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DERBYSHIRE CRICKET BOARD Club Development – General Information |
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DERBYSHIRE CRICKET BOARD Club Development – General Information |
            
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Sport England’s £50 million “Inspired Facilities” programme is now open. The fund is ideal for clubs / other organisations which want to refurbish or upgrade their facilities; or convert an existing building into a venue suitable for sport and accessible to the whole community. Sport England has pulled together a catalogue of typical facility developments and improvements that clubs etc might want to move forward. The improvements are grouped into five areas: · Building modernisation · Outdoor sports lighting · Outdoor sports surfaces and AdiZones · Modular buildings · Sports equipment Community and voluntary organisations and parish and town councils can apply for grants worth between £20,000 and £50,000. At least 70% of the funding available is set aside for these groups. Local authorities, statutory organisations, and education establishments can apply for grants between £20,000 and £150,000. Sport England detail that £150,000 grants will be exceptional. Sport England would prefer community and voluntary organisations and parish and town councils to have partnership funding, however they will not rule out applications if they do not have any. Local authorities, schools or educational establishments, and other statutory bodies should provide pound-for-pound partnership funding. If one of the groups benefiting from the planned project is disadvantaged young people aged under 18, you can apply for additional funding from the Thomas Cook Children’s Charity. There will be 4 rounds for Sport England’s Inspired Facilities programme, with each round awarding up to £10 million. The dates for the first three funding rounds are: Round 1 1st August to 28th September 2011 Round 2 1st February 2012 to 2nd April 2012 Round 3 23rd July 2012 to 17th September 2012 Rounds 4 and 5 will take place in 2013/14. Further information about this programme can be found via the following link to Sport England’s dedicated site detailing the fund. http://inspiredfacilities.sportengland.org/ 2) Further information, hints and tips
IMPORTANT The workshop covered how applications will be assessed. There are four key areas of the application form which will be scored. Each of these key areas has been given equal weighting. I therefore strongly recommend that anyone applying to the fund focuses very carefully on these sections: 1) Need. Detail in the application what the need is for your project. 2) Community Involvement. Projects will display the Inspire Logo. Sport England want to know how you have involved the community. 3) Impact. Sport England want to know how the project will keep users coming or bring in new people. Applications do not have to “grow” participation. Projects will be funded where participation is sustained. 4) Sustainability. They want to know how the project will continue to deliver sport. They advised that monitoring would not be onerous; however they will want to know about the number of visits to the project, twice yearly for 5 years. Further help / advice is available from Sport England, and their website now has lots of useful information on it. The Funding Helpline will be open Monday 8:00am to 9:00pm, Tuesday to Thursday 8:00am to 6:00pm, and Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm. Telephone 08458 508508. http://inspiredfacilities.sportengland.org/
We have recently received some information from Dave Leighton, The ECB Club Programmes Manager regarding the benefits of becoming a Community Amateur Sport Club (CASC) as follows, together with additional information together with information flyers which you can access at the foot of this article. "Over the past 2 months we have been working with Sport England, CCPR and Just Giving to establish further benefits for our Cricket Clubs. I am delighted to be able to forward to you the fruits of our labours to date following a national launch at Lord's in which many Governing Bodies of sport and charities attended along with the Minister for Sport and Chief Executives of Sport England, CCPR and Just Giving. Mike Gatting spoke at the launch and cricket is ideally placed to promote the attached benefits to our clubs. At present cricket has 1068 Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASC) currently growing at approx 3 clubs a month. This is the largest number of CASCs for any Governing Body of Sport. The ECB are keen to see this number grow if it suits the needs of the individual clubs. There are many advantages to our clubs not least of which is Mandatory Rate relief of 80% and in the current financial climate and with Local Authorities being sqeezed it is perhaps an important point to make. The second major reason is that CASC clubs can claim Gift Aid on all donations and fundraising which currently at 28p in the pound is a significant income stream. Only 10% of CASC clubs are currently accessing the gift aid primarily because in the past there was apathy, it was not at the forefront of club priorities or thoughts, there was a fee to pay and it was seen as bureaucratic or too much administration. Well, we have resolved all of this to make it 'FREE OF CHARGE', and a simple online application which creates more opportunity for people to donate no matter where they live (or indeed which country they live in). This should result in more fundraising/donations and therefore more gift aid for your cricket club. I have put together some support resources for you all to use and would ask that you promote this within your club if appropriate PLEASE NOTE BELOW:
