Issue - meetings

Mr Chris Hartgrove, Interim Head of Finance, presented the report.  The Committee considered the summary of progress against the agreed projects and were informed that the final figures for the amount of funding being available exceeded initial expectations.  There was a workshop planned for 13 June 2019 in order to identify how to allocate the additional funding.

The Committee were disappointed that the bus station had not secured firm funding commitments from Capital and Regional and Arriva to date, but it was reported that the project was at the initial design stages and would be adapted to fit the amount of funding available.

The Members’ Community Grant funding had worked well but the Committee were concerned that £14k of the funding had not been spent and would be reallocated.  They requested that further help and reminders were given to Members in 2019/20 to ensure the full allocation was spent next year.

Consideration was given to using the underspend of £19K on electric vehicle charging points and it was noted that this would be included in the funding under consideration at 13 June 2019 workshop.

RESOLVED: That the progress with the Business Rates Retention pilot projects be noted.