Agenda item

To receive a report on the Councillors' Pride Fund 2024/25: Helping to Protect, Care and Invest to Create a Better Borough.

Councillor Paul Davis, Cabinet Member for Communities and Civic Pride, presented a report, which updated Cabinet on the impact of the Councillors’ Pride Fund allocated during the financial year 2024/25.

The report outlined the incredible impact the Councillors’ Pride Fund had had across the borough’s communities during 2024 - 25.  The fund continued to make a real difference where it mattered most, in the heart of the borough’s communities and neighbourhoods. The report showed the full £270,000 budget allocated (£5,000 per Councillor) to support local projects had been spent and, that a further £145,000 had been secured in matched funding, meaning that a further 53p for every pound spent had added value and impact to those projects.

Since 2011, the Council had invested over £2.2m in such schemes and investing in the borough’s communities was a key part of the Council's aim to protect, care and invest to create a better borough.

The report was full of inspiring examples which reflected the Council's priorities and some of these successes were highlighted, which included children, young people and adults having been supported to live well via trips to London and Stratford-upon-Avon for residents in Woodside, Madeley and Sutton Hill and Lawley.  The scheme had supported the vibrant youth art project, which had built community pride and brought the Sambrook Centre to life with the help from local young people and a boxing programme to engage females had built confidence.  An anti-vaping workshop had engaged over 800 students from multiple wards using an interactive theatre to explore peer pressure and health risks; a warm space in Priorslee had offered comfort in winter, and social clubs in Donnington had managed to keep people connected.

The scheme ensured that a thriving economy was championed through support to celebrate community and heritage with events in Malinslee and Dawley Bank, Lawley, Ironbridge Gorge and Priorslee; a market in Donnington, and heritage projects such as the reopening of Lawley Station in Horsehay and Lightmoor and supporting the move to create a new museum in Newport North. 

Neighbourhoods had been invested to make them great places to live by improving play areas in Ironbridge Gorge, Muxton and Newport East, with a new community garden in Hadley and in Leegomery, nature-based artwork on the bus stops in The Nedge, and bulb planting in neighbourhoods and parks such as in Newport West.

Councillor pride applications had also ensured that the borough’s natural environment was protected, and the Council continued to take a leading role in tackling climate emergency through the introduction of a bug hotel in Oakengates and Ketley Bank, an orchard in Haygate and Park, climate training in Newport North and litter-picking kits for a school in Lawley. Community-focused, efficient, effective and quality services had been supported, such as road safety schemes in Church Aston and Lilleshall and in Ketley; defibrillators in Donnington, Priorslee and Ironbridge Gorge; improved lighting in Wrockwardine Wood and Trench and Oakengates and new noticeboards to help keep residents informed in Shawbirch, Dothill and Edgmond.

The report showed that the impact of the Councillors’ Pride Fund could be seen clearly across all of the borough’s communities and it provided more than just financial support – it was a lifeline for local ideas, a catalyst for community pride and a way for Councillors to respond directly to local needs whilst it also complemented wider Council programmes and supported some of the borough’s most vulnerable residents, which ultimately helped to reduce demand on more intensive services.

In conclusion, members were asked to ensure that the current Fund allocation was spent early in the new year in order that it could be closed before the end of the current financial year.  Councillor Davis thanked councillors, officers and volunteers who had made the delivery of these projects possible, made contributions to and improved the lives of residents.  By working together, stronger, healthier and more connected communities were being built and that this was reflected in the report.

RESOLVED, that:

(a)  The continued impact of the Councillors’ Pride Fund, which had allocated over £2.2m over the last 13 years and allowed Councillors to deliver the Council’s five priorities in their wards to protect, care and invest in order to create a better borough, be welcomed;

(b)  The importance of this funding in enabling a bespoke response to need in individual communities and in supporting community organisations to thrive and offer valued services to residents, be recognised;

(c)  The additional funding that applications to this scheme had secured through match funding of projects, to the value of £145,221 in 2024/25 and in excess of £900,000 in the last six years, be noted; and

(d)  The final deadline for receipt of applications in the year 2025-26 being 1 February 2026, be noted.