Minutes:
The Council’s Executive Director for Commercial Development and Economic Growth, Simon McEneny gave a presentation on the Town Deals.
Kidsgrove Town Deal was the first to be submitted to the MHCLG just before Christmas and on 3 March, 2021 it was announced that the Council had been allocated £16.9m. The Town Deal Board would be asked at an upcoming meeting if they wished to accept the £16.9m and, if so, this would be confirmed back to Government within two months stating how the funds would be reallocated. Once done, business cases would need to be drawn up and confirmed by the Council’s S151 Officer. The Government would then release the funding on a project by project basis over twelve months.
Newcastle Town Deal was submitted later – in January and an announcement would be awaited in late spring/early summer, 2021.
A request had been put in to the Government for some additional resource to work up the business cases as the Council did not have that capacity in house. The Government were offering additional twelve months support from external consultants and were asking local authorities to bid for additional funding.
The Chair stated that this was great news with almost £28m granted across the two bids and there was an application in for a further £25m.
The presentation provided information on Advanced Town Deal Funding which showed how £1.75m had been allocated in addition to the Town Deal Funds. This had been allocated in advance of the Town Deals being given. The money had been awarded last August and the Council had been given until the end of March, 2021 to spend £1m in Newcastle and £750,000 in Kidsgrove.
For Kidsgrove, works such as the 3G pitch, works at the Sports Centre and work in Clough Hall Park were undertaken and for Newcastle and Knutton, purchasing the PCT building, a new employment skills hub in Lancaster Buildings, a contribution was made to the demolition of the former Zanzibar building. The last contract for all of these would begin on site on 15 March so the vast majority of money would be spent by the end of March and the Government had allowed the Council to switch budgets in order to show spend on other projects.
Councillor Panter asked about the e-scooter trial and whether there was any evidence as yet on the possible success of the scheme.
Simon McEneny stated the company doing the trial were happy with the take-up which was in line with their aspirations before the trial. More scooters were being deployed across the north of the town centre and the company were considering the possibility of renting the scooters out.
The Chair asked if there were any obstacles in terms of delivery of the projects by the Council.
Simon McEneny confirmed that there were no obstacles. Governance had been set up so the right people were around the table, making the decisions. In addition, plans were already being worked through as if the funding had already been received. Job descriptions had also been written up for project management support.
Resolved: That the information be received.