Agenda item

The report recommends funding decisions on submitted proposals for CIL and S106 funding; decisions on previously-allocated sums of S106 and CIL which are either underspent or have not been drawn-down; a decision on a proposal to ‘pair wards’ within the AC area.

The Community Resources Manager presented the report and drew attention to the following:

a.      The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) available to the Area Committee totalled £1,412,364.54 (£714,234.78 General Expenditure, £698,129.76 Old Market Neighbourhood Development Plan).

b.      The Section 106 (S106) available to the Area Committee totalled £328,016.71

c.       The following projects were invited to submit stage 2 full proposals:

An outline was provided to Committee on the proposals detailed in the table above.

In response to questions from Councillors the CRM clarified that:

a. Due to officer error, the Architecture Centre and Recliffe Gardening Group proposals were unable to be brought forward to this committee. These proposals could be presented at an additional meeting of the Committee or be pushed into next year.

ACTION KH to schedule meeting for end of January or early February. This should ideally combine the two outstanding proposals, the tree allocation and the policy / strategy issues raised in this meeting. 

b. There were 18 proposals, if the Committee approved all of them there would be a budget overspend of £75,000. It was not uncommon to have overspend at these meetings as more funding would be coming in.

RESOLVED Committee approved an overspend of £75,000 (with one abstention).

c. The Committee would welcome more applications from underrepresented groups. An away day / workshop for Members would be helpful to discuss how to achieve this. The Mayoral Commissions could be invited to assist.

d. Regarding proposal 2 (Montpelier Park), Members queried why the bid was for two green spaces where other parks proposals were generally on an individual basis. These two greens are very small, so officers recommended that they should be combined.   

e. Regarding proposal 4 (Soundwell Road). This was a difficult road presenting many challenges for residents. There was currently no agreed solution to address the issues. A flaw in the process was that the public and members were expected to estimate what the solution would cost without knowing what it is. This proposal was likely to return to the Committee if the grant agreed was insufficient to cover the project.

Officers estimated a likely cost to deliver something to address the issue but acknowledged it may not be comprehensive. There was not enough officer time available to pre-analyse all the bids that come in.  Transport would contribute funding to add to the CIL requested from one of the undevolved S106 funds they had direct control over to support the project: £23,156: 01/02433/ Lodge Road, Soundwell.

f. Regarding proposal 5 (St George’s Park), there was a discussion about match funding and how the proposal was taking a modular approach to replacing equipment over time. Members asked that match funding rules and standardising approaches to proposals be considered at the away day.

g. Regarding proposal 8 (Whitehall Road), the proposal appeared at previous meeting but after discussion with transport officers had been revised and the budget increased. A zebra crossing typically cost around £40,000 but this could vary widely depending on site issues. BCC also had new contractors which made estimates difficult. The grant ensures that something appropriate could be delivered.

h. Regarding proposal 14 (St Philips), the cost had doubled from previous estimates. As a relatively major project with a possible 3-year lead time, it was difficult to estimate what the final scheme will be. The money needed to be allocated before transport officers can start tendering. The request was for crossings at 3 different locations, the most important being one outside St Philips Marsh primary school.

i) Regarding proposal 15 (St Judes). This proposal had two different options costed at £100,000 and £130,000 respectively.

RESOLVED committee approves £130,000 spend.

j) Regarding proposal 17 (Nicholas Wanderers AFC), the team has been through a difficult asset transfer process over 3 years. The community had dedicated a great deal of time and material into the club already. The bid is to extend the pavilion for community use during the week. It was confirmed that the toilets on site are accessible. It was emphasised that this was not funding for a private club but building community facilities.

k) Regarding Orchard Street Parking, Electrical Charging and Planting, the Community Resources Managers report set out the situation with the CIL allocation from 2019.  Transport reported that they could not install planting because to divert the underground utilities would exceed the budget.  Fruit trees in planters was also not feasible due to the limited light levels of maintenance needed.  They also could not deliver EV charging within the £30k budget with the additional costs of removing parking bays in terms of loss of income.

Given all those difficulties, the recommendation was to unallocated the £30,000 CIL funding.

l) With reference to Cathedral Meadows additional tree planting request, the Tree Officer submitted an additional request for S106 tree funding to deliver 6 additional tree plantings and 100 hedgerow plots as part of the Cathedral Meadows enhancements at College Green, using £5,227.26 of the 12/13671/Bristol Entertainment Centre, Frogmore Street, City Centre S106.  This was approved by the Committee.

The recommendations were moved, seconded and following a vote it was:

RESOLVED that the Committee:

        i.            Noted the proposed update of progress on previously approve projects

      ii.            Noted the CIL and S106 monies available as of the 20^th September 2021

    iii.            Noted the Public Sector Equality Duty in decision making

    iv.            Agreed to unallocated £30,000 CIL funding awarded in 2019 to deliver Planting and EV Charging in Orchard Street.

      v.            Agreed the following allocation from CIL fund totalling £939,161 leaving the balance of £473,203

    vi.            Agreed the following allocation from s106 totalling £51,502 leaving the balance of £276,514

  vii.            Agreed the award of £5,277.26 of the 12/03671/Bristol Entertainment Centre, Frogmore Street, City Centre S106 to support tree and hedgerow planting at Cathedral Meadows