October: Latest News on Lowestoft Together!

A revised Budget was presented by Waveney District Council's Assistant Chief Executive Arthur Charvonia to the Board on 15th October, reducing the grant money available, but not removing it. After considerable discussion, the new budget was accepted by the Board. It was thought that the  issue of whether a decision should be deferred until the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) had had an opportunity to put forward their views was outweighed by the immediate needs of various community groups who had applications outstanding. (The LSP is the original organisation who set up the Neighbourhood Management project).

The Neighbourhood Management Team will now set about arranging Appraisal Panels to assess applications, and the various options now avaliable.

Background.
At the Lowestoft Together Board meeting held on 14^th August, Waveney District Council asked the Board to implement a moratorium on spending – essentially the awarding of grants to local organisations – until 30^th November 2008.

This request by WDC was because ‘forensic’ analysis of the council’s accounts had shown a possible shortfall of nearly £5 million, and therefore “The Council’s Director of Resources has statutory responsibilities in respect of the Council’s finances. As a last resort in certain circumstances he would have to issue a ‘section 114 notice’ to Councillors, which would suspend all spending other than that capable of improving the Council’s financial position.”

They can make this request for a suspension of spending because Lowestoft Together’s funding is not ‘ring-fenced’ anymore, which means the Council can use it how they wish. As the Communities and Local Government Area Based Grant Guidance 2008 has it, “…as ABG is a non-ringfenced general grant there is no expectation that local authorities will use the funding to support the objectives of the former specific grants, and Departments contributing funding to ABG may not place any restrictions on how local authorities spend the money.”

The recommendation before the Board was:

“… the action proposed is that the Lowestoft Together Board supports a moratorium on non-essential expenditure until 30 November 2008. This would therefore apply to awarding new grants. Ongoing community support and grant monitoring would continue but all operational spending should be minimised wherever possible.

3.2 This action will enable a full review of the Lowestoft Together budget and is consistent with work being performed Council wide across all service areas. Part of this review is anticipated to include amalgamating the Council’s current Community Cohesion team with the Council employed Lowestoft Together team to take advantage of knowledge and expertise across all staff and identify working practice efficiencies. This work is essential in any event in order to be able to make ‘Lowestoft Together’ sustainable in the long term (particularly as the level of Safer Stronger Communities funding reduces again in 2009/10, and after that will need to become part of the Council’s mainstream funding.”(our emphasis)

So the result is that no further grants can be awarded, at least until November 30^th. And in some way yet to be decided – and who decides is also unclear – Lowestoft Together will be absorbed into the Council. Current employees may or may not continue to be employed in some capacity or another.

However, for the moment, everybody is continuing as before. And the next event is the Fen Park Friends Fun Day – click here. And don’t forget to check out the Calendar, which lists some community activities, like the 4 Towns Bus Coming to Lowestoft.