Holme Valley Parish Council makes reasonable budget provision for the award of grants. In the current financial year (2022-23) £20,000 is available through the Council’s Finance & Management Committee towards community projects, events and festivals. The same Committee also oversees a pot of £53,000 for Other Community Assets which gives grants out to fund developments or repairs of physical assets like community buildings and facilities, as well as to pay for things like equipment.
Additionally, the Finance Committee supports grant funding for buildings and services that have been transferred from Kirklees Council to the Parish like the Civic Hall, Holmfirth public toilets and soon (though it's dragging...) to include Honley Library.
The Service Provision Committee currently manages an £8,000 budget to facilitate opportunities for young people in the Holme Valley, as well as more bespoke budgets for Christmas provision, CCTV, and for defibrillators.
Other Committees may give out budgets as well following approval by the Parish Council.
The Council can only award grants using certain legal powers. Specific powers allow the Council to provide funding for specific activities or projects which Members feel will be of benefit to the Holme Valley, - e.g. grants to a sport club, for a music festival or towards community celebrations of special events (such as the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022 or the Tour de France in 2014 and World War 1 commemorations (2018-19).
Where no other power is available, the Council may decide to use its power under Section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972, to award a grant where it feels that to do so will benefit some or all of its residents. The critical words are "some" or "all". This means that grants where the activity would not obviously benefit the people of the Holme Valley are problematic – however worthy Members of the Council may feel the project to be.
The Clerk and Responsible Finance Officer are happy to advise on which category grant applications will fall into but we have simplified the process by having one application form for all and one set of criteria. All grant applications are considered by the appropriate Committee having been assessed by the RFO. The applications and any supporting documentation ( in this current year) must be received at least 10 days before a meeting to allow the Clerk to check that the relevant grants criteria has been met. The grant applications will be considered only at two occasions during the year, September and February, so that they can be assessed against each other for relative merit. However, the Parish Council would consider applications that are urgent outside of this cycle.