Agenda item

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The Chair reported that he had met with officers following the first round of grant applications for CIL funding presented to the first meeting of the Task Group on 22 July 2021 to see whether any improvements to the process could be made.

Following that meeting the report and Appendix 1 had been prepared.

The CIL Officer explained that one of the main confusions that had arisen related to the type of application to be submitted in relation to the local and community projects.  There were many local projects which had been submitted as community projects and had resulted in a delay with allocating funding, as it had to go to the Council’s Management Team for ratification and could not be determined by the Spending Panel.  There had only been one strategic project so there needed to be some clarification in relation to how much they wanted to apply for rather than the amount that the project would cost.

The Chair asked the Task Group whether there was a need for Local and Community applications. 

Councillor Parish explained the rationale behind the Local and Community categories. 

The Task Group debated the idea of combining the Local and Community categories. 

The CIL Project Officer advised that it might be easier to combine local and community projects, which would be less confusing for applicants and to extend what they could apply for up to £50,000 – the criteria being:  education, health, economic development, community facilities, green infrastructure, open space and leisure, community transport and historic.

Councillor De Whalley suggested that Parish Councils should be offered further training.  The Chair advised that the Parishes would receive an update.

The issue of match funding was raised.  The CIL Officer advised that the percentage of match funding would give the project a higher scoring.  In the last round, there was over £1 million of match funding. 

Councillor Blunt outlined a proposed timetable for the next round of funding and was confident that there could be two rounds of funding – one in January and one in July 2022.  There would also be early warning to Parish Councils to help them in the preparation of applications.  A Spending Review Panel would be held in early February, which would help Parishes with their precepts.

The CIL Officer explained that the criteria once agreed could be published and state that the application process would start on 1 January.

Discussion took place on the amount of time that the application period would be open for.  It was agreed that this would be one month.

Councillor de Whalley highlighted what could be done for the unparished areas of King’s Lynn and the options were explained to the Task Group.

The Chair outlined the process which had been agreed:

·        Two months’ notice period when applications for CIL funding could be submitted;

·        One month period for applications to be received;

·        One month for processing the applications; and

·        Decision to be made by the Spending Panel.

The Strategic Projects would have to be considered by Cabinet and in line with their timetable.  There would also be an improvement in communications especially to unparished areas.

Discussion took place on whether the scoring criteria could be simplified.

The Chair suggested that the scoring criteria should be evidence of need, evidence of support (including Borough and County Councillors) and evidence of funding. This was agreed by the Task Group.

Strategic Projects

In response to a comment from Councillor Parish, the Chair explained that going forward he anticipated more strategic projects would come forward.

The CIL Officer suggested that the Task Group might want to look at the criteria and open it up for other projects or to stay with the original criteria that had been set.

The Task Group recommended to Cabinet:

RECOMMENDED:      (1)        That the local and community projects be combined and can apply for funding for up to £50,000.  The scoring criteria would need to be amended.

(2)        That the scoring criteria and application form should be simplified and include evidence of need, evidence of support (including Borough and County Councillors) and evidence of funding.