Issue - meetings

To approve acceptance of a grant from Building Digital UK.

Consideration was given to a report seeking approval of a supplementary capital estimate for £2m grant funding from Building Digital UK (BDUK) to accelerate and extend the roll out of superfast broadband across the whole of Cheshire and Warrington. 

Cheshire East Council was the Accountable Body for the Connecting Cheshire Partnership.   The grant funding was required to be used to extend an existing contract with Airband to increase this contracts capacity to connect households in both Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester boroughs.

RESOLVED:  That Council

1             accept the £2m grant funding from BDUK

2             note that BDUK had attached two conditions to this new funding:

·      an outline model of how the contractor (Airband) intends to use the indicative £2m grant allocation, is provided

·      that the Authority renew its commitment to the existing policy of ringfencing gainshare arising from previous Connecting Cheshire contracts for use on digital investment across Cheshire

3             note that the Finance Sub Committee in December 2021 has recommended approval of the £2m Supplementary Capital Estimate, presented as part of the 2021/22 Financial Year Review.

4             approve a Supplementary Capital Estimate for £2m.

5             delegate authority to the Director - Economy and Growth to agree the terms on which the grant is offered and enter into a grant agreement to incur expenditure and activity in line with the conditions associated with the accelerated funding grant.