Agenda item

The Committee considered the following report:

“1     Relevant Background Information

1.1    In October this year Members received an update on the Rural Development Programme (RDP) for 2014 to 2020 which the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) will continue to oversee as the Managing Authority.  Since this update DARD has issued a number of communications and hosted events to raise awareness and engage relevant stakeholders in the formation of Local Action Group (LAG) governance structures.  It has also called for volunteers from the existing LAGs to form a Facilitation Group to assist this process. 

1.2    The European Commission has stipulated that ‘no one single interest group shall represent more than 49% of the voting rights' for the new LAGs.  This means that public sector representatives (considered as a single group) must not exceed 49% of the makeup of the LAG Board.  Public sector representation is defined as elected representatives and is a requirement.  Equally, no one single social partner group can occupy more than 49%. 

1.3    DARD will contract with the newly formed LAGs and the LAGs will, in turn, seek to enter into a service level agreement for related administrative services with the appropriate lead Council for the area which in our case is the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council.

1.4    It is expected that, even though elected representatives of the new councils will be minority partners on the LAG Board (49%), the Chief Executive of Lisburn City Council will act as the Chief Accounting Officer.  To account for this, a protocol is currently being developed by DARD to protect the governance and accountability of each Council tasked with facilitating the new LAGs. It is also important to note that a Rural Tourism scheme to the value of £10 million will operate under the new Rural Development Programme.  We understand this will be managed directly by DARD and is ring-fenced for Councils. 

2       Key Issues

2.1    DARD is working to a timescale whereby the social partner representation to the new LAG will be in place by 19th December 2014 and the new Board will be formed by the end of January 2015.  Councillors on the Board will be considered as holding positions of responsibility and positions will be filled by applying a process outlined to Councils by the Department of Environment.

2.2    Appointment of Councillors to the LAG will take place at each AGM of the councils when the selection process is run, in accordance with the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014. To deal with the interim period until 1st April 2015 a sub-group of councillors will come together to fill the positions on the LAG Board temporarily. 

2.3    Once the LAG Board is formally constituted, each Board member will assume responsibilities as a Director of the Company.  Board members will be responsible for the design and implementation of a Local Development Strategy.  They will be responsible for agreeing the operations of the LAG such as opening calls for applications, assessing applications and taking decisions on which projects to support.

2.4    It is anticipated the LAG Board will comprise of 12 to 18 members and that it will meet 6 to 9 times per year depending on business.  Board members will also be invited to participate in additional thematic working groups or other panels. 

2.5    The current LAG and Joint Council Committee (JCC) each have 11 places for elected members; 7 from Lisburn, 3 from Castlereagh and 1 from Belfast.  At its meeting in April 2008, Development Committee agreed to appoint the then Chairman of the Committee (or nominee) to the JCC and Deputy Chair (or nominee) to the LAG.  BCC has been represented by Cllr Guy Spence who sits on the LAG and Cllr Arder Carson who sits on the JCC.  Only a LAG will operate to oversee the next round of funding and Belfast City Council is required to nominate interim representation. However, there is no guidance on the number of places available.

2.6    Members may wish to note the following nominations to the interim LAG Board from Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council. Nominations were made using the same selection process as the Police & Community Safety Partnership Board (PCSP):

         DUP – Alderman Allan Ewart; UUP – Cllr James Baird; SDLP – Cllr Pat Catney; Alliance – Cllr Tim Morrow and Presiding Officer – Alderman James Tinsley

2.7    In order to ensure continuity, it is proposed that the current council representatives of the RDP governance structures, namely Councillor Arder Carson and Councillor Guy Spence, fill the temporary positions on the new LAG, until 1st April 2015.

2.8    In the period 2014 to 2020 LAG Board members will oversee funding of £3.22 million which will cover the following measures:

-       Rural Business Investment Scheme (for farm based and other rural based businesses)

-       Rural Basic Services Scheme - improving access to services, community centres, facilities, volunteer befriending scheme

-       Village Renewal Scheme – Hannahstown has already benefitted from this

-       All Ireland Co-operation Scheme - Some ideas being discussed already include tourism around the canals and links with Belfast Hills and Wicklow Hills.

-       Rural Broadband Scheme – consideration will need to be given to how this can align with the Superconnected Belfast project.

2.9    While the rural boundary area has not yet been finalised potential areas eligible for funding will include:

·        Hannahstown, Edenderry, Old village of Castlereagh

         The overall rural population is estimated at 4,756 and a mapping exercise is underway to provide more detail about these areas.  

3       Resource Implications

3.1    Resource impactions are those associated with the role of interim and Board member and officer support from the European and International Unit. 

4       Equality and Good Relations Considerations

4.1    An equality impact assessment will be led by Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council

5       Recommendations

5.1    It is recommended that the two current Elected Representatives, Cllr Guy Spence and Cllr Arder Carson are retained to sit on the interim LAG until 1st April 2015.  Appointments to the LAG from 1st April onwards will be made in accordance with DOE guidance and advice from Democratic Services.”

The Committee adopted the recommendation.