Agenda item

Landfill Community Fund

Decision:

Decision Schedule 

Chair of the Cabinet

 

TO ALL MEMBERS OF NEWPORT CITY COUNCIL

 

Decision Schedule published on 23 March 2016

 

The Cabinet Member took the following decision on 23 March 2016. It will take immediate effect,

 

The reasons for this decision to be taken urgently are set out in the report and are as follows:

 

The three requests for funding have been received quite recently during quarter 4.

 

A decision on the funding split couldn’t be made until we had an approximate figure on how much money there would be available by the end of the year as, as per Q3 landfill tax return, there wasn’t enough funding available to cover the three requests, and a reduction in the funds to be awarded puts an additional pressure in these organisation to find external funding as, once the project has been submitted to Entrust for approval, if they are to receive funding they need to implement the project. As such, a reasonable estimate has been only available very recently.

 

The funding will be lost if not allocated and released this financial year. The risk of losing the funding if the funds cannot be released in this financial year means that the approval needs to be granted by 31st March at the latest, thus preventing the report going through the Council’s agreed consultation process.

 

The decision is not subject to the “Call in” Process.

 

In accordance with Standing Order 24 – Urgent Matters, this matter will be forwarded to the Audit Committee.

 

Reports relating to staffing issues/Confidential reports are not circulated to all members of the Council as part of the consultation/call-in processes.

 

 

CoC 01/16

 

Landfill Community Fund 15/16

 

Options considered/Reasons for Decision

 

Under the Landfill Tax Rules the Council is allowed to donate a proportion of the money the Landfill Site would have paid in Landfill Tax to Bodies regulated by the  Landfill Tax Regulator [ENTRUST]. This is the landfill Communities Fund.

 

Entrust’s role is to ensure the proposed activities contribute to the objectives this Fund was created for; they will also monitor that the project is implemented and the funds are correctly spent. Therefore before any funding can be approved and released, any organisation interested in taking part of this scheme needs to register with Entrust and submit the specific project they need funding for to them. Only if approval is granted can the activity go ahead.

 

 

 

 

Only three bids have been received, and it was proposed to award the following (excluding match funding):

 

  • The Friends of Newport's Ornamental Parks-£100,000
  • Maindee Festival Association-£54,000
  • St Woolos Cathedral-up to £54,000 (this project will get the difference between the available funds and the amount requested by the other organisations, up to £54,000, as we do not know what the exact amount of funding available will be yet)

 

Future Opportunities for Bids

 

The Leader of the Council is keen to ensure that the fund is available as widely as possible and that potential applicants are able to formulate an application. To this end we will make a commitment to publicise to elected members and organisations the availability of these funds for the future and to provide advice and guidance to any potential applicants as to how to apply

 

Audit Committee

 

The Leader of the Council expressed concern about the short notice for decision making, and asked for the reasons for urgency to be explained to the Audit Committee by the Head of Service in line with normal procedures

 

Declaration of Interest

 

The Chair of the Cabinet took this decision as the Cabinet Member for Streetscene and City Services had declared a personal interest in this item

 

Decision

 

1.    To award Landfill Tax Community Funds to the following projects:

 

                      i.    The Friends of Newport's Ornamental Parks-building a new entertaining area in the Beechwood Park Old Paddling Pool

 

                     ii.    Maindee Festival Association-Refurbishment of a former council-run library as a community run library and arts centre in the Maindee area of Newport

 

                    iii.    St Woolos Cathedral-Repairs to the Cathedral roof

 

2.    To take this decision urgently as it is so urgent that it cannot go through the Council’s agreed consultation process and/or must be implemented immediately and therefore not subject to the Council’s call in procedures for the reasons set out under ‘Reasons for Urgency’ above.

 

3.    To make a commitment to publicise to elected members and organisations  the availability of these funds for the future and to provide advice and guidance to any potential applicants as to how to apply

 

4.    To recognise the Leader of the Council’s concern about the short notice for decision making , to refer the reasons for urgency to the Audit Committee  to enable the Head of Service to explain the need to take the decision without going through the normal procedures

 

 

Consultation

 

Monitoring Officer, Head of Finance, Head of People and Business Change.

 

Implemented by:  Head of Streetscene and City Services

 

Implementation Timetable:  Immediate

 

 

 

 

 

Councillor R C Bright, Chair of the Cabinet

 

 

Signed:

 

 

 

Date: 23 March 2016

 

Supporting documents: