Communities and Economic Development Cabinet Advisory Board

Communities and Economic Development Cabinet Advisory Board
Wednesday, 15th November 2023 at 6:30pm

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Slide 1

1 Chair's Introduction

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1 Chairs Introduction

2 Apologies for Absence

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2 Apologies for Absence

3 Declarations of Interests

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3 Declarations of Interest

4 Notification of Persons Wishing to Speak

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4 Notification of Persons Wishing to Speak

5 Minutes of the meeting dated Thursday 12 October 2023

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Minutes , 12/10/2023 Communities and Economic Development Cabinet Advisory Board

6 Forward Plan as at 1 November 2023

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2023-11-01 Forward Plan as at 1 November 2023

7 Royal Tunbridge Wells Together BID Renewal Ballot

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9 Contracting out of the homelessness reviews function

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Contracting out of the homelessness reviews function

7 Royal Tunbridge Wells Together BID Renewal Ballot

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8 Economic Development Strategy 2023-2026

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10 Urgent Business

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7 Urgent Business

11 Date of the Next Meeting

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8 Date of the Next Meeting

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Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated, so it may contain errors. Please view the webcast to confirm whether the content is accurate.

I thank you for your letter.

good evening, everyone welcome to the meeting of the communities and economic development Cabinet Advisory Board on Wednesday, the 15th of November 2023 I am Councillor Vaughan, Chair of the Committee, before we start, please give your full attention to the following announcements by our Clarke, Mrs. Moran,

thank you, Chair and good evening everybody, in the event of the fire alarm ringing continuously, you must immediately evacuate the building at walking pace.

officers will directly be the most direct available route and no one is to use the lift.

we will make our way to the fire assembly point by the entrance to the Town Hall Yard, car park on Manton Way, and once outside a track would be made to ensure everyone has safely left and no one is to re-enter the building until advised that it is safe to do so this is a public meeting and proceedings are being webcast live online, a recording will also be available for playback on the Council's website shortly afterwards.

can I remind everyone to use their microphones when speaking the red light indicates, the microphone is on and any comments that are not recorded for the webcast will not be included in the minutes of the meeting.

you should not be aware that any third party is able to record or film council meetings unless exempt or confidential information is being considered, the Council will not accept liability for any third party recordings.

it is very important that the outcomes of the meeting are clear at the end of each substantive item, the Chair will ask whether the matter is agreed if, in the absence of a clear majority of the Chair decides, a full vote is desirable, a vote will be taken by a show of hands, Members should raise their hands to indicate their vote and keep their hands up until account has been announced, Members requesting a recorded vote must do so before the vote is taken. Thank you too.

1 Chair's Introduction

thank you, Mrs Moran, for the benefit of the recording we're going to take a roll call.

thank you Chair, I could expected Members here this evening, Councillor fair weather, present Councillor Hill present, Councillor Lewis.

present Councillor March present Councillor Morton,

present Councillor Munday, present Councillor Palmer, present Councillor Webster, present Councillor Wilkinson.

present.

Councillor Rutland, Vice Chair, Councillor Warren Chair, present, thank you.

and expected officers here this evening, David candlelit present Stuart Clifton present.

James Reid.

present.

Hilary Smith.

present and we have Councillor Hugo paint here this evening, J Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, thank you, Joe, thank you, Members of the Committee should be familiar with the process but for the benefit of any members of the public who may be watching I would like to explain a couple of things cabinet committee members have had the agenda packs a week ahead of this meeting of and I've had the opportunity to us any factual questions of the officers.

when we come to the substantive items on the agenda this evening, the relevant officer will first set out the report.

we will then move into Member questions and discussions at the end of the debate, I will try to summarise the Committee's view, and members should ensure that any proposals or actions are correctly captured.

I will remind Members that, without prejudice prejudice to any other comments that may be raised, the committee is asked to come off to one of the following positions, one that the recommendations to Cabinet are supported by the board to that the recommendations to Cabinet would be supported.

subject to a particular issue being addressed or three, that the recommendations to Cabinet are not supported and if this is the case reasons should be stated.

2 Apologies for Absence

3 Declarations of Interests

agenda item 2 apologies for absence, Mrs Miranda, we have any apologies for absence with no apologies this evening check, thank you agenda item 3 declarations of interest members of the committee should state at this point if they have any declarations of interest related to any item on this evening's agenda.

does any Member have a declaration to make?

I see none.

4 Notification of Persons Wishing to Speak

agenda Item 4 notification of persons wishing to speak at this time, we note them whether any members of the public or visiting members of the councils have registered to speak this evening, do we have any such persons, we've no speakers this evening Chair, thank you.

5 Minutes of the meeting dated Thursday 12 October 2023

minutes of the meeting dated the Wednesday, the 12th of October 2023 Members are asked to confirm that the minutes of the previous meeting are a true record of the proceedings, please, may I remind Members that the only matter for discussion is their accuracy do Members have any comments?

6 Forward Plan as at 1 November 2023

I see numb, thank you, the motion is to agree the minutes are we agreed agreed, the motion is carried, thank you agenda item 6 Forward Plan the Forward Plan is on pages 11 to 31 of your agenda for your information, do members have any comments at this time?

I see none of the motion is to note the Forward Plan, are we agreed agreed, thank you, the motion is carried.

