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Agenda and minutes
Venue: Muriel Matters House, Breeds Place, Hastings TN34 3UY
Contact: Democratic Services on 01424 451484 or Email: democraticservices@hastings.gov.uk
Items No. Item Welcome, Introductions and Apologies
(Co-chairs)
(5 minutes)
Minutes:
Present:
Carole Dixon, Hastings Community Network
Graham Peters, SELEP and Team East Sussex
James Harris, East Sussex County Council
Cllr Peter Chowney, Leader of Hastings Borough Council
Rich Moore, Source Park
Sean Dennis, Chamber of Commerce
Clive Galbraith, Chamber of Commerce
Jess Steele, Heritage Action Zone
Dan Shelley, East Sussex Colleges Group
Catherine Parr, BID Love Hastings Ltd
Cllr Kim Forward, Deputy Leader of Hastings Borough Council
Stuart Mitchell, New River Reit
Andrew Harvey, New River Reit
James Leathers, Heritage Action Zone
Richard Watson, NHS Hastings and Rother Clinical Commissioning Group
Steve Manwaring, Hastings Voluntary Action
Simon Hubbard, Hastings Borough Council
Peter Ashton, Public Health
Ian Gillespie, Hastings Opportunity Area
Others in audience:
Iain McNab, Cities and Local Growth Unit
Dr Coney, Harold Place Practice Manager
Jo Simmons, SELEP
Officers and Facilitators:
Damon McCollin-Moore – Independent facilitator
Victoria Conheady, Assistant Director Regeneration and Culture
Pranesh Datta, Economic Development Manager
Hannah Brookshaw, Regeneration Manager
Fiona Bell, Major Projects Manager
Chantal Lass, Sustainability Policy Officer
Daniel Taylor, Digital Communications Manager
Anna McCollin-Moore, External Funding Officer
Minutes of the Last Meeting and Matters Arising
Minutes:
Apologies received from Sally-Ann Hart MP, Paul Hetherington, Clive Cooke, Darrell Gale, Theodora Brady, Sonia Blizzard and Victoria Spencer-Hughes.
Dan Shelley is present as substitute for Clive Cooke. Peter Ashton is present as substitute for Darrell Gale. Ian Gillespie is present as substitute for Theodora Brady
RESOLVED – that the minutes of the previous meeting be approved as a true record.
The board also officially confirmed the board membership which can be found listed on HBC website - https://www.hastings.gov.uk/regeneration/towndeal/board/
Actions arising:
Officers stated that they are still open to further feedback and evidence to support the developing Town Deal proposals.
Officers also stated no further formal guidance had been given from the government but will discuss other updates later in the agenda.
Agree Code of Conduct and Register of Interest
(Co-chairs)
(5 minutes)
Minutes:
The board agreed to adopt the Code of Conduct.
The board also discussed the importance of being above board and declaring interests for reasons of transparency. If any new interests come forward, then the officers should be told, or they should be announced at the beginning of the next meeting.
Register of Interest form (page 12 to 25)
All board members to complete Register of Interest form and return to TownDeal@hastings.gov.uk
Update on Guidance Received and Progress To Date
(Victoria Conheady, Assistant Director Regeneration and Culture)
(10 minutes)
Minutes:
Victoria Conheady, Assistant Director Regeneration and Culture explained that no further official guidance had been received and there hasn’t been any further action on the timescale.
However, two letters have been received from Secretaries of State and there will be a Towns Hub team established to enable contact within central government. The secretary of state for education has also made a specific request that colleges be involved with the Towns Funds development. There is considerable expectation on the need to deliver skills and enterprise infrastructure support.
The council have also made an agreement on the town boundary, as initially the area did not cover the whole administrative area but now it does. There is a link on the Town Deal webpages on the website.
In terms of contracts and expertise, at the last board community engagement was discussed and support that will be needed to write the investment plan. These two consultancies are being separated and HBC will be looking at tendering the work over the next few weeks. For Invitation to Quote, around community engagement and investment plan we would ask the board to identify any organisations that have been used in the past and send these through to TownDeal@hastings.gov.uk
We will look to the Executive Delivery Group to help recruit the consultants.
The team are also recruiting a Regeneration Communications Officer whose time will be spent primarily on this project and other capital projects. There is an aim to update the webpages as soon as possible.
Several other funders and developers have also been met in the past few weeks to discuss opportunities in the town.
There is a strong steer from government that towns who are bidding for this funding need to work together and share best practice. The board should keep in contact particularly with towns in the SELEP region which are also involved with the Towns Fund.
