Brexit will have been voted on in Parliament by the meaningful vote, can the Portfolio Holder update the Council on the impact this will have on service delivery and all the EU funded projects or development that the Council is aware of? This should include any partnership projects or LEADER II funding threats which to date would be covered under the final payment to the EU or transitional arrangements.
In addition, can you outline all of the projects the Council has delivered in the past five years where some or all of the funding was obtained from EU grants?
Minutes:
Brexit will have been voted on in Parliament by the meaningful vote, can the Portfolio Holder update the Council on the impact this will have on service delivery and all the EU funded projects or development that the Council is aware of? This should include any partnership projects or LEADER II funding threats which to date would be covered under the final payment to the EU or transitional arrangements.
In addition, can you outline all of the projects the Council has delivered in the past five years where some or all of the funding was obtained from EU grants?
|
|
Response
The impact that Brexit will have on service delivery is being closely monitored in a number of ways. A Brexit Impact Log is being circulated to all service areas within the authority for completion. The increased risk of loss of funding for existing EU funded projects is identified as a high risk. Other service areas such as Adult Social Care have previously completed their own Brexit Risk Assessment.
The Council’s Cabinet have a Corporate Risk Register which includes Brexit as an identified risk.
A Brexit Working Group has been set up, Cllr Rosemarie Harris is the Chair. Attendees are from a range of external organisations and sector representatives.
Emergency planning staff attend the Dyfed Powys Local Resilience Forum (LRF), the fortnightly meetings are about to become weekly.
External funded projects in development – grant element only:
Enabling Natural Resources and Well-being in Wales (ENRaW) Grant – Countryside Services are the project lead with external partners and application support from Regeneration. Approx. value £100K. Countryside Services are also a partner in a pan Wales project application with the Ramblers Association.
Sport Wales: Healthy & Active Fund – Countryside Services are the project lead with external partners and application support from Regeneration. Approx. value £250K.
Enabling Natural Resources and Well-being in Wales (ENRaW) Grant –Compliance & Waste Services are the lead with external partners and application support from Regeneration. Approx. value £40K. Waste Services are also a partner in a pan Wales project with Keep Wales Tidy, approx. value £30K to PCC.
Visit Wales: Tourism Amenity Investment Support (TAIS) scheme – Regeneration are the project lead with external partners. Approx. value £128K of grant funding.
Visit Wales: Regional Tourism Engagement Fund (RTEF) – Regeneration are the project lead with other Local Authorities and external partners. Approx. value £128K of grant funding.
European Social Fund (ESF): Priority 5 – approx. value £4 million for the Region over 4 years. Early stages of project ideas being developed.
Current operational EU funded projects – grant element only:
Regeneration service: The Lake Park project, Llandrindod Wells - £126K
Regeneration service: Workways + Powys project - £350K
Youth Service: Cynydd project - £1 million (approx.)
Information provided by Louise Nicholson, RDP Programme Officer:
From an RDP & LEADER perspective, please see details of our funding for this programme & the previous one below:
Arwain are currently delivering the LEADER funding which forms part of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014-2020. The details of the project budgets are as follows:
Project start date: 1st May 2015
Project end date: 31st December 2021
Total project costs: £6,061,616
Total RDP funding (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development): £5,103,998*
Total match funding required from public, private & voluntary sectors: £957,618
*The RDP funding was initially to be split 50/50 between Welsh Government and the EU. Following the EU referendum in 2016, a letter was issued by Mark Drakeford AM (Cabinet Secretary for Finance & Local Government) confirming that “That there will be a lifetime guarantee of funding for all approved operations at the point of the UK’s exit from the EU – thereby providing assurance to all beneficiaries that they can continue to contribute to delivery of the 2014-20 Programmes as planned.” Therefore, our funding of £5,103,998 is secure and Welsh Government will fund any shortfall in EU funding. We have also been given the opportunity to extend the funding programme up to 30/6/23, however, no additional funding is available for this extension at this point, so current budgets need to be used. We do not have sufficient budget to extend beyond 31/12/21 at this point and therefore, have been unable to extend the funding programme in Powys. Welsh Government has suggested that further funding may be available in the future from underspend within other areas of the RDP but we have not received any definite information on this yet.
Previous to this funding programme, we delivered the previous RDP funding programme (Business Plan 2). The details of the project budgets are as follows:
Project start date: 1st July 2008
Project end date: 30th April 2015
Total project costs: £7,006,111
Total RDP funding (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development): £5,475,806 (including £2,737,903 EU funding)
Total match funding required from public, private & voluntary sectors: £1,530,305
Please note, the above listed projects are what the Regeneration service are either supporting or directly leading on. There may well be projects in other service areas that are also in receipt of EU or external funding, that the Regeneration service are not aware of at this current time.
Councillor Charlton’s supplementary question was to ask for updates now or in the future from the meetings Chaired by the Leader. The Portfolio Holder advised that he and the Leader would provide updates.
Supporting documents:
PDF 66 KB