Agenda item

[NOTE:  Councillor C.A. Davies had earlier declared an interest in this item.]

The Cabinet considered a report which brought together the latest proposals for the Five-Year Capital Programme (Council Fund) 2022/23 to 2026/2027 taking into account the consultation exercise undertaken and the revenue implications arising from the capital programme.

The new programme would see £275m of investment over five years.  The programme would be supported by funding from Welsh Government, the UK Government, and the council’s own resources.  The Cabinet Member for Resources advised that the  programme included two new transformational projects.  The first, a £19.6m hub at the heart of Carmarthen Town Centre and the second being a £19m investment to complete the Tywi Valley Path between Carmarthen and Llandeilo.  As part of the project, £366k would be available to upgrade parking provision.  £16m of additional funding would be made available for Zone 1 of the Pentre Awel development in Llanelli, bringing the total investment on the project to £87m. 

Cabinet was advised that in addition to the above there was continued support for the following:

• £2.5m for Disability Facilities Grants
• £250k to improve Road Safety
• £600k for ongoing Highway Refurbishment
• £400k for Public Lighting
• £3m for Capital Maintenance for investment in property estate.

The creation of a new annual award of £250k starting in 2022/23 for highway drainage infrastructurewould help make the highway network more resilient to future weather events and reduce flood risks.  2026/27 also saw the proposed continuation of the £66k annual allocation to Rights of Ways and Byways.

The Cabinet Member for Resources advised that further investments would be made across the programme: 

• Education would see funds made available to complete the replacement bus bays at Ysgol Dyffryn Taf, and the introduction of a £500k annual award for general education works.
• Communities would be provided with a Disability Facilities Grants with an uplifted 2025/26 investment by £500k to £2.5m per annum, bringing the total investment over the 5 years to £10.5m. Within the leisure portfolio an uplift of £1m in funding was proposed for the upgrade of the 3G pitch at Amman Valley Leisure Centre bringing the total funding available for the project to £2m.
• In Environment, £150k across 2022/23 and 2023/24 to match fund flood management and flood mitigation works was planned. £4.7m for the replacement of refuse and recycling vehicles, together with an additional £1m from reserves as the Authority’s match funding contribution to the Waste Strategy which would see the rollout of kerbside sorting for recycling collections. 

Cabinet was advised that to mitigate for the lack of Welsh Government support specifically for investment in highways the programme included £2.4m of new money funded from the council’s reserves.  This would be in addition to the £600k in the annual rolling programme.  The Cabinet Member for Resources confirmed that £1.3m of unhypothicated general capital funding that had been made available to the Authority late in the current financial year 2021-22 had also been earmarked for highway improvements.  Taken together this was the biggest single investment of £4.3m in local highway infrastructure by the Council in recent years.

An estimated award of £1.34m funding from Welsh Government from 2023/24 onwards was anticipated to fund decarbonisation projects and therefore included in the programme.  However, given that this funding would not be available until the second year of the programme it was proposed to provide £500k from council reserves in 2022/23 to kickstart decarbonisation measures across the built estate. 

£2.7m allocated for Information Communication Technology (ICT) across the programme would be maintained, including annual funding of £200k to support digital transformational projects across council services.

As part of this year’s settlement Welsh Government provided indicative general capital funding figures up to 2024/25.  Funding for years four and five of the programme was based on an assumed level of support equivalent to that received in 2024/25 going forward.  It was noted that Welsh Government funding for 2022/23 was £1.8m less than that received in 2021/22 which was unexpected.  Given the significant investments in years 1 and 2 of the programme and the reduced capital settlement from Welsh Government it was proposed to make use of unsupported borrowing, short-term, to prevent what would otherwise be a shortfall in funding at the start of the programme.  This would be repaid in years 3, 4 and 5 of the programme.

The Cabinet Member advised that Appendix A to the report detailed the full programme, which was fully funded for the five years.

Cabinet noted that Appendix C was the council’s Capital Strategy document, which was required by the prudential code of capital finance.  This document set out the long-term context in which capital expenditure and investment decisions were made and gave due consideration to both risk and reward and the impact on achievement of priority outcomes.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED TO RECOMMEND TO COUNCIL THAT:-