Cabinet Member for Finance
Decision:
It wasRESOLVED:-
1.1 That use of £100,000 from the Business Rate Retention allocation for Sudbury Town Centre projects for supporting the St. Peter’s ‘Built for Exchange’ Regeneration Project Heritage Lottery Funding Phase 2 application, due for submission by March 2020 be approved; and
1.2 That delegation be given to the relevant Strategic Director with responsibility for Economy and Business Growth, in liaison with the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Finance, to resolve via agreement appropriate criteria and conditions to enable the grant funding to be released
Reason for Decision: To tangibly support significant town centre renaissance and investment in line with established priorities and strategies – benefitting local communities, the visitor economy and local businesses.
Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:
1.1 To decline the request for grant funding. This may leave a significant gap in the regeneration project team’s ability to reach their match fund target for making a Stage 2 Heritage Lottery Funding (HLF) application by March 2020, and thus jeopardise the whole £2.5m project.
1.2 Explore other potential funding sources to raise the required amounts. We have sign-posted the Churches Conservation Trust (CCT) to New Anglia LEP and reviewed other possibilities for funding elements of the project. Many have already been reviewed by the CCT/Friends of St.Peter’s (FoSP), may not be viable in the required timeframe nor meet requisite criteria. Appendix A (Confidential) makes further reference to funding sources.
1.3 Approve the request at a level which is gap funding up to the £100k requested, subject to suitable conditions or pre-requisite requirements being met to the satisfaction of the delegated officer, as contained within the recommendation at 3.2. Funders will be looking for strong governance structures with defined outcomes.
Any Declarations of Interest Declared: A non-pecuniary interest was declared by Councillor Barrett as Chair of Campaign Group for St Peters.
Any Dispensation Granted: None
Minutes:
139.1 Councillor Ward, Cabinet Member for Finance, introduced report BCa/18/79 and stated that the report sought cabinet approval for use of up to £100,000 of Business Rate Retention allocation to grant support a major new town centre renaissance project – the St Peter’s Cultural & Arts Centre ‘Built for Exchange’ Regeneration. This was a joint project being run by the Churches Conservation Trust and the Friends of St Peter’s and the total cost was estimated at £2.5 million. The amount requested represented the gap in funding needed to meet a match fund target for making a stage two heritage lottery fund application by March 2020 the project will build on the existing use of St Peter’s as a location for events to deliver a much-needed versatile community space and multi-function venue with full and modern facilities. This project was in alignment with Babergh’s vision for prosperity for Sudbury, Sudbury Town Council’s vision for the town centre and was supported by the Sudbury Steering Group. It also supported the visitor economy objectives within the Joint Open for Business Strategy and the works to seek funding from the Government’s recently announced future high streets fund. Key questions and answers were provided in the confidential appendix to this report.
139.2 Councillor Ward MOVED the recommendations which Councillor Lawrenson SECONDED.
139.3 Councillor Ridley proposed to remove ‘up to’ in recommendation 3.1 which Councillor Barrett seconded.
139.4 The recommendations where approved unanimously.
It was RESOLVED:-
1.1 That use of £100,000 from the Business Rate Retention allocation for Sudbury Town Centre projects for supporting the St. Peter’s ‘Built for Exchange’ Regeneration Project Heritage Lottery Funding Phase 2 application, due for submission by March 2020 be approved; and
1.2 That delegation be given to the relevant Strategic Director with responsibility for Economy and Business Growth, in liaison with the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Finance, to resolve via agreement appropriate criteria and conditions to enable the grant funding to be released
Reason for Decision: To tangibly support significant town centre renaissance and investment in line with established priorities and strategies – benefitting local communities, the visitor economy and local businesses.
Councillor Lawrenson asked to make a public statement as this was his last Cabinet meeting and expressed his thanks for being involved with Cabinet which had been a real experience and a pleasure.
Councillor Ward thanked all of the members of the Cabinet for their support and assistance over the time that he had been Leader, which had been quite a learning curve but had also been enjoyable and hard work and particular thanks were passed onto Councillor Campbell and Councillor Lawrenson as they are not standing in the next election.
Councillor Davis expressed his thanks for being made welcome on the Cabinet as the only non-conservative member. Councillor Davis also stated that Councillor Maybury’s comments disputing the statement made by the Headmaster of Holbrook school had offended him and requested that Councillor Maybury apologised for publicly questioning Councillor Davis’ integrity when she stated that what Councillor Davis regarding Dr Letman was not true. Councillor Davis provided the slides from the presentation made by Dr Letman which included the following quote ‘as a result students in take away, hot lunches or their own cold pack lunches in corridors, outside on benches, sitting on grass etc and it is even the case that some students eat their lunch in the toilets such is the shortage of space when the weather outside is wet and windy’.
Councillor Maybury apologised and stated that she questioned Councillor Davis statement because it had been reported in the local media that the Headmaster was retracting that statement because it was damaging to the school.
Councillor Ward asked for a vote to exclude members of the public for the remaining two items.
Supporting documents: