Agenda and minutes

Board Members are reminded that at the start of the meeting they should declare any known interests in any matter to be considered. However, if it becomes apparent during the meeting that a member has an interest in the matters being discussed, it should be declared at that time.

Board members are requested at the start of the meeting to declare any known interests in any matter to be considered and are reminded that any such interest should also be declared at the start of an item or during any discussion of the matter concerned.

The Chair invited Members to declare any known interests in any matters to be considered at the meeting. The following declarations were made:

• Richard Newland reported his personal and prejudicial declaration of interest in respect to the organisation Create who were supported by Nationwide to gain a grant.

The group noted the minutes and agreed the minutes of the previous meeting.

• Action: PB to confirm if the money for the DMJ is only up to the 11th floor and feed back to the group. – The group noted that this had been pulled together and sent to Cllr Ali for agreement. It would be sent to the group once it had been agreed.

·        Action: KO to recirculate the timeline for the group once updated. - Complete

The group noted that the first tranche of Cohort 1 of the Towns Fund money was announced this week and included; Barrow-in-Furness, Blackpool, Darlington, Peterborough, Norwich, Torquay and Warrington. The group noted that they expect to be part of the second tranche of announcements.

The group noted that there are range of potential outcomes:

1.    Unsuccessful outcome for many or all of the projects we have submitted.

2.    Unsuccessful outcome for one or a small number of the projects with the majority passing the assessment criteria for funding.

3.    All 7 projects are approved.

Informal feedback on our submission has been positive and so the first outcome above is unlikely to occur.

If one or a small number are unsuccessful at this stage, there is likely to be an option for re-submission.  Discussions with MHCLG indicate this would involve withdrawing the TIP from tranche 1 and re-submitting the whole TIP into tranche 2, with revised proposals covering the one or more projects which were unsuccessful.  These could be re-worked plans for the same projects or entirely new proposals which would require a further open selection process to achieve parity with the original project selection.

Alternatively Swindon Board can opt to accept the government appraisal as it is, and take forward the projects approved and indicated in the feedback.

The Project Development Group has considered the issue and makes the following points to the Board:

The group is proud of the speed of development and momentum the Board has created in its strong drive to submit the TIP in tranche 1. The group agreed that maintaining that momentum is very important.  The group noted that they are hopeful, based on informal feedback that all or the great majority of the submitted projects will proceed to allocation of funding in a Heads of Terms.

Whilst anticipating a successful outcome to our submission, the Project Development Group recommends to the Board that we accept the outcome we receive from MHCLG and do not seek to re-submit in a revised TIP as part of tranche 2.

The group noted that they would have 12 months from signing of the Heads of Terms to produce business cases and have them independently assessed. The group stated that they wanted to go straight out for quotations for this work once the decision has been received. The group noted that they wanted to go out with the documentation and notify the MHCLG with their acceptance as soon as they are able.

The Town Fund Board agreed the following recommendations unanimously:

-          authorise the Chair, or in his absence the Deputy Chair, to notify MHCLG of the Board’s acceptance of the outcome of the assessment of the TIP and not to seek to re-submit in tranche 2 unless the feedback was so negative as to require a full re-working of the TIP; and

-         in the case of the TIP being deemed completely unsuccessful, agree to an emergency meeting, with date to be confirmed to review our position and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

The group noted that this is a locally managed process and the Council will run this process.

The group were reminded that the business cases asked for were full business cases in all but final procurement details and costs.

The group noted that the dates on the slides were indicative of the earliest potential dates for this work. The group noted that the work has been done so that the group could go straight out to tender once they have received word from the Government.

The group noted that the projects that would be delivered earlier would have their business cases brought forward first – with business cases brought to the Board as they are completed.

-         The group agreed that they would delegate authority to undertake the tender process, select and appoint two sets of consultants: one to produce the business cases and another to act as independent technical assessors who will appraise the business cases and report to the Board.

The group noted that the first cohort of towns would be published in two phases. The group noted that they are expecting notification within the next two weeks.

The group noted that the first cohort has been split into two tranches to aid communication and is not based on merit of the bids.

The group thanked Karen Leigh for her continued support.

The group noted that updated timeline.

The group noted that the dates were assuming that the Heads of Terms would be offered in the next two weeks.

The group noted that they hoped to be in a position to issue the tenders at the beginning of December 2020.

Next steps following offer of Terms:

• Issue Press Release
• Send emails to Board members, successful & unsuccessful projects
• Send thank you emails to those who sent letters of support
• Issue a communication to Community Panel Members
• Legal and financial review and sign off
• Understand reporting requirements to the board

The group thanked Karen Owsley for all of her hard work.

The group noted that the next meeting would be Friday 20^th November. Then the final meeting of the year would be on Friday 18^th December.

No other business at this time.