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Agenda and minutes
Venue: Council Chamber - Muriel Matters House, Breeds Place, Hastings TN34 3UY. View directions
Contact: Email: Towndeal@hastings.gov.uk
Items No. Item Welcome and apologies
11:00
Minutes:
The meeting sent their best wishes to Sean.
No additional declarations of interest were made.
Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising PDF 655 KB
11:05
Minutes:
Accepted as an accurate record.
Matters arising:
Heads of Terms – was signed and sent to MHCLG on 28th June. The countersigned HoT was returned to the council on 30th July
Project prioritisation process update PDF 156 KB
11:10
Minutes:
Pranesh Datta updated:
· Hastings’ Town Investment Plan submission was for £28,216,500, however the offer received was for £24,300,000, this reduced offer is in line with funding offers other towns received. Government hadn’t specified how the reductions should be made across the programme, so a project re-prioritisation process took place over the last couple of months, which was led by Genecon as independent assessors
· The report contains the recommendations from Genecon, which have been agreed by the Project Prioritisation Working group (PPWG), which is a sub-group of this board, following this process
· These recommendations were subsequently approved by the Town Deal Executive Delivery Group and HBC Programme Board as strategic oversight
· The project leads were fully engaged in this process and have been notified of the proposed reductions
· In addition, government offered all accountable bodies a 5% management allowance for management and administration of the programme, which is included within the funding offer
· Pranesh thanked Genecon and everyone involved in during this process
Dan Shelley commented from a project sponsor perspective that although the prioritisation process was difficult, a firm but fair approach was used and also thanked colleagues who were involved in the process.
The board endorsed the recommendations as outlined in the report.
Proposed use of management allowance PDF 199 KB
11:25
Minutes:
Pranesh presented the report:
· As board members will recall, the board previously discussed concerns about HBC’s capacity to manage this process and other priorities
· Government last month confirmed that a 5% allowance to cover management and administration (M&A) costs is included within the funding offer, this is in line with, and is the norm for external funding schemes
· The indicative budget will be used to support the programme and projects into the next phases of delivery and will be used across the following areas: 1) HBC programme team (jointly funded by the M&A and HBC core budgets); 2) External consultancy and project lead support/ad-hoc contingency; 3) Planning Service support; 4) HBC staff/resources contingency
MP Sally-Ann Hart queried how the proposed budget for the 5% allowance had been calculated by the programme team. Pranesh confirmed that the original calculations exceeded this allowance. Existing officers within the team have been working on the programme and will continue to do so, although their time is not included in any of the calculations. In addition, the new posts being created which will be dedicated to the programme will bring expertise which does not currently exist within the team. Bringing in new team members will allow existing team members to move onto and seek other opportunities and funding streams as they arise.
Pranesh further confirmed that opportunities for cross-commissioning of consultants with other towns, i.e. Newhaven, had been discussed. However, unfortunately, due to having different timelines with the Newhaven announcement having just been made, it is not possible at this stage. Discussions are ongoing with other towns to consider other opportunities.
Communications and engagement update PDF 1 MB
11:40
Minutes:
Hannah Brookshaw updated:
· Hannah ran through the summary about the blog and social media statistics which were previously circulated
· In terms of the overall Town Deal branding, blog posts are being prepared following on from the pilot schools programme article a few months ago, where a presentation was given to A Level students, followed by visits to board members’ businesses and places of work and a tour as part of their curriculum work. A presentation was given to a recent Headteachers’ Forum and a pathway programme is now under development with secondary schools across the town
· Following the project confirmation submission to government at the end of August and once confirmation has been received, individual project showcases will be carried out, initially with the fast track projects then followed by the other projects, including a celebration of the Accelerated Fund projects, which have been completed and now in delivery
· Work continues with project leads on their engagement plans and consultation will be carried out as part of their business case development over the next few months to ensure a coordinated approach in the short timescale that is available
· As part of the heads of terms agreement, the engagement plan in the Town Investment Plan has been updated, focusing on the private investor engagement as this needed strengthening as per the heads of terms conditions. This has been drafted ready for submission
Hannah Brookshaw updated:
· Hannah ran through the summary about the blog and social media statistics which were previously circulated
· In terms of the overall Town Deal branding, blog posts are being prepared following on from the pilot schools programme article a few months ago, where a presentation was given to A Level students, followed by visits to board members’ businesses and places of work and a tour as part of their curriculum work. A presentation was given to a recent Headteachers’ Forum and a pathway programme is now under development with secondary schools across the town
· Following the project confirmation submission to government at the end of August and once confirmation has been received, individual project showcases will be carried out, initially with the fast track projects then followed by the other projects, including a celebration of the Accelerated Fund projects, which have been completed and now in delivery
· Work continues with project leads on their engagement plans and consultation will be carried out as part of their business case development over the next few months to ensure a coordinated approach in the short timescale that is available
· As part of the heads of terms agreement, the engagement plan in the Town Investment Plan has been updated, focusing on the private investor engagement as this needed strengthening as per the heads of terms conditions. This has been drafted ready for submission
Health and wellbeing outcomes and measures - for discussion PDF 216 KB
11:50
Minutes:
Lourdes Madigasekera-Elliott presented the report:
· Board members will recall that at the last meeting, the importance of considering how any intervention can impact and improve the health and wellbeing of the community, and how these can address health inequalities and create opportunities for health equity was discussed
· In examining how we may wish to measure and deliver health outcomes, the areas that can be used from the public health outcomes framework have been reviewed and draft health and wellbeing outcomes and measures have been drawn up against each of the challenge and programme themes
· Baseline data has been considered, along with the opportunities and health outcomes that may be achieved against each of the projects, and with the projects being in place, what can be used as measures in which to understand the impacts as outlined in the briefing paper
Professor Whitty’s annual report identified many of the coastal areas experiencing significant health inequalities but also areas that have challenges in recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce. This is one area where health and regeneration could collaborate, given that the health and care sector is such a significant area of local employment. There was general agreement that skills is also an important area to maintain focus on.
The importance of the public realm and use of public spaces and town centres was discussed. There is an opportunity to visit these issues and through an engagement process for developing the public realm and garden town proposal and it is hoped that the issues, such as health and wellbeing, climate change, community safety, can be discussed and lead to possible solutions. All project leads will have to create business cases that include equalities impact assessments which can be further developed as part of the process over time. There may be additional activities or outputs and outcomes that can be added.
12:10
Checklist – tasks for end of August submission
Template – Annex A for submission
Appointment of Mott MacDonald – verbal update
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Pranesh explained the next steps:
The checklist shows what documents will be submitted as part of the project confirmation submission at the end of the month:
· Annex A – project confirmation sheets for each programme theme
· Annex A1 – includes the financial profile spend over five years
· Monitoring and evaluation plan – includes the outputs which have been identified by working with the project leads
· Responses to the conditions as listed in the heads of terms are being collated
· The covering email which will also articulate the narrative on the accelerated fund project
Mott MacDonald has been appointed to support and help write the business cases with project leads. Meetings have been held with project leads and Motts has indicated that business cases will be completed by December, however, this is subject to further discussion. Funding will not be released until business cases are approved and summary documents submitted to government. With regards to the proportionality of business cases, the template issued by the Towns Hub is being used, however, the depth of detail needed for each one is where proportionality comes in and some projects will need to articulate more details than others, depending on the issued guidance.
Date of next meeting:
Minutes:
Tuesday, 28th September at 10am
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