This really is a great opportunity. I will also have it put on the ECB website ASAP. Have a look at http://charities.justgiving.com/justgiving-for-sports-clubs/ for further information and to view the DVD footage." Dave Leighton : Club Programmes Manager England and Wales Cricket Board : C/O County Cricket Ground, Old Trafford, Manchester, M16 0PX
Whittington Wanderers CC- CASC saved the Club "I am treasurer of Whittington Wanderers Cricket club in Chesterfield. Becoming a CASC has saved the club! We became CASC in June 2007. It was in fact a member of Chesterfield Borough Council that gave me the information, after I had complained about the level of rates, our rates bill was over £1000. After some paperwork, and becoming CASC that has been reduced by 80% to less than £200, the saving has allowed the cricket club to continue. The reduction on our rates bill has been the biggest saving so far. With regard to CASC, it is important to stress to clubs that they cannot claim relief on subscriptions however, what I have done is to leave subscription levels at the same amount, but ask tax paying members to make a donation to the club, when paying their subs. This donation is therefore gift aided and we collect the relief yearly. All clubs should be doing this to ensure the future of cricket. There are a few hoops to jump through, but nothing too onerous. It also reminds clubs to become part of the community and encourage younger players to come along and have a go." Tom Henderson – Treasurer, Whittington Wanderers CC
Insurance - is your Club fully covered At the foot of this article are links to the latest insurance information from Marshall Wooldridge, Extra Cover, the Official Insurance Scheme for The ECB. In the light of many previous challenges and recent flood damage faced by cricket clubs the ECB are keen to ensure that all affiliated clubs are adequately insured and at the best available rates. With this in mind please read below and attached information. Cricket clubs will/may have their own insurance arrangements but the ECB wish to advise all clubs to check their current arrangements with their insurance company are adequate for todays needs. Public Liability Insurance covers the Legal Liability of the Club to pay compensation to members of the public where bodily injury or damage to their property is caused in connection with club activities. Without this the cover clubs would be faced with the cost of the award of damages itself. Members of the Club personally stand to lose their home and assets, so why take the risk? It is a requirement of ECB that all clubs transact this important cover. Directors and Officers Liability Insurance provide the directors, officers and trustees of the club with protection against civil or criminal lawsuits and regulatory proceedings. Without this cover members are placing their personal assets at risk. The cover provides a pool of money that can be drawn on to fund defence and settlement costs and pay for the costs of legal representation at investigations. Personal Accident cover provides set benefits to all members of the club and whilst serious injuries are thankfully very rare there have been occasions where a player or official have suffered serious damage to their eyesight and even fatal accident. Self-Employed and other Members who do not benefit from a workplace sickness scheme should ensure that any personal accident/sickness insurance they have arranged individually includes the playing of Club Cricket The increasing trend of large Arson, Theft and Weather related claims makes it more important than ever to ensure your sums insured are adequate. Under-Insurance will lead to the total sum insured being insufficient to meet the costs of rebuilding and replacing contents/ground machinery. Ultimately this may lead to the demise of the club
Development in Cricket Club business rates
The cost of business rates has long been an issue for cricket clubs but some help has been available:- *Some Local Authorities have granted discretionary relief which may have been as high as 100% in some cases. *Clubs which are registered as CASC's are given 80% mandatory relief which costs the Local Authority nothing since it is borne out of Central Government resources. There have been two recent developments which may increase the business rates paid by a cricket club:- *There have been instances where Local Authorities have removed discretionary rate relief. *A business rate review is being undertaken by Local Authorities with new rating values applying from April 2010. Every club which is liable to pay rates should have received notice of the new rating value. These developments have the potential to significantly increase rates bills. We would like to gauge whether as a result there will be a significant increase in rates costs for the Recreational Game nationally. Please e-mail dave.leighton@ecb.co.uk with details if your club is facing major changes in its rates bill for 2010 as a consequence of either of the above.
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