Criteria

Your event/s must:

• Take place within Bridgwater Town Centre
• Bring footfall to Bridgwater Town Centre
• Promote Bridgwater Town as a vibrant and attractive place to live, work and visit
• Improve residents and visitors’ enjoyment of Bridgwater

Our priorities

• Somerset based organisations or if outside of the area, work must be partnered work with local organisation (we can help facilitate)
• new and innovative events
• Experienced event organisers
• Community engagement
• Events that promote good environmental practice
• Events that promote active travel
• Events that incorporate elements of the Celebration Mile https://bit.ly/4ah6e6S
• Organisers who exemplify best practice in :
  • access and inclusion for all
  • diversity
  • sustainability
   

Event organisers will need to demonstrate

• A fully planned event:
  • How many workshops/bands/exhibits/stalls/tickets etc?
  • What day, times? How long will your event last?
  • Who will you work with and how many of them?
  • Where will it take place?
  • Clear, defined and fully costed budget, itemising each cost eg.
    • Band no 1
    • Band no 2
    • Sound and Lighting
    • Security
    • Marketing
• They have the skills and capacity to deliver the event independently and effectively
  • Have you done this before? Provide evidence such as evaluation or press samples
    
  • What does/did success look like? Be specific and evidence beneficiaries
• A clear 3-month period between a decision panel and your event – do not incur any expenditure until you are in receipt of a formal grant agreement
• How the event complements and adds a new dimension to the existing programme of Bridgwater Events and Bridgwater Cultural Partners
• How this funding will expand and develop new audiences and how they will measure impact
• Public benefit outweighs any private gain
• The event will be well managed and that appropriate consideration has been given to the impact on and safety of local communities – to include:
  • Any possible impacts of noise, light, vibration, fumes and disruption on local communities and the environment
  • Waste management (including minimising visitor and trade waste) and managingrisk of spillages and surface damage to/on the local environment, including plans for cleaning up after an event and suitably restoring a site/location
  • Promotion of the use of recycled materials.
  • How the event will be publicised to draw in participants
  • An event management plan
   

Eligibility

To be eligible organisations must:

• Be a constituted organisation, charity or registered business
• Have a bank account in that name
• Hold Public Liability Insurance of at least £5 million per claim to cover the event
• Demonstrate the need for grant funding
• Applications for over £5000 must show how they have/will secure 10% external funding for their event and will not be solely reliant on funding from the Bridgwater Town Deal – this can be in kind or in cash however contributions in cash may be viewed more favourably.

The following are not eligible for funding:

• events that do not bring footfall to Bridgwater Town Centre
• events of a political nature
• events promoting a religious doctrine
• events that, in the opinion of the Council, may be viewed as offensive or defamatory
• capital projects such as building works
• retrospective funding for events – those that have already happened
• core costs that are not relevant to the project/event

These grants are competitive and our budget is small with the average amount granted being £3500.

Application process

1. All projects should enter an expression of interest via the online form
   https://forms.office.com/e/uVC43ueR2Z
2. You will be asked:
   a. To write an explanation of your event/s (no more than 50 words)
   b. Where and when you see the event/s being held
   c. The approximate cost of the event/s and how you propose to fund it
   d. Why you should be the event/s organiser (no more than 50 words)
3. Your expression of interest will be initially assessed by the Events and Outreach Manager on behalf of Somerset Council
4. The Events and Outreach Manager may
   a. contact you to discuss the proposal
   b. suggest alterations
   c. offer support
   d. take the proposal to the Bridgwater Cultural Partners.
5. Should your expression of interest meet with approval, you will be invited to apply for a grant and you will receive a link to the full application form along with a deadline
6. You will need to provide evidence of the following:
   a. A copy of your constitution or business profile
   b. A full budget breakdown
   c. Last 3 Months of bank statements
   d. 2 quotes on purchases for items over £1,000
   e. A copy of your last full year accounts
   f. To identify all other grants and external funding that you have or intend to apply for to support the proposed event
   g. Public Liability Insurance
   h. Evidence of relevant licenses/permissions/policies inc road closure, safeguarding if applicable
   i. Risk Assessment
   j. Venue/location permission
7. On receipt of a complete application, the form will be evaluated by the Animating Bridgwater panel against the criteria and our priorities (set out above)
8. You should hear whether your application has been successful within 2-3 weeks of your deadline given with your application
9. If successful, applicants will be expected to sign and return an agreement detailing the terms and conditions of the grant along with communication guidance in terms of the funding.

Please use this event pack from Somerset Council to assist you – Event Organisers Guide

Expressions of interest can be entered at any time, but applications will follow deadlines to be found on the website.

VAT: Where you are unable to reclaim VAT this can be covered by the Town Deal eg. If the amount needed is £1200 including VAT, the amount requested should be £1200. This needs to be detailed within your budget and evidenced with the supply of invoices at your evaluation stage.

Town Deal support of the event through the events fund should be acknowledged in any publicity or information relating to the activity for which the funding has been awarded by displaying the logo on all event publicity. This will be sent to you, together with guidance on its use, should your application be successful.

Subsidy Control Act (“SCA”) requirements: For the Council to lawfully provide grants the requirements of the SCA must be met and for this reason the grant agreement at clause 12 includes
an assessment of all Animating Bridgwater grants against the Subsidy Control Principles contained in the SCA. So long as you agree with Clause 12 and if successful in your application, sign the grant agreement, no further information will be required from you.

Depending on your situation and amount of grant we may make staged payments.

Your Event must take place no sooner than 3 months of decision panel and complete within 12 months, failing which the grant will automatically be withdrawn. All cancellations and delays must be promptly reported to the Events and Outreach Manager in writing and the Events & Outreach Manager will solely determine next steps including in the worst-case scenario repayment of Grant.

Post Event Evaluation

• After your event has taken place, you are required to submit an online report detailing:
  1. How allocated monies have been spent
  2. How the event met the selection criteria and priorities above
  3. What you plan to do in the future with your event
  4. The form must be submitted to us no later than four weeks after the event has taken place
  5. We will publish details of grant awards and may include information about funded activity in Town Deal publications. This may also be reported by Bridgwater Town Council and Somerset Council.

We aim to always comply with the General Data Protection Regulation; if you would like to know how we process your personal information, please refer to the Privacy Notice at https://www.somerset.gov.uk/finance-performance-and-legal/privacy-notices

For more information or any enquiries please contact: Jeremy James, Events and Outreach Manager events@bridgwater-tc.gov.uk