Agenda item

The Chair of Kidsgrove Town Centre Partnership (KTCP), Community Interest Company (CIC), provided Committee with an update on events occurring within Kidsgrove.

Branding

Following on from a successful application to the Association of Town and City Management for place branding support, KTCP had developed the ‘Go Kidsgrove’ brand and were using it across all media platforms wherever possible.

Marketing

The website www.gokidsgrove.co.uk was now live but more work was still required.

Go Kidsgrove were notified that the Alsager branch of the Co-operative Bank was closing in December and produced a flyer promoting Kidsgrove as an alternative for banking.  Since December, the Kidsgrove branch had seen a significant upturn in transactions.

Events

The town had run several Christmas shopping challenges as well as a Halloween challenge and were linking in with a local historian who was organising walking trails.

The first ever Christmas tree was bought for Kidsgrove from the support of Kidsgrove Rotary Club who sponsored the tree and would also sponsor a growing tree to be planted later this year.  Negotiations were also ongoing with other organisations.

The canal project received great media attention.  A small application was being prepared for £10k of Heritage Lottery Funding (HLF) to provide an interactive map for the canal noticeboard.  The application would be submitted in April 2015.

The following questions were asked and responses provided:-

Q1       There was concern on the governance; it had been stated you were going to increase the number of Directors, have you still only got the same six?

A1:      It was confirmed that there were still only the six.  The difficulty was the commitment from people, time and key skills.  There was still a lack of marketing expertise.

Q2:      The problem was the website not being very informative.  You had received a grant from the Borough Council, had further funds been secured?

A2:      They were looking forward to securing more membership within Go Kidsgrove.

Q3:      If there was a change in administration or priorities and there would no longer be support financially, would the CIC carry on and would there still be support of Officers from Newcastle Borough Council?

A3:      It was confirmed that there were funds that could be accessed as a CIC.

            The Executive Director of Regeneration and Development confirmed that the allocation of funding to the Newcastle Town Centre Partnership was to fund the managerial position which would cease at the end of December 2015.

            In the case of Kidsgrove the £10,000 was to pump-prime establishment of the partnership to see whether it could be a viable arrangement.  It was confirmed that the Officer time was built into the service plan and it was envisaged this would continue to support the town centre to strengthen its economy.

The Portfolio Holder for Economic Development, Town Centres, Business and Customer Services advised the achievements KTCP had accomplished within twelve months were very good.  They had identified what the future was for Kidsgrove but now need to concentrate on a couple of projects to deliver.

Q4:      Would future aspirations go beyond the next twelve months, for example planters?

A4:      KTCP were looking at sustainable projects and would be reviewing working documents.  Preparations were in place to establish a Chairs meeting.

Q5:      Has there been any analysis carried out on the potential tourism the Waterfront Project could generate?

A5:      Approximately 25,000 people per annum pass through this stretch of canal on boats.  It is not rich in heritage but a proposal had been suggested that targeted promotions could be undertaken, for example when a boat was hired the client would receive vouchers to purchase merchandise from the shops in Kidsgrove Town Centre.

Q6:      It had been mentioned that Kidsgrove Town Council (KTC) and KTCP have refused to work together, as a Committee could a resolution be passed to the Portfolio Holder?

            There was a need to facilitate the Kidsgrove Town Council CIC and other stakeholders so that the priorities and responsibility areas were set out.

A6:      The Executive Director of Regeneration and Development advised the Borough Council was at the final stage in negotiations with a District Deal with Staffordshire County Council and it acknowledged that Kidsgrove required a master plan to highlight key work streams and identified, with great clarity, which organisation was leading.

RECOMMENDED:-

That the Executive Director of Regeneration and Development Services act as a representative on behalf of KTCP at meetings with Staffordshire County Council regarding the District Deal and deliver an output to Committee at its next meeting.