Bedford council to return £460k of grant cash to the government - because no one applied for it

Last week’s Rural Affairs Committee (April 3) heard that the council can’t decide whether to grant funding if no one asks.

The committee was told the council has been awarded another year of funding for both the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the Rural England Prosperity Fund.

But councillor Jim Weir (Conservative. Great Denham) pointed out that £466,000 (46 per cent) from the last round of funding wasn’t allocated.

The report presented to the committee also showed that two Rural England Prosperity Fund categories didn’t allocate any funding.

These were for Visitor Economy and Capital Grants.

Councillor Jonathan Abbott (Lib Dem, Clapham and Oakley) asked why funding wasn’t granted under these categories.

“Is that money available to roll over to the new fund?” he asked.

Ellie Karklas, manager for economic growth and development, said: “Unfortunately, we can’t carry over the funding.

“We talked to people, and they said that these were the categories that were needed.

“We received some inquiries from some people and we said it wasn’t possible and then we changed the categories and went back to them.

[But] they haven’t submitted their application form.

“Unfortunately, we can only change the categories so many times to get the money spent,” she said.

Councillor Abbott said it “pains” him to give money back to the government which could have gone out to the borough’s communities.

“What can we, as rural councillors, do to promote this more with the next round of funding so we don’t have to give money back to the government?” he asked.

Ms Karklas said councillors will be notified once the funding schemes have been officially launched.

“If you’ve got anybody who’s asking anything [about funding], even if you’re not sure, all I ask is you email us.

“We will do our best to find a way [to grant funding].

“Anybody who’s thinking, ‘oh we need to find some money’, even if you’re not sure, just send it to us and we’ll either say yes or no.

“But if we don’t get them, we can’t say yes or no,” she said.

More information on grants for borough communities can be found on the council’s website.