Agenda item

(Director of Neighbourhoods) To consider the attached report AMED-010-2016/17.

The Economic Development Officer (EDO) presented a report to the Cabinet Committee and updated them on a number of projects and issues being explored by the Economic Development Team.

Waltham Abbey Wayfinding Project

Following a full tendered procurement process a contractor had been appointed to design, manufacture and install a new pedestrian wayfinding system in Waltham Abbey Town Centre. A total of eight tenders were received all of which were of a similar quality. Therefore the award of the tender was determined by the lowest priced tender and Mödel Signage Solutions were the successful contractor. The winning tender was less than 50% of the total potential budget that had been agreed for the project representing excellent value for money and ensuring that further funds would remain available to consider further enhancement projects for the town centre in the future.

Mödel have already undertaken a stakeholder presentation and consultation event in the town and have subsequently set up an online survey to enable those stakeholders, including businesses, unable to attend the meeting to have their say. It was intended that a proposed design for the scheme be presented to the key stakeholders in February 2017 in order that the finalised design could be agreed before the end of the current financial year.

Councillor Mohindra stated that it was important to ensure that in terms of the design and the points of interest that the Royal Gunpowder Mills and the Lea Valley White Water Raft Centre were included in the plan as they were critical tourist attractions in the area.

He also commented that the business confidence survey was a good idea and looked forward to receiving the results of that survey in the near future.

The EDO advised that both the Royal Gunpowder Mills and the Lea Valley White Water Rafting Centre would be referenced from the town centre in the Wayfinding scheme.

Ultrafast Network

The Rural Challenge Project to deliver ultrafast broadband to rural parts of the district continued to make progress. Almost 195km of network had now been built within excess of 2,800 connection pots installed at the property edges. Ten cabinet areas would be completed by the end of June 2017 with two cabinet areas being delayed in the Hastingwood Area, which includes North Weald and Ongar which will start in Spring 2017 and would be completed by the end of October 2017.

Tourism Website

Councillor Breare-Hall asked the EDO if the soft launch had taken place and what were the enhancements that have been made to the new district tourism website.

The EDO advised that the soft launch had not yet taken place as it was still in the process of building the content. There were two elements to the website, the database side and the content, which was used to perform the narrative for the district. Previously the visit Epping Forest website had been a list based website now there was an opportunity to tell the story of Epping Forest. The new website will have more visual content and will give the opportunity to create themes.

Business Confidence Survey

Councillor Breare-Hall asked if there was a sense of a plan or a strategy and what use will the Economic Development Team (EDT) make of the results.

The EDO advised that the EDT were at the pre-determining question stage. Once the business confidence survey was compiled and released the Team would use the information to indicate how the districts businesses would plan for the future.

The Assistant Director of Economic Development advised Members that the intention was to look at the standard survey questions that were used by other national organisations in terms of determining business confidence. The idea was to keep the questions as short as possible so that the survey would not become onerous.

The survey would give underlying information as to whether our local business were looking to expand, to hire or to put their investment plans on hold we would then be able to pick up on issues and areas local businesses were concerned about or any information they required.

The aim of the survey was to have a mechanism in place to make sure this authority were in touch with our local businesses and that we could anticipate and understand their needs at the earliest opportunity and identify areas that we may need to research to fully understand what was driving expansion or contraction in the local economy.

Partner Liaison

Councillor Lion reported that he, together with other Members and EFDC Officers met with the Chairman of SELEP for a tour of North Weald Airfield (NWA). He advised that he was impressed with his visit to the Airfield and in particular Weald Aviation, which in his opinion, was doing a very useful job. The Councillor asked the Committee about the possibility of developing opportunities at North Weald Airfield.

The Director of Neighbourhoods advised that in the terms of reference of this Committee there was a remit to explore opportunities at North Weald Airfield. There had been previous policy decisions around the retention and intensification of aviation on this site.

Members will recall that with the assistance of Savills, the Council did some soft market testing at North Weald Airfield to see if there was an opportunity to bring on board a development partner, this proved to be disappointing in terms of the response received. Members have now set further parameters around investment at the Airfield. The Council would invest if the correct opportunities arose.

The Council had intended to offer a service contract to an external partner but due to changes in the European Union procurement rules a full OJEU process would need to be followed to seek an operational partner.

Within the Local Plan further work had been commissioned on employment. A lot of the focus on the Local Plan to date had been on housing needs and the housing numbers but there was a requirement in consultation with other partners to determine employment allocation across the wider area and the Airfield will specifically form part of that consideration. This piece of work will be instrumental in determining the types and levels of use of the airfield that would be appropriate.

The Council has always recognised the potential of North Weald Airfield and a lot of time has been spent employing consultants trying to develop the best way to go forward.

Broadband – Smart Places

The Assistant Director of Economic Development advised Members that the Smart Places Initiative was an attempt to bring together a coalition of different organisations who have an interest in infrastructure or an interest in using infrastructure once it was installed in the ground in order to provide services more effectively in order to provide a greater reach and to encourage major providers to invest in this area.

The Smart Places Initiative involved EFDC and ECC having discussion with major national and international infrastructure providers to see if it was possible to make this area a pathfinder area. The plan is to hold a Smart Places Summit along the lines of Smart Cities to find out what applications and technology that worked in the City and could be expanded to work in an area such as this District. A further report would come to the next meeting updating the Committee further on the progress.

Resolved:

To note the progress and work programme of the Council’s Economic Development Section.

Reasons for Decision:

To appraise the Committee on the progress made with regard to Economic Development issues.

Other Options Considered and Rejected:

None, as this monitoring report is for information, not action.