In 2021 Enfield Council established the Meridian Water Community Chest which promised to transform the lives of residents in Edmonton. Four years on, it Is unclear what has happened to £650,000 of the fund that was supposed to be distributed to benefit the community. Despite the Council’s commitment to regular grant rounds and reporting, the lack of clarity and action raises questions about what has happened to this substantial sum of money, and why it has not been used to support the local community as intended.
The Meridian Water Community Chest is a pot of money made up of contributions from developers delivering Enfield Council’s £6 billion regeneration of Meridian Water. In July 2021, Enfield Council’s Cabinet agreed this money would be distributed to communities in the three Edmonton Wards by means of a grant funding programme. The aim was that organisations and local groups could apply for funding to address a community need in their area.
The Council said the Meridian Water Community Chest would help to meet two key objectives, namely (i) to ensure local people are the primary beneficiaries of the Council’s £6 billion regeneration of Meridian Water and (ii) to lift Edmonton out of the top 10% most deprived Wards.
In 2021, the fund contained £960,000 and in March 2022, Enfield Council awarded £317,000 to projects serving communities in Edmonton. They said the next round of bids would be announced in Autumn 2022, but this round never took place.
The Council’s website now says that the decision regarding the second round of community chest bids has been ‘abandoned’.
This begs the question, what has happened to the remaining £650,000 Community Chest money? The scheme was approved in 2021 on the basis that ‘Grant rounds will be run, inviting applications, twice a year and assessed for delivery of targets after the first year as part of the annual review’. However, four years later only one grant round has taken place, as opposed to the eight or so originally committed to.
Furthermore, the approval of the scheme says that ‘… in terms of outputs, outcomes, value for money and expenditure, an annual report will be published’. However, we could not locate any annual reporting, so who is ensuring that the grant money is allocated appropriately and effectively?
As it stands, since 2021 the Council appears to have had at least £650,000 of money sitting in its accounts that should have been distributed to help the local community in Edmonton. When the Community Chest was originally approved by the Council it was envisaged that ‘Future funds from other contractors, developers and partners will be pooled from receipts collected into a rolling pot which will increase in future years as a result of new development at Meridian Water.’ This suggests the Community Chest pot should now be larger than £650,000, but it is impossible to know by how much due to the lack of transparency and oversight.
This raises concerns about the effectiveness and accountability of the Meridian Water Community Chest. The local community deserves to know where the money has gone and how it will be used to benefit Edmonton. Transparency and regular updates are essential to ensure that the funds are allocated appropriately and effectively. It’s time for the Council to provide answers and take the necessary steps to fulfil their commitments to the community.
Better Homes Enfield 