7 Royal Tunbridge Wells Together BID Renewal Ballot

9 Contracting out of the homelessness reviews function

now the next item on the agenda, I'm actually going to move things around a bit, and I'm going to take next agenda item 9, contracting out of the homelessness reviews, function,

the report starts on page 92 of our agenda.

the presenting officer is Stuart, Clifton Housing Services Manager.

Over to you, thank you Stuart, thank you Chair, the Council is the local housing authority for the purpose of the homeless services under the Housing Act 1996 legislation provides that an applicant has a statutory right of review or upset and homelessness decisions made by the Authority under their application.

this review enables a fresh assessment of the circumstances of the application and decision made, and it must be decision carried out by more senior officer than the original decision maker.

the authority is permitted to contract out the various functions and are both part 6 and part 7 of the Housing Act, and this includes the homelessness reviews function, any contracting out of this function must be for a period not exceeding 10 years.

you'll see a section 1.5 is a table just highlighting the number of homeless reviews that the council has received over the last five years this totals 14 reviews over that period, no more than a single figure than any any one particularly year.

the Capita.

bargeboard is being asked to comment on the proposal to contract out the homelessness review function.

it's worth highlighting that this is a process that often involves quite specialised legal firms challenging.

local authority decisions on homeless applications are, and can be, quite a long, protracted process.

at present, that review would be carried out by the housing options manager, but the capacity of that officer in order to carry out those reviews it's quite challenging to meet within the timescales.

and under their current workloads.

by contracting out the reviews, it would mean that the officer carrying out the review would be independent from the original case and decision maker in order to comply with the review regulations, also, the specialist knowledge are of a refuse officer will mean that complex cases and housing law challenges would be able to be negotiated without delay.

the Authority will still retain the ability to undertake less complex reviews in house, even under a contract in our arrangement.

market research suggests that contracting out reviews averages between 250 pounds to 450 pounds per review. So, based on the the the numbers of reviews that we receive, these, we're talking about quite minimal annual expenditure. On the review function, section 3 sets out the options considered, which option 1 being the recommended option, and this is to contract out their homeless reviews function, with delegation being made to the Head of Housing, Health and Environment, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning to appoint and enter into a contract for the homelessness reviews function. This is considered both a cost effective and enables there to be an independent review of the case

members of the the Housing Advisory Panel were provided with a copy of the report prior to publication of the Cabinet Advisory Board and advised that any comments would be considered at cap today to welcome any comments.

thank you Chair, do Members have any questions?

at this time.

Councillor Moulton,

thank you Chair.

I suppose these are more factual questions and you know I just want to get some more information about it.

you say that at the moment, these reviews are being carried out by the housing options officers at night.

yeah yeah, so the original decision is made by a caseworker health and options adviser, should the applicant request a review of that decision, or it can be carried out by the housing options manager we do currently contract some of those reviews out but we haven't gone through the formal contracting out process as required by legislation, so the small number of reviews that are received at some of those will go off to an independent reviews officer, but we in order to fully comply with the regulations we have to obtained Cabinet approval.

and that to be specified within Delegation in order to go to to comply completely with the the legislation.

and follow up Councillor Morton.

so and if we do contract out this, this particular review.

the you say that it requires specialist knowledge, what sort of specialist knowledge are you referring to is illegal knowledge that you're more?

as you know, we are concerned about, or is it also the specific case that he he would he or she would be reviewing, so I I what I'm concerned about is whether the the person doing the review would have sufficient knowledge and sufficient depth, you know all of them.

the the knowledge of the actual circumstances around the case.

thank you. That's a good question, so the review would be a fresh assessment of the decision, so the reviews officer would see all the documentation provided by the applicant any inquiries undertaken, so they would have all the information at hand that the original decision maker had, but they would be carrying out their own inquiries and obtaining any evidence themselves in terms of so the complexity. It is in relation to knowledge around the Housing Act, but also, quite often the challenges around other areas and quite a more technical around the public sector, equality duty and the application. So it is a broad wide of knowledge around various

pieces of legislation that relates directly to that case, but the reviews officer would have the full information that has been provided from the original decision.

sat answer your questions like Councillor Morton.

microphone microphone, yes, it does up to a point, and the only thing is that what I'm concerned about also is if the person taking on a review has to read all the documentation.

whereas you know someone in-house already has that knowledge, then you're in in a way you're paying someone to reread all the papers, aren't you, and in order to to make her come to a decision, so it does add to the cost is what I'm afraid I thank you.

sorry just to come back a year, so in terms of the even we've carried out any in-house review, it has to be done by someone that's had no knowledge of the case, so the person even it on an in-house wouldn't have any knowledge or shouldn't have any knowledge of that case so it would be reviewing all the information afresh so.

whether that is in-house or external, there will still be that requirement to review the information and carry out a fresh assessment of the of the case in the decision that was made.

the costings of contracting out the review, as detailed in the report, ranges between 215 and 450 pounds per review, which is does offer quite good value for money when the number of hours involved in carrying out that review can be quite significant.

OK, Councillor March, and then Councillor Webster, thank you.

