Background
Membership fees are collected to support Leeds Cycling Campaign to achieve its objectives:
- To promote cycling in the Leeds area
- To make Leeds a “better place in which to cycle”
- To encourage all cyclists to cycle with consideration for other people and to follow National Standards for cycling
- To engage with the local authority, relevant public bodies and elected representatives to develop and implement cycling strategies and increase public investment in cycling as a mode of transport.
Criteria
For a donation to be made to a third party or cause:
- There must be a clearly defined activity the money will be used for
- The activity must support at least one of the Campaign's objectives.
- The activity must be at least 50% within the Leeds City Council boundaries.
- The activity must be at least 50% related to cycling, e.g. new pathways aimed for walking and cycling.
- The activity should aim to improve the cycling experience.
- The activity should aim to improve cycling safety.
- The activity should not be in any way commercial or managed by a commercial organisation
Examples of eligible activities might include:
- Feasibility studies into new cycle paths of which at least 50% are located within Leeds City Council boundaries
- Improved bicycle parking provision
- Air quality studies for the purpose of identifying less polluted routes for cyclists to use
- Cycle education initiatives for drivers and cyclists
- Initiatives seeking to increase cycling levels amongst groups currently under-represented amongst cyclists.
Procedures for making donations to causes
All applications for funding shall be made in writing and be sponsored by at least one Committee member.
Applications shall detail:
- the purpose of the proposed funding
- how the funding relates to cycling in Leeds
- how the funding is likely to improve the local cycling experience and/or local cycling safety
- the amount of funding required and whether this is in the form of a one-off donation or a recurrent payment over a period of time
Applications for funding shall be circulated to the whole Committee at least 14 days before the next-scheduled Committee meeting.
The Chair or Secretary of the Campaign shall add the application to the agenda of a forthcoming meeting, scheduling sufficient time for discussion.
At the Committee meeting at which the application is scheduled to be discussed, Committee members shall have the opportunity to ask further questions about the application or challenge the assumptions on which it is based. After discussion Committee members may decide to:
- approve the proposal, in whole or in part
- reject the proposal outright
- postpone its decision until further information has been obtained
In approving a proposal the Committee shall have absolute discretion about the level of funding it chooses to allocate.
As a condition of its approving an application the Committee may require that the Campaign's support is acknowledged in any publicity issued by the receiving organisation regarding the funded project.
Payment of donations shall be made where possible by electronic transfer from the Campaign’s bank account into the account of the receiving body. All transactions shall be processed in accordance with the Campaign’s standard financial procedures.
A record of the Committee’s decision and the reasons for it shall be recorded in the minutes of the relevant Committee meeting and documents to support the audit trail shall be kept for a minimum of two years after the end of the financial year in which payment was made.
March 2020