Town Deal Board Papers 15 July 2024

Town Deal Board record of meeting held 15 July 2024

Time: 15:30hrs (3:30pm)

Membership

Councillors C Smith, T Wainwright, D Candon,

Council Officers: S Oxtoby (Chief Executive), N Hayes (Executive Director - Place), K Sly (Executive Director - Resources), C Dyble (Head of Communications & Marketing), S Best (Head of Inward Investment), T Read (Project Manager), S Wintle (Minute Taker)

Henry Cator (Cator & Co) (Chairman), B Stone (Norfolk County Council), D Barker (Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust), H Sturzaker (Civic Society of Great Yarmouth), J Mackintosh (Out There Arts), PCC S Taylor (Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk), L Bevan (Visit Great Yarmouth), N Fairbank (Norfolk Chamber of Commerce), C Richards (East Norfolk Sixth Form), G Wall (Department for Work & Pensions), Chief Inspector M Hassan (Norfolk Constabulary), P Mace (Norfolk County Council), E Dewsnap (Active Norfolk) S C Sargisson (Sargisson Associates), L Wigby (Norfolk Foundation). 

1. Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were received from: David Glason, S Cosham, Richard Goffin, Shelley Hall, Holly Harcus, Lucy Hogg, Harry Jeffrey, Craig Miller, Keith Moore, Urmila Rasan, Dean Rosembert, Terry Staff, Andrew Tomlinson, Bernard Williamson.

2. Declarations of Interest

No declarations were made.

3. Minutes of previous meeting

The Minutes from the 3 June 2024 meeting were AGREED as accurate and approved by the Chairman.

The Chairman noted that Catherine had submitted a paper but this had been missed off the agenda, Catherine advised that she would be happy to circulate and discuss this under AOB. The Chair advised that the paper would be circulated with the minutes.

4. Onside Youth Centre Facility

A presentation was given to the Board by Phillip Worthington which focussed on Oppurtunity and ambition for Great Yarmouth's Young People..

On sides goals and objectives were summarised and it was highlighted how these aligned with the ambitions for Norfolk and in particular Great Yarmouth

Questions: 

NF -Asked with regard to the map which highlighted places which had seen a successful uptake and noticed that those places had been located within urban areas so she asked what could potentially be seen as the challenges with Yarmouth being a rural area

PW advised that as a organisation they had challenged themselves to look at a new zone 2.0 which would be approximately half the size, significantly cheaper and designed for smaller towns with less population, He advised that this was currently at RIBA stage 1 and that the scheme would look at what existed already as this could help with the accessing of those already in place sites.

LW asked with regard to the engagement with other youth organisations. PW advised that partnerships were essential to this project and therefore would be an asset, so could encourage further engagement which will look at a more collaborative approach for young people.

HS asked how progress was coming along with Great Yarmouth at the moment and whether any sites had been allocated. PW advised that they were aware of a number of zones that would tick the criteria boxes, but noted that to date all of the youth zones to date had been new builds, although he advised that there had been a number of offered sites these had not been usable and not good value We wouldn't say no to looking at refurbishment of building but would need to be right

5. Project and Programme Update

The Board noted the information contained within the agenda pack but no updates were given at the meeting. 

Future High Street Fund Projects

The Board noted the information contained within the agenda pack but no updates were given at the meeting. 

6. St John's Church Option Paper

Darren Barker presented to the Board, he advised that the Church was a Grade 2 listed building and was included in the buildings at risk register. He advised that the church had been transferred to GYPT and was included in the Town Deal funding.

Darren reported that it a 2 stage team for full restoration was planned for the project and it was hoped that this could be restored and re-used as an offer of holiday accommodation.

Unfortunately it was reported that GYPT had been unable to raise the match funding. Darren advised that £40,000 funding had been achieved so far and that there was a current active national lottery heritage bid for £140,00 which would be enough to undertake some of the restoration to allow for a training facility.

Darren advised that there were a number of options for the site:-

1. GYPT withdraw the project from the Town Deal funding
2. The preservation trust seek a new purchaser for the building but that it be noted this would require large investment due to amount of repair.
3. GYPT deliver restoration and repair work and use as a training process whilst continuing to seek funding in order to deliver the end goal of holiday accommodation.

