Agenda item

The Council is requested to consider the report circulated with the agenda and to make the following resolutions:

(1)  That the Cabinet be delegated the ability, when required, to expend the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership (C2C LEP) funding in accordance with the funding agreement

(2)  That the Deputy Chief Executive, after consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Growth Board members, be delegated the ability to spend up to £250,000 of LEP funding in accordance with the funding agreement.

The Council considered the report and its appendix for this item which had been circulated at pages 19 to 21 of the Council agenda.

Mr A Dignum (Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Growth and Place) formally moved the recommendation in the agenda report and this was seconded by Mrs E Lintill (Cabinet Member for Community Services).

Mr Dignum presented the agenda report. He first read out the two recommendations and then summarised the background to them as follows. The Council approved the SouthernGateway Masterplan on 21 November2017. CDC secured £5 m of Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) fundingsubject to an agreement with LEP which was approved by the Council on 6 March 2018 and signed on 27 March 2018. Thereafter progress had been slower than expected, mainly due to the delay in the courts being transferred to Homes England from the Ministry of Justice. The courts would now close on 21 December 2018 and part of the replacement provision would be a pop-up court in the CDC committee rooms for 43 Fridays a year. Officers had also identified relocation sites for Royal Mailand Stagecoach. The project had now reached astage where keystrategic decisions were required inorder to progress the implementation. Someof those decisions would involve significant use of the LEP grant, the first instance of which would be reported to the Cabinet atits meetingon 2 October2018. As the Council had not approved a budget to spend the £5 m funding from the LEP,the CDC constitutionwould require every item of expenditureto be reported tothe Council for approval.The need to refer such decisionsto the Councilcould cause undue delay and might prejudice delivery of the project eg the decision recommended to be made by theCabineton 2 October2018 would not be ratified by the Council at its meeting on 20 November2018. Such delay was a serious issue as the LEP agreement provided that the £5 m must be spent by 31 March 2019. All LEP funding expenditure would be incurred in accordance with the LEP agreement. Accordingly the Council was now being asked to give delegated authority to the Cabinet as outlined in the two recommendations.

Mr A Moss (Fishbourne) said that he understood the Leader’s reasons for these recommendations and also his concerns that the LEP funding should not be imperilled. However, he expressed his reticence at the Council relinquishing the responsibility for determining such matters itself. Whilst he expressed his total confidence in Mr P Over as the Deputy Chief Executive to exercise the proposed delegation in the second recommendation after consulting with the Leader and the CDC members of the Growth Board, he suggested that it would in the circumstances be appropriate also to consult both himself as Leader of the Liberal Democrats and also Mr A Shaxson as Leader of the Independents.

Mr J Brown (Southbourne) commented that £5 m of Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) funding was a significant sum and expenditure of that magnitude required public oversight. He remained sceptical of the Southern Gateway proposal and was minded to vote against these recommendations. However, he would support Mr Moss’s proposal if this was pursued to a vote.

Mr Dignum said that he did not accept Mr Moss’s proposal, which was without precedent. Any spending decision would be in accordance with the masterplan and the LEP funding agreement, on the advice of the Deputy Chief Executive and Mr J Ward as the Section 151 Officer and would also be scrutinised by the Monitoring Officer. Officers would implement spending decisions within the very broad framework budget set by the Council.

Mr Ward commented that the Council’s constitutional role was to set and approve the revenue and capital budgets and thereafter officers were delegated the authority to deliver their objectives and priorities. The sum of £5 m should be seen in the context of the Council’s total capital budget of £34 m.

Mr Moss did not pursue his proposal.

It was noted that the second recommendation as it appeared in the agenda would need to be amended to clarify that it was only the CDC (and not the West Sussex County Council) members of the Growth Board who would be consulted in addition to the Leader of the Council. Accordingly the vote would be on that basis.      

Decision

On a show of hands the members present voted by a majority in favour of the two recommendations, amended as aforesaid, with three votes against and two abstentions.   

RESOLVED

(1)  That the Cabinet be delegated the ability, when required, to expend the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership (C2C LEP) funding in accordance with the funding agreement.

(2)  That the Deputy Chief Executive, after consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Chichester District Council Growth Board members, be delegated the ability to spend up to £250,000 of LEP funding in accordance with the funding agreement.