Agenda item

The Council had before it the wording of the written request for this special Council meeting which had been signed by 12 members in accordance with Standing Order 8.2.2:-

“The business to be transacted relates to funding from UK Prosperity Fund and is only being called because the Finance Convener refused to accept an amendment at the last Finance and Resources Committee due to our amendment being with officers 36 minutes after the deadline due to Councillor Malik being on an IJB committee meeting.”

Councillor Malik moved, seconded by Councillor Grant:-

          That Council:-

(1)     Note Parliament introduced Schedule 7 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 as amended to protect Elected Members and the public from Conveners and others who fail to act with integrity and abuse the spirit of Councils’ own Standing Orders for their own political ends;

(2)     Agree the action by the Convener of Finance and Resources Committee denying Amendments at Committee have consequences for the Administration, one of those actions is to face a special Council meeting whereby 25% of the Members call for a meeting on a matter that should have been dealt with at Committee, thus costing the Council unnecessary time and expense;

(3)     Agree the UK Shared Prosperity Fund demonstrates devolution in action whereby the UK government provides money directly to Scottish Councils;

(4)     Agree there are many worthy applications for consideration including Aberdeen Arts Centre which applied for one hundred thousand pounds of Culture Investment Funding from the Common Good Fund but were unsuccessful at the Council Budget meeting on Wednesday 5^th March 2025;

(5)     Agree in recent correspondence with elected members, Castlegate Arts have recognised areas of weaknesses within this application and have explained the mitigatory circumstances around them;

(6)     Note recent correspondence from Sharon Robertson, Chair of Castlegate Arts, which made clear that, 'A lack of funding award places the Arts Centre at a very real and significant risk of closure.';

(7)     Welcome the Castlegate Arts plans towards 'Building a Sustainable Future' for the Arts Centre and agree that the closure of the Arts Centre would have a significant adverse impact upon Aberdeen's creative and cultural community;

(8)     Agree to allocate one hundred thousand pounds from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund 25/26 to Castlegate Arts to meet the imminent needs of the Arts Centre and instruct the Chief Officer - City Development and Regeneration to work with Castlegate Arts to help towards compliance with UKSPF requirements; and

(9)     Further agree that applications from within the Finance and Resources Committee Convener’s own Electoral Ward, namely Tillydrone Community Development Trust and Tillydrone Community Campus - Art for all in Tillydrone, should be supported from the Fund and agree to allocate £160,600 and £42,140 respectively.

Councillor McLellan moved as an amendment, seconded by Councillor Greig:-

(1)      Notes Aberdeen City Council Awarded £1,429,228 through the Cultural Investment Framework as part of the 2025/26 budget (as detailed below);

(2)     Notes the Castlegate Arts unsuccessful application for Culture Investment Framework funding was considered through a fair and transparent process, with the officers recommending not to award funding due to the organisation not meeting investment priorities and the “Following the Public Pound” guidance, with the final decision being made at the Budget meeting on 5 March 2025;

(3)     Notes the Finance and Resources Committee unanimously agreed on 26 March 2025 to allocate £508,000 for Local Business Support and £521,380 for People and Skills from the 2025/26 UK Shared Prosperity Fund;

(4)     Notes the competitive application process for allocation of the 2025/26 UK Shared Prosperity Fund, with approximately £4 million worth of applications received for the Community and Place element, and only £1.2 million of funding remaining to allocate within the programme, and that the Finance and Resources Committee will make the final decision on the applications at its scheduled meeting on 7 May 2025;

(5)     Agrees that any proposal to allocate funds directly from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund which bypasses this process sets a concerning precedent and is disrespectful to those organisations who have already applied for funding;

(6)     Notes that directing funds to specific projects without a clear process undermines objectiveness and fairness and could lead to similar claims from other organisations who were not approved for funding and may risk non-compliance with “Following the Public Pound” guidance and may also create a risk of the Council having to repay some of the money back to the UK Government on the grounds of having awarded money to projects which may not meet UK Shared Prosperity Fund eligibility and criteria;

(7)     Acknowledges the funding provided to date by Aberdeen City Council’s SNP and Liberal Democrat Partnership in 2024/25:

(8)     Given the above outlined process for the allocation of UK Shared Prosperity Funding for 2025/26, take no further action.

On a division, there voted:-

For the motion:-   (19)  -  Councillors Ali, Blake, Bonsell, Boulton, Crockett, Farquhar, Graham, Grant, Houghton, Kusznir, Lawrence, Macdonald, Malik, Massey, Nicoll, Mrs Stewart, Thomson, Tissera and Watson. 

For the amendment:-  (22)  -  Lord Provost; Depute Provost; and Councillors Al-Samarai, Allard, Alphonse, Hazel Cameron, Clark, Cooke, Copland, Cormie, Davidson, Fairfull, Greig, Henrickson, Hutchison, MacGregor, McLellan, McRae, Mennie, Radley, van Sweeden and Yuill.

The Council resolved:-

to adopt the amendment.