Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report from the Public Realm Engineering & Project Delivery Team Leader regarding the Environmental Improvement Programme. The report outlined changes to the Council’s Environmental Improvement Programme during 2018/19, and reviewed the latest round of applications received within South Area.

Councilor McGerty expressed concern that Environmental Improvement Programme funding had been allocated to Area Committees, then £75k was taken back by the Executive Councillor for Streets and Open Spaces for reallocation into a central pot.

In response to Members’ questions the Public Realm Engineering & Project Delivery Team Leader answered:

      i.                  Within South area there is sufficient funding available within local area budgets to take forward all of the new project aspirations.  Those eligible for centralised strategic or external funding, similarly, are most likely to be affordable at this stage.

    ii.                  For the new strategic EIP funding allocation there are enough eligible projects to adopt a 2 year programme up to 2021, and this is currently under consideration by the Executive Councillor for Streets & Open Spaces.  Further applications for local area funded schemes are expected to be invited later in 2020.

Post meeting note – the list of strategic projects has now been approved by the Exec Cllr, with the projects listed able to progress. [Including Schemes S4 and S11 mentioned below.]

   iii.                  The Officer’s report covered all South Area projects to date. Re-iterated that all could get funding as sufficient was available, with the caveat that projects marked as amber or red required a technical assessment (to be viable). At the initial application and assessment stages projects will not have been looked at in great detail, with some contingency and in some cases caveats included in reporting and suggested funding provisions in order to avoid need to seek further authorisation should, for instance, costs prove greater than anticipated.  Projects marked as green are expected to be reasonably straightforward to develop and deliver, whilst those marked as amber are more likely to have technical complexity or further dependencies.  Any marked as red are unlikely to be recommended for adoption

  iv.                  The whole Environmental Improvement Programme budget had been allocated. Project costs may appear high as they included contingency planned costs. If funding was not fully spent, it could be reallocated to other projects as required.

    v.                  Scheme S4 and S11 were under consideration by Executive Councillor for funding from new strategic EIP block. A decision on this and Year 1/Year 2 combined programme was anticipated March 2020 following consultation with Area Committee Chairs;

  vi.                  Scheme S3 would be funded from the new InterReg/2 Seas/Nature Smart Cities European tree canopy programme.

Councilor Ashton requested project cost and saving information.

ACTION: Public Realm Engineering & Project Delivery Team Leader to provide a summary paper of project costs and savings to date.

Following discussion, Members resolved (unanimously) to:

      i.         Note the operating amendments to the programme agreed by the Executive Councillor for Streets and Open Spaces following Environment and Community Scrutiny on 21 March 2019.

    ii.         Note the allocation of funding to continue with a programme across all areas for the period 2019-21

   iii.         Allocate £4,500 from local area EIP funds in 2019/ 20 towards the provision of 26 summer hanging baskets along Cherry Hinton High Street

  iv.         Note those new South area project aspirations received in the latest 2019/ 20 round recommended to the Executive Councillor for Streets and Open Spaces for funding from the new central, city-wide, strategic EIP allocation

    v.         Consider and approve those new South area project aspirations received in the latest 2019/ 20 round for funding as part of the local South Area programme for 2019/20. (Schemes S1, S2, S5, S6, S7, S8, S9 and S10).

  vi.         Support those projects selected for implementation, subject to them being viable, obtaining consents as necessary, positive consultation and final approval by the Council’s Place Board, Ward and Executive Councillors, where required.