Agenda item

To update and seek the views of the Finance and Economic Overview and Scrutiny Committee (FEOSC) Members on the progress made towards the production of a Grantham Town Centre Action Plan.

 

The Chairman informed the Committee of the following amendment to Section 2.11 of the report:

 

‘Across 2024 Grantham Market has shown significant growth and there are now more than 40 stalls let on a regular basis to traders at Grantham Market’.

 

The Leader of the Council presented the report which outlined the development of the Action Plan for Grantham Town Centre.

 

The Committee had previously debated the Action plan on the 26 November 2024, but, requested further opportunity to scrutinise the medium and long-term elements of the Action Plan, through an Extraordinary Meeting. The Committee did, however, endorse the short-term elements of the Action Plan. The aim of the plan was to provide a strategic framework to ensure activities are targeted.

 

The Head of Economic Development provided a presentation to the Committee, which included:

 

·       Engagement – encourage positivity within the town and the continuation of relationship building with local retailers, stakeholders etc.

·       Marketing – A marketing strategy had been developed that will include a website, external marketing via local and regional publications and social media promotion.

·       Markets – plans to implement the following:

-       Initiatives to encourage new traders.

-       Promotion and delivery of additional markets, including antique markets, makers market and youth markets.

·       Street theatre/performers.

·       Business support initiatives.

·       Events (April-December 2025), indicative events include:

-       Summer Festival

-       Luna Cinema

-       Mountain Bike Skills

-       Children’s show

-       French market/Brocante/Vide Grenier and French Jazz evening

-       Twilight market

-       Street theatre

·       Product Development – regeneration pipeline of projects, introduce public realm improvements and work with landlords to set up Pop-up shops in empty retail unit/s.

 

Councillor Matt Bailey submitted the following statement:

 

‘I firstly want to thank all the Officers involved in the evaluation of ideas submitted in Appendix 5 and I am delighted that some of those ideas have filtered into the Action Plan. I look forward to seeing these come to fruition and see continued growth and development in Grantham Marketplace. A strong collaboration between Officers, Ward Councillors, local businesses and member of the public will ensure that we responsibly deliver the best value for money when deploying the remaining resources of the Future High Street Fund.

 

Secondly I would like to thank the leader Cllr Baxter for suggesting and arranging a meeting between Officers, Cllr Ley and myself to discuss this in advance of this meeting.

 

Todays focus should be the Action Plan itself Appendix 2, I do believe in previous meetings we have been distracted by the accuracy of the data. I myself am still very sceptical of the data in its accuracy and further analysis I have seen and shared with Officers and other Councillors does show gaps which are difficult to explain. It is important that we both measure our success but can also identify any weakness or concerns. Footfall volumes sounded like a logical way to do this. However without foundations of accuracy, the data becomes meaningless and I fear is now just a distraction to this Committee.

 

As for the Action plan, I would like to Committee to explore a few changes and corrections:

 

Correction- The spending of the £114,000 on Events is currently allocated as a Medium term Jan-July 2025, but I believe the actual spending is planned to be spend across all of 2025.

 

Events- Appendix 3 has a proposed list of events:

 

1. £114,000 is a vast sum to spend in 1 year. Its a short burst of funding, I do think that this money could be spread across multiple years for a more sustained events strategy.
2. It would have been lovely to seen more Cultural and Diversity events in the calendar. Grantham has a rich community and I have suggested we put on an event to celebration Diwali for example.

 

Marketing Plan- The £7,000 Marketing plan was outlined as Short Term up to Christmas 2024, could this be shared with the Committee?’.

 

The Head of Economic Development highlighted that the events plan was from April - December 2025. Appendix 3 provided an indicative plan on types of activities that could be delivered within the Town Centre. The team would explore further activities and were open to receiving suggestions.

 

The £7,000 marketing plan was outlined as short term up to December 2024. It was requested whether the plan could be shared with the Committee. 

