Agenda and minutes

Leader (urgency powers), Cabinet - Thursday, 14 January 2021

Contact: Wayne Hemingway, Interim Head of Democratic Services

Items

No.

Item

Covid-19 Further Business Support Schemes PDF 254 KB

View the background to item 1.

Minutes:

Background:

This report provided details of the latest government schemes to support businesses impacted by Covid-19, as specified in sections 2 and 3 of the report, to which the Leader’s approval, under urgency provisions, was sought.

The report noted that the urgency provisions were set out in the Constitution (paragraph 3.2 of Part 3 (Responsibility for Cabinet functions) of Chapter 3 (Responsibility for Functions) of the Constitution).

The Chairman of the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed that the taking of these decisions was urgent and could not be reasonably deferred until the next Cabinet meeting on 2 February 2021, in accordance with Section 11 (Cases of special urgency) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 and Rule 17 (Special Urgency) of the Access to Information Rules (Part 2 of Chapter 4 in the Constitution).

Additionally, and in line with rule 15.11 of Chapter 4, Part 5 of the Constitution, call-in could be waived where any delay likely to be caused by the call-in process would seriously prejudice the Council’s or the Public’s interests. The Chairman of the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed that the decisions proposed were reasonable in all the circumstances and to them being treated as a matter of urgency and to waive call-in.

The report noted that furthermore, it was proposed that the Chief Executive uses the urgency provisions as set out in paragraph 4.1 of the Employee Delegation Scheme (including consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Leader of the Labour Group) to agree the additions to the revenue budget funded from grant provided by Central Government as set out in Section 2 of the report. The use of these urgency provisions would be reported to Full Council on 18 February 2021 for information.

Decision number:	Decision:
8/2021	The Leader, using urgency powers, agreed to reopen the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) scheme in the form previously agreed on 4 December 2020 except to remove the closing date for applications as set out in paragraph 3.3 and Appendix 1 of the report and in doing so agreed to: · delegate authority to the Chief Finance Officer to consider and determine applications made under this Scheme; · delegate authority to the Chief Finance Officer, in consultation with the Leader and the Portfolio for Business Management, to make minor amendments to this Scheme to enable it to adapt to the economic environment; · delegate authority to the Chief Finance Officer, in consultation with the Leader and the Portfolio Holder for Business Management, to determine when the scheme should be closed.
9/2021	The Leader, using urgency powers, agreed that Medway’s funding allocation for the LRSG (Open) scheme of £56,537 and for the second allocation of ARG when this is confirmed (estimated at £2.376million) should be awarded to businesses as direct grants alongside the balance of the first allocation of the ARG.
10/2021	The Leader agreed that decisions 8/2021 and 9/2021 are considered urgent and therefore should not be subject ... view the full minutes text for item 1.