I'm just it's a desk top review that I think you're talking about, isn't it, you wouldn't expect the the applicant to actually go in for an interview or have to travel somewhere where, Dear?

it is a desktop review, so it's reviewing the information enquiries directly with the applicant as well applicants also have the right to an oral hearing as well to present evidence so that could be offered, but it would be the review officer coming out to the applicant or seeking the applicant in a location that that's accessible to the applicant, however, that's not very kind of letting up very accommodated more of a desktop review of the information and,

telephone contact with an applicant. Thank you Chair, I was just concerned that if it were to go further afield, that the applicant would have to go further and there would be issues there, but I think you've reassured me there, thank you, thank you. Thank you, Councillor Mowat, Councillor Webster, I probably missed this already, but how many reviews of these type do you do each year?

so there's a either table in the report on page 93, within the last five years there have been 14 reviews being requested that are quite the averages out over the course of of those 5 years the lesson for MBA, obviously it is a statutory right of review, so those numbers can can change, but the the were the the kind of the numbers over the last five years had been very minimal.

thank you OK.

Councillor Moulton, again.

so can I ask what the qualifications are, you know, reviews, officer or reviews specialist would would would be because some you know if you're talking about someone who could undertake a review?

between 250 to 450 pounds per review you know, I don't know if review could take up to 10 hours or something like that, then you urinary you're talking about someone who isn't it, isn't it I don't want to denigrate them, but it wouldn't be a person who was highly paid because of you you know because I used to work in.

you know the in the area of legal costs, so I know how much you would ask someone to carry out work on a case and you expect a certain hourly rate, but I think you know if you're asking if I'm comparing it with someone who does such a review, it just seems a very small amount of money and and I would be afraid that that person you know I I wouldn't know what kind of qualification that person would have, thank you. Can you reassure Councillor Morgan on this so,

in order to carry out the reviews, it would be an experienced officer who has experienced we've carried out reviews under the house that there is no particular professional qualification that is required, however, as part of the contracting out arrangements we would seek assurance around the the quality of the reviewing officer there are either very specialised field there are.

a small number of specialised firms who provide this service for local authorities and there are many local authorities who contract out so it would be looking at the market obtaining some examples of reviews that they've carried out, we also would have the opportunity to review that decision or consider it before it is issued to the client and so it would give that additional layer of reassurance around that decisions being made, but the officers generally who carry out reviews are former local authority offices or those who have got a specialised knowledge in in homelessness legislation.

OK, Councillor Martin, St, so who can you can you tell me who were what sort of firms you're considering or what kind of firm in or where we were, where will you find the specialist redeems officer, are you going to, are you going to recommend some to us?

I think that, as part of this decision, it would be delegated where we had to make the decision on the principle of whether or not we want it contracted out, and I think beyond that.

the decision, if I misunderstood the decision, is then delegated to the officers and the portfolio holder.

that is correct, yes, that was the recommendation.

so at the moment we wouldn't get to see a list of firms I mean, it might be helpful to know, do we have a?

in our procurement are there or recommend a recommended list of suppliers, contractors that the Council could turn to, but we know have well some some kind of checks and balances as to whether they are capable of doing that, I don't know if that would reassure Councillor Morton in her questioning.

yes, though we've got details, or we can obtain details of review officers where other local authorities contract out the reviews, so we would have we could provide some details around those specialised organ farms and that provide those that would be helpful, but we don't have a particular sort of preferred list of recommended.

contractors or suppliers for this service, not the scholars contained and held by the Council for raw procurement, because it says it is.

specialised niche service and obviously this is only relevant to the housing service for this particular function, so it is not something that we we regularly hold at the moment, but we would be able to obtain details of of a local authorities who contract out and who their suppliers are OK, thank you and how does that sound Councillor Morton?

any more questions on that, I wonder if I I suppose sooner and we can't take it much further, but I would like to be reassured that whoever we are seeking to contract out to does have the

commensurate on.

qualifications

sorry

I think I think they've got that.

I just wanted to, because we are being asked whether or not to contract this, as I just wanted one defect, we could drill down a little bit into the figures that you've given in terms of the capacity of your team to undertake the reviews as required of them, so if you say over the last five years it's been under 3 per year so out of those have they been how many of those have been outsourced and how many have been done in house.

and if that trajectory was to continue.

do you have enough senior officers that are not the officers that did the original look at the original case, so basically do we have the capacity to do an independent review as they come forward?

does that question makes sense? Yes, he does. I haven't got to hang the numbers of after day, 14, which were done, which we carried out a review in house and those which were contracted out and won the challenges as detailed in the report, which perhaps I didn't explain too clearly, was it because of some of the complexity of cases, the housing options manager would have some involvement in that decision-making process advising the offices or sharing his specialist knowledge, which means that when it comes to carrying out a review in order to

to meet the review regulations. The PESEL character can have at any involvement, so it can be quite challenging at times to to demonstrate that someone's had no involvement in a case if there has been those cases discussed at a more senior level with with the the options manager, which would then mean it would have to be undertaken by someone more senior to that person in order to to comply with the review regulations, which is part of the reason for that the question around capacity, even though we are talking about relatively small numbers, yeah OK, thank you. That's helpful

now does anybody have any further questions or can we move into debate members?

now I see no, would anybody like to kick off a debate, so have anything any points they wish to make on any of these, were you happy to go to recommendations, there's lots of nods happening here, so I think we're going for the recommendations here so I won't go through the options but it's basically.

so where Members are now?

the recommendations to go forward to Cabinet are set out in the report, so there's one, two or three, the recommendation is for the preferred option option 1, so members are now asked to confirm whether there are recommendations to Cabinet are supported too by the board.