 

ACTION: For the £7,000 marketing plan to be shared with the Committee.

 

It was clarified that £5,000 was for the development of the marketing plan and £7,000 for the delivery of it. It was decided to not spend money on developing the plan via a consultant, this had been done internally. The £12,000 related to expenditure over the coming months around website development and advertising.

 

One Member raised a point that the main focus of the plan was for people living from around the area of Grantham. Concern was raised that an elderly couple from Billingborough would not be able to access the activities due to the lack of public transport.

 

It was queried whether funding could be utilised to set up a small business grant scheme for local businesses in the District, however, all funds were short-term or had to meet certain criteria.

 

A suggestion was made for the Council to have its own grant scheme that wasn’t reliant on a bid for funding each year to produce funding to encourage local business.

 

In terms of public transport, bus timetables had been included within the appendices to the report. There was reasonable coverage of public transport across the District, however, certain areas did suffer more than others. There was limiting funding for the short term period, therefore, subsiding and planning bus routes was not within the action plan at present but would be considered in the future.

 

UKSPF had been the main funding for Councils to fund business support activity. The Council also encouraged different providers to come forward with solutions to meet specialist provision. There was a new allocation of funding coming forward for the County, however, it was not subject to come directly to local authorities. 

 

A query was raised on whether the Council had undertaken a survey on local residents on whether they believe car parking in Grantham was underutilised as part of a study on car parking utilisation. The study had suggested that most of Grantham’s major car parks were only 20-25% occupied on a Friday and Saturday.

 

It was suggested whether signage could be included around car parks in Grantham in order to encourage utilisation of the car parks on a Friday and Saturday.

 

The Assistant Director of Planning & Growth highlighted that separate pieces of work were being undertaken on car parking.

 

The Cabinet Member for Property and Public Engagement confirmed the Council was committed to undertaking a review of car parking in six months’ time after the new charges in Grantham and Stamford were due to come into effect on the 20 January 2025.

 

A Member raised the concern on the perception of the Town Centre in relation to car parking due to traffic and/or roadworks.

 

It was felt there could be a danger of overthinking the activities as part of the Action Plan and possible issues that could occur beyond the circumstances out of anyone’s control e.g. weather.

 

One Member queried how many void retail premises were within the Town Centre. Of those, how many were going to be tenanted long-term or in line to become a pop-up shop.

 

The Head of Economic Development noted that the Council did not currently hold the amount of void retail units in the Town Centre. Several units had been addressed in the report which had previously been vacant: the bookshop, cafes and other businesses which were seeking to bring business to Grantham.

 

The Chairman informed the Committee that a UKSPF Monitoring Report was being brought to the Committee at the next meeting on 18 February 2025.

 

One Member commended the work being undertaken by Officers, however, it was noted that these works had been ongoing for several years. It was queried what lessons had been learnt and what would be done differently.

 

The Leader of the Council highlighted that the funding had assisted in refurbishing the Town Centre. Evidence had shown that progress had been made.   

 

Members thanked the Grantham Engagement Manager for her work.

 

A Grantham Member stated they had monitored void retail units. In and around the centre of Grantham, 3 shops had been lost in over a year and a half, however, 12 shops had been occupied.

 

It was confirmed that conversations were taking place for a Local Gallery to fill the empty shops and make them more attractive for visitors and residents.

 

The Cabinet Member for Property and Public Engagement emphasised the need for the work to be a cross-party unity alongside involvement from the community.

 

It was confirmed that works would be undertaken in signposting Wharf Road car park and upgrade the car park site. As of the 20 Janaury 2025, there would be 2 hours free parking at Wharf Road car park which may encourage people to utilise it.

 

It was proposed, seconded and AGREED that the Finance and Economic Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

 

1. Notes the content of the report in respect to the Grantham Town Centre Action Plan.

2. Endorses the Grantham Town Centre Action Plan.

3. Agrees to receive a further report on progress made against the action plan in six months.