UKSPF 2023/4 Quarter 3 Update:
In December 2023 the Department for Levelling up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) confirmed that the Year 2 six-month progress report was approved and are happy with our approach to spending this year. Officers are continuing to work and complete projects for year 2, with new project leads identified for year 3 expenditure, which included a largest proportion of our UKSPF allocation.
Rural Fund: Following the allocation of £184,370 towards four successful bids for rural funding in 2023/24 a further 21 submissions have been received for funding in 2024/25. The panel conducted a review of submissions in February and awarded the remaining £359,920 to 12 bids from across the borough. These projects will commence in April 2024 with progress closely monitored by officers to ensure all are completed by March 2025.
Year 2 projects and an update:
|
Intervention |
Project |
Detail |
2023/24 budget |
Amount spent: |
£ Committed |
Q3 Update: |
|
E6: Local arts, cultural, heritage & creative activities |
Project A - Building Pride in Place through promotion of the Town Centre and Events. |
Creative communities fund for local organisations and groups to support events |
£35,830 |
£23,000 |
£6,500 |
Applications for Round 4 closed in November 2023. We received 17 applications and made 8 awards. |
|
Literature Festival |
£15,000 |
£16,077 |
£0 |
The event was successfully held in October and saw large audiences of all ages coming along to enjoy the wide variety of authors and workshops using town centre venues including Maidstone Museum, Archbishops’ Palace and All Saints Church. The overspend has been funded from the advertising budget |
||
|
Iggy Sculpture Trail |
£60,000 |
£35,910 |
£25,100 |
The trail will be supported by a digital trail app which is being populated with information, this is expected to launch from April 2024 |
||
|
£2,751 |
£3083 |
£0 |
Purchases of a set of temporary exhibition walls, and 2 microphones have been completed. An underspend in Year 1 has been carried over for purchases this year |
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|
Arts Carnival |
£20,000 |
£20,000 |
£0 |
The Arts Carnival, which was rearranged due to adverse weather, took place on Saturday 9th September 2023. The next Carnival will take place in 2025. |
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|
Partner for Elmer 2 |
£40,000 |
£40,000 |
£0 |
Contract has been signed with the launch expected Summer 2024. |
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|
Project C- A Community Arts Hub & Maker Space |
Feasibility Study |
£5,000 |
£5,000 |
£0 |
The final amended feasibility report was received in August with an MBC working group set up to action the results of the report. A separate report dealing with the outcome is on this agenda. |
|
|
E8: Campaigns to encourage visits and exploring of local area |
Project A - Building Pride in Place through promotion of the Town Centre and Events. |
Advertising budget to promote events across all channels |
£15,000 |
£8,440 |
£1,012 |
Advertising budget has been used to promote events throughout the autumn and will be used further with the Lunar events in the new year. |
|
Borough Insight Events and Town centre focussed |
£30,000 |
£30,000 |
£0 |
This was spent on the Autumn edition of the magazine which was delivered to residents from October 2023. |
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|
Promotional video for business and events in TC |
£5,000 |
£5,000 |
£0 |
This video promoted the use of UKSPF funds to support the Town Centre over the first two years of funding and is now available online |
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|
E9: Impactful Volunteering and/or Social action Projects |
Project B- A Safe and Attractive Town Centre achieved through Greening and Lighting |
An externally commissioned green Volunteering Project to Improve Town Centre Green Spaces, Increase Volunteering and Improve Wellbeing. |
£60,000 |
£45,000 |
£15,000 |
Five sites have been worked with throughout 2023/24 with 25 volunteers involved at 59 events. The sites are Maidstone Community Support Centre, Trinity House, Brenchley Gardens, Fairmeadow and planters in the Town Centre. |
|
Management Overheads |
£9,897 |
£7,423 |
£2,474 |
|
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|
Total: |
£298,478 |
£238,933 |
£50,086 |
. |
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|
£289,019 |
|
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