Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor Jackie Strong and Councillor Tony Easson declared a personal but non-prejudicial interests, in that they facilitate a group on Fridays in Caldicot, but advised they have no relationship or friendship with anyone from Together Works.  Councillor Jill Bond declared a personal but non-prejudicial interest as a long-time friend and supporter of Together Works. Councillor Jan Butler declared a personal but non-prejudicial interest, in that she is a member of a community centre at Goytre which had received some Shared Prosperity Funding.  

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.She asked the Scrutiny Manager to briefly explain the call-in process that would be followed at the meeting,in accordance with the Council’s Constitution. The Scrutiny Manager advised that the meeting had been scheduled to debate a decision that had been made but had not taken effect concerning UK Shared Prosperity Fund Allocation 2025-2026.   

It was advised that on 19th February 2025, the Cabinet considered a report that informed them of UK Governments one-year extension to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and sought approval for the granting of investment from UKSPF for 2025/26 to projects listed in Appendix one of the Cabinet report.   

The Cabinet decision report provides full context of the key issues relating to the decision taken on 19th February 2025, outlined in section 3 together with an options appraisal provided under section 5, accessed via Agenda for Cabinet on Wednesday, 19th February, 2025, 4.30 pm - Modern Council.   

For context, the decision that had been resolved by Cabinet on 19th February 2025 was to accept the following recommendations:  

That Cabinet:  

a.     Approves the recommendations of the Monmouthshire People & Place partnership in relation to the investment of funds from the local authority’s allocation for 2025/26.  

b.     Approves the draft local investment plan (appendix one) and projects contained within.  

c.      Authorises the commencement of activity as outlined in the draft local investment plan from 1st April 2025, ahead of the regional lead local authority (Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC) receiving an updated Memorandum of Understanding from UK Government. 

The Chair asked the members who had called in the decision to present their reasons for calling in the decision, as follows:   

·        Insufficient scrutiny, transparency and accountability as to how projects are identified and evaluated and the process and criteria against which decisions are made. No apparent assessment of the realisation of benefits, as defined in each initial project proposal and where projects are within their lifecycle.  

·        Little visible assessment of the impact and consideration of mitigation for projects being ceased in the Integrated Impact Assessment, or elsewhere. 

The Call-in Members outlined their reasons for calling the decision in (as above) and made the following additional points: 

Councillor Bond: 

·        Emphasised the importance of council processes ensuring correct, robust, and transparent decisions for public fund allocation through scrutiny.? 

·        Highlighted the "Together Works" project as an example of a valuable community project in Caldicot. 

Councillor Easson: 

·        Councillor Easson expressed that he felt that there should have been earlier scrutiny of the issue rather than it being addressed through a call-in.? 

·        Councillor Easson mentioned his concern about not being able to discuss background information not in the public domain that he felt was relevant to the decision. ? 

Councillor Howarth: 

·        Councillor Howarth felt there was a lack of transparency about the Shared Prosperity Fund application process and insufficient scrutiny overall.? 

·        He emphasised the need for long-term viability and business cases for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.