Agenda item

The Panel to undertake the first gateway review of the following service plans:

·        Economic Development and Town Centre Management

·        Planning Policy

·        Development and Building Control

Copies of the relevant service plans have been distributed to members of the panel as background papers.

The Service Manager, Economic Development and Town Centre Management gave a presentation on the areas of the 2006/07 Planning Policy and Economic Regeneration Service Plan that were relevant to the new service area. The service was relevant to two of the District Council’s corporate priorities: town centre regeneration (Category A) and business development (Category B).

Operational delivery was aided through strategic documents produced for the council and independent groups. SKDC first measured the performance of the economic development team in 2005/06; this was used to set the baseline for 2006/07 indicators, which included: the total number of business enquiries, inward investment enquiries, the number of jobs created, adults in employment gaining new skills, businesses assisted with projects and business support, the number of business start-ups that were supported and the leverage of external funding per pound invested by SKDC.

A Town Centre Manager had been appointed to all towns to work with the Town Centre Management Partnerships (TCMP). Each partnership was at a different stage: Stamford was the most mature, the Deepings was still gathering consensus and support. TCMPs were identified as the best vehicle for delivering partnership initiatives and utilising local support, whilst accessing national resources.

The management restructure amalgamated street markets and fairs and events with Economic Development and Town Centre Management. As the structure was new, service resources had yet to be considered.

The service was responsible for policy formation and policy alignment;, partnership working and direct intervention. The team was involved in a wide range of town centre projects and initiatives and economic and community development projects and initiatives across the district.

Challenges for the service during 2006/07 included ensuring consistent service for markets and fairs, delivery of the Stamford Gateway project, the evaluation of the Northfields project, provision of support for TCMPs, gaining consensus and agreement of the Grantham Masterplan and the compilation of a project team and plan of attack; bid writing to economic development agencies for key projects and monitoring, reporting and project managing schemes.

The service handled a diverse range of budgets. A significant spend between December 2006 and February 2007 was expected for town centre projects. The need to readjust budget codes to reflect the restructure had been identified.

Panel members discussed the presentation and asked. Points included:

• The structure and composition of the market team remained the same following the transition from the former Leisure and Cultural Services.
• Events held in the town centres were funded by a number of different sources; some were funded by the District Council, others were funded by private companies who received District Council support and publicity;
• The priority given to the development of housing impacted on the number of business start-up workshops that could be provided.
• The leverage of external funding per pound was dependent on projects undertaken by the District Council. Large projects would source greater funding from external agencies increasing the leverage.
• If the District Council controlled Community Interest Companies (CICs) they would be less eligible to receive external funding.
• To achieve Gershon savings, Economic Development Officers had been trained internally. This meant that the Council could take advantage of the skills they had developed. This was useful because there was no specific training in Economic Development was available post-16 and meant that non-qualified staff could be used instead of qualified staff.
• A key issue for the Council was staff retention. Other service managers present this; the private sector was viewed as more attractive. Panel members suggested that staff retention would be aided if salaries were at the same level as neighbouring authorities.
• If a market existed, the Team would consider entering contracts undertaking Economic Development work on behalf of other councils.
• Gershon savings would be reviewed in terms of staff productivity: the rate at which market stalls were erected in Stamford was greater than Grantham.

Issues to note for Gateway 2:

• Increase in salary for officers to aid retention