7 Royal Tunbridge Wells Together BID Renewal Ballot

or we agreed agree with, the motion is carried. Thank you, very much could be made, thank you, deport, unless will you're welcome stay, but if you'd like to go, please do so now I have to go back to agenda item. 7 Road Tunbridge Wells together, bid renewal ballot. This report starts on page 32 of our agenda and the presenting officer is Hilary Smith economic development manager overdue. Hillary thank you. Thank you very much.

so the business Improvement District or BID, as we refer to it in Royal Tunbridge Wells, is coming to the end of its first five-year term and in order to continue into a second term, a renewal ballot is required and the ballot is planned for February 2024. The report you've seen provides some background to the concept of business improvement district and, but also importantly, highlight some of the achievements of the BID in its first term. The report also sets out the role of the Council for the ballot and for the second term, and these are as follows.

the Council is responsible for managing the ballot itself.

the Council has already made a decision that the support for the ballot will be outsourced to a suitable contractor, the alternative is the Council's Democratic Services Team running that ballot, but the cost of this will be covered from within the economic development budget.

it's also required that two agreements are made between the BID and the local authority, the first is called the operating agreement, and this sets out the council's administrative role in collecting the BID Levy the BID pays the Council for the service of collecting the levy.

in the in the current operating agreement it, it does set out, as I say, only that the Council will collect the levy, but we'd like you to note that Royal Tunbridge Wells together has requested some flexibility in the new operating agreement, in case they take a decision to start collecting the levy directly. So at the moment they're considering that, but they haven't taken a decision and they are able to do that in in the legislation. The second agreement is called the baseline agreement and this sets out the existing statutory services that the local authority and other partners, such as Kent County Council, provide in the town, and the intention of this is to confirm that the bid is providing additional services while rather than play replacing existing ones

and then, in terms of the payment of the levy within the BID area, which was included in Appendix A. The Council is currently identified as being the levy payer for 38 properties, so it therefore will have 38 votes at the ballot and in Appendix B of the report the financial implications of that are set out now in the in Appendix B because their bid hasn't actually made a final decision about the

the levy rate there's that, but they've given us a range, so it would be between 1.6 and 1 per date, so we've provided three scenarios across those.

Levy rates and you can see the totals in that table in Appendix B, all the other information that penned the appendix as there is what I've been provided by the bid to date, but that will be finalised in the next month or so.

and then we wanted to mention also that the BID has requested that the Council continues its contribution of 15,000 pounds annually for the Christmas lights in the in the town centre, and obviously the BID pays a significant amount more than that for the whole lighting display.

so the preferred option set out in the report is that the council votes yes with its 38 boats in the ballot, and the reasons that are set out for for this recommendation are.

there's a number of them. Firstly, bids are a tried and tested model for town centre management yeah there's as as it says in the report there are many bids across the across the country and there's several in Kent and other towns in Kent are considering this model at the moment the bid is business led and provides significant investment into the town to support footfall and viability and that's investment that would not be available if the aim of the bid was not in existence.

we consider that the bids got a key role to play in developing the future vision of the town and, for example, they are a key member of the working group for the town centre plan that is currently being prepared.

the relationship between the BID and the Council is very good and has led to positive delivery of projects and efficiencies and sharing of resources, particularly with the economic development team, and also the BID has set up appropriate governance to represent the levy payers across the town and the board does Co Councillor Rutland sits on the board of the bid so the Council has a representative.

so the bid will be preparing a business plan for the second term, and it's currently undertaking consultation with levy payers to feed into the preparation of that to ensure that the types of initiatives and projects included are those that the businesses want to see and that they feel with will support them and as a levy payer, the Council will also be providing input into the preparation of that plan.

so in terms of implementation of the preferred option, the publication of the BID second term business plan is anticipated in January 2024. The ballot is planned for the 1st of February to the 29th of February. They last for 28 days bid ballots. The recommendation is the Council votes yes, in relation to its 38 properties and voting is delegated to the Director of Finance policy and development, the Council will then act as the billing body to collect the lower rate unless and until the bid takes a decision to collect the levy payments directly and the BID will enter into an operating and baseline agreement with the BID, and again it's recommended that delegated authority is given to the Director of Finance Policy and Development in consultation with the Cabinet member for economic development, to sign these off

so I'm happy to answer any questions, thank you Hillary, but do you have any questions, Councillor Birch?

thank you Hillary.

I was just thinking about.

the with the 38 properties.

if any of them have a change of use or if they are sold, then how long are we tied in to the bid for those particular properties, does it stop at that particular moment or is it for the whole time or is it graduated?

they further.

there's a day when whoever is in ownership of the property or

whoever is responsible

will be the named person so that that then won't change over that year, sorry, so I'm not explaining that very well, but yes, as as the as the bid starts, it is whoever it is, whoever is either owning or,

leasing that property will be responsible for the payment, so if between now and when the when the bid comes into its second term, which is the 2nd of April.

the Council leases out the units in LBP then that then the payment of the levy will move to that at 1.00 business.

does that make sense?

yes, I was sort of trying to see I mean, how are not necessarily just the Council but other people, that so the bid is not going to have a shortfall at all if if, if there is, for instance, a change of use if if if it went from,

that a business use to a residential use, then actually the bid then would probably not have as much income and be able to do as much as it wanted to do, because it won't just be for the next five years related or it will have changed in that time.

