Note Of The Sixth Meeting Of The Ofcom Community Radio Fund Panel Held at Riverside House, 2a Southwark Bridge Road, London on Wednesday 20th June 2007.

Chairman’s Introduction

1. The Chairman welcomed colleagues to the sixth meeting of the Ofcom Community Radio Fund Panel. Panel members Kevin Carey, Richard Hilton and Thomas Prag were present throughout. Ofcom support staff were also present throughout.

Minutes of the previous Meeting

2. The minutes of the Community Radio Fund Panel Meeting held on 18 January 2007 were agreed as an accurate record.

Matters Arising

3. The Chairman informed the Panel about his meeting with the Minister responsible for Community Radio, Sean Woodward MP, regarding the future direction of the Fund.

4. There were no further matters arising.

Community radio fund grant award applications

5. The Panel noted that fifty eight applications had been received requesting grants totalling £1,796,103.

6. The Panel noted that the fund available for the financial year was £500,000 and agreed that a substantial part of the finances would be allocated in this, the first round during the financial year 2007/08.

7. The Panel gave full and careful consideration to each application and awarded grants which amounted to a total of £304,625 to twenty two applicants. A total of thirty one applications were not awarded grants and five were deferred.

8. The Panel agreed that a statement summarising the Panel’s decisions to award the grants would be published in due course.

Draft Panel Response to ‘Future of Radio’ Community Radio Proposals

9. After discussion, the Panel agreed a number of key points it wished to make in response to the community radio proposals contained in the Future of Radio consultation.

Community Radio Fund awards January 2006: summary of grant reports

10. The Panel was provided with a summary of grant reports awarded in January 2006. Each recipient of a grant from the Fund was required to report back on how the grant was spent, a year after the grant was made.

Any other business

11. There was no other business.

Date of next meeting

12. It was agreed a meeting would be held on 26t September 2007 to discuss a response to the DCMS regarding the future direction of the Fund.

13. The date of the meeting to consider the next round of awards was scheduled for 30 January 2008.

August 2007