Tourism Major Events Grant

The timetable for the calls for applications for events taking place during the 2025/2026 financial year is as follows:

Applications will be considered from organisations who meet ALL of the following criteria:

• attraction of out-of-state visitors and participants to the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area
• attraction of domestic visitors and participants to the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area
• generation of at least 50 ‘bed-nights’ in the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area
• attract at least 1,250 visitors and participants to the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area
• generation of positive publicity for the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area strengthening the areas credibility as a tourist and visitor destination
• attraction of positive media coverage outside the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area
• requires Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council assistance to ensure the overall success of the event
• have not received funding during this financial year for another event

Applications will not be considered for events which:

• do not have a financial shortfall 
• are for charities or events being predominately ran for a charity
• have no significant benefit to the Council area
• provide no potential benefit to the public, either in the short or long term
• could be carried out on a commercial basis
• have already taken place or are already under way at the time of the assessment
• are of a party political nature
• promote a particular religion
• go against council policy
   

The deadline for receipt of all applications is 12noon on Friday 13th December 2024. Any applications received after this date will be deemed ineligible.

Please read the information on the links above and then apply online using this link.

Electronic applications can also be emailed to Margaret McAvoy, tourism Development Officer via margaret.mcavoy@lisburncastlereagh.gov.uk 

All hard copy applications should be in an envelope clearly marked 'Application for financial assistance' and posted or delivered to:

Margaret McAvoy, Tourism Development Officer
Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council
The Island Civic Centre
Lisburn
BT27 4RL

Assessment will be carried out by officers using a standard assessment process and will be scored against the following assessment criteria.

Does the event meet all the following criteria:

• Attraction of out-of-state visitors and participants to the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area
• Attraction of domestic visitors and participants to the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area
• Generation of at least 50 'bed-nights' in the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area
• Attract at least 1,250 visitors and participants to the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area, if government guidelines permit this number at the time of the event
• Generation of positive publicity for the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area strengthening the areas credibility as a tourist and visitor destination
• Attraction of positive media coverage outside the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area
• Requires Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council assistance to ensure overall success of the event
• Have not received funding during this financial year for another event from Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council
• Where the main purpose of an event is to raise money for a charity and/or charities, financial assistance will not normally be provided by Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council

• Does the event take place in the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area?
• How many years' experience do the event organisers have in the management of events?
• How many years has the event been running?
• Is gap funding required?
• Amount of sponsorship confirmed for the event from 3rd parties?
• How many out-of-state spectators and participants will the event bring to the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area?
• How many domestic spectators and participants will the event bring to the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area?
• How many bed-nights will the event generate in the area?
• How will the event generate positive publicity for the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area, strengthening it as a tourist and visitor destination?
•  How will the event generate positive media coverage for the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area?
• Safeguarding policy (child protection policy and/or vulnerable adults policy - depending on audience profile)
• Health & safety policy
• Equal opportunities policy
• Traffic management plan
• Valid public liability insurance:
  • Employers liability insurance
  • Specific event insurance (to include cancellation cover)
• Has the declaration been signed?

The assessment process will produce one of three outcomes: 

1. An application may be rejected if it fails to meet ALL the criteria, has failed to reach the pass score, or has not scored a sufficiently high mark when a programme is oversubscribed. In such cases officers will set out the reasons for the rejection and the applicant will receive these in writing. 
2. If it is clear there was a lack of clarity on the information requested in the Application Form, a decision will be made to review the project after more information is obtained. In this case the applicant will receive a request in writing asking for additional information and setting a time limit for this process.  Failure to meet the time limit would result in an automatic rejection. 
   Assuming the information is returned within the time limit the project will be reassessed using the standard process.  By this stage the applicant would be offered a grant or rejected. 
3. A successful application would be given a Letter of Offer in writing setting out the amount of funding, the targets and outcomes associated with this, monitoring and evaluation requirements and any other conditions that apply.  Acceptance of this would trigger the need for proof of other key documentation prior to release of grant.  