The Co-chair opened the floor for any questions.
Question: Any projects that come forward as a result of this town deal will still be subject to HM Treasury Green Book appraisals which states that it has to be a 2:1 cost to benefit ratio (the Benefit Cost Ratio(BCR) considers the impacts to the economy, society, the environment and the public accounts. It offers an estimate of the value of benefit generated for every £1 of public expenditure on a project or scheme). In regeneration areas such Hastings this is often difficult to achieve. The government was going to review this but is there any update on this?
It was explained that nothing has happened yet, but it is important to have a collective response to government expressing how difficult this ratio is to achieve.
The board agreed that this is something that needs to be registered individually but also needs to go back to the regional partnership and ask them to raise this issue with government as well. This is one of the values that the LEP can bring to the Town Fund.
ACTION 1: ... view the full minutes text for item 8.
Update on Evidence and Research to Inform Plan
(Hastings Borough Council)
(15 minutes)
South East Local Enterprise Partnership - Local Industrial Strategy
Coastal Communities Economic Prospectus
Hastings and Rother Economic Taskforce Review 2002 - 2019
Local Plan Refresh
Minutes:
Jo Simmons presented information about the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP). She stated that the Local Industrial Strategy will work in parallel with the Town Fund projects. There is a wide evidence bank within the work of the SELEP that is currently being finalised, which can be useful for advising the investment plan.
Further information can be found on the PowerPoint slides.
Simon Hubbard, Director of Operational Services at HBC, gave an overview of the Coastal Communities Economic Prospectus. The existence of a coastal partnership going forward will be immensely useful. There are economic and social themes within this work which will be of great use to the town deal, such as retrofitting programmes, housing acquisition, digital investment, road and rail access, development of energy projects, further and higher education, research and development and place shaping. The Economic Prospectus will be circulated once it has been presented to the SELEP Board.
Simon Hubbard also gave a summary of the Hastings and Rother Economic Taskforce Review. This review will assess the programme and outcomes as far as we can, to benchmark performance, help advise on policy and to identify future options for partnerships. On the whole, the taskforce has been a positive influence but there are still gaps which need addressing, such as economic inclusion, needing a strategic approach to lobbying, resources and communicating better what the Taskforce is and what it does. The work of the taskforce will hopefully be closely aligned with the work of the Town Deal.
Victoria Conheady, Assistant Director Regeneration and Culture gave a summary of the Local Plan development work currently under progress. More details will be given at the next board meeting. The council are about to start the consultation process for the Local Plan. The Local Plan sets a dynamic vision for the town over the next 20 years. It’s will create a robust evidence base. The plan will look at setting policies and supporting positive change. It will look at emerging priorities which include:
- Housing – sustainably designed homes and affordable housing
- Climate change and the low carbon agenda.
- A thriving economy.
- Sustainable transport.
- Healthy places.
- Creative opportunities.
- More active lifestyles.
- Safeguarding and enhancing the environment.
The board members were then asked, via the medium of Slido (a digital polling tool), to vote on the top things that they want to advance in the town.
The results of this can be found in the documentation attached.
ACTION 2: Slides from this presentation to be sent out.
Town Investment Plan - Visioning Exercise
(External specialist/facilitator)
(75 minutes)
Minutes:
The Co-chair expressed before the visioning exercise began that it is important to have both exciting and dynamic ideas, but also to manage expectations, especially as the full £25 million is not guaranteed.
Damon McCollin-Moore, an external facilitator, conducted the visioning exercise with the board members. He explained that the goal of this exercise was to get the board to really focus is on what they want to achieve from the Town Deal and create a vision from this.
The board then discussed four different visions which came from group discussions.
By the end of the discussion, the group agreed two provisional vision statements:
‘A healthy, vibrant and quirky seaside town that people love to visit, live and work in;
A town where everyone says, ‘We can make it in Hastings!’
Board members were then asked to fill in further questions via Slido re. what they would see the investment go towards before the next meeting.
ACTION 3: Complete questionnaire on investment via Slido. Details to be sent via email.
A.O.B and Date of Next Meeting PDF 299 KB
(Co-chairs)
(5 minutes)
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Co-chairs thanked everyone, both Officers and the Board, for their contributions.
The Board were asked to hand-in/email their Declaration of Interest forms in by the next meeting.
ACTION 4: Board members to hand in Declaration of Interest forms by the next meeting on the 25th June 2020.
Any further questions can be sent to TownDeal@hastings.gov.uk
Attached below are the Slido results from the Visioning Session, and the PowerPoint slides which were presented throughout the meeting.
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