Causeway Coast and Glens councillors reject financial request from Taste Causeway group

At Leisure and Development Committee meeting on Tuesday, September 17, members were asked enter into a Service Level Agreement (SLA) to provide £22,500 towards Taste Causeway activities for the remaining financial year and a further £45,000 for 2025-2026.

However, members voted against any service agreement or funding, citing a lack of overall funding to council from Government and the potential duplication of services already provided by council.

Established in 2016 and with almost 80 members, Taste Causeway brings together local food and drink companies working to position the sector as a “driver of economic growth and job creation”.

Taste Causeway initially requested direct funding from council at June’s Committee meeting, and they are in discussion with Tourism NI, Invest NI, DAERA and Enterprise Causeway to “collectively look at the future of the network”.

However, as there is no grant fund to facilitate the request, officers drafted an activity plan that would make up the SLA and allow for £15,000 in funding for the remaining financial year and £19,500 for 2025-2026.

Activities include a “food and drink inspirational event” within the borough and a partnership with the Tourism Destination Management Team at the World Travel Market in London.

UUP Councillor Richard Holmes praised Taste Causeway for establishing the borough as a “foodie place”, but questioned where the funding would come from and asked if council and Taste Causeway would be “complementing each other rather than competing”.

An officer said council had entered into a similar agreement with the Heritage Trust, where services are provided and assessed by council, and as there was no budget allocation, funding would be from a “a whip round” across the Leisure and Development department.

UUP Councillor Darryl Wilson said offering financial support may create “blurred lines” between services provided by council in-house and those provided by external bodies.

Councillor Wilson said: “I’m not talking [specifically] about Taste Causeway but in broad terms, and in the private sector you would either be doing it yourself or you would subcontract it out.

“It would just be much clearer if we were doing it or we were funding it. This is an awful lot of money, budgets are tight, and we’ve seen a sizeable sum of money from central Government paused.

“I am sure that Taste Causeway are doing wonderful work for their 80 members but we have a duty of care to the food industry businesses throughout our entire borough, who are paying excessive rates and expect something back. That should be available to all.”

An officer said the council’s Destination Management Team provides workshops on training business development and marketing opportunities for businesses, and Taste Causeway aim to augment and provide additional support to them.

“So there is definitely a blurring between what the destination management team is providing,” they said.

Sinn Féin Councillor Cara McShane said members would be setting a poor precedent by supplying aid which is “outside the remit of local government”.

She concluded: “There were a number of concerns in June with the duplication of services that local government already provides, and we haven’t factored this into this year’s rates estimates."