To authorise the Leader to sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 2 November 2020 as a correct record of the proceedings.

The Chairman was authorised to sign the minutes of the meeting held on 2 November 2020 at a later date as a correct record of the proceedings.

An apology for absence had been received from Councillor S.M. Prochak, MBE.

To receive any disclosure by Members of personal and disclosable pecuniary interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the Member regards the personal interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct.  Members are reminded of the need to repeat their declaration immediately prior to the commencement of the item in question.

Barnes, J        Agenda Item 6 – Personal Interest as a Member of Etchingham Parish Council.

Mrs Barnes      Agenda Item 6 – Personal Interest as a Member of Etchingham Parish Council.

Bayliss             Agenda Item 6 – Personal Interest as a Member of Bexhill Chamber of Commerce and confirmed that she was not an owner of a holiday let and was not eligible under the proposed discretionary scheme for a grant.

Browne            Agenda Item 6 – Personal and Prejudicial Interest as owner of a holiday let and eligible to apply under the proposed discretionary scheme.

Dixon               Agenda Item 6 – Personal Interest as his wife was employed as the Clerk to Brede Parish Council.

Vine-Hall         Agenda Item 6 – Personal and Prejudicial Interest as owner of a number of holiday lets and eligible to apply under the proposed discretionary scheme.

PART III – URGENT DECISIONS – The Chairman of Council had agreed that the following decisions were urgent in accordance with Paragraph 17 of the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules contained in Part 4 of the Council’s Constitution.  The call-in procedure does not therefore apply to these decisions.

Consideration was given to the report of the Revenues and Benefits Manager that gave details of the national scheme aimed at businesses that were required to close as a result of the current restrictions (known as the Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG) (Closed) Addendum) and a locally determined discretionary scheme for those businesses materially affected by the lockdown for Members’ approval.  The discretionary scheme was known as the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) and as with the previous business support grants, this new scheme would be administered by local councils.  The draft scheme was attached as Appendix 1 to the report.  

Under the discretionary scheme, the Council could determine how much funding to provide and which businesses to target.  The ARG was intended to help those businesses which, whilst not legally forced to close, were severely impacted by the restrictions, those outside the business rates system, which were effectively forced to close and to consider providing additional support to larger local businesses which were important to the local economy, on top of the funding provided to those businesses via the LRSG (Closed) scheme.

Officers had been in discussion with colleagues around the County to see if a degree of commonality could be achieved, however it was acknowledged that there would be differences due to each Council’s local needs and also due to the varying amounts of grant each Council would receive.  It was noted that issues raised by the local chambers of commerce had also been considered in drafting the scheme.

The discretionary scheme proposed that a grant would be made where a business was closed and had no Non-Domestic rating assessment and fell within one of the following categories:

a.    Shared spaces – businesses that shared premises with other businesses.

b.    Bed & Breakfast – where the property was domestic, provided short stay accommodation for no more than six persons at any one time within the past year; and was the sole or main residence of the proprietor(s) and the B&B use was subsidiary to the private use.

c.     Holiday accommodation including self-contained holiday lets and small campsites – this applied to domestic properties and therefore subject to council tax. Businesses where the letting was by way of home sharing would be excluded (e.g. where a bedroom was let within a domestic property).

d.    Food, Beverage, Event, hospitality and Leisure supply chain - businesses that wholly or mainly provided goods and services to businesses undertaking the provision of food, beverage, hospitality or leisure or in the management of the flow of goods and services to those businesses.

e.    Arts and Entertainment – this applied to cultural and tourist venues not eligible under the national scheme together with entertainment-based industries where the restrictions  ...  view the full minutes text for item CB20/73.