Thanet council has been allocated £1.15 million of government funding to invest in the voluntary and community sector, create employment opportunities and support volunteering and a community champions initiative.
There is also a proposal to create a small grants programme to support volunteering and social action projects.
The money is through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) which is part of the Levelling Up agenda intended to reduce inequalities between communities.
Cabinet members at Thanet council will consider a report at their meeting on Thursday 15 June, which outlines plans for the funding.
The proposals have three priorities:
Community and Place
Supporting Local Businesses
People and Skills
The aim is to tackle some of the challenges facing the communities in Thanet, with a focus on projects that will have the biggest impact in each location, within each priority.
The initiatives will be delivered through a phased approach with Community and Place projects in 2023-24 and Support for Business and People and Skills to follow in the next financial year.
Cllr Ruth Duckworth, Cabinet member for Regeneration and Property, said: “The Shared Prosperity funding gives us an opportunity to think differently about how we approach the challenges facing some of our communities. This funding is limited, but it does allow us to focus activity where it is most needed.
“We are keen to work hand in hand with local community organisations and residents with a passion for their local community to help us deliver this funding in a meaningful way.”
Funding will include:
£20,000 to commission detailed mapping of the voluntary and community sector sector in Thanet, including an understanding of their needs and challenges
£50,000 to work with local communities to identify projects and investments that would be most effective at delivering positive change and investment
Small Grants programme Budget £245,965 to fund local social action projects and activities and support local projects
Community Champions programme Budget 2023-24 – £153,988 Budget 2024-25 – £78,004 -to build a Community Champion, and Voluntary and Community Sector network
Capital Investment Budget 2023-24 – £50,000 Budget 2024-25 – £150,000 to engage with community led spaces to support them to enhance facilities/offer to meet the needs of their neighbourhoods
Growing Social Economy Budget 2024-25 – £100,000 to provide opportunities to work with focus neighbourhoods to reach those most in need of support into employment. Support existing social enterprises and community businesses to engage those residents furthest from the labour market into projects, employment or volunteering.
Employment Support for Inactive People 2024-25 – £100,000 to link people directly to key employment opportunities including creative and digital in Margate and green and maritime in Ramsgate. Develop opportunities to engage and train people to be employed by the visitor and night time economy.
Enrichment and Volunteering Activities Budget 2024-25 – £105,514 to create volunteering opportunities within the most deprived areas.
Green Skills Budget 2024-25 – £100,000 to identify local people who can connect to existing provision including wind farms and also provide early engagement with Thanet’s Levelling Up Funded Green Campus and Green Port projects to support an increase in employment locally.
How boring! Does any of that council tick-box gobbledygook actually make any sense to anyone outside the public sector?!
Basically it seems as usual, thousands will be spent talking about it, rather then spending the money on benefitting the end result or the primary aim. So consultants get richer to talk about theories while communities get poorer. Charities will spend most of the money on wages, with very little going to who the money is meant to help.
Councils are the worst people to ever have funding because they waste thousands on talking about things and helping the same type of sectors than actually benefitting the original targets.
What I’m saying is, rather than provide start-up grants to regenerate our towns and provide more jobs, or spend money on where its needed most, Councils squander money on vanity projects or theories. Councils use money to devise MASTERPLANS or REPORTS, and pay (their mates) CONSULTANTS. What does this achieve? Nothing because by the time these masterplans and reports have been published at great expense to the taxpayer, the kitty is empty. So nothing happens anyway.
It’s a bit like this. If you had £20,000 to get a shop, you’d spend it on getting a shop ready to open. The Council bureaucrats however would spent £20,000 commission a report which after all the money has been spent, tells the Council to open a shop. It’s money for old rope and bent Councils are good at it.
Some good points.
I could map out the volunteers for free and then spend the 20k on those groups instead of beaurocrats taking the funds. Perhaps one of the councillors good do it. I’ll start them off.
1. Dane Valley Woods meet last Sunday every month 10am.
2.Montifoire Woods 1st Saturday every month 10am.
3.Sunken Gardens Westbrook meet every Saturday 10am and Tuesdays too.
4. Northdown Park Dell Gardens Every Tuesday 10am till 12.00.
5. Ramsgate East Cliff group. See Trev Shonk, different Trev, I bet he knows when they meet.
Plus Monkton Pit, Friends of Ellington Park, Save Jackie Bakers, Friends of the Warre Rec.
I’ll leave it to the councillors to work out but please don’t spend 20k on some consultant who knows nothing but beaurocrats and council officers.
Rob – looking at individuals from Labour Party now running our council, I doubt very much if any of them ever ran a business to generate profits. It frightens me to see these people spending our money with little or no business sense.
We need to keep an eye on the money and make sure it goes where it should and not let it disappear in the councils pockets, need to make it public where every penny goes ???
Not quite, the bulk of the money will go on projects that do things, but yes there is the usual consultants merry go round. Some of it cannot be avoided because TDC does not have the in house resources, but yes, it should be minimised where possible.
I assume you guys are going to do your bit for the community or are you the usual crabby old keyboard warriors?
Nice to see Wolfie Smith is still in circulation, Power to the People ,Brothers!
What ever happened ro the margate millions that was proposed 3 years ago?
Well your party is in control why don’t ask them. cause everyone is asking and nothing has happened it’s a disgrace.
Sammie, i will continue asking the question, i was not asked by council officers to go the desision making board as i presumed that even that i am county councillor i would not sit quietly while money Is NOT spent on the people of margate rather than consultants.
Not for the first time the money will be wasted as usual by TDC.
Funny how heart radio was today saying that the money was to houses immigrants that have been placed in Thanet. So who is telling the truth
Mate we been paying for them for years in hotels
This is obscene.
“Community mapping”, “asset mapping” and all other types of mapping have been done across Thanet, multiple times and at great expense. The information is already their in duplicate. No more money should be spent on this nonsense.
Community Champions do not work. People volunteer because they want to, when they want to, where they want to and on their terms. They don’t need mobilising. They don’t need patronising. Most importantly, they don’t need vampiric ‘infrastructure’ organisations (we all know who they are!) taking large management fees to ‘manage’ these volunteers.
Reading this article, I can see exactly which organisations will receive large sums of this money. The same ones who have hoovered up similar funding for the last decade in Thanet. Yet, if anyone actually looked, they wouldn’t find a scrap of evidence to show that they’ve made any lasting change or improvement for the area.
Will be used for tea and biscuits at any meetings the Labour councillors appear they need watering and feeding while claiming their allowances.
Plumbob, you do know it is the Tories that have ravaged Thanet and the country at large, don’t you? If not, where have you been for the last decade or more?
Shared prosperity fund . There’s a new word who makes this crap up. The public will never know how this money is spent and what on . How many improvements has any one seen in the last 5 years say that has made a difference to all and not the few ????
My daughter had to move back home with her 2 children, she and her baby son sleep in our summer house in the garden and 6yr old daughter in house- she is not seen as a housing priority, as she’s sharing accommodation. We get on with it, but we are overcrowded. She has been bidding on homes for over a year- she’s got no chance.
Invest in activity areas like athletic tracks , bike tracks etc etc, form outdoor sport clubs, use the parks, get people off their backsides. Turn Hartsdown into a sports hub. Northdown needs a decent cafe area owned by the council where profits could be used to maintain it. Use some imagination. And don’t waste money.
We never ever see any difference here in Thanet when funding comes in. What happens to it? Is it all fraudulently squirreled away to business mates of those pulling the strings?