Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon (ABC) Borough Council: Large Capital Project Fund
Overview
This programme is to fund large capital works projects where a relatively small percentage of match funding from Council is required. Large Capital Grant (£2,501 to £20,000) Up to 50%Project delivery should not commence before a Letter of Offer is issued, and must commence before 31 March 2025.
Programme Aims
Applications must demonstrate how their project meets at least one of the following Programme Aims:
- Addressing disadvantage
- Promoting tolerance and social inclusion
- Contributing to the reduction of poverty at local level
- Improving health and well being
Programme Objectives
Applications must also demonstrate how their project meets at least three of the following Programme Objectives:
- Build capacity and skills
- Increase opportunities for volunteering
- Improve facilities, access or services
- Increase the utilisation of a facility or service
- Attract a new or larger participant group
- Contribute to community, sport or arts development
- Reduce the running costs for a service or facility (eg improve energy efficiency of a venue)
- Contribute to the environmental improvement of an area
Basic Eligibility Criteria
The overarching principle to be applied to all financial assistance should be that of meeting local needs which have been identified and prioritised by Council or by others but acknowledged by Council. The basic eligibility criteria are that projects must:
- Have a clearly identified need.
- Be able to deliver outcomes which meet this need.
- Fit with a clear corporate objective or priority of Council.
- Be delivered by a credible organisation with the capacity to deliver the project as stated.
- Meet the specific programme aims and objectives
An application that falls outside these eligibility criteria will not be considered further.
Who can apply?
Applications will only be accepted from formally constituted, community managed, and autonomous organisations. Such organisations should be not-for-personal profit, with wider community interests at heart, working at a local community level. The organisation’s governing document must clearly state that:
1. Membership is inclusive of the identified community and open to its full range of opinion;
2. Each year the organisation holds an Annual General Meeting (AGM) at which each member has an equal vote;
3. The organisation has a management committee or board of directors which is appointed at the AGM using a clear democratic process for the selection of members i.e. election;
4. The committee/board presents the report for the year at the AGM; and
5. An annual statement of accounts is presented at the AGM
It is important that the groups funded are inclusive of their identified community and open to its full range of opinion i.e. do not exclude any part of that community. Each member must have equal status and be entitled to vote at the AGM.
Decisions about the organisation and its activity must only be made by members and no other organisation can have the ability to impose a decision on the group i.e. they must be fully autonomous organisations. Groups must be managed by their community which means that the management committee/board has to come from the membership and be elected at the Annual General Meeting.
The management committee or board must be accountable to their membership for the work done and money spent during the year. The committee must present a report and financial accounts which are formally adopted by the membership at the Annual General Meeting.
Values inherent to community development include social justice, self-determination, working and learning together, sustainable communities, participation and reflective practice. These values are aligned to Council’s statutory duties in tackling inequality and promoting good relations and the groups that Council fund must in no way contribute to inequality or poor relations.
Eligible Costs
This programme is to fund Capital Works projects only, where the project value is greater than £5,000.
It is not for funding:
- capital works projects valued at £5,000 or below
- equipment
- technical assistance up to and including design stage
Eligible costs
- New facilities (eg community venues, pitches)
- Professional & legal fees associated with capital spend on the planned project
- Land purchase
- Renovation works (e.g. extension, refurbishment, modernisation, conversion, flooring, ground improvement works, lighting, electrical rewiring, plumbing and heating works) required for the delivery of the project
- Non recoverable VAT
- Purchase of fixtures related to the project
- Renovations or provision to promote enhanced Child Protection and/or Disability Access to enable greater participation in community life
- Capital expenditure to facilitate the provision of mobile services in rural areas
- Measures to reduce maintenance costs (e.g. bore well)