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Agenda item
Town Deal further guidance
10:30
· Voting decision needed on investment plan submission date
· Briefing note and full guidance (attached)
· Key work for the short term:
o Amended terms of reference
o Membership
o Investment plan and engagement tenders
Minutes:
Carole explained that further guidance was recently released. This emphasises that 90% of the funding is for capital investment and the revenue element will have to be sought elsewhere. There are other areas that are made clear: 1) focus should be on the town centre, but will include other areas 2) business-led thinking is encouraged although it is recognised that we want this to be community-led, this will have to be a business-led piece of work, 3) in response to COVID-19, but it needs to be medium to long term response rather than short term, which fits with the timescales and three themes, urban regeneration, skills and enterprise infrastructure and connectivity. In terms of the process, there are three potential deadlines and opportunities to submit the investment plan: 31st July, 31st October or 31st January 2021. We are not competing against other towns and there is no merit in rushing into submit an early plan. The guidance is clear that submissions have to be right first time and that there will only be one other chance to develop this further and re-submit if the first submission is not up to scratch.
The first decision for this board to make is to agree the date of submission of the investment plan. Victoria added that there would be a significant benefit to run this programme with some alignment with the Hastings local plan consultation given the spatial requirements and that public consultation will be starting in September/October. We would need to work quickly to get the initial priority projects identified by that period to work up a full consultation on these. The council, as lead authority recommends this be 31st January 2021. In the case that the projects identified have a revenue element, James Harris asked for clarification as to whether there is any flexibility in the programme. Iain McNab advised that 10% of revenue funding is across the whole programme and not per place. The presumption is that this is a predominantly capital programme and a case can be made for revenue projects, but funding will only be granted on exceptional grounds.
Dan asked if we go for the last deadline, will those submitting against the first two deadlines receive the bulk of the funding. It was reiterated that is has been made clear in the guidance that this is not the case and we are not competing against other Town Deal areas.
There was general agreement that a longer lead in time would enable sufficient time to do the work needed, for consultation with the community and would work better in case there is a second wave of COVID-19.
The meeting unanimously agreed that the investment plan will be submitted on 31st January 2021. It is expected that a decision on this and Heads of Terms will be signed by the end of March 2021. There will be up to a year to work on the next phase – producing business cases, with then a further five years for project delivery and implementation.
With regards to the tendering stage, Hannah explained that short-term actions are to:
· Amend the terms of reference to reflect the updated guidance that has been received. These will be circulated with the minutes of this meeting.
· Review the diversity of the membership and ways to engage a younger representative are being looked into as agreed at the March meeting
· Consider setting up working groups and use this as an opportunity to engage wider stakeholders and community members
· Develop a stakeholder engagement plan to inform project development and delivery
In terms of the investment plan and community engagement tenders, these were opened on the procurement hub portal, a couple of weeks prior to lockdown, but the work had to be paused. The tender documentation and requirement to use consultants is now being reviewed in light of the further guidance received and HBC will be liaising with Rebecca, the Towns Fund Coordinator.
With regards to community engagement, it was clarified that there has been a raft of work that has already taken place and is due take place. Jess explained that the conversations mentioned have come together to put in a bid to the Lottery Emerging Futures Fund, that will help those who have worked on the community hub to work out ways to join the dots and co-create the work rather than hire a consultant to do so. In addition, as Hastings is a very diverse town, Liz suggested that this is demonstrated in the investment plan submission.
Rebecca explained that she has been appointed as the Town Coordinator for Hastings and eight other towns in the South East Local Enterprise Partnership area and some of the other towns that are going through this same programme. Rebecca works for Nicholls, a consultancy, which has been specialising in supporting public and private sector organisations to deliver complex programmes for over 45 years now. Nicholls is part of the consortium that has been appointed by MHCLG to work with, help and advise the 101 towns going through this process. The consortium is led by ARUP, and there are a number of experts providing advice on public realm, heritage, skills and education and there is also a group of experts available to help with drafting the plan and business cases that will follow.
As per the guidance, there are a lot of requirements to be met and Rebecca’s role is to ensure we get the best advice and support when developing our investment plan, so our submission is right the first time based on what Hastings needs. A meeting has been arranged for next week to get more of a sense as to where Hastings is in the process and what other support is needed. In addition, a website has been set up. Action 2: details will be circulated with the notes from the meeting. Website address is: www.townsfund.org.uk
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