Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the fourth Spennymoor Town Board meeting and introductions were made.

Apologies for absence were received from A Harhoff, D Stone, Revd Canon M Tarling and A Strickland.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 10 July 2024 were agreed as a correct record.

Matters Arising

·        Information from the Zen City Survey had been received by government and would be shared once it had been reviewed.

·        There had been a suspension of the 1 August 2024 for the first tranche and 1 November 2024 for the second tranche deadlines for the submission.  New deadlines were being awaited from Government. Work had still progressed which was positive. 

The Community Economic Development Manager gave an update on the Spennymoor LTPT Comms.  There had been 11 public engagement events held, 266 responses received to the online consultation along with presentations made to 900 secondary school pupils and 200 primary school pupils.  The collated information had been used to shape the town’s vision and was included in the summary engagement report by Urban Foresight.  Further follow up sessions had begun and would continue engagement with local people.

The Economic Development Manager advised that a press release had been circulated to inform local people that the submission had not taken place on 1 August 2024. The social media platforms and the website had also been updated.  There had been no adverse responses and interest remained high. 

The Economic Development Manager reviewed the logic chain, SWOT analysis and the vision mission statements for each working group with the Board which provided information on bringing the programme together, how the programme would progress and demonstrated the long-term plan to progress forward.  The vision mission statements for the three themes (High Street, Heritage and Regeneration; Safety and Security; Transport and Connectivity) contained words that had been constantly used throughout the consultation by local people across the town to provide an understanding of what was needed.

The Board were informed that various feedback sessions had been held to relay to local people that the programme was progressing well.  The sessions had generated a real level of interest.  The programme would be steered from government to embed the principles through co-design, co-development and co-delivery with key priorities created for the town. Once the submission deadline was clarified the engagement would continue to share the investment plan with the community.  This was an opportunity to involve board members, the community and stakeholders to look at the key issues identified and share proposed projects to be delivered.  It was noted that quick wins were important so local people could see advancement in the programme through ideas like diversion activities for young people to reduce anti-social behaviour issues in the area.

              a)       Submission

          b)       Feedback from Working Groups 

          c)       Y1-3 Investment plan

          d)       Project longlist / prioritisation progress

          e)       Proposed investment allocations

          f)        Future consultation feedback sessions

The Board considered a report of the Corporate Director of Regeneration, Economy and Growth which provided a progress update of the draft initial project submission following the consultation period for the Long-Term Plan for Towns Programme and confirmed the 3 year investment plan and project prioritisation tool for project interventions for initial proposed areas of investment (for copy of report, see file of Minutes).

a) Submission

The Economic Development Manager advised the Board that further clarification was anticipated from government regarding the deadline and the formal template for the submission.  Although there was a government delay on the submission work had continued with the community during the pre-election period.  However, this meant the timeline for interviews with business representatives had been delayed.  Due to summer holidays youth engagement was delayed and this work was pending as there was still a keenness to set up a youth focus group. The team had attended the Spennymoor Youth Fest and Board members were advised that the event had doubled the attendance from the previous year. 

The Community Economic Development Manager however confirmed that the first youth focus group would be held in the week commencing 26^th August 2024 that would be considered as a fourth working group. This would link in with the work with schools when reengagement commenced in term time. Reassurance was given to Councillor L Maddison that engagement had taken place and would continue to do so with Middlestone Moor Primary School and other local schools. There were concerns raised at the lack of Youth Workers and their short-term work due to the lack of funding.  It was suggested that Youth hubs would be an opportunity to look at the employment of Youth Workers.  It was proposed that work could be carried out with colleges to gain employment connections to encourage Youth Worker positions.  The Chair stated that the programme was for 10 years and the vision was to generate match funding that could put the foundations in place for Youth Workers as they were important to shape the future of the town.   The North East’s new Mayor had a similar vision that carried a lot of momentum for the common direction to move forward. 

b) Feedback from Working Groups

The Project Manager gave an update from each working group which continued to meet on a monthly cycle and had good attendance from board members and stakeholders.

Safety and Security Working Group

The working group were looking to prioritise antisocial behaviour issues, safety and security issues, off road bikes issues and CCTV cameras.  Work was in progress with Andrea Petty (Police and Crime Commissioners Office) to look at figures to cost up ideas to increase Neighbourhood Wardens and Police presence in areas such as the pathways and underpass leading to the Daisy Field, Spennymoor where people had voiced that they did not feel safe.

High Street, Heritage and Regeneration

The working group had a good handle on startups with support of retail space around the town.  There had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Community Economic Development Manager had spoken with the Comms Team at Durham County Council regarding the use of ‘Spennymoor Together’ as the new Board name.  She had been advised that the proposed name would be confused with Durham County Council’s ‘Horden Together’ Programme. The Comms team had proposed the following suggestions as potential names:

•       TEAM Spennymoor (Together Everyone Achieves More)

•       All together for Spennymoor

•       Spennymoor - united as one

•       Spennymoor collective

•       Spennymoor as one

Upon discussion it was:

Resolved:

i)               That the Spennymoor Town Board be renamed ‘All together for Spennymoor’.

ii)             That branding would be designed based on the new name.

A question was raised by the Community Economic Development Manager regarding timescales upon receipt of government date for submission.  It was advised that the Board should have at least 4 weeks notice or more.

The next Board meeting would be held on Thursday 3 October 2024 at 3pm in the meeting room at Livin', Farrell House, A2 Arlington Way, Spennymoor, DL16 6NL.