Overview
One of the key ways the Parish Council supports the Holme Valley community is through its grant awards. In the year 2022-23, the Parish Council awarded a total of £170,000 in grants. In the year 2023-24, the Parish Council awarded £121,417 in grants. Check out all the grants we have awarded in the last couple of year:
You can also download a rolling list of grants awarded in 2023 to 2024.
In the current financial year (2024-25), £53,000 is available through the Council’s Finance & Management Committee for “Other Community Assets” which means grants awarded to fund developments or repairs of physical assets like community buildings, facilities and outdoor spaces, as well as to pay for things like large pieces of “permanent” equipment. Funding may be awarded from this budget to buildings and services that have been transferred from Kirklees Council to the Parish like the Civic Hall and Honley Library. The maximum award is £5,000 though, in very special circumstances, full Council may make awards greater than £5,000.
The Finance and Management Committee also oversees a pot of £20,000 available for all other grant applications such as community projects, events and festivals, and anything else that benefits the people of the Holme Valley. The maximum award is £1,500. Again, full Council may make discretionary awards greater than £1,500. Some awards from this pot are rolling awards, given over an agreed number of years, – often the term of a council.
Other Committees may give out grants as well following approval by the Parish Council. Currently, the Parish Council also makes awards for Christmas events through its Service Provision Committee.
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. 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. 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. The closing date for September applications is 31st August and the closing date for February applications is 31st January.
To a significant extent, the Parish Council is limited by national law in terms of to whom and to what it can make grant awards. It is further guided by its own processes and priorities. This guidance below reflects both national law and the Parish Council’s own priorities.