Issue - meetings

To seek endorsement of the Redditch Economic Development Strategy, which provides a means of delivering the adopted Economic Priorities.

(Report attached – Appendix A available on the Council’s website, unless a specific request is received from Councillors or others who require a copy.)

RECOMMENDED that

1)         subject to the outcome of a separate budget bid, the Redditch Economic Development Strategy as detailed in Appendix A be endorsed;

2)         the video clip for the Redditch Economic Development Strategy as prepared by students of Trinity High School, and as presented at the meeting, be endorsed for inclusion on the Council’s website and other related forums; and

3)         authority be delegated to the Head of Planning and Building Control, in consultation with the relevant Portfolio Holder, to produce final versions of the Executive Summary and Action Plan based on the ideas in the documents prepared by the students of Trinity High School.

(A Member posed a series of questions, as set out below, for consideration at some later date by the students who had attended the meeting to present the Executive Summary and video clip:

i)          what is good about Redditch;

ii)         what is not so good about Redditch; and

iii         in which direction ought the Council go in respect of further economic development in the Borough.)

The Committee welcomed representatives from Trinity High School, part of the Team that had triumphed in the competition to develop an Executive Summary for the Council’s Economic Development Strategy. The students presented a video-clip that had been devised and created to support the Summary and introduced the recommendation to the Committee pertaining to the video-clip and Summary.

Members were very keen to hear the views put forward by the school-age generation and congratulated the students on their work. The importance of gaining an insight into the needs and aspirations of the future workforce within the Borough was stressed and there was discussion on perceptions of the town. In this context a Member posed a series of questions, as set out below, for consideration at some later date by the students who had attended the meeting to present the Executive Summary and video clip:

i)          what is good about Redditch;

ii)         what is not so good about Redditch; and

iii         in which direction ought the Council go in respect of further economic development in the Borough.)

The teacher accompanying the students outlined the further steps that were to be undertaken in respect of the Economic Development Strategy and the effect that it might have on young people in the town.

RECOMMENDED that

1)         subject to the outcome of a separate budget bid, the Redditch Economic Development Strategy as detailed in Appendix A be endorsed;

2)         the video clip for the Redditch Economic Development Strategy as prepared by students of Trinity High School, and as presented at the meeting, be endorsed for inclusion on the Council’s website and other related forums; and

3)         authority be delegated to the Head of Planning and Building Control, in consultation with the relevant Portfolio Holder, to produce final versions of the Executive Summary and Action Plan based on the ideas in the documents prepared by the students of Trinity High School.