Common Good Fund dishes out its cash
Pipe band and Pride festival to benefit
A pipe band, a group of S6 pupils, police volunteers and a parent council are among the latest local groups who will benefit from the Perth Common Good Fund following council discussions last week.
In addition the local authority’s Perth Common Good Fund committee agreed to part fund what will be Perthshire’s first proper Pride festival in a little under two months time as well as the next Great Perthshire Picnic which is coming up in September.
An application from Giraffe Trading Community Interest Company (CIC) for £3600 to cover some of the costs of the Great Perthshire Picnic was one of the first to be considered by the 12-strong committee last Wednesday.
Before it was approved Perth City Centre councillor Andrew Parrott expressed some concern the committee was being asked to send a “sizeable” amount of money to Giraffe Trading CIC for a festival which sees many of its events being held outwith the city.
“I would be interested to know how much of the activity is taking place in the city,” he said. “I’m concerned £3600 ... might be slightly more than we should be giving.”
The council’s community planning policy team leader, Rosa Huczynska, could only say the CIC was proposing to hold some events in Perth as well as across Perthshire but the precise locations of events would depend on which local businesses agreed to take part.
However Perth City South councillor Willie Wilson was not so hesitant in approving the funding, telling the room: “I think Giraffe do a tremendous amount of work in the city and beyond and I would support this application.”
Next the committee heard Perth and District Pipe Band had applied for a total of £45,000 to buy 25 to 30 new uniforms for players and while a paper before the committee said it could only approve a grant of up to £2500 several members suggested the council’s criteria should be changed so it could award the group more cash in future.
Members decided to award the pipe band £2500 this year and invite representatives to its next meeting to further discuss its funding arrangements and how the common good fund could continue to assist it in the coming months.
The committee went on to award a further £3840 to the Perthshire Pride group for their planned day-long festival which is scheduled to take place on August 11. Commenting Perth City Centre councillor Peter Barrett said he was “very supportive” of the event, adding: “I’m really pleased to see this and glad that it appears all councillors are getting behind it.”
The committee was then asked Last year’s Great Perthshire Picnic saw Perth College UHI students organise a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party to consider an application from St John’s RC Academy seeking a £800 contribution towards the cost of sending ten S6 pupils to Bucharest to volunteer at a children’s hospital.
Papers suggested awarding the school £600 but Councillor Eric Drysdale pushed for more and after a vote it was agreed to give them the £800.
Separately the committee went on to award the same school’s parent council £780 towards the cost of a holding a pupil award ceremony and local Police Scotland Youth Volunteers also got a grant of £600 for a weekend at Dalguise.