Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received on behalf of Councillor Matthew Dormer.

In the absence of the Chair, the Vice Chair, Councillor Nyear Nazir, chaired the meeting.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and / or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

There were no declarations of interest.

In the absence of the Leader, the Deputy Leader advised that there had been a number of supplementary packs issued for the meeting alongside the main agenda pack.

Members were asked to note that, whilst the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had pre-scrutinised the Redditch Town Centre Business Cases and Levelling Up Fund Bid 2 reports at a meeting held on 23^rd June 2022, there had been no recommendations made on these items.  Therefore, there were no minutes from that meeting for the Executive Committee’s consideration at this time.

RESOLVED that

the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on Tuesday 14^th June 2022 be approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Chair.

This report is due to be pre-scrutinised at a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee scheduled to take place on 23^rd June 2022.  Any recommendations that are made by the Committee on this subject will be reported in a supplementary pack for the consideration of the Executive Committee.

The Head of Planning, Regeneration and Leisure Services presented the Redditch Town Centre Regeneration Business Cases report for the Executive Committee’s consideration.  In presenting the report, it was highlighted that since the original publication of the report, updated copies of the business cases had been issued in supplementary packs for the meeting.

In 2019, the Government invited over 100 towns across the country, including Redditch, to submit bids for a town’s deal.  Redditch Borough Council had submitted a bid to the Government in January 2021 and had subsequently been awarded in excess of £15 million to spend on particular regeneration projects in the town centre.  Whilst these projects had already been agreed, the business cases that had been developed for the report to the Executive Committee in June 2022 provided more detailed information about the actions proposed.  The content of these business cases would inform summary statements to the Government, which were due to be submitted by 29^th June 2022.

There were three key schemes in the Redditch Town Deal, which had previously been approved by the Government:

·             Development of a Redditch Digital Manufacturing and Innovation Centre

·             Redditch Town Centre Public Realm works

·             Redevelopment of the Redditch Library site

In respect of the Redditch Library site, the Government had granted an extension for submission of a detailed business case setting out proposals for the future.  This business case would be the subject of a further report to the Executive Committee, which was due to be considered in September 2022.

The business cases that had been submitted for the Executive Committee’s consideration had been drafted by external consultants, Mott MacDonald.  Based on the company’s assessment, Members were advised that it was anticipated that the proposals for the Digital Manufacturing and Innovation Centre would be over budget by approximately £2 million.  Similarly, the estimated costs for the public realm works were likely to be over budget, although there were actions that could be taken to address this, including through use of funding from other sources to cover the total costs.

In line with Government requirements, a Redditch Town’s Deal Board, comprising representatives of the public, private and voluntary and community sectors (VCS), had been established to consider proposals in respect of the Town’s Deal.  The Board had been consulted on the content of the business cases prior to the Executive Committee’s consideration.

During consideration of this item, the Interim Section 151 Officer was invited to outline the financial implications of the proposals for Members’ consideration.  The Committee was advised that, as part of the process, the Section 151 Officer needed to be comfortable with and to approve the business cases in order for the submission to the Government to proceed.

Members were advised that £8 million had originally been allocated to the Digital Manufacturing and Innovation Centre.  However, the business case had identified that £10 million would in fact need to be allocated to this project.  This estimate included a figure of £1.5 million that had been allocated to contingency costs,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

This report is due to be pre-scrutinised at a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee scheduled to take place on 23^rd June 2022.  Any recommendations that are made by the Committee on this subject will be reported in a supplementary pack for the consideration of the Executive Committee.

The Head of Planning, Regeneration and Leisure Services presented a report on the subject of an opportunity available for the Council to submit a bid for Levelling Up funding.  Members were informed that Levelling Up was a national scheme and the funding that had been made available for bidding purposes formed part of a second round of Levelling Up support available across the country.  Councils would be bidding in competition with other local authorities for up to £20 million under this scheme. 

The Council would need to ensure that a bid was submitted to the Government by 6^th July 2022 for this process.  Additional work would be required on the bid prior to that date.  Therefore, Officers were requesting delegated authority to continue to work on this matter up to the date of submission.

The Council was required to be able to demonstrate to the Government in the bid process that additional funding from alternative sources would be made available alongside the Levelling Up funding.  This needed to represent 10 per cent of the funds allocated to the Council by the Government under the scheme.

There were different categories of local authority that could bid for funding as part of the Levelling Up process.  In this round of Levelling Up, Redditch Borough Council had been allocated a category one applicant and it was hoped that this would increase the likelihood that the bid would be successful for the Borough.

There were three key themes in relation to which bids could be made:

·             Transport

·             Regeneration and the town centre

·             Heritage and culture

Officers were anticipating that the Council was likely to have a greater chance of successfully bidding for Levelling Up funding under the regeneration and town centre theme.  However, there were lots of plans for regeneration in the town centre that were already being progressed under the Redditch Town Deal process.  Therefore, Officers were suggesting that a bid should be made in relation to regeneration of Matchborough and Winyates District Centres.  A lot of preparatory work and research had already been undertaken in respect of researching potential options for the regeneration of these two district centres and this would help to inform the submission to the Government.  By contrast, whilst it was recognised that Woodrow District Centre would also benefit from regeneration, there had been less preparatory work undertaken in respect of this location and for that reason, Officers were not proposing that it should be included in the focus of the bid.

Members subsequently discussed the proposals in the report in detail and in doing so welcomed the suggestion that funding should be allocated the regeneration of Matchborough and Winyates District Centres.  Reference was made to the regeneration of Church Hill District Centre some years previously and Members concurred that this had been successful and had had a positive impact in the local community.  However, Members commented that the regeneration of Matchborough and Winyates District Centres would be more complex to achieve, particularly in Winyates, where there was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.