Decision details

The Committee gave consideration to a report updating Members on Round 8 (2026/27) of the Council’s Strategic Events and Festivals Fund (SEF). 

The report provided details of the applications submitted and the applications recommended to receive funding and sought Members’ agreement to allocate a minimum of £90,000 funding to allow for a SEF Round 9 in 2027/28.

Decision

The Policy and Resources Committee agreed –

1.    to the award of eligible SEF Round 8 grants amounting to £104,500 as detailed in Table 1;

2.    that any SEF Round 8 grant offer be formally issued upon confirmation from the event organisation that the event is confirmed as going ahead, match funding is in place, and the event still meets the SEF Round 8 criteria;

3.    to continue delegation of powers to the Executive Director with responsibility for Development and Economic Growth to allow any subsequent amendment to existing grant requests due to changes to the event/event budget. If there was a reduction in the final event costs that would result in delivery of a profit of more than £10,000 (all of which must be reinvested to future events) to the organisation and that this was sustained over a 3-year period, the final retention (10%) would not be paid out on the third year of the grant;

4.    to a delegation of powers to the Executive Director with responsibility for Development and Economic Growth in consultation with the Leader and Depute Leaders, to allow resources to be reallocated to other events should a funded project no longer require funding;

5.    to recommend to Council that as part of the budget in February 2026, that they agree a minimum of £90,000 base funding for Strategic Events and Festivals in order that the application process can commence for Round 9 (2027/28); and

6.    to recommend to Council that any underspend from SEF Round 7 (2025/26) is earmarked and used to augment a future SEF round.

(Reference: Report by Executive Director with responsibility for Development and Economic Growth dated 8 December 2025, submitted)