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Agenda item
Programme progress update
12:00
5.1 Town Deal Programme update
5.2 Communications update
5.3 Programme finance update
5.4 Hastings Station Gateway / Town Centre Regeneration update
5.5 Long Term Investment Plan for Towns – Endowment Fund
5.6 Levelling Up Partnership update
5.7 Hastings Town Deal ‘Deep Dive’
Minutes:
5.1 Programme overview
Noted. No questions were raised.
5.2 Communications update
Suzanne Oakley, Communications and Engagement updated:
· The Town Deal Open Day is taking place this coming Saturday, 27th January from 10am to 4pm inside the atrium of the Priory Meadow Shopping Centre. This will be attended by representatives across most of the ongoing projects and the main focus will be the public realm project, and a team from East Sussex County Council and Arup will be present as they will be using the event as part of the public consultation. Information has already been circulated but please contact Suzanne if anyone would like another reminder or calendar request (email: Towndeal@hastings.gov.uk)
· A press release about the public realm project will be going out shortly and Suzanne is working closely with the ESCC communications team on various updates. A post is also live on the Hastings Town Deal Blog which includes links to the public survey and other information
· The East Sussex consultation site currently mentions that paper copy surveys are available to pick up from the café in the Observer Building which is unfortunately currently closed, although copies can be picked up from the Common Room at Eagle House. ESCC needs to be advised that the wording on the consultation site needs to be changed. Action: Suzanne
5.3 Programme finance update
Emma asked about contingency within the funding. Pranesh advised there is no programme contingency but there is contingency for each project which is built into their project costs. In terms of the public realm project, it is showing that more money will be needed than there is but staging of the development is being built in within Arup’s work.
Jane Howard-Smith asked about The Source Park which is mentioned in the finance update. The business went into administration and a new company has been formed which has the same directors. Pranesh confirmed that the funds received from the Town Deal Accelerator Fund have been used, construction works at the White Rock Courtyard were completed as planned and the asset is still operational. Richard Moore confirmed further that private funding was also invested alongside the received project funding that was used as capital expenditure to the building. The asset remains in continuous use and the project is not affected by the restructuring of their core business which is online retail. The project completed before their restructuring, investment in the asset continues which is going from strength to strength with more jobs being created and more space being brought back into use during winter by a canopy which they have just invested £30,000 in. Richard is happy to talk offline if anyone has any concerns.
John Bownas asked for clarification on the budget for the public realm project (£10m) as it has been stated that this isn’t enough to deliver a scheme which hasn’t yet been designed and costed. Ellie explained that the costs are based on the current designs as they have been shared now but the consultation phase has just started and these could change. As the scope of the project has been extended to Wellington Place which was not included in the original plan it means the costs will exceed the available funding and other sources will have to be secured. It is not clear yet what other sources are available, but it could range from government funding to private investment. Currently, it is important to complete the designs and have them ready to go as this will put us in a better position to submit business cases and write bids when sources become available.
5.4 Hastings Station Gateway project update
Joseph Brown, Town Investment Programme and Partnerships Manager was introduced to the meeting and updated:
· The council has been working with Homes England over the past year to consider ways of regenerating the town centre and this work continues to develop via funding from them
· A Strategic Regeneration Investment Framework has been commissioned for the town centre which will act as a prospectus for the town, including a long-term masterplan, delivery plan, management plan and funding plan
· The original focus was on the land and sites immediately around Hastings Train Station, but following feedback at the stakeholder engagement workshop held last November, this has now been widened to include Hastings town centre as per the local plan boundary to ensure wider connections and opportunities
· HBC officers hosted a walk around with Homes England, Lambert Smith Hampton and Arup earlier this week to identify overlaps and opportunities between this project and the public realm project
· Homes England and Lambert Smith Hampton have also been in attendance at the public realm project stakeholder workshop earlier this week and will be present at future ones, including the open day this coming Saturday to ensure the two projects are mutually beneficial and to avoid similar conversations being held twice with the same stakeholders
· Further engagement activities are being planned from now until March
5.5 Long Term Investment Plan for Towns – Endowment Fund
Victoria Conheady, Deputy Chief Executive updated:
· A summary and the guidance have previously been circulated to the board
· Town deal board members will recall that in 2020 when the town deal was announced and there was a need to set up a new town deal board and there were discussions as to whether the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) should become that board. It was eventually decided to set up the town deal board as a sub-group of the LSP
· In terms of setting up a Town Board as set out in the long term town plan guidance, the LSP is currently being reviewed as it is prudent to do so given the need to have the police, fire service, health and educational sectors involved. There is also a need to be really cognisant of the same funding stream that is going into Bexhill as most of these partners work across both areas
· As part of reviewing the number of boards that currently exist, there are 38 attended by officers and members across the town. The idea is we create a hub by changing the LSP and the currently existing boards be used as thematic boards to feed into the long term plan so that we are not creating more meetings for people to attend
· The long term plan will be led by the data pack that has come out of the deep dive that was completed prior to Christmas where housing and homelessness was raised by pretty much everyone who attended interviews and stakeholder meetings held by DLUHC. There is also focus on education and skills, transport and connectivity, health inequalities and retail and business crime. It is hoped the data pack will be received soon and will be circulated
· Discussions are currently underway with the local MP, DLUHC, LSP, Hastings Community Network chairs and other leaders in the town about evolving the LSP membership to become the town board for the purposes of this fund and those discussions also include the fact that a new chair is needed. The membership needs to be better balanced and more reflective of the town as it is now rather than when it was first set up in 2003
5.6 Levelling Up Partnership update
Pranesh Datta, Economic Development Manager updated:
· DLUHC has completed the stakeholder engagement and considered all of the proposals and a package has been prepared for ministerial approval
· Once confirmation of the proposals has been received this will be shared with the board and others as appropriate
5.7 Hastings Town Deal ‘Deep Dive’
Ruth Kynoch, Towns Fund Finance and Project Officer updated:
· Hastings has been selected as one of the areas for a deep dive review by DLUHC, who are looking at governance, counter fraud, procurement and subsidy control
· All data has been submitted before the deadline last Friday, with some of it being submitted early enough for DLUHC to select two areas of procurement to gather more information on which is now being reviewed
· A report will be pulled together and if anything comes out of that then we shall get some recommendations that we can then discuss and work on
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