My response to Deputy Leaders claims over future funding for events

My response to Deputy Leaders claims over future funding for events

Both Councillors Ian Ward and Sir Albert Bore’s obsessive search for what they term a “financial black hole” has hit the headlines today : Budget cuts could put Birmingham public events at risk says council deputy leader - http://www.birminghammail.net/news/birmingham-news/2012/06/21/budget-cuts-could-put-birmingham-public-events-at-risk-says-council-deputy-leader-97319-31227582/#ixzz1yS5zmh7v

Before I deal with the meaty issue of these claimed budget cuts, can we just sort out the use of the phrase “financial black hole”. Councillors Ian Ward and Sir Albert Bore keep using this phrase, but in completely the wrong context. A quick google of the term, explains that a “financial black hole” is defined as “something that consumes alot of money, but with very little return”. This is completely different to what our Leader and Deputy Leader means.

Councillors Ian Ward and Sir Albert Bore have been repeatedly claiming that the financial figures for both last years and this year’s budget do not add up and that somewhere there is a financial short fall. Despite being in power for four weeks, they have so far failed to show where the financial figures don’t stack up.

Coming to the issue of the funding of these events. Both Councillors are correct that there is a reduction in funding for community events, but they are wrong that this funding cannot be bridged by private sponsorship during this financial year.

To help provide some background as to the events the City Council provided grants for, I create the below table for the financial year 2011/12.

Event	Grant given to event in 2011/12	Total cost to organisers using Council’s event team. The event organiser would have to pay the Council the difference between this figure and the grant provided. Most organisers raise this money through sponsorship
St George's Day	20,000	20,000
Vaisakhi	20,000	91,000
Pride	20,000	30,000
Lord Mayor's Show	20,000	20,000
Armed Forces Day	5,000	5,000
Birmingham Carnival	54,000	54,000
Eid Mela	20,000	69,200
ArtsFest – this included the FlowerFest	140,000	168,082
Trafalgar Day	2,000	2,000
Pype Hayes fire works	10,000	20,000
Diwali	20,000	61,080
Christmas Parade	50,000	50,500
Holocaust Memorial Day	5,000	5,000
Chinese New Year	9,000	9,000
St. Patrick’s Day Parade	20,000	42,180

All the events above cost alot more to organise than the above figures show. All the figures above show are just the cost of hiring the Councils event team and facilities.

To explain the figures further, let’s look at St Patricks Day Parade. The cost of all the road closures, the hire of Council fencing along the route, cost of Council security, etc, was £42,180.

The Council gave the St Patricks Day Parade community a £20,000 grant. So the committee had to find the difference of £22,180. They found this money through fund raising and sponsorship.

So as you can see for the majority of these events, the Council grant is only a part of their overall funding.

Coming to the claim by Councillors Ian Ward and Sir Albert Bore that the cost of the events for the year 2012/13 does not add up. They are correct that there is a reduction in funding for community events. They are wrong that this funding cannot be bridged by private sponsorship during this financial year.

The previous administration had to make some difficult decisions for the 2011/12 budget. Our priority was protecting the more vulnerable members of our society and as a result budgets such as events had to take a greater amount of financial savings. No one takes any pleasure in reducing budgets, lest of all me.

As the Cabinet member for Leisure, Sport and Culture I argued to be given time to find private sponsorship for these community events. In the short term, the grants would be maintained by finding the money within the portfolio budget. Within a short timescale of less than 6 months, an agency would be identified who would match private sponsors to each of these events. The amount of sponsorship we are looking for is relatively small compared to the sponsorship levels events up and down Britain get.

If you google “sponsorship agency uk” you will finds scores of agencies that find sponsorship deals.

I tasked my officers with kick starting a procurement exercise to identify the agency who would be able to find sponsors for our numerous community events. There are numerous agencies in the private sector who match up sponsors to events.

Before the start of the election campaign in April, my officers were indicating that they were getting close to kicking off this procurement exercise. If Councillor Ian Ward is now saying the officers can’t do this procurement, then maybe he should look at his own abilities to manage and motivate officers, before taking aim at others.