Regional council pleased with fund applications
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| Photo [Getty Stock] |
There’s been a strong level of interest in the first Regional Infrastructure Funding round, which closed for applications on Thursday.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council received 19 applications to the fund, asking for a total of more than $126 million.
The Regional Council has set aside $38 million in its Ten Year Plan 2012-2022, available over nine years, for projects that promote sustainable regional economic growth, or promote environmental protection and enhancement that supports sustainable regional economic development.
Regional Council General Manager Strategy, Fiona McTavish, said staff now had a busy few weeks ahead of them going through the applications and assessing whether they were eligible based on the funding criteria.
“We’re incredibly encouraged by the level of interest we have received in the fund,” she said. “While the number of applications may be down from the numbers of expressions of interest we had received, it shows that people have really thought about whether their projects were likely to meet the criteria before committing resources to putting an application together.
“We acknowledge there was a lot of work required for the applications,” she said. “As it’s a contestable fund and the amount of funding requested is well in excess of what is available, we now have a busy job ahead of us in working through all the applications.”
From here, staff will begin going through the applications and assessing whether they’re eligible. Council will consider this advice from staff when it shortlists its preferred applications at its April meeting.
A further assessment will be carried out on shortlisted applications to inform Council’s final funding decisions, which will be made in June. Funding will be made available to successful project partners once the contracts are negotiated and signed from 1 July.
Ms McTavish said it is still up to Council’s discretion about how much funding is released in this funding round.
“One of the key factors in Council’s decision-making will be deciding whether to release funding over the next nine years or holding funding for applications in later years for future Regional Infrastructure Funding rounds,” she said.
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