sorry, I apologise, I think I misunderstood your question, so it is possible over the five years there there might be a or a bit of a change in the said the bid will, but will Leno set a budget for each year over the five years and also they?

once the bid is in place, then businesses it's mandatory to pay the levy so but still occasionally businesses choose not to, and then the BID has to take a decision as to whether to how far to take the legal legal options to collect that levy and you know occasionally businesses for example may go out of may get met may,

we know fold and then they are not able to collect that, so I think it's a question of them managing the the annual budget within the five-year overall, but it over the last five years I wouldn't say it's changed hugely during that time but yeah certainly things can change over the five years.

sorry, sorry so, but that that's helpful to know from that point of view, so so from from the council's point of view, if we start out with the 38, then we continue for the whole of the five years with the 38 is that,

that would be the that would be each each year if it if, if if, if a unit was let in the one, then it would be paid by the new business in that unit OK, thank you, Councillor Mowat, Councillor Morton, you got question I think you answered the question button.

you know, if a new tenant came in and took over the nice does, does the new talent actually take over the payment to the bid as well?

yes, they will.

OK, do I have any other questions from members now or would like to anyone like to debate this recommendation No, I said hello, Councillor Ross, please do, thank you.

I just like to thank Hillary for her report and her tireless work in launching and supporting the bid into orbit directors and board members past and present for their contributions over the past five years, the bid plays a crucial role in the economic vitality of the town centre and hence the borough as a whole it is in line with our aspiration to build a better Borough including our vibrant and safer towns and villages priority which, according to our most recent surveys, is highly valued by residents of all ages.

we are very fortunate to have a small but perfectly formed bid team that works hard to ensure that its levy payers see a return on their investment and good value for money. Those levy payers include us. The council not only has a bit taken on many things that people might assume the Council is responsible for, but it also dedicates time and funds to the council's many activities, including tourist information events, safety partnerships and street scene. It is an essential sounding board as an important voice for local businesses, and I just wanted to assure Members that the BID is currently firing on all cylinders. I am confident that it benefits from sound governance, proactive business engagement and energetic leadership that will generate an exciting and advantageous second term that will benefit residents as well as businesses. Should February's ballots be successful, I have no hesitation in endorsing the recommendations in this report. Thank you

thank you, Councillor Rutland, if no one else has got anything, may wish to say the recommendations to go forward to Cabinet or, as set out in the report, members are now asked to confirm whether the that the recommendations to Cabinet are supported by the board or we agreed agreed, thank you very much the motion is carried.

thank you Hillary,

8 Economic Development Strategy 2023-2026

move now to agenda item 8, the economic development strategy 2023 to 2026 the report starts on page 44 of our agenda and the presenting officer is Hilary, again, thank you very much over to you, thank you.

a draft economic development strategy strategy was brought to this Cabinet Advisory Board, and also to Cabinet earlier in the year, and was then published for consultation, on the 4th of September on the Council's talking point engagement platform. The consultation was well publicised, publicised and we received 43 responses with many more views of the document online. The responses came from both individual businesses and also from some of our partner organisations. The report lists some of the key points that were made through the consultation and hopefully you would have seen these

in all of these comments have been carefully considered and amendments made to the document as appropriate, I just wanted to highlight some of the some of the

more significant changes that we'd made, firstly, we've been included an executive summary at the front of the documents so that the aims and objectives are set out, clearly near the front of the document we've we put in additional text and the opening sections of the strategy to set out the context.

for it more clearly and to make links to other relevant plans and strategies that the Council is preparing.

and finally, we've made an alteration to the proposed monitoring of the plan to include, firstly, an annual review of the action plan with a report on progress of individual projects that are set out in that plan and we've also added in an economic indicator dashboard which can also be reviewed annually and provides some key indicators of the local economy that, as I say, can be monitored and and benchmarked against other authorities also,

and the intention is that this information would be compiled in a report for this Cabinet Advisory Board and or for Cabinet, this is to be confirmed, which which of these, if it was both or the Cabinet.

we are recommending that the final strategy is adopted and published, and seeking agreement to that proposed approach to reviewing and reporting on the action plan and economic indicators dashboard, and once the economic development strategy is published, we will notify borough businesses and partner organisations via our communication communication channels including our business e newsletter.

thank you very much, Hilary, do Members have any questions on the economy, Councillor Walsh, thank you.

thank you, Hillary, yes, thank you for footfall for doing this and in the Executive Summary where we are talking about, are you talking about supporting rural businesses and communities? It does mention the across the High Weald Area of outstanding natural beauty and I note further on you mention and you go into more detail about it about two two thirds of the actual borough is is A and B height High Weald A and B, but but if if you're looking at 0 and in the aims and objectives it just says the High Weald A and B, and I wonder if there's another word or phrase that could be added in there because what about the other third, because actually you know there's quite a lot of horsemen Den paddock would places like that that are just not included in that and it it really makes us feel that you know where we're not being thought of there, thank you.

thank you, yes, apologies about that, we will make an amendment to that one suggestion you could purchase that Hi Waldo NB, and its setting is a term for areas just yet to meet immediately adjacent to.

