Agenda item

To consider the updates provided and agree an approach to the ongoing management of the grant award.  

1.    That it be NOTED and APPROVED that the grant for Prior’s Park Community Parking Provision be transferred into Council’s capital programme.

2.    That a six-month extension be granted to the Wormington Village Society – Village Hall grant - to enable the Deputy Chief Executive to engage with the parties concerned with a view to establishing whether the project would come forward and then, at the end of the six-month period, to prepare a report for consideration by the Executive Committee.

3.    That a 12-month extension be granted to Winchcombe Town Council for the Skate Park project to be progressed.

70.1           The report of the Head of Finance and Asset Management, circulated at Pages No. 173-179, provided an update on the capital grant schemes which remained outstanding since the Community Grants Working Group had been disbanded. Members were asked to consider the information provided and agree the approach for the ongoing management of each grant award. 

70.2           The Head of Finance and Asset Management explained that this was a 12-month update from the last report. There were three specific grants to consider: Prior’s Park Community Parking Provision; Wormington Village Society – Village Hall; and Winchcombe Town Council – Winchcombe Skate Park. In respect of Prior’s Park community parking provision, Tewkesbury Borough Council had identified sites within its ownership and was now at the stage of procuring design and specification services to apply for planning permission early in the New Year. Given that the project was now being progressed by the Council on its own land with no actual grant being made to a separate body, it was now essentially a capital scheme and as such would be re-designated as a capital project rather than as a capital grant – Members were asked to approve this action and the Council’s capital programme would then be updated accordingly.

70.3           In terms of the Wormington Village Hall grant, Members were advised that the project had previously been given a 12-month extension by the Executive Committee and the Village Hall Society had been told that, during that time, it was expected that the legal issues would be resolved; all funding would be secured; planning permission would be in place; a contractor would have been appointed; and works would have begun by 1 November 2019. An update from the Society had indicated that no agreement had been reached with Dumbleton Parish Council on the use of the land therefore the scheme had not been progressed. It was for the Committee to decide now whether it wanted to give the project more time; withdraw the funding; or agree a further six-month extension to try to get a solution. During the discussion which ensued, one of the local Members indicated that she had attended the Parish Council where a motion had been tabled asking for the land to be transferred to the Wormington Village Society to enable it to pursue its aim of constructing a Village Hall for the use of residents and Church functions. When transferring the land, Dumbleton Parish Council would be absolved of all liability, legal or financial, and the legal costs would be met by the Society – the proposal had been agreed by the lady who had gifted the land. The Parish Council meeting had rejected the motion in accordance with the Chair’s recommendation following legal advice received that the land could not be leased or transferred to any organisation. The local Member expressed the view that, as far as she could see, the two parties – Dumbleton Parish Council and Wormington Village Society – were at deadlock and could see no prospect of a resolution to the issues. She also felt that Tewkesbury Borough Council’s Officers had done all they could, including getting the Gloucestershire Rural Community Council to mediate, as such the best way forward appeared to be to withdraw the grant and reallocate the funding. Another Member agreed that the Council had taken the matter as far as it could and, as the parties were at an impasse that could not be resolved, it would be a waste of Officer resources to offer a further extension. A Member advised that he had some involvement with the project from the start and understood that the land had been a gift from a resident of Wormington for the benefit of the village; the lady would have left the land to Wormington Village Society had it been in existence but the only organisation she could gift it to at the time had been Dumbleton Parish Council. These were two completely separate settlements which were divided by a main road and were a good distance apart. Dumbleton had its own Village Hall but Wormington did not which was why the resident had gifted the land.

70.4           In terms of Winchcombe Skate Park, an update had been received that planning permission had been gained and nine of the 13 conditions attached to the permission had now been discharged. The Town Council had appointed a designer to prepare the technical specifications and drawings and a Project Manager had been appointed to take the tendering process forward. The Town Council would be applying for a loan from the Public Works Loan Board of up to £500,000 and, in the meantime, would continue to look for funding opportunities with the help of Active Gloucestershire and other sources in the hope that the full £500,000 would not need to be drawn down. It was hoped that work could start in early spring 2020 with the project completed by summer 2020; unfortunately, the conditions on the planning permission and the preparation of reports had introduced a delay in the project timescales which could not be anticipated. At this stage it was known that there would be an increase in the cost of materials due to the quotes being relatively old so the budget of £192,510 for the skate park would have to be increased slightly; however, the figure would not be known until there was a firm date to start and a purchase order had been made. It was suggested that a 12-month extension would allow the project to get well on the way to completion. In terms of the projected costs, the Head of Finance and Asset Management confirmed that the project had changed considerably since the grant application had first been made which was why funding was required from the Public Works Loan Board; however, the Borough Council could only pay up to £70,000 which was the reason the Town Council needed to find other ways to cover the shortfall.

70.5           In response to a query as to whether grants were time-limited, the Chief Executive confirmed that they were; however, community organisations often asked for a grant as part of a larger fund-raising campaign and, as such, sometimes there was a need to extend the time-period to allow for a project to come to fruition. In this case more than one extension had been agreed and Members needed to decide if another extension was suitable. Members felt that it would be worth asking the Deputy Chief Executive to mediate in respect of the Wormington Village Hall project to see if it could be moved forward. Accordingly, it was