Purpose

Greenhouse Sports is seeking funding to repair the roof of its Grade II listed building. Greenhouse provides sporting activities to young people in the local area, but has been closed since November 2021 following identification of water ingress and structural issues with the roof. The NCIL would leverage other funding from other sources to support the works which are required before Greenhouse Sports can reopen. 

Decision

Cabinet approved the following recommendations:

1. Approves in principle £0.45m of NCIL funding to Greenhouse Sports.
2. Delegates authority to the Executive Director of Innovation & Change to produce a final funding agreement in conjunction with the Director of Law and Governance that ensures value for money and safeguards the investment for community benefit.

Reasons for decision

Allocating £0.45m to Greenhouse Sports will provide 10% match funding for the total cost of the scheme, meeting a funding shortfall. This will make sure that service delivery is not put at risk and enable Greenhouse Sports to develop and grow its offer to the local community, supporting the delivery of the council’s Fairer Community strategic outcome.

These improvements to the Greenhouse Centre deliver on the priority in the council’s CIL Spending Policy Statement to support community facilities, and will contribute towards creating an enhanced sports centre to meet the anticipated additional demand for local facilities that will be created by local development, in particular the nearby Church Street regeneration scheme.

This decision, and supporting grant agreement, will ensure robust and effective expenditure and reporting in line with the Planning Act (2008) and the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 (as amended) and in accordance with the council’s strategic priorities, the revised CIL Spending Policy Statement (2022), and the council’s frameworks for resource allocation and management.