- Any grant shall be awarded at Argyll and Bute Council’s (“the Council”) absolute discretion and the Council reserves the right to refuse any application.
- Applicants are required to declare all previous support received from UK, Scottish or Local Government support schemes to provide local authorities with the necessary information to ensure payments are compliant with subsidy control limits.
- Any costs incurred prior to an offer of grant being issued and accepted are not eligible.
- Any grant funding awarded will be made to the business not an individual.
- Applicants must accept their offer of grant within 4 weeks or the offer will lapse.
- Applicants must make their claim for any approved costs within 12 weeks of approval. Any extension must be requested in advance and the Council cannot guarantee that an extension will be approved.
- Only the items specified in an offer of grant can be claimed. Applicants must obtain pre-approval in writing from the Council to substitute an approved item, or if the cost of an approved item increases by more than 20% , in advance of the cost of those items being incurred.
- Applicants may not claim cash payments; handwritten invoices and receipts will not be accepted.
- Grant claims for approved items must be submitted on the grant claim form supplied and must be supported by evidence of expenditure (receipts or invoices clearly showing the items purchased, the supplier and the date of purchase) and a bank statement showing the Applicant’s payment for these items. Credit card or PayPal statements cannot be submitted in place of bank statements.
- The Council reserves the right to terminate this small business development grant agreement and to withhold payment and/or to recover any payments previously issued, if the required evidence of expenditure is not supplied.
- The Council may re-assess, vary, make a deduction from, withhold or require immediate repayment of the grant in the event that the Applicant:
- fails to comply with any of these terms and conditions
- fails to meet any or all of the eligibility criteria
- fails to provide the required evidence of expenditure
- An Applicant’s business must remain trading and based in the Argyll and Bute Council area for at least 12 months from receipt of any grant awarded.
- The fund will close to applications as soon as all funds are committed, or on 1 December 2024 whichever comes first.
- In the event of a successful application, applicants acknowledge and agree that the Council and/or Business Gateway shall carry out monitoring of the progress of their business. This will be in the form of a telephone call or email, normally approximately 6 months after any grant has been awarded to the Applicant. Applicants will be required to provide all relevant information to the Council to enable effective monitoring.
- The Council reserves the right to use details of the project for publicity for the programme and share information with any parties appointed to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of this funding, including the UK Government.
- The Council may be required to make any application for Council funding available for public scrutiny under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) or the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRS). Applicants should make the Council aware of any parts of its application or items and their cost that they are seeking grant support for, which may prejudice its interest if it were made public, however, nothing shall preclude the Council from making public, if required under FOISA or EIRS, any information provided by the Applicant.
