An awards ceremony - was it really necessary?

I have some misgivings about an event I attended earlier this evening. Stone Market Town Initiative, an Advantage West Midlands funded organisation, has had half a million pounds to allocate to qualifying projects over the last four years. One of its smaller projects and more succesful has been the Community Chest - a fund of approximately £17,000 available to small local community groups.

For each pound granted the community groups have had to match fund with at least two pounds from their own fund raising. All in all, an admirable scheme. For example, grants towards a new mower for a village hall, a new stage for a local drama group, equipment for a local group teaching young folk to fish - all excellent uses of the funds.

Tonight, in the ballroom of the Crown Hotel, representatives of the various local organisations who successfully bid for funding were invited to a presentation. In fact it turned out to be a photo opportunity hand shake between each representative and Doug Davies, chairman of SMTI and the handing over of a certificate. I'm not sure what the significance of this was. Surely the local groups were more than happy to have received the cheque. Why did they have to be presented with a certificate?

And what was the cost of the event? Hire of the hotel plus a rather expensive looking buffet spread out in the adjacent bar - several hundred pounds worth of anyone's money. Surely a couple more applicants could have been awarded grants with the money spent tonight?

SMTI is already being criticised for being politicised (and Doug Davies's introductory speech was no help - he even finished by stating "well, that's the political bit over") and for wasting money. I'm afraid this event will have only served to stoke those fires.