It was noted that if option 3 was to be agreed, there had been a notable success of this model and the Preservation Trust has now been able to create a social enterprise trading company

 Option 3 would also result in a repaired building and should funds not be able to be reached this would assist with finding a suitable buyer or it could continue to be a training centre. It was further noted that a training provider had already been agreed, and they were keen to start on project.

J Mc asked what would happen to the building if nothing was done. DB advised that when buildings decline there is a tipping point of accelerated rapid deterioration.

TW asked whether there was a covenant on the church. DB believes you can have covenant lifted but would only be removal of non residential use.

SO commented that her concern was with regard to potentially the spending of £0.5m to end with a building still being out of use when the original bid was to bring the vacant property back into use. She advised that the Covenant currently in place means the building has no value and raised further concern that there appeared to be no business case for this. So commented that she remained nervous with the amount of funding being spent with no current achievable end goal.

DB advised that in his opinion investment would make building more attractive to the end user and that even without covenant on the building there would still be a huge cost with no return on it.

NF asked If the Board were to agree option 3, there would still need to be alternative funding sought and asked who would this be from and if the plan was to sell the property who would the Trust be looking to sell it to and when would this likely see the return.

DB commented that without any intervention it was a wasted asset that is part of the towns heritage. He also advised that it would be very difficult to say when there would be a return.

CR asked if project did not go ahead whether the training company would effectively stop.

DB reported that the company had already been established and would continue.

CS raised some concern that there would be no end user and he could see that the money would be spent but that the property could then deteriorate again.

The Board AGREED that in order to maintain the building funding could be used to undertake the emergency repairs while further work and discussions take place to resolve the boards concerns about future reuse and business planning.

Chair - Action GYPT to approach Church of England to see if Covenant could be lifted or see if they would like to contribute some funding. Chair would be willing to work with Darren to speak with the CofE. Report to be brought back to future Town Deal Board.

7. Long Term Plan (LTP)

Presentation was summarised to the Board.

CS sought clarification as to the new government now being in place and whether confirmation has been given that this funding will be continued.

Sam (Filigree) advised that the purpose of consultation was to listen to local people and see what was important to them.

She advised that there had been some restrictions evidenced during the process such as the General Election but nevertheless a good period of consultation was undertaken

A Snapshot of the consultation was shown and it was advised that some data still required inputting as this was still being collated

TW commented on the remarks with regard to making the town feel safe, Chief Inspector MH, advised that he would look into this figure and report back to the Board.

CEO- advised that she had met with DI Craig Millar and he had advised that Great Yarmouth was not out of line with the average in relation to its statistics.

Sarah (PCC)  commented that she would be like to understand the scope further, together with rural response priority 1 and 3 as she felt that work could be done on these, she advised that she would be happy to discuss this matter offline.

TW asked with regard to children obesity figures. SO advised that the figure presented was correct and ED again confirmed this.

The Board here broke out into designated break out rooms to discuss the themes for the Long Term Plan Fund

Breakout room feedback was as follows :-

Break out room 1 - CEO

• 1.6m dentistry training hub - needs funding as ICB has no funding (capital funding needed)
• Empty shops and buildings - co-op as an example although capital set aside no buildings identified
• Making the town feel safe - more PSPO but could be about more cultural events - more work to be done
• Keeping the town clean and tidy - educating people and having a long term pride and place in place
• Somewhere for children and young people - £1m set aside to look at this project

Break Out Room 2 - Executive Director, Place

• Key priority was around keeping streets clean and tidy and the street scene and ensuring people feel face
• Campaign around pride and place
• Huge amount to sell and highlight in the town
• Channelling funding into the youth
• Dentistry training hub - access vital for residents
• Bringing different things in to the high street - working with planning to ensure these areas can move along swiftly.

AGREED: Board happy for themes detailed within the Long Term Plan paper to be proceeded with.

8. Any other business

There was no other business discussed.

Date of next meeting

10am on 01 October 2024

Action Summary

• GYPT to approach Church of England to see if Covenant could be lifted or see if they would like to contribute some funding. Chair would be willing to work with Darren to speak with the CofE. Report to be brought back to future Town Deal Board.

• Young peoples paper - to be brought to the next meeting