Purpose

To notify Council that the urgency provisions in relation to call-in were applied to four delegated decision made by the Director: Enterprise (in consultation with the Executive Member for Enterprise) in relation to allocations of UKSPF funding. This was due to the need to award funding to projects that could spend the available funds by the end of September 2026. This deadline is a condition of the grant and it is likely that the funding would have had to be returned to Government if it had not been complied with. Allowing for potential call-in would have made it extremely difficult to meet the deadline. As per the Constitution, the Chair of the Council agreed to the decision being treated as a matter of urgency. The Constitution requires that use of this provision is reported to the next meeting of Council, together with the reasons for urgency. Provisions for the use of call-in and urgency are set out in paragraph 6.3.11 (b) (i) of the Constitution.

Decision

RESOLVED: That Council notes the use of urgency provisions in relation to the decisions on the award of UKSPF funding attached at Appendix A.

REASONS FOR DECISION:

(1)   Urgency provisions were used to ensure that the funding was allocated and spent by the 30th September deadline.

(2)   This is reported to Council to comply with the requirements of the Constitution.