EVENTS FUNDING FOR THANET AGREED

Broadstairs, Margate and Ramsgate are each to receive £30,000 in funding for events for the forthcoming year, with community and voluntary groups also able to bid for money.

The council set aside a total of £165,000 in this year’s budget to support events throughout Thanet. Of this, £50,000 is being used by the council to meet the costs of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the Olympic Torch Relay, along with any other events which the council needs to manage.

The amount given to Broadstairs and St. Peter’s Town Council includes the contribution that the council usually makes to both Folk Week and the Dickens Festival. Both town councils have been asked to match fund this amount.

This leaves £25,000, which will be available to local community and voluntary groups across the rest of Thanet to bid for events sponsorship from the council. Strict criteria will be applied to applications. This will include:

• Generating money to support local businesses and traders and contributing to the visitor economy
• Supporting either sport, health or well-bring, culture arts or music or the area’s heritage
• Providing an event that is family friendly and will generate an audience

The bids will be then assessed by a cross party panel of councillors, advised by council officers, who will make the final decision on how to allocate the money.

Cllr. Iris Johnston, Cabinet Member for Community Services, said: “Events play a crucial role in Thanet and that’s why we ensured that we had funding in place to support them. We want to make sure that each of Thanet’s towns has the same amount of money to put on events during the year, so that we have a good spread of activity across the area for both visitors and residents. It’s already going to be a busy year for Thanet, with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Torch, which will spend longer in our area than anywhere else in Kent. Thanks to this funding, we look forward to having a wide variety of events to support these two special celebrations.”