Agenda item

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The Chair provided the Panel with a recap of what had been considered at the adjourned meeting and asked the Panel to consider taking a request to Cabinet to transfer some of the CIL funds from the Strategic pot to the Community pot which would allow more Community Projects to be awarded funding.  It was noted that no Strategic projects were being considered in this funding round.  This would allow the Panel to re-look at the schedule of applications and would allow all projects with a score of 16+ to be funded either in part or in full.  The Chair explained the funds that would need to be transferred between the two CIL pots in order to fully fund all of the 16+ projects.

The Chair brought the Panel’s attention to some of the applications that they had considered at the adjourned meeting as he felt that they justified funding.  The first one was the West Norfolk Community Transport Project, which was at a disadvantage as it could not obtain Parish match funding due to being in an unparished area.

He also reminded the Panel that applications submitted by the Borough Council should be considered in the same way as other applications and reminded the Panel of the Governance arrangements that the Panel had to work to and the regard they should have to the scoring criteria.  The CIL Officer provided detail of the scoring criteria and it was also noted that applications had to be scored in the category they were applied for – Community or Strategic.

Councillor de Whalley commented that the funding of smaller projects should not be to the detriment of larger projects.

Councillor Bone commented that applications from King’s Lynn would always be at a disadvantage in relation to the match funding criteria.

Councillor Parish felt that the larger bids from funding for the Borough Council should be refused and CIL funding should be for the benefit of areas that had been affected by development. 

Councillor Moriarty addressed the Panel under Standing Order 34 and raised concern about revisiting decisions which had been made at the adjourned meeting.  The Chair clarified that no decisions had been made at this time and at the adjourned meeting it had been made clear that decisions on application were draft and would need to be revisited depending on how much funding had been allocated across the board.

The Panel discussed specific applications on the schedule and noted that in the future they would also benefit from information on how much CIL had been spent in Parishes to date and that this should also be considered in the scoring criteria.

The Panel considered approving all applications which scored higher than 16 and discussed if they should be 60% or 100% funded and the additional funds they would need to be transferred across from the Strategic pot to do so.  The Panel then discussed the applications which had scored 14 and 15 and assessed them individually.

The Panel made draft decisions on the applications that had scored 14 and 15 and had provided reasons for the ones that they did not support so that the applicants could be advised accordingly.

The CIL Officer provided the Panel with details of funds that would need to be transferred from the Strategic to Community pot in order to fund the applications as discussed by the Panel.  In order to award 100% funding to the approved applications there would be a shortfall of approximately £152,000.

RESOLVED:

1.    The Panel approved the applications in accordance with the schedule attached.  All projects to be 100% funded subject to the below recommendation to Cabinet being approved.

2.    That Cabinet approve a transfer of funds of from the Strategic CIL pot of funding, to which there had been no applications, to the Community CIL pot.  This would allow all of the applications approved by the Panel being 100% funded.

3.    Subject to Cabinet approval of 2 above, the projects detailed in the schedule be approved and the unsuccessful applicants be encouraged to revisit the scoring criteria and reapply in the next round of funding.

4.    The CIL Spending Panel arrange another meeting, in advance of the next funding round to revisit the Governance Arrangements and ‘lessons learned’ from the first round of funding.

5.    The Panel recorded thanks to the CIL Officer and Planning Control Manager for their assistance with the process.