Wilmslow Town Council considered four applications for grant funding at their meeting on Monday, 16th September.
Firstly, Alderley and Wilmslow Musical Theatre applied for a grant of £5000 towards the cost of staging 'Singing in the Rain' in November.
The group has been around for over 60 years, is the only adult theatre company left in the area and aims to enrich and give access to musical theatre for local people, as well as nurturing local talent.
They perform at the Evans Theatre which they pay Cheshire East just over £4000 to hire for the week and have to sell 90% of tickets in order to recoup their costs.
Angela McPake told the councillors "A couple of years ago we hit a major stumbling block, lost all of the money we had in the bank on a production because of some stage issues we had and we were too close to production to pull it so we had to go ahead.
"So we have spent the last two years really rebuilding the society. Obviously where we want to get to is a position where we are totally self funding. We are not yet there.
"We have a huge challenge so what we are really asking you for is support while we build our audiences. We'd use the money to go towards the staging costs."
Cllr Jim Crockatt proposed the Council granted the £5000 saying "I think this is a very worthy cause. It helps the young people to get some experience of stage work and helps the local people to benefit from stage theatre. It's very important."
Cheshire East Citizens Advice Bureau North (CAB) also submitted two applications for grant funding.
Wilmslow Town Council has previously granted £15,000 in September 2012 and a further £5,000 in February 2013, enabling CAB to start two new services in Wilmslow.
Jacquie Grinham explained "We were confident the service was going to be well received and well attended and it has been. We have had a steady and sometimes over subscribed attendance at our drop-in session on a Monday morning."
Following the successful launch of a drop-in session in September 2012, CAB also offer an appointment service in Wilmslow Library on a Thursday morning and an awareness session between 5.30pm and 6.30pm on the same day for people who are working.
The first grant application was asking for £20,000 again to fund a second year of the existing service.
Jacquie told councillors "We haven't quite had a full year and so far we have seen and supported 160 different clients, ranging from 17 to 90. It's been amazing because I think we'd first anticipated it would be more 55 upwards needing the service but in fact it's been the whole of the spectrum and covered a whole range of enquiry areas."
She added "One of things we have found at drop-in on a Monday morning is that we can be overwhelmed with the numbers of people coming to that. We try very hard not send people away unseen and say come back next week.
"There are situations where we have to do that but not only are we sometimes not able to see everybody but we are aware of maybe not giving the full amount of advice that we could give if we didn't have so many appointents here so the second application is for a second appointment service on the Tuesday morning which could be made by the adviser on the Monday morning at drop in when its obvious that somebody needs more time."
The second grant application for £9000 is to enable CAB to offer a second appointment service so they can control the Monday morning drop in better.
Cllr Martin Watkins spoke in favour of the applications saying "Wilmslow has a reputation of being an affluent area it may be affluent but that doesn't mean to say that there aren't some residents who are desperate need of assistance and someone to help them on their way so I speak wholly in support of both these applications. It is money well spent and shows we actually do care about our residents."
Cllr Christopher Dodson added "This is clearly meeting a very real need and with the changes the Government is making to the benefits system the need now is greater than ever. I strongly commend both these applications."
Councillors voted unanimously to approve both applications and grant CAB £29,000.
The fourth grant application considered was from Great Places Housing Group for their Strong Women project which aims to strengthen confidence, develop transferrable skills and help the women get back into the workplace.
Wilmslow Town Council funded the first cohort of sessions with a £4060 grant in December 2012.
Karen Ames explained "These ladies are the most vulnerable in the community and I think what differentiates our project is that a lot of agencies are providing services but this is the first baby steps - ladies come along and develop the confidence."
She added "It doesn't take a lot to give somebody that confidence, build up their self-esteem and then just watch them go."
Karen explained "We are asking if you will fund half of a cohort now. Resources are very scarce everywhere and the steering group have said they think now it would be a better proposal to take money from Cheshire East Lifelong Learning and ask the Town Council to fund 50% so we don't lose the momentum and keep the benefit in your community."
Cllr Ruth McNulty proposed approval of this application.
She said "The effect of this cohort on the five women who attended was transformational, these were women who hadn't the confidence to leave their house, let alone to engage with education or enter the job market.
"So for them the amount of money spent has been unbelievable, we got a result there and then and the fact these women are engaged in helping other women on similar projects it speaks for itself and of the value of money. The numbers last time were disappointing but we're reliant on other agencies to identify vulnerable women but by their very nature a lot of these women are invisible."
When asked whether she felt they could achieve bigger number next time, Karen explained that they are now in a much better position than when they did the last cohort because the partnership links are now much stronger.
Councillors voted unanimously in favour of granting £2216 to fund 50% of the next cohort which it is anticipated will be held at Oakenclough Children's Centre in October 2013.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
I question though whether WTC takes any steps to monitor the way this precept money (ours) is spent. Sadly without some form of monitoring, one day there will arise a case of misuse which will be a serious setback for all good causes seeking grants of precept monies. In addition I ask whether WTC could consider seeking matching funding before making grants. In many cases this appears to be the normal practice. Clearly such a condition is not appropriate in certain cases.
In respect of the the "Strong Women Project" - Councillor Ruth McNulty points out that the first cohort (5 women) the effect was "transformational" - at a cost to the ratepayer of £4060. That is £812 per transformation.
http://bit.ly/18RwW4c
Cllr Gary, thank you for your reassuring reply.