Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member – Councillor Nia Jeffreys

To consider a report on the above.

To accept the report and note the observations, and receive an update on the matter within a year.

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for the Economy, the Assistant Head of the Economy and Community Department and the Regeneration Programmes Manager were welcomed to the meeting.

The report of the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for the Economy was presented, inviting the committee to consider the following in the context of the fact that an element of the 'Regeneration of communities and town centres' project in the Council Plan 2023-28 is to prepare Town/City Centre action plans for individual towns:

·         The arrangements for preparing action plans

·         Who is included in their development?

·         How is it intended to measure the effect of the action plans?

The Cabinet Member set out the context, and the Regeneration Programmes Manager elaborated on the content of the report.  Members were then given an opportunity to ask questions and submit observations. 

It was asked what the arrangements were for monitoring that all these multi-layered and cross-departmental plans worked effectively and in a timely manner, and it was asked whether the Council had sufficient capacity to undertake the work.  In response, it was noted that:

·         The Council worked through a cross-departmental forum over the last two to three years, bringing town centre issues together, and that was the intention in terms of this plan, to have input and representation from different departments.

·         What would be monitored was very dependent on individual action plans within town centres, and it was believed that there was room in every town centre in Gwynedd to either develop or update a town centre plan to identify the priorities and monitor the progress against those priorities.

·         During the first year of the plan, the need to strengthen the data held for town centre areas was seen.  There was some historical data available, but it was believed that there was room to set slightly stronger data for individual towns, rather than counties, so that this was a means of monitoring the trends.

It was asked what would happen if there was a slippage in plans.  In response, it was noted that this work-stream had been identified as one of the priorities of the Council's Plan and that it would be an important part of the Department's performance management arrangements over the next five years.

It was asked how confident were we that there was sufficient funding available from the Transforming Towns programme to realise what we were trying to achieve, which was quite ambitious.  In response, it was noted that:

·         We were currently in year 2 of the three-year Transforming Towns programme, and would have to plan ahead on the basis that there would be a subsequent regeneration programme.

·         UK Government funding, namely the Levelling Up and Shared Prosperity funding, had proved to be significantly greater funding than what the Transforming Towns programme had to offer, but over the last two years it was seen from the UK Government programmes that plans needed to be almost ready to start in order to be eligible for the funding.

·         It was necessary to prepare  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8