OK, thank you.

the High Wilday Whenby and its setting within the setting of the High Weald A and B so.

sorry, Chair, it is it is why didn't that there isn't it, I think I mean it, it's consider moved into debate here, but sorry that's all right, James you, Hefce sorry I can just jump in the

we can we will look into that, obviously we would probably include something that mentions rural areas, including the high world, A and B, so it covers the whole rural spread within the council area.

that sounds like a great solution.

Councillor Morton did your hand go up there and yes, thank you, Chair, just going to you're aiming for net 0, you can have quite an ambitious programme there.

you know, you say you want to renovate or re retrofit energy efficiencies for business premises, I don't know how you're going to get grants for that because I do as well as I know the government are making grants for that.

and you want renewable energy for business operations or business travel and supporting customers to adopt sustainable practices and a circular economy, all of these take resources, not just financial resources, but also.

human resources, and, coming to that, I just wanted from the Council of Council point of view, you know, do we have someone who is able to drive these forward, you know, we don't do we still do we have a sustainability manager for Nick perhaps you can start with that, thank you.

say my understanding is that there isn't a sustainability manager joining the council in in the near future, so that's a very positive, I think, in terms of the economic development team, I think we we will, well, we will work with the new sustainability manager who I am sure we will have some expertise but importantly, it's about sharing information from many other organisations that do produce resources and,

and sometimes grant funding not not not necessarily all the time, so we need to make sure that we're aware of the advice and guidance and grants that are available to businesses and and we then promote those via our various communication channels, as I've mentioned, you know an EAS newsletter and,

our business portal, for example, say a lot of the time we are using, we are communicating with our local businesses about schemes that other organisations are running and we would continue to seek to do that.

we'd obviously do have some.

we do have some grant funding at the moment from the UK SDF

I think so we have a small micro grants at the moment for

for small businesses and from next year we will, from next year, will be allocating grant funding to rural businesses who make applications so again that could be for for schemes that include.

work towards Net Zero.

Councillor Moulton,

I think I think it's important to note that if you look at the end of the report.

it does say that there are delivery partners involved in, you know, we're not doing this in isolation, other people.

o we're working with other people to deliver this, so there's a, you know, there's a responsibility on on all of us, so I mean that includes Parish and Town Councils in there as well, so.

you know, it's down to communities as much as it's down to the councils to a certain extent in D, in the actual delivery of these things is that helpful.

have you got another question, absolutely, it's fine, go ahead.

OK, OK, so going on to tourism, i r or destination management.

I very much agree with them, one of the comments that was made in, thank you, Ms S, coming out of the consultation, probably that we should the there is a need for a separate tourist information centre, and I would make a plea that we do when resources are available that we do actually look into this.

you don't need it, it's what we have at the Amelia Scott, just doesn't just doesn't do it, it's really.

not not not sufficient yet by any means, thank you.

sir sorry, what was the question?

the question is whether we will.

create a a new, separate tourist information centre.

and when we could do it.

I may not be able to answer that question fully, but I'd just like to say that we are.

you know, the the provision of tourist information at the Amelia is a sort of ongoing project and obviously it's early days still for the Amelia and the economic development team is seeking to work very closely with colleagues at the Amelia to ensure that the offer to visit visitors there is as as good as it can be and that has included training sessions for customer advisors from.

Sarah Louis's, our colleague and Ma myself to, as I say, to ensure that.

the customer advisors there have as up-to-date information as they can I don't know if anybody has been in recently as well, but we have just put up a very beautiful, very beautiful map above the

above the terminal there, which may seem like a small thing, but it's a beautiful map of the whole borough, it's in the economic, it's in the strategy actually as well, you may have seen it, and that does actually already make a significant difference to,

to draw people to the fact that that's where you can you can get your information were also.

working very hard on improving and refreshing the visit Tunbridge Wells website as well now because although I I totally agree that many visitors want face-to-face information, obviously a lot of people do access their information via websites, and also you know, we're doing a lot of work on social media which again is something that,

lots of visitors used for inspiration when they're wanting to go and visit some somewhere, so you know we do we, we recognise that we need to keep hopefully developing and improving things there. I don't know, I don't have an answer to if we will ever have a separate tourist information centre. I'm afraid you want to comment Councillor A

I will just add that yes, Hillary is completely correct.

we continue to talk to the media Scott all the time about what we can do to make it more accessible, but another good initiative of the Eadie team has been talking to RVP and there's an information centre there that we're hoping to amplify the tourist information offering there because people are already going in there to say whereas the train station and where should I visit, and also Sarah Lewis has been very active in beginning to set up more tourist information points across the borough because we realise people are going obviously into our beautiful rural areas as well. So there's a few things on the boil, so I would say watch this space, thank you for the questionnaire market. Thank you. Councillor Rutland

Councillor Lewis, thank you through an ostrich colonoscopy in the in flexible ticketing or vegetable transport, ticketing, caught my eye and well what plans or what discussions might have been in place and how ambitious we might be with that.

I think I think wow wow.

I don't think there's much detail in there about that, I think that the reasonably put that in there is to show that we do all liaise regularly with Southeastern and we respond to consultations that they that they put out and.

things that we've lobbied on and put in the past have include, have included, asking them to look at providing more flexible ticketing, because that's the sort of feedback we've had from residents and also from.

representatives of commuters that come along to our public transport for him, so it's more that we seek to lobby on on issues that are brought to our attention and then and then hope that that will have an influence on on Southeastern as they plan for the future.

do you want to come back, Councillor Smith?

thank you for that and although the aim opener in conferences with people in the North of England trooped about their frustration at not having Oyster or a version of Worcester where they are.

and it strikes me that.

that there is plus bus, where you can buy a rail ticket and a bus ticket combined, but it would be useful to have a relatable card.

which I think Chelsea fancy South Eastern do which you could use and all public transport within.

