Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, 13 Church Street, Clitheroe, BB7 2RA

Contact: Olwen Heap 

Items
No. Item

266.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies for the meeting were received from Councillors R Bennett, D Birtwhistle and J Clark.

 

267.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 213 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 17 June 2021 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

 

268.

Declarations of pecuniary and non pecuniary interests

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in the agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests.

 

 

 

269.

Public participation

Minutes:

There was no public participation.

 

270.

Marketing Lancashire pdf icon PDF 140 KB

Report of Director of Community services enclosed.

Minutes:

The Director of Community Services submitted a report outlining the role of Marketing Lancashire in relation to the Council’s tourism work.

 

Marketing Lancashire is a destination management organisation (DMO) that promotes Lancashire as a destination and a place for visitors, occupiers, developers, investors and businesses as well as providing PR, digital marketing and events function for Lancashire LEP. Their funding is received from business and local authority subscriptions, and from central government.

 

Committee were informed that the government had recently announced an independent review to assess how DMOs across England are funded and structured and how they perform their roles. The outcome of the review would be reported to the DCMS Secretary of State and recommendations will be made. The Council’s Tourism Officer had been involved in the national consultation.

 

The Council has supported the work of Marketing Lancashire for several years with a subscription of £5,000pa with a service level agreement in place. However, Marketing Lancashire had recently dispensed with the agreement which meant there were now limited ways in which the organisation remained accountable in terms of value for money.

 

Officers recommended to committee that to ensure the Council gets value for money, new conditions for the delivery of service be negotiated with Marketing Lancashire addressing areas of current concern around tourism and economic development strategy, the identity of Ribble Valley, communication, collaboration on social media and the lack of involvement in marketing campaigns.

 

RESOLVED THAT COMMITTEE:

 

Delegate to the Director of Community Services in consultation with the Chair and Vice of committee to draft new conditions for the delivery of service and negotiate with Marketing Lancashire to establish a better working relationship which ensures value for money and effective delivery of co-ordinated tourism and economic development strategy.

 

271.

Covid 19 Economic Impacts update pdf icon PDF 274 KB

Report of Director of Economic Development and Planning enclosed.

Minutes:

The Director of Economic Development and Planning submitted a report for information on the assessment of the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy of the Ribble Valley.

 

The report outlined unemployment and furlough rates in Ribble Valley as well as data of vacant shop surveys in Whalley, Longridge and Clitheroe. Generally speaking there had been a positive reaction to the removal of Covid-19 restrictions.

 

272.

Tourism update pdf icon PDF 144 KB

Report of Director of Community Services enclosed.

Minutes:

The Director of Community Services submitted a report for information highlighting general progress on tourism activity with particular reference to measures taken to support the visitor economy during the pandemic as well as the priorities as recovery continues. The report referred to the relaunch of several tourism initiatives.

 

273.

Capital Monitoring 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 112 KB

Report of Director of Resources enclosed.

Minutes:

The Director of Resources submitted a report for information on the progress on this committee’s 2021/22 capital programme for the period to the end of July 2021.

 

There had been no spend on the two schemes in the capital programme and at this stage it was unclear whether they would be completed in-year.

 

274.

Reports from representatives on outside bodies

None.

Minutes:

There were no reports from representatives on outside bodies.

 

275.

Exclusion of Press and Public

Minutes:

That by virtue of the next item of business being exempt information under Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act the press and public be now excluded from the meeting.

 

276.

Land at A59

Report of Director of Economic Development and Planning enclosed.

Minutes:

The Director of Economic Development and Planning submitted a report updating members on the development appraisal work for the land along the A59 in Clitheroe.

 

She outlined the options available to committee as a way forward with regard to this land taking into account the budgets available and the situation with consultants.

 

RESOLVED THAT COMMITTEE:

 

Approve an increase in the budget for the piece of work to £30,000 (to be sourced from the Economic Development Initiatives budget) to enable further discussions to take place regarding the full appraisal of the land.