Decision

The Director of Strategy approved the following allocation of funds:

·        £330,000 will be allocated to North Somerset Council (NSC) to enable delivery of the expansion proposal, consultation, legal/financial and other required support to inform the development of draft legislation, constitutional and financial changes to enable expansion, and to strengthen the identification and development of strategic priorities in NSC linked to the West of England Growth Strategy. This will be a one-off funding allocation and as such is not available to fund new permanent staff roles.

·        The balance (£650,000.00) will be allocated to WECA covers:

o   £300,000.00 will be allocated to WECA to cover the direct costs of the expansion programme including programme project management expansion proposal development, consultation, legal/financial and other required support to inform the development of draft legislation, and constitutional and financial changes to enable expansion. As with the allocation to NSC, this funding is a one-off allocation and cannot be used to fund new permanent staff roles.

o   £350,000.00 will be held by WECA, as the accountable body for this funding. This money will enable acceleration of strategic projects linked to the Growth Strategy, enabling actions specifically associated with NSC to be accelerated to support strategic alignment with the wider region (growth zone development programmes in the NS Growth Gateway and Severn Estuary have been identified as priorities). This will ultimately strengthen growth opportunities that will bring benefits to the whole region.

£20,000.00 for contingency will be held by WECA.