West Ken, maybe I mean it, would be as well if that happened, useful to be able to have a fully struck strategic rail and

bus public transport system.

including buses, after six months on a Sunday, but I know I don't want to turn this into them GTB.

it is one of the aims on the

about the the bus service.

do you have a comment and I can come in now on that, and so we as as Hillary has said, we are in regular contact with rail and bus providers, we did this week attend the Southeastern RO summit in Canterbury and at that event Southeastern,

laid out their plans to increase the flexibility and availability at stations as you get in some places in London where you can tap in in an Oyster like service and also where you can scan the tickets which are an increasing section of the number of tickets bought, but we is a constant discussion of us conveying the are the thoughts of all of residents and those representatives on the public transport forum.

they help to know that that's happening, OK, does anybody else have any other questions.

I just wanted to ask, because there also registered speaker to come and speak tonight, who I understand was.

not very happy about the report, and I just wonder that I know that you met in this morning is perhaps a question for Councillor Rutland to answer rather than officers if he wanted to make it or be quite interested to know the essence of what his his complaints were about, that would be helpful, thank you.

thank you Chair so.

this resided, but I am grateful to him for completing the consultation and getting in touch with us, so he had some concerns and he wanted to see more in the strategy about inward investment and large sites for development, for example that might house large businesses so we invited him to come and see us today so we could have a two-way discussion and we were able to share the developments of the submission local plan and the allocation of development sites in that we were able to join the dots more between.

in our SWOT analysis between some of our weaknesses and the solutions to.

to show what we were doing more directly.

and we were able to share some details of the town centre area plan in terms of venue the mix that we need to establish for residential retail business, and we were able to talk a bit more about our ambitions for for the town hall, with town square and also with our BP, so it was a very useful,

discussion, we were able to took also more strategically about other plans that were coming forward, such as the corporate plan, so it was useful for us and I hope it was useful for him and not sure whether David and Hilary would like to add anything they kindly accompanied me OK, thank you, Les Williams was going to say that it was a very useful conversation and but also it did influence some of the decisions that I highlighted about changes that were made to the document so

particularly the additional tech setting out the context and or as as making trying to make those links between the economic Development Strategy and the Local Plan, and other documents that the that the Council is producing and also the monitoring of the approach to monitoring as well, so I am I hoped that the gentleman will think that we have conceded that we have tried to respond to some of his comments and it was a helpful conversation, good thank you about that mentioned by Ms there is a report you mentioned a report to come to us as something that will happen annually is that the intention,

so it ought either to us or Cabinet, so that's the suggestion where, yes, we're making, that we could, we could update and Cabinet Advisory Board and or Cabinet on on the, as I say, on ASDA, a written report on individual projects in the end the action plan but also on the economic indicators dashboard that we've included as well OK, that's very useful.

another more questions.

0that's fine go for Councillor Lewis, thank you very much, I just noticed on the creative economy, it was mentioned above in increasingly usage of Southwark Civic Centre.

and it mentions.

applause Rural touring, which is fantastic, but

there are other organisations unlikely list, isn't exhaustive and it does say local creative businesses, but it might be worth speaking to Southbank Council about that as well as they are in the building and

South for society because they have an education remit within their room, their organisation as well, thank you.

to comment on that.

well, I think it's a great letter closure in the Civic Centre and I think they're seeking to liaise with Southborough Town Council and we say I think that is already hopefully ongoing and certainly that's the intention, and there was a very successful launch of their south represents programme which is funded by a part funded by UK SDF.

money that from from the Council and

there were lots of representatives of Southborough Town Council there, as well as many other people, Greg Clark was there, so it was very positive occasion and I think where you know, we hope, as I am sure Southend Town Council does, that it's a very fruitful partnership in the future.

I thought I can't just come back on this year, we have had a meeting with Bob the new person, one and applaud, and I mean we, we went through everything that we've got in South Brian and me, I think he was quite amazed at just what does go out well you know, but let me just what is going to go on happening that but we have lots of creative areas and lots of organisations as well so yeah so yeah always glad to help out where we can.

I think, hopefully that could feed into your note then to the Neighbourhood Development Plan work as well, so

Mark Langford microphone

OK, thank you, thank you, OK, sorry, because we're late doing now if we can pledge your eyes from everyone else.

learn from all our mistakes as well.

thank you, Councillor hurdles, if there's anybody else, Councillor Morton.

the there is still considerable problems with traffic congestion and lack of from public transport, quite frankly.

and I know it's been mentioned, but

how are we going to?

wow, how will the economic strategy?

them dovetail in with all the other strategies like the parking strategy and the

transport transport strategy, I'd like to know.

do you have?

so we certainly have tried to draw out.

issues that we think are irrelevant and also adopt the approach that is already in the Local Plan, which sets out priorities for pedestrians and cyclists and public transport in the first instance.

