Agenda item

Finance, Qualis Client & Economic Development – (C043-2021-22) – to provide a further update to Cabinet on the delivery of projects within the Town Centre Regeneration programme.

(1)        The Cabinet noted and endorsed the contents of the report and gave guidance on further priority activity.

(2)       The Cabinet agreed that a district wide town teams’ group be set up with representatives of the district and parish councils who were contributing financially to oversee the regeneration programme and advise on deployment.

(3)       The Cabinet agreed to retain the town centre management function moving forward subject to getting a financial buy-in from the involved Town and Parish Councils.

The Finance, Qualis Client and Economic Development Portfolio Holder and J Houston introduced the report.

The report provided a further update to Cabinet on the delivery of projects within the Town Centre Regeneration programme. It set out the current funding packages secured from central government and their allocation. It also provided further information around guidance and advice from national high street bodies for town centre regeneration.

Councillor Philip proposed a change to recommendation 3, that the following be added at the end “…subject to getting a financial buy in from the involved Town and Parish Councils”. This was seconded and agreed.

Councillor Philip went on to recommend that recommendation 4 be removed as he thought the Cabinet should not be referring anything to a Task and Finish Panel as they were set to carry out a particular job and then finish. If needs be, we can have a further report identifying any work that may need doing and we can then ask the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to identify where it should go. This was seconded agreed.

Councillor Patel was happy to note the progress made. As far as recommendation 3 was concerned he wanted to know what the level of partnership working was with the Town and Parish councils. He was told that the relationships with them were good as they could see the value in what we were doing. What we wanted was to show the Parish and Town Councils that what we were doing was valuable and, in our talks, we had asked for some funding from them, of about £5,000 per town centre.

Councillor S Kane acknowledged the excellent work done during the lockdown and as we were coming out of it, he hoped that the emphasis of the programme would now start to shift to deal with the changing face of the High Streets (moving away from retail) in the coming years. He was told that that this would come from the partnership working, which was reflected in the second recommendation.

Councillor Sunger said it was a very good report. He noted that it had been a bad year for local businesses and asked how we were reaching out to local business to let them know we were there for them. He was told that along with a business newsletter there was a number of other ways that we reached out, including web based solutions. We did what our resources allowed but it was also about partnership work.

Councillor Wixley asked when would the bill (as alluded to in recommendation 3) turn up. He was told it was not a bill, we had contacted the Town and Parish councils back in December highlighting this. In comparison with the amount of money we were supplying, £5,000 per town centre did not cover half the costs. Councillor Wixley asked if Loughton would have to make two contributions for their two High Streets (the Broadway and the High Road). He was told that yes, it would be a separate contribution for each of the two town centres.

Decision:

(1)        The Cabinet noted and endorsed the contents of the report and gave guidance on further priority activity.

(2)       The Cabinet agreed that a district wide town teams’ group be set up with representatives of the district and parish councils who were contributing financially to oversee the regeneration programme and advise on deployment.

(3)       The Cabinet agreed to retain the town centre management function moving forward subject to getting a financial buy-in from the involved Town and Parish Councils.

Reasons for Proposed Decision:

To enable progress to be made on the structure and delivery of Town Centre Regeneration initiatives.

Other Options for Action:

The initiatives highlighted in this update report are linked to central government funding requirements and the recommendations of the Town Centre Regeneration studies approved by Cabinet.