Appeals Process

Following the decision to reject an application, the applicant will be informed in writing stating the reasons for the decision. The applicant may request a review of the decision, in writing, within 7 working days. The Formal Review will provide an independent process through which the applicant will have the opportunity to demonstrate in writing to the Review Panel why they object to the assessment decision.

Payment of Grant

Any groups who are successful in their application will not receive any money until: 

• All previous year’s paperwork has been supplied and any outstanding monies have been returned. This includes satisfactory evidence of how previous grants have been spent (vouching) and a completed post-event evaluation form.
• If successful, no grant will be paid out to an organisation if there is outstanding paperwork from any previous year’s funding. 
• All documentation requested within the Letter of Offer has been provided eg Event Management Plan, SAG forms and insurance documents. 

The tourism events funding will be paid in 2 parts.  50% on receipt of an invoice, providing the signed letter of offer and any other documentation has been received.  The remaining 50% post event on receipt of the post event evaluation detailing that all targets, aims and objectives set were achieved.  

If the event is cancelled, for any reason, no grant will be paid to the applicant and any grant already paid, in relation to the event, will be expected to be returned to Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council.  

In the event that the targets, aims and objectives have not been met these will be looked at on an individual case basis and the applicant will be informed in writing of the outcome and the remaining amount to be paid.

Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council reserves the right to withhold the final grant payment should the event break-even or make a profit.
Should the event make a profit amounting to more than the agreed grant then all grant monies already paid must be repaid to Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council.

Claims for expenditure incurred during the grant period will not be accepted if received more than 3 months after the grant period. 
 

If running an event you must invite the Chairman and/or Mayor to attend. Occasionally you may be asked to attend a photo call/launch event. If your organisation is successful in securing financial assistance from Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council, it is mandatory to acknowledge this support by including the council logo on all promotional material (both print and non-print). The logo in its various forms and logo usage guidelines are available upon request from: Corporate Communications, Civic Headquarters, Lagan Valley Island, Lisburn, BT27 4RL.

When the council logo is printed on publications (eg flyers/booklets) produced by your organisation, you must include the following statement:
This publication is grant-aided by Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council. The views expressed herein are not necessarily shared or endorsed by the council. The council does not accept any responsibility for these views.

Failure to acknowledge funding in this way may result in your organisation’s award being withdrawn, which in turn may affect future applications.  The council must agree all artwork with council logo before it is printed. 

You must invite the Mayor or Chairman to attend the event and any related photo calls or launch events. 

We expect groups who wish to apply for financial assistance to have a constitution (or rules/standing orders/bye-laws) in their own name. However, we recognise this may prove challenging for local branches of regional or national organisations. 
If a branch of a larger organisation does not have a constitution in the name of the branch, then the branch has one of two options: 

Option 1:
If the branch:

• Has its own management committee
• has a UK bank or building society account in the name of the branch and,
• produce their own annual accounts

then the group can apply in their own name providing they get a letter of undertaking from the parent body (see required format below). The letter of undertaking stats that ultimate legal and accounting responsibility for the grant will lie with the parent body.

Option 2:
Where option 1 is not possible, then the group should get the parent body to apply on their behalf.

Letter of undertaking

The letter of undertaking from the parent body must take the following form:

Lisburn Castlereagh Draft Vision for Tourism 2025-2028   
Any financial assistance provided by Council must further the delivery of its Draft Tourism Strategy and be consistent with its contents.  This document sets out a comprehensive vision, mission and values for tourism within the area.  Applicants should consider this document and should be prepared to explain how their application can help further council’s objectives.  This document can be downloaded at: Draft LCCC Tourism Strategy and Action Plan 2024-2029 

Essential policies and documents

Any significant organisation receiving funding from Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council should be expected to have the following as a minimum.  Discretion will be used to determine how necessary each of these are depending on the size of the organisation and the nature of their work. 

