Lower North Belfast is lagging well behind other parts of the city in receiving community grants due to a lack of expertise in applications, a local councillor has claimed.
At Belfast City Council ’s meeting of its People and Communities Committee this week, DUP Castle Councillor Fred Cobain said that out of almost a million spent by the council on community grants in the 20/21 year throughout the city, Lower North Belfast received only £9,000.
He said groups in other parts of the city had developed a “professional” strategy to claim community grants, which was leaving Lower North Belfast behind, and called upon the council to support these overlooked groups.
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Elected members were discussing an update of the Community Provision Funding programme, how grants had been allocated on a geographic basis previously, and “issues around enhancing the capacity to apply for, and be successful in availing of, these grants.”
Councillor Cobain told the chamber: “All of these groups I am sure deserve what they are getting. They are all very professional, and clearly have cohesion in their community.
“The point I want to make is that we as a committee make sure that all communities have the same opportunity to access grants. My biggest difficulty is that Lower North Belfast, out of the million, we got nine thousand pounds. For the whole of the Lower North - nine thousand for community capacity in that area.
“And it is not specific to this area, I am sure there are other groups that are suffering from the same lack of publicity. As a council and committee we should be looking forward to putting in place a scheme that lists these groups and brings them up to a level where they can make applications for funding.”
He added: “There is no way in Lower North Belfast the groups there are ever going to get themselves to a level where they can compete with more professional groups. The open call is fine, and is the proper way to do things, but it does favour those groups that are organised, and disadvantages those that are not.
“And I think the council should make a special case that groups or individuals in these areas are given all the help and support they need. Lower North Belfast can tick all the boxes, but it doesn’t matter if we are holding special media or social media events, we are not getting to the people who need to be got, people who are completely off the scale.”
Sinn Féin Councillor Micheal Donnelly said: “I think it’s agreed around the table that we want to build capacity around all groups no matter where they are from all four corners of Belfast. As an observation from my day job as a community development worker, we now live in a world where people headhunt people for their management committees who are good at writing reports.
“We are seeing more and more involvement from consultants who are writing applications. So I do take on board it is sometimes an unfair advantage for groups who don’t have the capacity to bring someone in and pay a thousand pounds for someone to come in, or to headhunt someone who can come into their management committee and write an application.”
Sinn Féin Councillor Steven Corr said: “I represent a part of West Belfast that is very successful with a community sector that has grown out of necessity over decades. We cannot penalise people who are good and successful at making applications.”
He added: “The least we should all be doing here is making sure the groups get out of the traps and know when there is any funding.”
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