Agenda item

To update on the progress of the Canal Project, to reaffirm the support of the Council for the project as accountable body, and to allocate an additional resource towards the project.

The Leader, Councillor Braun, introduced the report and highlighted the following key points:

• This recommendation had been endorsed by the Strategy and Resources Committee to confirm the Councils commitment to the project.
• If approved this would increase the projects Capital Budget by £10.187m with £1m being funded from Stroud District Councils (SDC) Capital Reserve.
• The reasons behind the budget increase were set out in Section 1 of the report on pages 16-17 of the reports pack.
• The project had five strategic aims which were of a great importance to the district and could be found on page 16 of the document pack.
• Appendix B on page 23 of the reports pack outlined the benefits that the project would bring to the district.

The Leader, Councillor Braun, introduced the Canal Project Manager and invited him to provide a brief overview of the report:

• They would be setting up formal briefing sessions for Members to attend and learn more about the project.

• The project board had scrutinised the cost of the project throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and the increase in inflation since the start of the war in Ukraine.
• A review was undertaken by the finance team at SDC who made the recommendations to increase the Capital Budget to the project board in November 2022.
• Only 10% of the increased funding would come directly from SDC, the other 90% would be externally funded. They had submitted a bid for £2.3m from the National Lottery who had previously been supportive of the project. There was also a bid for £2.17m to Gloucestershire County Council Highways who had previously invested in the project.

The Canal Project Manager gave the following answers in response to questions asked: 

• The new estimated costs had been created with contingency costs and inflationary costs built in.
• Any SDC invested money that was not spent on the project would be returned to the project board to be refunded accordingly.
• This was the largest project in the South West that the National Lottery were investing in. Should they not have the confidence that the project had been backed by all its funding partners, they had the ability to withhold any further funding and also to reclaim any previous funding for the project which was a total of £3m.
• Discussions with minority groups and disabled persons had not yet taken place however, they had just recruited a Community Engagement Officer and were recruiting one more person into the team to begin the detailed activity plan which was agreed during the development phase.

Councillor Braun proposed and Councillor Cornell seconded.

Councillor Studdert-Kennedy welcomed the report and debated the time to progress the project. He further requested to see a report which covered the net cost to SDC for the whole project.

Councillor Green expressed her support for the project.

Councillor Cornel expressed her thanks for the continuity of support for the project across the council and across all political parties. She acknowledged the effort that had been put into fundraising for the project and the support of the funding from the National Lottery as well as other partners.

Councillor Wilsher joined the meeting.

Councillor Braun expressed her thanks for the support from both Officers, Members and Partners. She further expressed her support for the project and the benefits it would bring to the district.

After being put to a vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

RESOLVED  To increase the capital budget for the Canal Project by £10.187m, to be funded as set out in this report and recommended by Strategy and Resources Committee.