• Safeguarding Policy (Child Protection Policy and/or Vulnerable Adults Policy – depending on audience profile)
• Health & Safety Policy
• Equal Opportunities Policy
• Traffic Management Plan 
• appropriate insurance cover. This may include: 
  • employer’s liability insurance (if staff are employed)
  • public liability insurance (including cover for volunteers)
  • specific event insurance (to include cancellation cover)

Also detail in this section any court judgements against the organisation and any criminal or civil proceedings pending. 

Section 1: Applicant details

Please ensure the accuracy of the contact details for the contact person.  If the contact person changes during the application process or you know the contact person will not be contactable during that period, you must provide us with an alternative contact person. In the event that we need to seek clarification on your application we will contact both persons named but if we cannot make contact with either person, your application will be rejected. 
The organisation name on the application form must be exactly the same as the name on the constitution you will provide. 

Section 2: Applicant Experience

Please complete this section by letting the council know how many years relevant experience the organisation has in the management of events.  Events in their first year will receive a higher level of funding than those which have been established for many years.
We need to be confident your group will be able to deliver the proposed project. Please tell us if: 

1. your group has delivered such a project before and how often 
2. you have members on your committee or in your group who have specific skills and experience of managing and delivering projects, even if your group has not delivered such a project in the past 
3. you plan to seek advice and support from outside your organisation to help deliver the project 
4. your group has experience of managing grants before of a similar size

A link to the Tourism Strategy is available under the council priorities section (linked above). You need to tell us which priorities your event contributes to and describe how your event helps deliver these. Please do not just list the council priorities. If you fail to describe how your project meets specific priorities it is unlikely to be funded. 
You should assume the officers assessing your application know nothing about your event and therefore how it will meet the programme objectives. 

Section 3: Event background

Evidence of need: how do you know your project is needed? 

• Are there published statistics which show a need? 
  Have you carried out any market research/held a focus group and what evidence did this produce? 
  Have you run this event before and each time attendance has increased?
• Officers will use your answer here when assessing the need for the project. In addition, officers will also assess whether there is a financial need for funding based on information given elsewhere in the application form or supporting documents. 

Section 4: Marketing

Please tell us in this section how you propose to market the event, which channels you will use and why. Also include how the council can be branded/promoted at the event or in any pre-event promotional material or events.  
Who the event is targeted at and an estimate of how much you will spend on this and a breakdown of costs.  
Failure to enclose a full Marketing/PR Plan for the event will result in your application being rejected. 

Section 5: Finance

Detail all the costs of your event and how much funding you are applying for:  

• indicate the amount of funding you require (this must not exceed the maximum and should be the minimum amount necessary to make your event happen).  It should be noted that the council may choose to fund less than you request
• be as specific as possible and detail all costs associated with the event
• ensure your costings are realistic – get quotes and do not guess amounts
• detail each specific cost on a separate line. Rather than writing in one line ‘Family fun day’ you must detail the specific costs of the family fun day each on a separate line (eg bouncy castles [line 1], toilet hire [line 2], first aid cover [line 3], advertising [line 4]) giving a cost for each separate item
• if you are not requesting for 100% of the gap fund, we need to know where you are planning to get the balance of the money from. This could be from another funder or from your own funds. Only financial shortfalls will be considered, not in-profit events. 
• you must declare if you are planning to charge an entry fee for the event, how much this will be and the total predicted income
• the amount of funding will be reduced the longer the event has been running
• please note: you can only avail of a grant from one council department in each financial year

Section 6: Economic impact of the event

This section should provide sufficient detail to enable council officers to understand how the event will impact the economy. Therefore we require you to tell us how many participants and spectators you expect. Also give details of any expenditure in relation to the event.

How many bed nights are anticipated?  We are trying to understand the economic benefit of your event to the council area eg if 100 people stay over in the council area for 1 night that equates to 100 bed nights, if 100 people stay over for 3 nights, that equates to 300 bed nights. 
Please note: all reasonable endeavours should be made to conduct event related activities inside the Lisburn Castlereagh City Council area.  i.e. accommodation and formal dinners etc required by officials and/or staff of the event.

