CORNWALL Council has launched a £608,000 local devolution fund to enable community network panels to assist devolution and partnership working within their areas.

The fund’s primary aim is to help support the council’s devolution programme, through which assets and services are being devolved to communities, via local councils or community groups, so that they can be maintained for the future and help the council achieve budget savings.

The community network panels, which consist of the area’s Cornwall councillors and town and parish councils, can use the fund to progress or complete the handover of devolution projects in their areas, by contributing:

— to the practical costs of these projects

— to the costs of altering buildings so they are in the best condition for how local communities plan to use them

— towards purchasing equipment or training staff for organisations taking over a service

— towards projects and activities that support partnership working in their local areas.

The funding has been made available by the council’s cabinet, using a small proportion of the under-spend on the 2014/15 council budget.

The 19 community network areas covering Cornwall are based around groupings of parishes and electoral divisions.

Each area has a panel, a local partnership forum comprising the Cornwall councillors and representatives from town and parish councils.

The council said its role includes discussing and progressing local issues, and working together to build relationships between local partners and strengthen community cohesion.

The fund has been allocated according to the number of Cornwall councillors on each community network panel. The Cornwall councillors in each area will make recommendations on how the funding should be spent, in consultation with their panel.

The panels do not have the power to make funding decisions themselves, as they are not formal council committees, so the recommendations will be considered by the council’s cabinet member for localism, Jeremy Rowe.

He said: “The community network panels play an important role in bringing local partners together and I know they will make the most of this opportunity to consider at a local level how this funding might best be used to support devolution and partnership working.”

The next meeting of Launceston Community Network Panel is scheduled for Wednesday, March 22 at 7pm, in the Guildhall.

The next meeting of Camelford Community Network Panel is due to be held on Tuesday, March 8 at 7pm, in the Conference Room, Camelford Hall.

The next meeting of Bude Community Network Panel is due to take place on Monday, April 11, venue to be confirmed.