News / Politics
Nicola Yates’ Green Capital open letter
An open letter to Stephen Williams, Former Member of Parliament for Bristol West
Dear Stephen Williams,
I believe that you have been somewhat misinformed regarding transparency about the spending of the £7m government grant that was given to Bristol in order to make our designation as European Green Capital a success.
is needed now More than ever
The Green Capital ‘commonly asked questions’ section of Bristol City Council’s website covers a number of the points you raise, so I can therefore respond promptly, as I have all of the key facts to hand. The resource was created to help ensure transparency and for ease of reference by interested parties during Bristol’s Green Capital year.
Since the money was awarded, when Bristol received the £7m of public funding, it has consistently been reported to the City Council’s audit committee to ensure proper scrutiny of the spending of public funds.
So far it has been presented four times:
1. 23rd September 2014
https://www2.bristol.gov.uk/committee/2014/sc/agenda/0923_1800_sc015.html
2. 7th November 2014
https://www2.bristol.gov.uk/
3. 24th April 2015
www2.bristol.gov.uk/committee/2015/sc/agenda/0424_0930_sc015.html
4. 27th November 2015
https://www2.bristol.gov.uk/
In addition, Bristol City Council reports to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on a monthly basis_and Bristol City Council’s various Scrutiny Committees have formally reviewed the approach to European Green Capital on five occasions:
1. February 2014: Planning and Transport Scrutiny Commission (subsequently replaced by the Place Scrutiny Commission), Presentation and discussion on overall approach to delivery of the award, including the institutional arrangements.
2. July 2014: Place Scrutiny, Report on institutional arrangements and governance, funding and the outline programme.
3. October 2014: Overview and Scrutiny Management Board, Report in response to questions from the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board.
4. November 2014: Audit Committee, Report on governance arrangements in place in relation to Bristol 2015 Ltd and a financial update on grant funding and external sponsorship.
5. November 2014: Overview and Scrutiny Management Board, Report on the process for the grant programme including application and decision processes.
It is correct that Bristol City Council did not transfer the £7m from DECC to Bristol 2015 Ltd. Funds have been made available to Bristol 2015 Ltd via a contract with Bristol City Council to enable delivery of specific aspects of their programme. This funding was released gradually throughout the year as work was undertaken. This was done to protect public money and ensure due diligence. It is a very common way of ensuring that activities funded by the public purse are properly delivered and accounted for.
The Memorandum of Understanding (a document outlining the agreements and obligations between DECC and Bristol City Council) does indeed state that Bristol City Council may be obliged to disclose information relating to the funding of Green Capital under the FOI Act and that it must use “reasonable endeavours” to assist and co-operate with such requests. I believe that via the scrutiny processes outlined above, information relating to all public funding has been duly disclosed. You will be aware that the FOI Act relates to information held by public bodies and every FOI request relating to public funding has been responded to.
Now that the Green Capital year is over we are progressing a review of the period. A detailed review of Green Capital year is being developed which will inform members of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board before they meet on March 2 to evaluate 2015 activities. In addition, there will also be further opportunity to look at how the year has been funded when the Council’s audit Committee meets on 11 March. This will bring the total number of times that the Green Capital project has been through the scrutiny process to 11.
Regarding your comments about arts projects, I would direct you to Arts Council England, who awarded Bristol Cultural Development Partnership (BCDP) £744,564 through its Exceptional awards programme to deliver an extraordinary arts programme, as part of Bristol’s year as European Green Capital. These projects were not funded by DECC or Bristol City Council. We are grateful to Arts Council England for recognising the opportunity presented by the year and choosing to invest in it.
Your last paragraph refers to full detailed accounts being published in good time for public scrutiny well before the elections in May. As I mentioned above, there will be further opportunity for scrutiny when the Council’s audit Committee meets on 11 March.
To deal with your point about a line by line budget, we are not able produce that level of detail because we do not hold it. To clarify, we do not hold this level of detail for any of the Council’s suppliers of goods and services. However if the premise of your concern is a misuse of public fundsand the information I have outlined already is not sufficient, I would also add that Bristol 2015 Ltd limited has been the subject of two internal audits from Bristol City Council to ensure appropriate financial processes are in place and followed. In addition, the company has been subject to its own external audit to ensure financial probity.
Bristol City Council allocated £1m to the Bristol 2015 programme. This was agreed at a Cabinet meeting on 27 June 2013. An extra £200,000 has been specifically allocated to the One Tree Per Child project, which is now being managed directly by the City Council. So the correct total in terms of Bristol City Council’s contribution to Bristol 2015 Ltd is £1m not £1.3m, bringing the total amount of public funding the Council is responsible for to £8m, of which 25% (£2m) was distributed through grants across the city with the reminder available to Bristol 2015 Ltd to deliver against its contractual obligations.
I’m sorry that you did not have the opportunity to avail yourself of this information before you wrote your letter, but I am pleased that we share pride in the role that we and colleagues across the city have played in securing Green Capital status for the city.
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
