Issue - meetings

Consideration has been given to the process for the governance for the collection and spending of the neighbourhood portion of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) in Gateshead but excluding Lamesley Parish which has separate arrangements required under the CIL regulations.

RESOLVED -

(i)

That 15% (neighbourhood portion) of all the CIL receipts resulting from chargeable development outside Lamesley Parish to be administered by the Community Foundation for Tyne and Wear and Northumberland with the transfer of monies including an administration fee of approximately 5% at the start of every financial year be approved.

(ii)

That the entering into a legal agreement with the Community Foundation for Tyne and Wear and Northumberland for the above be approved.

(iii)

That governance arrangements for the apportionment of funds to be through the CIL Neighbourhood Advisory Panel which will meet annually to exercise oversight of the Foundation’s administration of the funds, to review the Foundation’s ranking of applications and make recommendations to Cabinet on applications (subject to additional due diligence being done by the Foundation) and comprise:

a)        Chair – Cabinet Member for Communities and Volunteering.

b)        All ward councillors in which the chargeable development would take place.

c)        Representative(s) of the Community Foundation for Tyne and Wear and Northumberland.

d)        The Council’s CIL officer.

(iv)

That the sequential criteria against which applications would be considered be approved as follows:

Priority criteria:

a)        Applications submitted by constituted community groups and organisations within the ward in which the chargeable development will take place and then;

b)        Applications submitted by constituted community groups and organisations in the nearest neighbouring ward to the chargeable development.

Threshold criteria:

c)        Applications for capital investment of between £5000 and £25,000 submitted by constituted community groups and organisations.

d)        There are no on-going revenue costs to the Council.

Quality criteria:

e)        The extent to which the application and funding would address the significant impact of a particular development through either the provision, improvement, replacement, operation or maintenance of infrastructure or anything else that is concerned with addressing the demands that development places on an area.

(v)

That the neighbourhood portion be allocated and defrayed within the financial year and any unspent funds from the neighbourhood portion to roll over to the next financial year, to form a Borough-wide neighbourhood fund available to all wards, assessed against the criteria above, allocated and defrayed within the financial year.

(vi)

That if there are still unspent funds after the above, these are transferred to the CIL central pot which is used to fund strategic infrastructure on the Council’s CIL Regulation 123 list.

(vii)

That a review of the approach to the CIL neighbourhood portion (outside Lamesley Parish) to be carried out after April 2019 and a report be submitted to Cabinet.

The above decisions have been made for the following reasons:

(A)

To ensure that regulatory requirements regarding the neighbourhood portion are met.

(B)

To ensure that decisions relating to the allocation and expenditure of the neighbourhood portion are subject to appropriate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28