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Agenda and minutes
Venue: Council Chamber - Muriel Matters House, Breeds Place, Hastings TN34 3UY. View directions
Contact: Democratic Services on Email: democraticservices@hastings.gov.uk or 01424 451484
Items No. Item Welcome and apologies
10:00
Minutes:
As this is the last meeting Rebecca Collings will be attending as Town Hub Coordinator, thanks were extended to her and the Towns Hub team for all of the support it has given to Hastings Town Deal from the very early stages and during the development of the Town Investment Plan. Rebecca in turn wished Hastings well with the next stages of business case development and project delivery.
Apologies were received from:
Candice Miller, Dan Shelley, Darrell Gale, Francis Brown, Liz Gilmore, Lourdes Madigasekera-Elliott, Sonia Blizzard, Steve Manwaring and Victoria Conheady
Minutes of the last meeting (24th August) and matters arising PDF 215 KB
10:05
Minutes:
Accepted as an accurate record.
There were no matters arising.
Programme progress update PDF 175 KB
10:15
· Town Deal Grant Funding Agreement
· Decisions of the Town Deal Investment Panel
· Project progress report
· Communications update
Additional documents:
- Appendix 1 Projects business cases approved Oct 21 , item 66. PDF 132 KB
- Appendix 2 Towns_Deal_Blog_and_Social_Media_Report_Oct , item 66. PDF 2 MB
Minutes:
a. Town Deal Grant Funding Agreement
Pranesh Datta updated:
· The Grant Funding Agreement (GFA) is yet to be received from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), although it has been indicated that our submission has been approved and it is expected that the details of the GFA will mirror our submission. The GFA will be circulated once it is received
· Late notification was received that an offer of 5% of the grant value will be available to support development of projects. This has been offered to all project leads
· Project completion date is still expected to be March 2026, despite the delays
· It is hoped the submission of summary documents will be streamlined and be submitted on a programme theme level rather than on a project by project basis – confirmation is awaited. This will reduce the need to hold board meetings for each business case approval. Pranesh apologised for the delays and for having to move meetings around so much to accommodate the Towns Fund processes
Authority is sought for the Co-Chairs to sign the GFA on behalf of the Town Deal Board, provided there is no significant change from our submission. This was agreed by the meeting.
Jess Steele advised of the difficulties experienced by Hastings Commons due to the delay in the announcement of the outcome of the Community Renewal Fund bids, which has been expected since last August.
MP Sally-Ann Hart advised that she continues to lobby regarding this matter and there have been a lot of complaints from other MPs. She has been advised that there has been a lot of uptake, the bids are being considered and an announcement is expected soon.
Jane Hartnell offered to write to the Secretary of State on behalf of the Town Deal Board expressing the difficulties and asking for the timescales for delivery of projects to be extended.
Action: Jane Hartnell
b. Decisions of the Town Deal Investment Panel
As agreed at the June board meeting, responsibility to assess business cases was delegated to the Town Deal Investment Panel.
Pranesh confirmed that the panel met on 21st October and assessed and approved the first two fast-track business cases (Hastings Coworking and Innovation Space and Churchfields Business Centre Incubation Units).
The meeting ratified the decision of the Investment Panel. Jess Steele abstained from the ratification, due to a conflict of interest.
It was explained that a meeting for all project leads has been set up for later this month and that it had been difficult to set this up initially due to the delay in receiving successful confirmation of our project profile submission.
Kate Adams queried whether the business cases included inclusive measures such as access and disability access. For instance, the Courtyard development does not have any disability access.
Pranesh explained that accessibility was asked to be arranged as part of the Courtyard development. Unfortunately, due to funding falling short this was not possible but as part of our project re-profile, funds were requested ... view the full minutes text for item 66.
Next steps
10:35
· Offer of 5% upfront payment to project sponsors for project development if required (conditions and arrangements to be confirmed)
· Continuing with business cases for all projects
· Joint project sponsors meeting – 11am, 23rd Nov 21
· Establishing Town Deal Programme Team – Cabinet report 1st Nov 21
· Drafting each project’s Grant Funding Agreement, including detail of claims process
· Programme level Equalities Impact Assessment and project level, where required
· Base line for Monitoring and Evaluation
· Planning Performance Agreements with project sponsors
Minutes:
Pranesh explained the next steps:
· Offer of 5% upfront payment to project sponsors for project development if required (conditions and arrangements to be confirmed) – the offer is being kept open to allow project leads further time to consider this
· Continuing with business cases for all projects – Mott MacDonald have been working with project leads to assist with the development of their business cases. It has been noted that the economic case has proven to be difficult to complete and a workshop for project leads will be arranged
· Project leads meeting – is taking place at 11am on 23rd November 2021
· Establishing the Town Deal Programme Team – a report was approved by HBC Cabinet last Monday, 1st November to start organising delivery of the programme, subject to receipt of the GFA
· Drafting each project’s Grant Funding Agreement, including detail of claims process – work is now in progress
· Programme level Equalities Impact Assessment and project level, where required – the team are looking at which projects will need these, and work will start soon
· Base line for Monitoring and Evaluation – basic evaluation criteria and measurements have been signed up to, although these may change and further guidance is still awaited. Project leads will be kept in the loop
· Planning Performance Agreements with project leads – a survey will be sent to project leads to help identify the challenges and what additional support will be needed for each project. A planning officer will be asked to attend one of the project leads meetings to talk about any issues from their perspective
Date of next meeting:
10:00, Thursday, 9th December 2021 (TBC)
Minutes:
10am, Thursday, 9th December via Microsoft Teams
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