Delight as Morecambe festivals awarded funding after town council U-turn

Two Morecambe festivals will get funding after all following a dramatic U-turn by Morecambe Town Council.

Morecambe Pride and Vintage by the Sea both had their grant applications turned down by the town council last month.

But at a meeting on Thursday night, town councillors looked at their bids again, and decided to award the funding.

Morecambe Pride was given £7000 plus an additional £3000 has been set aside as a guarantee in case the event, to be held on July 30, incurs any losses.

Pride had initially bid for £12,000, then reduced the amount to £10,000 after the council rejected the application.

Vintage by the Sea was awarded the amount requested, of £12,000.

The vintage festival will take place on September 3 and 4.

Elena Jackson and Lauren Zawadzki, from co-organisers Deco Publique, are pictured with town councillors following the decision.

Beyond Radio was at Thursday night's extraordinary meeting at Morecambe Town Hall and we have all the reaction to the decision.

PRIDE

Robert Mee, chief executive officer of Out in the Bay and main organiser of Morecambe Pride, said: "This is absolutely brilliant for us. Morecambe Pride is definitely going ahead and I feel quite relieved."

Mr Mee said he was "quite shocked" that the initial bid had been turned down and that "at first" he'd been given no reasons for the original decision.

Morecambe Pride will take place on the Promenade on Saturday July 30.

LISTEN to Robert Mee from Morecambe Pride

VINTAGE BY THE SEA

Elena Jackson from Deco Publique said: "I'm really pleased that they've recognised the work that Vintage by the Sea does in Morecambe and the impact that the festival has on the town, the community, how many visitors we bring in.

"At the same time, I feel that it's unfortunate that (councillors) who don't appear to have as much understanding of how cultural regeneration works and what goes into producing a festival like this, have made us go through this particular experience to achieve what was essentially written in our grant application."

LISTEN to Elena Jackson and Lauren Zawadzki from Vintage

MORECAMBE TOWN COUNCIL

The decision to reject the bids from Pride and Vintage was made by the town council's festivals and events committee.

But a motion proposed by a group of town councillors (Cary Matthews, Paul Anderton, Jake Goodwin, Vicky Boyd-Power, Margaret Pattison, David Whitaker, Jim Pilling, Catherine Pilling, Paul Hart, Bill Jackson, Louise Stansfield and Phil Forster) called for a review of the decision.

Following Thursday night's decision to award the funding, Councillor Cary Matthews, leader of the town council, said: "I feel that Vintage and Pride are important for our town. I'm very pleased for both of the events."

LISTEN to Councillor Cary Matthews speaking after the decision

BACKGROUND

On June 1, the Morecambe Town Council festivals, sponsorship and events committee decided to reject the applications for funding by Morecambe Pride and Vintage by the sea.

The committee is made up of a group of town councillors who look at applications for cash by festival organisers to help run their events in the town. The money comes from Council tax payers in Morecambe.

Their meeting was attended by councillors Tricia Heath, June Ashworth and Patricia Clarke, and Paul Anderton as a non-voting member, as well as proper officer Luke Trevaskis who does not vote in any decision-making.

On Vintage-by-the-sea, the committee said: "the applicant had not included enough information to meet all of the criteria" and questioned the "management fees" which they said "seemed particularly high for a two-day event".

On Pride, the committee said that "the applicant had not included enough information to meet the requirement of self-sustainability", no information on "how the applicant intends to recognise the contribution of the council", and also noted a "management fee".

But then, the motion backed by 12 councillors called for a review due to "new information (that) has been presented which could reasonably result in a change of decision and it is proposed to consider these applications again".

Related story: Calls for Morecambe Town Council to reverse funding decision on Pride and Vintage festivals - Beyond Radio

Earlier this week, Councillor Tricia Heath, who was unable to attend Thursday night's meeting due to a personal commitment, made a statement.

She said: "Morecambe Town Council now has an extremely able officer who has proved he can organise great community festivals at far less cost to the taxpayer than some other operators. 

"If the chair of Morecambe Town Council, Labour and Lib Dem councillors now think these festivals warrant the grant requested, I will happily step down from the committee, as I don't agree with tax payers' money going to pay wages for commercial business ventures, and I am sure most residents would agree."

In response, Deco Publique said that "the budget for payments for Vintage by the Sea festival is at the lowest end of (the) scale given all the freelance professionals we employ to deliver this event have at least three years' experience if not five or 10 years - mindful of costs which are taken from these fees before take home pay." 

They also said that Vintage by the sea was a not-for-profit event.

Robert Mee said in response that Morecambe Pride was a registered charity, not a commercial venture.

Thursday night's meeting began with a statement from Joanne Ainscough, a member of the public, who spoke in favour of a grant being awarded to Morecambe Pride. She said "supporting events such as Morecambe Pride should be one of the top priorities of the town council".

After this, there was confusion in the town hall chamber as Councillor Cary Matthews proposed that the press and public be asked to leave for the debate about whether to award the two grants.

There was initially no 'seconder' for this proposal, as councillors asked why the item should be "exempt".

Councillor Paul Hart said: "I think they should be here while we make this decision."

Luke Trevaskis explained that the council would "risk breaching GDPR (data protection laws)" by not excluding the press and public, as the debate could include "third party financial and commercial information".

Town councillors then voted by a majority to exclude the press and public.

Councillors then had separate private meetings with the organisers of Vintage by the sea, and Morecambe Pride, while members of the public and the media waited in the town hall foyer. This process took the best part of two hours.

Everyone was then called back into the chamber for the public announcement of the final decisions.

Also at last night's meeting, councillors agreed to review the membership of the festivals and events committee, and to defer a decision on who will be on the committee to the next meeting.