Parish councils have various powers given by Acts of parliament to provide funding, equipment and premises, to help others provide services.
The ability to make such grants is strictly determined by law, both in terms of the organisations which can receive them, and also the amounts of grants that may be given.
In particular, parish councils are permitted to make small grants to organisations which benefit the local population in some way or another. This is permissible under Section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972. There is a low ceiling on such grants, based upon the number of electors, and the monies are funded directly from the Council Tax, via the Parish Precept, so this is your money that we are talking about. There is no other external source of funding available, apart from the Council Tax.
The Council is aware of its duty to spend public money carefully, to achieve the maximum benefit to the residents of Mawnan, and is therefore keen to ensure that this money is targeted at the organisations most in need. The Parish Council gives priority to groups and organisations which directly benefit the parish and its residents.
COMMUNITY GRANTS If you are a member of a group which wishes to be considered for a grant from the Parish Council for a particular project or activity, then contact the Clerk to the Council, in the first instance. Annually grant forms get sent to known organisation in January so the parish council can decide on grant allocations for the upcoming financial year at it’s March meeting. This is not a one off occurrence – we accept grant applications throughout the year.
For grant forms & information click here.
Your “project” may be a one-off purchase of equipment (e.g. insurance premium, special equipment used by your group, books etc), the cost of providing a service (e.g. lunch for village pensioners), or the cost of a section of your running costs (e.g. the cost of room hire for the year). The council reserves the right to seek verification that any donation has been used correctly. It may not be possible for the Council to cover the total cost of each project. A contribution towards the total may be made.
SOLAR FARM MONEY We as the parish receive an annual amount because we have a solar farm within the parish. This is held by the parish council to distribute to sustainable or worthwhile projects in the parish and is administered with the same forms & processes as our usual grants, at the same time. You do not have to make a separate application.
We are trying to save a little of this money each year to build into a bigger pot to let us undertake some larger projects in the parish.
Grant funding from the parish can usually be used to help towards match funding from other sources – please let us know if you are intending to go down this route and need us to guarantee our contribution to help you fill in their paperwork.
Grants awarded for 2017/18 so far …
Who Awarded Description of project
Mawnan Anvil Trust £500 heating;publicity leaflet; flag
MCA £500 refurbishment works
Mawnan Bowling Club £1,000 electrical works to extend heating
Mawnan Christmas Lights £300 xmas trees + insurances
Mawnan Film Club £600 new HD projector
Mawnan Smith WI £160 replacement noticeboard
Mawnan Snooker Club £160 replacement long reach table rests; renew scoreboard
Mawnan Wives £125 speaker costs
Methodist Church £1,345 exterior stone treatments
Scott Abbeyfield House £500 daytrips/ addditional activities
Chess Club £60 2 x chess clocks