Decision

Agree to fund, or part fund, the 40 projects from the CIL Neighbourhood allocation as set out in section 4 and to invite the remaining bids, which are recommended to be refused, as indicated in section 4 to read their feedback and if suitable, to re-apply to the CIL Neighbourhood Fund in future years.

Approve four budget virements set out below, for each of the CIL areas, to fund the awards from CIL receipts within the revenue budget:

• Coastal East CIL Area - £93,504.20
• North West - £14,281.67
• North - £16,250.00
• North East - £20,189.97

Reasons for the decision

A comprehensive process was undertaken to assess applications to the CIL Neighbourhood Fund in 2025, with defined criteria, and recommendations made through the CIL area panels, which were chaired by officers (neighbourhood leads), and also comprised representatives from community organisations and elected Members from all political parties.

Panels carefully considered the applications, applying the criteria for the fund, and made recommendations on the basis of those discussions.

The application and decision-making process for the CIL Neighbourhood Fund continues to be refined, year on year, applying the learning from previous rounds of the fund.

Alternative options considered

The only alternative option would be not to accept the recommendations of the panels. Given that the panel recommendations were made on the basis of open and participative decision-making, in accordance with clear criteria, there is no basis to consider this option. The Cabinet member met the lead officer and panel chairs to discuss the panels and no negative feedback was received.