BOROUGH OF POOLE
GRANTS PANEL
22nd February 2005
Poole shopmobility , “ Wheels for freedom”
1. PURPOSE AND POLICY CONTEXT
2.1.The purpose of this report is to ask Members of Grants Panel to consider the application for grant funding by Poole shopmobility.
2. RECOMMENDATIONS
2.1.Members are asked to consider entering into a contract under standing order contract 21 with Poole shop mobility for the sum of £ 24,272 and referring their decision to the Portfolio holder Resources.
- Poole shopmobility “ Wheels for freedom”
3.1.Poole shopmobility have made a grant application for £ 32,352 (£ 29,952 net of the £ 2,400 rent paid back to the Borough of Poole for their premises)
3.2.The basis of the grant application is that other local Authorities in Dorset who part fund the service to be provided in their respective areas pay £ 96 per day for the service. Therefore, that charge provided over 312 days in Poole amounts to £ 29,952.
3.3.The Council provided a grant of £ 17,914 in 2004/5 which was a net grant of £ 15,514 after the organisation paid £ 2,400 to the Borough for the rent of their premises.
3.4.The Council rents premises to Shopmobility in the Dolphin centre car park. Property Services have indicated that the rent charged has not been reviewed for some time and the based on the limited information that they hold could currently be in excess of £ 4,000. Therefore, it is reasonable to argue that there is a benefit of at least £ 1,600 accruing to Shopmobility over and above the grant they receive from the Council.
3.5.Poole Shopmobility provides the loan of scooters or powerchairs for one day or longer periods, visits to places of interest or special events, the Beach buggy service on Sandbanks beach( this is funded via the contract they won on a competitive basis to administer the hire of deck chairs and wind breaks) and a door to door service picking up disabled people from their homes as well as special events. The autumn edition of the Poole shopmobility Gazette offers a special events programme including visits to West Quay, Weymouth, Fleet Air arm museum and Haskins Garden centre. The cost to each individual for the day trip including the provision of a scooter if £ 5. The existing contract between Shop mobility and the Council states the description of the services to be provided as,
“… Shop mobility’s core business is the provision of mobility aids for disabled people visiting the town centre.
A range of mobility equipment is offered to enable choice for individual disabled people to use equipment which is personally suitable for them e.g. manual wheelchairs, electric wheelchairs and electric scooters.
Poole mobility will work in partnership with other organisations to meet the mobility needs of disabled people.”
3.6.The grant application states that 1000 of their users live in Poole.
3.7.There have been a number of meetings with the Chair of the organisation as well as the organisation’s Trustees and considerable correspondence concerning the application. Service users have also contacted the Council following advice from shop mobility that they intended to close the service if they did not receive the funding they applied for.
- Budget forecast for shopmobility 2005/6.
4.1.Appendix 1 is the budget forecast for Shop Mobility for the financial year 2005/6. This shows that if the Council maintains the current level of funding and Shopmobility maintains the current range of services and expenditure they would operate at a deficit of £ 13,827 ( i.e. the service would close)
4.2.The accounts show that there is a loss generated on the Special events and Door to Door service amounting to £8,466. The organisation has been asked to clarify this loss but they have been unable to do so although they agree the loss is generated.
4.3.The organisation has asked whether there is any merit in looking at amalgamating their door to door service with other services in Poole such as the Dial a bus service operated by Poole CVS. The administrative fee for that service is £ 900 a year and at this time officers would not recommend pursuing that course of action although it is something that could be considered over the next twelve months.
- Funding shopmobility service
5.1.It is reasonable to increase the grant offered by the Council by 2% to reflect inflation. This would increase the gross grant to £ 18,272. Property services have confirmed they will not be recommending an increase in the rent charged and thus the net grant will amount to £ 15,872.
5.2.Discussions with the Head of Adult Social services commissioning have led to the offer of an additional £ 6,000 to fund the contract with Shopmobility. This will , of course, have to be agreed with the Portfolio holder for Social services. If this was agreed the gross grant the Council would offer would increase to £ 24,272 compared to a grant application request of £ 32,352. This represents a reduction of £ 8,080 from the amount requested. Undoubtedly this will impact on the ability of the organisation to operate the special events and door to door service.
5.3.Offers have already been made to the organisation to help them access funding sources such as sponsorship in the Town centre and the new funding worker at PCVS will also be able to help in that regard.
5.4.For obvious reasons Shop mobility have not been consulted over the level of grant to be offered.
Simon Hendey
Head of Housing and Community Services
22nd February 2005
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APPENDIX 1
“Wheels for Freedom”
PROJECTION FOR 2005/06
INCOME – Poole only
Col 1Col 2
Council Grant
Unchanged
£££
Borough of Poole Grant (charge) 29,952 15,414
Subscriptions
Full 14,000
Day 2,250
Longer Loan 2,107
18,357 18,357
Charges:
Special Events 2,000
Door-to-Door 2,000
4,000 4,000
Other:
Donations 4,000
Fund-Raising (????) 1,000
Various 3,000
8,000 8,000
Rentals – Out N’ About 10,000 10,000
70,309 55,771
Scooters Direct 3,600 3,600
Transfer of Net profit (60%) 73,909 59,371
Col 1 Col 2
Income B/F 73,909 59,371
EXPENSES – Poole only
£ £ £
Salaries + Ross (GM) 52% 10,000
NIC (11%) + 2 @ £13,320 26,640
And Pensions 36,640
Staff Exp 2,100
Vol Exp 1,600
Casual Labour 2,700
6,400
43,040 43,040
Special Events and Door-to-Door
Fuel 4,385
Insurance (Road vehicles) 3,102
Service Repairs 3,480
Mot/Licence 250
Expenses 1,251
12,466 12,466
Scooter/Power-chairs:
Service and Repair 3,353
Battery replacement 2,000
5,353 5,353
Admin:
Insurance 1,900
Office Supplies 4,450
Telecom 2,000
Gazette and Printing 1,965
PR 320
Other (Bath Charges and Audit) 1,704
12,339 12,339
73,198 73,198
£ 711 (£13,827)
COL 1 = With Required Council contribution
COL 2 = Council Grant unchanged
POOLE REVENUE ACCOUNT 2005/06
NOTES
- This projection is for Poole town Centre only. They do not include the Sandbanks beach-buggy service, which is set against income generated by the deckchair rental scheme, nor do they include services provided for other Dorset Local Authorities.
- Income assumes that the Poole Borough Council will accept our quotation for the service provided in Poole town centre. This is the same daily rate as charged to other Local Authorities in spite of Poole requiring five times as many scooters and Power-chairs. A Council grant at the same Net rate as 2004/05 would generate a deficit of £13,827.
3.As most of our Revenue Expenses are fixed overheads, a simple reduction of service would reduce our variable costs by less than the loss of income this course of action would involve.
4.Only 52% of General Manager’s salary is charged as an expense to the Poole town centre services as he is only employed to manage our other services.
5.Income and Expenditure exclude all capital.
6.Projection does not take account of inflation.
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