Powys schools may present business cases for slice of £500,000 funding
Schools that want a slice of £500,000 to help with rising energy bills may need to present a business case and appear before a panel to state their case.
Powys County Council’s Learning and Skills scrutiny committee met on Friday to look at an amendment to the draft budget for 2023/2024, that sets up the fund.
The proposal for the one-off fund is part of a couple of tweaks to the draft budget and the result of discussions between the cabinet and the Independents for Powys group.
Councillor Lucy Roberts asked how funds would be distributed between the schools.
Head of finance Jane Thomas said there was a need to have “really clear” criteria that explains when a school can apply for support.
She said: "This is the detail that we need to work up before April. It’s clearly got to be matched by action at the school to do all that they can to reduce the impact of the pressures that they’re facing.
“It will have to be accompanied by a very clear business case demonstrating the meeting of that criteria and I’m going to suggest that we have a panel.”
Committee chairman Councillor Gwynfor Thomas said that while the funding was welcome it was not enough.
He said the money should be shared out between all Powys school through their funding formula.
The funding should be spent on energy saving measures, Councillor Danny Bebb said.
“We’ve got to start at the bottom... things like insulation, glazing, LED lighting before anything else.
“Insulation is something that could have been done as routine maintenance over the years but it just hasn’t been, and that this is why we’re in the situation.”
In summing up the discussion Councillor Thomas said that the committee was “uncomfortable” with the lack of information on how the fund would be distributed, the lack of information on individual school budgets especially high schools.
In January the cabinet endorsed a draft budget that will see the council tax increased by five per cent as well as a raft of savings, cuts and income generation measures designed to bridge a funding gap of £16.45 million.
The budget is set to be discussed by all councillors at a meeting on February 23.
