Five eco-friendly groups in line for grants

More than £160,000 in funding will be awarded to five organisations for sustainable community projects – if elected members give the green light.

Officers have recommended grants be allocated to 7th Paisley and District JNI Scout Group, Brick Lane Music Academy, Lochwinnoch Community Development Trust, Sculpture House Collective and Renfrewshire CommunityTransport.

It comes after they made applications to the sustainable communities fund which supports projects that promote or improve community collaboration, health and wellbeing, local spaces, economic development, biodiversity and the environment.

The pot was created after it was agreed in March last year the council should combine remaining monies from the community empowerment and climate change action funds. It was further bolstered by cash from the UK shared prosperity fund.

Three types of awards are available through the process, including small (up to £10,000), intermediate (£10,000 to £25,000) and large (up to £100,000) amounts. Applications were assessed in February by a cross-service panel of officers established to consider the bids against agreed objectives and criteria.

While five totalling £163,383 have been recommended for awards, 10 have been deferred for further information and four were judged not to meet the criteria.

A report to the communities and housing policy board explained:“The sustainable communities fund has been very popular since its launch and has attracted a significant number of initial formal applications and more informal contacts and expressions of potential interest.

“Applicants are strongly advised to engage with coordinating officers as early as possible in the application development process.

“In the first two rounds there have been a number of applications where further information is required to fully assess an application, which has led to a number of applications being recommended to be deferred at this time, in order to give applicants the best possible chance of success as part of the assessment process.

“Following learning from the first round of the sustainable communities fund, several areas have been identified where fund guidance can be clarified and strengthened to improve the application process for both applicants and officers.

“Officers will work to reflect learning both in the formal guidance in due course, as well as the advice given to applicants and information available through the council website.”

Councillors will be asked to approve the awards at the board on Tuesday.