Issue - meetings

The Leader of the Council presented the recommendations in the Executive report of 10 January 2023, regarding the East Herts UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Rural Prosperity Fund. She said that this funding replaced the various funds from the European Union and East Herts had been allocated over £1 million to be spent over a three-year period.

Councillor Haysey said that the council had engaged with the local community and the local MPs as to where the money should be spent and some of the money needed to be spent by March 2023 so the council had identified projects that were ready to go.

Councillor Haysey proposed that the recommendations in the report be supported. Councillor Fernando seconded the proposal.

Councillor E Buckmaster said he was happy to support the recommendations and said that the Cultural Strategy was really important and some of the funding would go towards carrying out asset mapping across the district to find out what activities were already taking place. He also said that the Climate Change strategy was important and said the projects were admirable things to support.

Councillor Goldspink said that the Liberal Democrat group supported the recommendations in the report but said she was surprised that it had taken such a long time for the government to put forward these grants considering the Brexit vote was in 2016. She said she was shocked that the Council was required to make a decision and spend the money by March 2023.

Councillor Curtis said that there was a lot to be celebrated in the report. He said that business support was crucial and said the council could learn a lot from its colleagues in Harlow and Broxbourne who had allocated land for business use. He said that it was important to speed up the process for determining planning applications so that businesses look to invest in the district.

Councillor Kaye said he welcomed that East Herts had one of the highest allocations in the country. He referred to Councillor Goldspink’s point about having to spend the money quickly but highlighted that was only for this year’s allocation and there were two more financial years to come where decisions can be more considered.

Councillor Crystall also welcomed the funding and said it was good news for the district. He thanked the officers involved in the report on behalf of the Green Group. He referred to Appendix B and the funding to measure footfall in the town centres and asked if it was possible for Members to receive regular reports on it.

Councillor Goodeve confirmed this would be possible.

Councillor Deering referred to Councillor Goldspink’s earlier comments about the slowness of the funding and said it was the credit of the Conservative government that the district was getting the money.

Councillor Wilson said he also welcomed the funding, especially the funding to the Bishop’s Stortford Pride event. He said he had spent time speaking the with LGBTQ+ community and they felt that they were being neglected so  ...  view the full minutes text for item 313

The Leader of the Council presented the East Herts UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Rural Prosperity Fund report. She said that the fund was from the government as a replacement for various EU funding following Brexit. The report explained that East Herts would be using three overall investment priorities and had been allocated £1.773m, £215,186 of which had to be spent by March 2023.

The Leader of the Council said that the initial round of activities would be based around the council’s Cultural Strategy and Climate Strategy. She said that the report also covered the Rural Prosperity Fund which provided £472,841 to improve rural infrastructure in towns with populations of less than 30,000. The report recommended that half of this fund was to be spent on town centre improvement and the other half allocated to businesses.

The Leader of the Council thanked the Head of Communications, Strategy and Policy and his team for pulling together the report in a short space of time.

Councillor Buckmaster said he was pleased to see the level of funding available to the council to use. He said the face-to-face community engagement event was useful and important and the level of funding would make a big difference to communities across the district.

Councillor Kaye said it was encouraging to see that East Herts got one of the highest allocations in the country. He said the East Herts Pride event would be able to use the funding to expand into other towns across the district.

Councillor Haysey proposed, and Councillor Buckmaster seconded a motion supporting the recommendations in the report. On being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – That (A) to meet the objectives in Appendix B, the following amounts from the East Herts UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and the Rural Prosperity Fund (RPF) be recommended to Council:

-             up to £290,000 allocated from the UKSPF for delivery of the Cultural Strategy

-             up to £566,000 allocated from the UKSPF for delivery of the Climate Change Strategy

-             up to £630,000 allocated from the UKSPF and up to £236,421 from the RPF for delivery of town and village centre improvements

-             up to £287,000 allocated from the UKSPF and up to £236,421 from the RPF for delivery of business support activity

(B)       it is recommended to Council that the award of UKSPF and RPF funded grants and/ or contracts to deliver:

-             Cultural Strategy objectives be delegated to the Head of Housing and Health acting in consultation with the Executive Member for Communities

-             Climate Change Strategy objectives be delegated to the Head of Housing and Health acting in consultation with the Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability

-             Town and village centre objectives be delegated to the Head of Communications, Strategy and Policy acting in consultation with the Executive Member for Planning and Growth

-             Business support objectives be delegated to the Head of Communications, Strategy and Policy acting in consultation with the Executive Member for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 294