Section 7: Event management

Your organisation must confirm the list of statements detailed in this question by circling yes or no for each.  All statements must be answered to be able to submit an application. We will no longer ask you for any evidences of these by default but council may choose to spot check these and reserves the right to withhold grant should any declaration prove to be inaccurate or the documents are not available. 

Section 8: Declaration

It is important that you read this section very carefully before you sign. Online applicants will be asked to agree the declaration on behalf of the organisation.  Please ensure you give your name, position in the organisation and date signed.  

The following information provides guidance as to how organisations can make an appeal against an application that has been rejected.

Grounds of appeal

Organisations may only appeal against any application, which is unsuccessful on one or more of the following grounds:

• Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council failed to follow published procedures when considering the application or making its decision
• if the application is rejected on the grounds that it failed to meet or impact significantly against Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council criteria and this is disputed by the applicant
• that the assessment panel misunderstood or failed properly to take into account relevant information, which was included as part of the original application
• Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council took into account irrelevant material of a significant nature when making its decision
• That the decision was unlawful
• That officers involved in the assessment process have had a clear conflict of interest and have failed to declare this in the appropriate manner

No grounds for appeal

There is no right of appeal against the amount of funding awarded under the match funding application process, unless one of the grounds of appeal noted above applies. In addition there is no right of appeal against a decision that Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council made in relation to another organisations’ successful application.

Submitting an appeal

Following the decision to reject an application, the applicant will be informed in writing stating the reasons for the decision. The applicant may request a review of the decision, in writing, within 7 working days. The formal review will provide an independent process through which the applicant organisation will have the opportunity to demonstrate in writing to the review panel that either:

• the decision was wrong because the council failed to take into account the information contained within the written application or took into account information that was not contained within the written application

and/or  

• there was a failure in adherence to procedures and guidance issued with the call for applications or systems that materially affected or could have materially affected the decision

or 

• that officers involved in the assessment process have had a clear conflict of interest and have failed to declare this in the appropriate manner

Appeals on any other grounds will not be considered.  It should also be noted that no additional supporting documentation will be permitted at this stage. 
Requests for a review must be made in writing by the applicant within 28 days of the date of the letter notifying you of the outcome of your application for financial assistance. 

All applicants who applied to Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council will receive a letter, indicating if the applicant has been successful or otherwise in their application.   If they have been unsuccessful brief reasons will be sited in the letter indicating why the application was rejected. The letter will also include a statement on the group’s right to appeal.  

If an applicant wishes to appeal the decision made by the assessment panel the procedure adopted by Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council is as follows:

• appeals must be lodged in writing, addressed for the attention of the Head of Economic Development, Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council, Civic Headquarters, Lagan Valley Island, Lisburn, BT27 4RL (clearly marked Major Events Funding Appeal), within 7 days of receipt of the letter communicating the decision not to make a grant or award.  We advise that this is sent recorded delivery
• applicants must clearly outline the basis for the appeal and give a detailed reason for the grounds of the appeal
• any documents which the applicant would like to present as evidence to the appeal panel should accompany the appeals letter. These documents constitute the appeal submission from the applicant and cannot be added to once the appeal has been submitted
• applicants should not submit the original funding application being appealed against or its’ supporting material.  These will be provided by Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council to the Appeals Panel to ensure consistency in the papers reviewed by both the assessment and the Appeals Panel. If the applicant needs to refer to sections of their original application this should only be presented in part within the context of the supporting documentation accompanying the appeals letter
• appeals will not be accepted outside the time period stipulated unless the Appeals Panel is satisfied that it was not reasonable / practicable for the appeal to be made within this period.

What happens once an appeal has been made?

All appeals will be presented to the Appeals Panel, who will determine whether the grounds for appeal are substantiated. If so, the Appeals Panel will reconsider the application and make a decision. The Appeals Panel will advise the applicant of the outcome, with reasons, in writing. The decision of the Appeals Panel is final. 

Click here to apply