Final grants allocated from £150k pot supporting young people in Leighton Buzzard

Twelve grants have now been awarded in total since the launch in winter 2017 of Leighton-Linslade Town Council’s Youth Promise Grant fund, ranging from £2,270 up to £30,000 and all groups have until March 31, 2019 to deliver their activities.

1st Leighton Buzzard Scouts, Leighton Buzzard Fire Cadets and Leighton Buzzard Canoe Club are the last organisations to receive grants.

Cllr Steve Cotter, chairman of the Cultural and Economic Services Committee overseeing the fund, said: “No grant money is left to allocate. I am delighted that we have successfully allocated the £150,000 to worthy local organisations who work very hard to make sure our young people have positive activities to engage with.”

The last three applications were considered by committee on October 15. The awards were reduced to 32.67% each of the remaining funds so that all three applicants would get something.

“Awards have been considered on a ‘first come; first served’ basis so the grant pot has been reducing. Committee considered all three applicants were worthy of receiving funding,” continued Cllr Cotter.

“All three said they would accept a reduced grant so we set to and ensured their targets remained viable before finally awarding the funds.”

Applicants have financially invested too, a minimum of 10% of their grant activity costs, with one group investing 14.2% to ensure they secured a grant.

All recipients had to have been in existence for a minimum of two years as the investment aimed to support existing dedicated organisations who need a bit more support to help expand their activities, improve the quality of what they do, develop capacity to deliver and to increase membership where viable.

These four aims were embedded in the application criteria and whilst not all applicants had to respond to all four aims, many of them did and will work to achieve their delivery targets to these ends.

Cllr Cotter added: “Committee very much looks forward to seeing the results of our investment.”