Laganside Events Grant

Is it effective when only 5-10% of DSD’s £50,000 Laganside Community Activity fund was spent in last two years?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 26, 2012, 8:20 pm

| Readers 51

Nelson McCausland, Minister for Social Development, appeared before the Assembly’s Social Development Committee on Thursday 23 February. [Audio temporarily available on NI Assembly website, and should appear shortly on BBC Democracy Live.] In his opening statement, he explained about the decision to withdraw the non-essential Laganside Events Grant and pointed out that it only contributed 5-10% of many events’ budgets (as charted in a blog post last week). The minister explained that he’d no need to know where Finance Minister …

What has the Laganside Events Grant scheme been spent on?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 18, 2012, 9:15 am

| Readers 104

After an unexpected intervention on Thursday night, some of the data requested from the Department for Social Development was emailed to me at lunchtime on Friday. It covers the last three years of the Laganside Events Grant, specifying the organisations as well as the amounts they have received. In 2009/10, the largest grant was awarded to Belfast Festival At Queen’s which received 22,650. (This is the last year I remember the Spiegeltent being set up in Custom House Square as …

What Nelson takes away with one hand, Sammy can replace with the other

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 16, 2012, 7:20 pm

| Readers 36

This evening a combination of OFMDFM, DFP and DSD came together to announce that £200,000 unallocated after the January Monitoring round is being made available from DFP to extend the Laganside Events Grant for one further year. The Department of Finance & Personnel statement details two conditions on the funding being made available. (i) that DSD takes steps to ensure that only groups that are viable over the longer term are assisted; and (ii) that DSD and DCAL work together …

Freedom of Information – when the minister has access to the information the public can’t see

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 15, 2012, 4:26 pm

| Readers 71

Minister for Social Development Nelson McCausland rang into the Nolan show on Radio Ulster on Tuesday morning to respond to the debate around the cessation of the Laganside Events Grant scheme. He had figures – from across departments – at his finger tips to explain the public funding that was being granted to events. In particular, he was able to rattle off the different public funding streams for the Festival of Fools. My query into the DSD communications team seven …

DSD withdraw funding for Laganside Events

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 9, 2012, 12:23 pm

| Readers 235

Since the closure of the Laganside Corporation on 31 March 2007, the Department for Social Development has given out grants for events and community activities in the Laganside area of Belfast. The area includes the Cathedral Quarter as well as stretching our towards York Street, Corporation Street, the Sydenham bypass (but not including Titanic Quarter), Sirocco, Lanyon Place, St George’s Market, the Markets, the Gasworks and the banks of the Lagan. Back in 2007, the then minister Margaret Ritchie pointed …