Agenda and draft minutes

Members of the Panel were issued with a summary of the meeting with the Chief Executive, Mr John Sellgren.

There was a positive feeling from the meeting and it was clear that the Sports Council could move forward as an advisory body.

The Council’s Head of Leisure and Cultural Services, Mr Robert Foster stated that the move forward was to align all of the grants issued by the Borough Council.

The Sports Council would, however, still have the opportunity to view submitted application forms and interview the applicants as before but only if there was a query on the application form before recommending an amount to the Grants Panel.

During the setting up of the Advisory Committee, and considering the future role/remit, there would be an opportunity to review the Constitution and assess the criteria for receiving a grant.  Should grants be given to just individuals in the future or should there be separate ‘pots’ for individuals and Clubs.  More grants should be given for the training of Coaches as they were the link to the sportspersons of the future.

The Advisory Panel should consist of more people from the sporting community and less or no Councillors.  Sports clubs in the Borough could be invited to join and to affiliate to the Advisory Group.

It was suggested that the membership be reduced to nine or ten members and from those, a Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer Secretary and four or five ordinary members.

The Panel felt that tighter criteria was required on deciding the level of grant to be recommended and to issue them where it was felt it would have the best impact.  Applicants who had achieved a certain level in their activity would be eligible.

In addition, it was suggested that applications for upgrades/modifications to buildings should not be supported.

The Head of Leisure and Cultural Services suggested that the first Annual General Meeting could be part of a small conference at which the Advisory Council could be promoted and the sporting community could be engaged.

Mr Thornewill would write a report to circulate to the Panel as the initial document to build upon.  There would be one more meeting before submitting the final report to the Cabinet.