Decision Details

Nicole Rickard

Head of Communities

nicole.rickard@eastsuffolk.gov.uk

That it be recommended to Full Council:

1. That it be agreed to continue to support and enable the Community Partnership Board and the eight Community Partnerships (one for each of the areas shown on the map at Appendix A to report ES/1322) until the end of March 2027.

2. That it be agreed to continue to support the Enabling Communities Budgets at the current level (£7,500 per Councillor) until the end of March 2027. 

 3. That £1,064,000 funding per annum be committed for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years from New Homes Bonus, and to fund at a similar level for the following two years subject to the funding being available. 

 4. That the purpose, remit, governance and structure of Community Partnerships in East Suffolk, as set out in the report, be endorsed and that the impact of the Community Partnerships be reviewed annually through an annual monitoring report.

The proposals to continue to operate, resource and fund the 
Community Partnerships were based on the evidence of impact in the first three and a half years, albeit during the Covid restrictions, feedback from the Peer Challenge and the opportunities that the Community Partnerships provide for co-ordinated activity to address both local challenges and those facing the whole of the district including the cost of living crisis.

Continue the Community Partnership Board, Community Partnerships and Enabling Communities Budgets but invest a reduced amount of funding and resources than those laid out in the report.

Discontinue Community Partnerships and identify an alternative way/ways for the Council to develop solutions to local issues in collaboration with their communities.