Agenda item

Council was informed that the Executive Board, at its meeting held on the 4^th February, 2019 [minute 7 refers] had considered the Five Year Capital Programme 2019/20 to 2023/24 and had made a number of recommendations for Council’s consideration.

The Executive Board Member for Resources presented to the Council, on behalf of the Executive Board, the Five Year Capital Programme that had regard to the budget consultations. The programme provided for an estimated spend of nearly £261m over the 5 years that optimised funding opportunities and maximised the funding from potential external sources with the Council’s contribution thereto estimated at £133m together with £128k from external grant funding bodies. If adopted, the programme comprised a combination of existing and new schemes to develop the local economy, create jobs and enhance the quality of life for our citizens.

The Executive Board Member advised that, as with the revenue settlement, the Council had not been provided with any forward indicators from Welsh Government in respect of general capital funding beyond 2019/20. Accordingly, the programme was based on the premise that future years supported borrowing and general grant would be at the same level as 2019/20. However, additional capital grant for general purposes had been made available by the Welsh Government over a 3 year period from 2018/19 to 2020/21, amounting to some £6.6m, which had now been included within the current 5 year capital programme.

He advised that many of the investments had been made into schemes such as 21^st Century Schools programme, Highways, Regeneration and Housing, which were considered important for the County. New funding had been provided within the Community’s Department for the Amman Valley Leisure centre for 2020/21 and for the continuation of support for private Sector Housing in 2023/24 for Disabled facilities grant. The Environment Department would receive continued support for Highways Improvements, Bridge maintenance and Road safety schemes into 2023/24, and for the Tywi Valley path in 2019/20. Additionally, as consequence of additional Welsh Government Funding, the budgeted spend on ‘roads refurbishment’ for the next three years would increase by a further £1.5m per year.

The MEP programme had also seen some changes in the years 2019/20 to 2023/24 with the re-profiling of budgets and the introduction of some new schemes including Ysgol Gymraeg Cydweli, Hendy, Llandeilo and both Welsh Medium and Dual Stream Schools at Ammanford.  That had been due to the Welsh Government having recently announced their approval for the Band B programme running to 2024, with the main change being an increase in the intervention rate from 50% to 65% for Schools, and from 50% to 75% for Special schools thereby enabling the authority to deliver more schools within the £129.5m Band B programme. The Authority’s budget currently identified funding for £70m of the £129.5m programme.

The Regeneration & Chief Executives budgets, now incorporated the City deal schemes, which included the Wellness Village and Yr Egin. The proposed Llanelli Leisure Centre and Llanelli Area review had also been identified as a key component within the proposed Wellness Village development. There was also continued support for the Transformation Strategy Project fund within Regeneration for 2023/24, which had the potential of external funding to match fund the council’s budget.

Council was informed that officers would continue to monitor individual schemes and funding availability. Whilst both would need to be closely managed to ensure the schemes were delivered in full, the current programme was fully funded for the 5 years. He thereupon moved that the recommendations of the Executive Board in respect of the Five Year Capital Programme, [Council Fund] and its proposed funding, as detailed in the report. The proposal was duly seconded

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the following recommendations of the Executive Board be accepted:-

DURATION OF MEETING

[NOTE: Following conclusion of this item at 1.00 P.M. the Council’s attention was drawn to Corporate Procedure Rule 9 – Duration of meeting and the fact the meeting had been underway for three hours. It was therefore

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that Corporate Procedure Rule 9 be suspended and the meeting stand adjourned until 2.00 p.m. to enable the remaining items on the agenda to be considered.

RECONVENED MEETING

The Council reconvened at 2.00 p.m. to consider the remaining items on the agenda.