Questions Over £500,000 Covid Recovery Fund Request To Lewes & Eastbourne Councils

Lewes and Eastbourne councillors have raised concerns around the “details” surrounding a shared coronavirus recovery and restart programme.

Leaders of Eastbourne Borough and Lewes District Council have been asked to each allocate £250,000 towards the programme, which is intended to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on both council areas.

Before a decision is made, however, the proposals were considered through each council’s scrutiny process, where councillors from both authorities raised concerns about details of the scheme.

Speaking at a meeting on  Tuesday (November 3), Lewes councillor Roy Burman (Con) said:

“Although I do understand that if this is to be a meaningful programme it has to have funding, I think that we need to have a lot more meat on the bone before a funding agreement is made. 

“If I understood the answer given earlier; no extra staff are being employed for this programme, but we are redeploying existing staff to the exercise.

“In which case is some of this £250,000 just a paper exercise, taking it from one pot and putting it into another?”

Similar views were put forward by Cllr Adrian Ross (Green) at the same meeting. He said:

“The same struck me about the £250,000 and I would be interested also to understand what it is going to be spent on. 

“Recognising that this is a paper which is going to cabinet, I suppose I think we should just be asking that cabinet are provided with the detail of the £250,000 because they are the people who are making the decision not us.”

At both meetings officers told councillors the funding would go to staff costs, as regeneration projects such as this can be charged to capital budgets rather than revenue.

In other words, the councils could reduce its day-to-day expenditure by paying out wages from their capital reserves, in a way it could not normally. 

Part of the funding would also go towards IT infrastructure costs, officers said.

Following discussion, Lewes councillors suggested that cabinet should only approve the funding in principle, with a final decision to be made by a joint recovery board once more details are available.

This course of action was first recommended by Cllr Isabelle Linington, leader of the Conservative group on Lewes District Council.

However this view appeared not shared by Cllr Robert Smart, her Conservative counterpart on Eastbourne Borough Council.

Speaking at that authority’s meeting on Monday (November 2), Cllr Smart said:

“I have expressed in another place reservations about the joint board.

"I am not convinced that it is a necessary structure.

“We are interested in Eastbourne, not necessarily in Lewes.

"If we look at the issues relating to, for instance, tourism and enterprise really nobody wants to look at tourism and enterprise in Lewes.

“I think the structure of this actually is wrong to be honest.

"It is another layer whereas in my world, the managers who are involved in those activities, would be leading their activities, rather than having another group of people over here and are trying to create some view on it.”

In response, officers confirmed the joint board would be responsible for looking at matters which affect both areas and would not be involved in discussions surrounding the councils’ individual assets and services.

An example of an issue affecting both areas would be staffing, officers said, as the councils now largely share a workforce.

Cllr Smart had also raised questions about what the £250,000 would be spent on. 

Eastbourne councillors noted the report but did not put forward any specific recommendations on the programme. 

Eastbourne’s cabinet is due to make a decision on whether to allocate the funding at a meeting this evening (Wednesday, November 4), while Lewes council leaders are set to consider the same decision next week.