Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for their attendance.

Apologies were received from Neil Conlon, Conlon Construction.

Please see attached.

The minutes of the Leyland Town Deal Advisory Board held on 19 June 2020 were agreed.

The Chair invited Andrew Clarke from WYG and Fred Bertrandi from Steer Group to update the Board on progress to date.

Jonathan Noad informed the Board that the £750,000 government funding for the Leyland Town Deal had now been confirmed.  Katherine Fletcher MP indicated that the monies would be transferred by next week.

Andrew Clarke gave a presentation providing an overview of each of the project elements described at the Town Deal Workshops held at the end of August, i.e. BASE 2 (name/branding to confirmed), Market Regeneration and Town Centre/Public Realm. He explained the next stages with regard to each project, which included due diligence, sketch design, construction and commissioning.

Please see document attached for consideration and comments.

Andrew Clarke referred to the Draft Town Investment Plan circulated with the agenda. Cllr Evans indicated that the document was to be discussed at Council on 30 September 2020 and the Chair said that she had been asked to present the item at that meeting.

Andrew referred to the public engagement / consultation exercise which was due to end on 28 September and outlined the next steps in the process, including development appraisal, completion of TIP Parts 1 and 2, final review by the Board and submission.

Christina Shepherd from BEIS (Dept. of Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy) praised the draft TIP. She stressed the importance of showing evidence of need, clearly outlined areas of intervention and an overview of economic development indicators. Jonathan Noad indicated that there were lots of examples of demonstrable current activity and potential in Leyland, such as development of residential homes, employers e.g. Leyland DAF and BAE systems and that the Town Deal was an opportunity to build on these strengths.

Cllr Evans raised the issue of the branding of the Business Advice Skills and Enterprise “BASE 2” building as there was already a building of that name in Broadfield. It was agreed that the branding could be reviewed.

The Chair enquired as to the consultation responses received online via the website and feedback forms from the town markets. Andrew Clarke and Fred Beltrandi indicated that the data needed to be pulled together and analysed however it was agreed that the raw data could be circulated to the Board in excel format.

Nik Puttnam referred to the TIP economic development indicators and offered to provide his expertise from a developer / contractor perspective. It was agreed that Andrew Clarke and Nikk Puttnam would discuss further following the meeting. Nikk also asked about youth engagement. Jennifer Clough said she would liaise with members of the Board representing local colleges regarding promoting / obtaining student feedback on the consultation.

Katherine Fletcher MP enquired as to whether the consultation could include a question about the scheme overall as well as the individual elements of the project. Christina Shepherd agreed that the TIP is assessed in its entirety and one of the three key assessment areas is engagement, evidenced from the local community i.e. businesses, residents. Katherine Fletcher MP suggested that the Board use its contacts to promote responses to this additional question and the consultation to local stakeholders. She said she was happy to approach parliamentary office contacts e.g. Nigel Evans MP.

Andrew Clarke confirmed that the additional question could be added to the online consultation, additional images included and the deadline extended for another 2-3 weeks. A form of words, images and a link would be circulated to the Board. Councillor Bell also suggested a that direct mail consultation be sent to local residents directly affected by the proposals. A competition via local schools was also suggested.

Christina Shepherd also stressed the need to include evidence of other funded programmes, e.g. match funding and linkages such  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.

To be confirmed.

Decision – That a meeting of the Board be scheduled w/c 12 October 2020 to consider feedback on the consultation and revisions to the draft TIP; and

ii) that a meeting be scheduled at the end of October to sign off the TIP for submission.