheme would require additional staff and cost around £20,000.
The authority, like almost all local councils, is facing huge financial pressures. The children’s services has run well over budget once again, and a final report for the most recent financial year which finished in April, has not as yet been made public by the council.
Appearing to give the issue some political spin, the cabinet member for regulatory services, Cllr Kirk Harrison, who is also an appointed press officer for the party, said the councillors had been listened to ‘more than they knew’ and that rather than a cut ‘it is a reallocation of the fund’.
He said:
“Our responsibility as an executive is not simply to continue things because they are popular or well intentioned. It’s to ensure that our decisions are right and they’re sustainable in the long term interests of the residents that we serve.”
His colleague, Cllr Graham Cheatley said ‘it is entirely understandable’ some of his fellow councillors felt disappointed.
He said:
“However, our role as an executive is to step back, look at the evidence and ensure that our finding is delivering the greatest possible impact aligned to our corporate plan.”
Cabinet member for children’s Cllr Elizabeth Wright said there had been a disappointing public narrative about young people not being trusted to contribute to discussions about funding priorities.
She said:
“What this proposal does is recognise young people should have a voice in shaping services.” The new youth fund will be launched in September.
All executive members voted in favour of the proposal.
Thanks for reporting on this. I spoke this morning (now as a resident) to emphasise that the money I was able to give to good causes over my 10 years as a councillor of Kettering Borough Council and NNC made a real difference. It is a shame that the Council chooses to remain quiet about the fantastic achievements of the fund (where's the list of projects on NNC's website??) rather than harp on about the money that remained unspent.
Clearly the pesky Councillors cannot be trusted with anything like this.