Agenda item

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Councillor de Whalley and Councillor Nockolds thanked officers for the quality of the agenda.

 

The Chairman adjourned the meeting in order that the IT issues could be resolved.

 

The meeting reconvened at 10.37 am.

 

The CIL Monitoring Officer advised that the Spending Panel, before making any decisions, would consider:

 

·        FY23_1 Application stats

·        CIL Funding Statutory Requirements

·        Officer scoring criteria

·        Spending Panel decision making

·        Review CIL Funding

 

(a)   Allocate funding up to £30K

(b)   Make recommendation to Cabinet – funding over £30K

 

It was drawn to the Spending Panel’s attention that there had been 45 Infrastructure Project applications received, with one application over £30,000 and one application recommended refusal by the CIL Officer.  The total requested was £718,086.45.

 

The total proposed matched funding if all applications were allocated was £702,751.45.  It was explained that during this round, it was under-scribed which meant that all projects could be allocated funding with all unallocated funding available for the next round of CIL applications in July.

 

The funding to be allocated was £1.6 m.

 

The CIL Officer reminded the Spending Panel of the Statutory Requirements for the Spending of CIL. 

 

It was explained that all funding applications had been scored in accordance with the criteria set out in the CIL Governance Document 2023, Appendix 3.  In the Panel’s report, the CIL Officer had provided a summary of the scoring taking into consideration the letters of support for each project, research, theLocal Plan allocations and identified areas for growth, CIL Panel history from when CIL was adopted in 2017 up to 23 December 2022, CIL Parish payments made to date and a summary of Parish spending up to 2021/22 which included any sums allocated to CIL projects and previous CIL funding allocations.

 

The Officer recommendation included a summary of evidence submitted to support the application, reason for approval or refusal and criteria to which the application related.

 

The Panel would be making their decisions based on the criteria set out in the CIL Governance Document 2023 at section 5, taking into consideration previous funding history and the amount of new development forecast.

 

All project criteria must meet the current corporate objectives.  It was highlighted that within the applications there was one project which was over £30,000 which fell within the criteria and would therefore require Cabinet approval.

 

All other projects would be based on the 2023 project criteria for  funding up to £30,000 and the officer summary stated which category each project fell within.

 

The Spending Panel then considered the applications.  The Spending Panel agreed to focus on the applications that they had concerns about.

 

Hunstanton page 42 – Ambulance & Police Station – Replacement Heating

 

The Spending Panel discussed their concerns in relation to the application for funding.  It was noted that no additional information had been provided with the application, but it would meet the green infrastructure criteria.

 

Councillor de Whalley asked for his vote to be recorded against the following resolution.

 

The Spending Panel agreed that:

 

The application be refused, due to it having a low score and not enough local support.  More information was also required in relation to the green specification of the project.

 

Terrington St John Police Station – Replacement Heating

 

It was noted that the application had a low score and there was not enough local support.

 

Councillor de Whalley asked for his vote to be recorded against the following resolution.

 

The Spending Panel agreed that:

 

The application be refused, due to it having a low score and not enough local support.  More information was also required in relation to the green specification of the project.

 

North Wootton – Village Sign Refurbishment

 

The CIL Monitoring Officer explained that this application had been recommended for refusal as the project did not fall within the criteria and was not infrastructure to support new development. 

 

Councillor de Whalley spoke in support of the application.  He considered that the project would be an improvement of open space and would help to create beautiful places and support tourism, place and well-being and covered at least two of the criteria.  He also considered that village signs should be included within CIL allocation going forward.

 

Councillor Nockolds stated that she had submitted a letter of support for this application because this was an area of open space which was used by the residents.  It had been used for coffee mornings and an exchange library in the telephone box.  Recently residents had had a tree planting ceremony and many trees were planted along the village green.  It was an open space that the village used.

 

The Chair added that North Wootton had no allocated sites and no other form of funding. 

 

The CIL Officer clarified the legal requirements of CIL.  CIL was for the improvement, maintenance to support new development within an area.    North Wootton did not have any allocated sites within the Local Plan.  North Wootton had already received £30,000 from this Panel of CIL funding.  A village sign in an area where there was no development was not infrastructure for new developments.   If the Spending Panel was minded approving the application, then it would be against the CIL Regulations.

 

Councillor de Whalley stated that this was a subjective interpretation of the Regulations, and a village sign was improving open spaces and it did have a function of creating a better place to live and community identity was important.   He saw a village sign as being perfectly reasonable CIL spend in that it was an improvement of an open space.  It was providing a sense of place and well-being for residents.

 

The Planning Control Manager displayed the criteria for projects and CIL Statutory Requirements.

 

Councillor de Whalley proposed approval of the project.

 

Councillor Hudson stated that there were other ways for raising money for the village sign.

 

The CIL Officer explained that the issue was that this project was that a village sign not infrastructure. She advised that If the Spending Panel was minded to approving the project, then the Panel would be making a decision against the Statutory Requirements of the CIL Regulations and could be called into maladministration of the funds.

 

A decorative village sign was not infrastructure within the CIL Regulations.

 

The Chair asked whether external clarification could be sought.

 

Councillor de Whalley amended his proposal to approve the application pending external clarification.

 

The CIL Officer advised that she would obtain legal advice regarding the matter.

 

The Spending Panel agreed that:

 

The application be approved pending legal advice.  The CIL Officer would consult via email with the legal advice.

 

Docking Pavilion Refurbishment

 

The CIL Officer explained that as the funding requested was for £70,000 it would need to go to Cabinet for a decision.

 

The Spending Panel agreed that:

 

The Spending Panel approved the application but as it was for £70,000 it was required to be approved by Cabinet.

 

All other applications were approved.

 

Next Steps

 

The CIL Officer then outlined the next steps in the process:

 

·        Formal notices would be sent to the successful and unsuccessful applications

·        Cabinet report for the project over £30,000

·        The next meeting would be to review funded projects

·        The next round of applications FY23_2 would be in July.