I'm in the the the economic development strategy, I think, talks more about our partnership work, obviously with Kent County Council, so everything that everything that we do on transport really is in partnership with other with KCC and other transport operators,

it does include some current transport projects at the rear that are ongoing at the moment.

so we have a, we have an important role under a lobbying role, and we also work very closely with planning colleagues who also work in the and the transport area in terms of the parking strategy that obviously is very important for supporting the vitality of the town centre and that will come on board alongside the town centre plan, which again we are feeding into, and this is mentioned in the in the economic development strategy as well, I mean we can't as the economic development team we were obviously not claiming we can sort out transport congestion of,

on our own, but we are actively involved in a number of projects that that hopefully will help to.

offer other modes of transport to to residents, for example the car club.

and then a number of active travel projects that were that we are working on at the moment, so there's the better streets for St John's and St James and the cycle route from Langton Rust all into the town centre as well but as you can imagine, all of these projects are dependent on funding via either via KCC or or the government but we look out and bid for that funding when it's available and we also work with the planners when they're negotiating Section 106 agreements as well if a new developments to try and get improvements to public transport and active travel infrastructure also,

I am not sure that entirely no answer to the question is your question, Councillor Mowat, Councillor, there's lots of tools and ways and means, and we're deploying every year in Northern Ireland and you know we were involved in some of it, so you know quite quite aware of what's going on, but just just that we have to be aware that in order to attract economic development and with people coming into our towns and villages, you need to have decent public transport and decent, just decent roads and everything else parking, you know everything that you know that the improves the access you know to to to these towns

thank you, I said if I could just mention one of your bodies that we've recently worked with planning colleagues to reintroduce the shuttle service between the Knightswood development and well actually Tumbridge Station in.

but for commuters and and school pupils who go to school in Tunbridge, and that's as I say, that's with section 1 0 6 funding from the development, and you know, as I say that again, is aimed at reducing congestion both in Tunbridge Wells and then into Tonbridge town centre as well, which has been positive and the services have been been getting a good number of passengers so.

as I say, we will continue to try and work as new developments come forward to get improvements.

when will that be sustainable, then?

you know, if you're just dependent on Section 106 monies, presumably you'll have to keep.

finding money from somewhere while they have the the money will run out at some point have to admit there is quite a reasonable amount of it, but the aim is that enough patronage would build up over the time that it would then be a commercially sustainable service and that's the that's the hope.

Councillor Lewis.

in truth, there is something we've been discussing at Chester and councillors will have got bus services because I mean.

it's frustrating for us that there's no link between highbrow rooms in Salzburg, but the other point I was going to make was about what happened in 7 Oaks with Go having them, it's basically a taxi service, but in a minibus that takes more people and they

multi dropped service, and I think it's mentioned in here as well, and that will be fantastic in in Tunbridge Wells, especially as our population ages in temperatures I saw the demographics yesterday R and D P meeting that the population of Tunbridge Wells is older than that of the South but for instance, so those kind of services would be fantastic to stop people having to drive round doing those short journeys in their car and also as well finding a way of getting rid of haste Jeeves from them.

the town of Tunbridge Wells as well and southborough.

I think, and just in response to that, the bus pass operators are innovating, you know the one changing the type of service and using different sizes of vehicles, but

you know, the majority of services are commercial and then KCC supports a small number so, but we again would look to work with operators as they as they if they were interested in bringing forward new services and to support that.

thank you.

Councillor Moulton,

yeah, I just occurred to me, I think it would be nice or be centrally to have them.

a taxi rank at Tom Highbury station.

because I mean walkers, although they have their office there, they they don't actually have any taxes.

base there, so you know, if you're coming home late at night and we have had one occasion where I think a woman was attacked.

walking home or

it would just be reassuring if you could actually get a taxi from hydrogen station.

are you able to comment on that not really, but we could read, we could speak to SE, I believe there's a consultation currently about about that out, so hopefully the results of that could be shared with Southeastern when they when they've been compiled.

thank you, Councillor Lewis, I've just got one unrelated question if there was going to be looking for and it is about the Decimus Burton Museum, the it does appear in the report in the

the pack, and what help and support economic development, will be giving in the future to.

2, to to help this to 2, to come to fruition.

thank you very much.

I don't know if you are able to comment on that, I'm not really able to, I mean I it's out in the report as it as a comments from a respondent to the consultation, rather than so at the moment where we haven't suggested in the document that that's something.

that we can necessarily sport.

yeah, I think we're getting a little bit into specifics rather than the strategy as a whole.

potentially in questioning so if, if anybody's got any other burning questions, we can move, or does anybody wish to debate the economic development strategy, I'd just like to say thank you very much for the report, there's a clear, but a lot of the comments have been taken on board and you can see they're clear evolution of of the strategy, I can certainly recognise things in there that

we've said so, thank you very much for that, I think this is really important, a document and

I would like Members to support it, so if nobody else has anything to comment on it of just like to say, the recommendations to go forward to Cabinet are, as set out in the report, and members are now asked to confirm whether that the recommendations to Cabinet are supported by the board or we agreed agreed, thank you very much the motion is carried. Thank you very much officers,

10 Urgent Business

11 Date of the Next Meeting

we move on to agenda item 10, which is urgent business, I can confirm that there is no such business this evening, and the final item is the date of the next meeting, the next meeting is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, the 24th of January 2024 the meeting is now closed, thank you very much for your attendance, thank you Chair,

Communities and Economic Development Cabinet Advisory Board - Wednesday 15 November 2023, 6:30pm - Feedback Tab - Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Webcasting