Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence and notice of appointment of substitutes.

Apologies were received from Cllr A Cuddy who was not able to attend the meeting in person but attended online.

To receive any questions from members of the public and replies thereto.

There were no members of the public present and none had registered to ask a question.

To record any interests on agenda matters.

No interests were declared under this item, however, Members were reminded of the need to make a declaration should it be become relevant during the course of the meeting.

To consider whether to approve the minutes as a correct record of the meeting held on 16^th November 2023. 

The minutes of the previous meeting, held on 16 November 2023, were approved as a correct record and SIGNED by the Chairman.

To receive any announcements that the Chairman may wish to make.

The Chairman had no announcements to make.

To receive a verbal update on the draft budget position for 2024/2025 (based upon the MTFP budget update report presented to Cabinet on 12 December 2023).

The Group received, and NOTED, a verbal update from the Corporate Manager for Finance, Property and Climate Change regarding the 2024/2025 budget position. This was based on the Medium Term Financial Plan report presented to Cabinet in December and the latest position being presented to the Cabinet on 9^th January 2024.

The following summary was provided:

·       Savings totalling £1.68544m had been identified as part of the budget setting process during recent months. These had been listed under the RAG rating system so as to identify red, amber and green risks in terms of deliverability and impact on the service.

·       It was confirmed that staff savings would only be taken if a post became vacant, redundancies would not be a factor as part of this budget.

·       As a result of a great deal of hard work by both staff and Members there was now only a shortfall of £150k as compared to a shortfall in December 2023 of £418k.

·       Some of this was due to government announcements in December regarding the local government financial settlement and Council Tax and Business Rate changes.

Discussion took place with regard to: 

·       Possible income from battery boxes in the future.

·       There was some flexibility with regard to purchasing energy in advance.

·       Savings with regards to changes in the Leadership Team structure were reflected in the draft budget.

·       It was hoped that there would be a new mechanism for local government funding following the General Election as the current system was viewed by many as ‘broken’.

·       Mid Devon was in a pool of local authorities for Business Rate purposes. This had benefits in terms of sharing risks and reducing our levy payment of any growth achieved.

·       A full condition survey would be undertaken on all Mid Devon assets over the coming 12 months to assess their short term maintenance needs, longer term viability and options to improve carbon neutrality.

The Group wished to express its congratulations and thanks to all members of staff and Members of the Council who had played a part in helping to identify budget savings in order to reduce the shortfall for next year’s budget.

To receive a report from the Director of Place updating Members on activities undertaken by the Economic Development Team during the last two months.

The Group had before it, and NOTED, a report * from the Director of Place updating Members on activities undertaken by the Economic Development Team during the last two months. This included the following:

Prosperity Funding:

·       9 applications had been received to the current round. A further 5 businesses had been invited to full application (from rounds 1 and 2) but had not yet submitted forms.  The next round closed for applications at the end of January.

·       The Funding Panel meet on 17 January to make grant award decisions and a decision summary will be shared with the PDG Members.

·       The January ‘Be Grant Ready’ workshop had 13 places booked with 7 spaces remaining.

Field to Fork:

·       The ‘Meet the Producer’ project was proving popular with good levels of engagement on social media.  The project was approximately halfway through with another 6 producers to be featured.  A more in depth update on this project would be presented to the next Committee meeting.  This project was specifically supporting the Field to Fork elements of the Shared Prosperity Delivery Plan with targets for:

·       The ‘Meet the Producer’ posts and reels had been published weekly on Facebook and Instagram throughout December and would be ongoing. 

·       Grants had been offered to Food and Drink Devon and Devon County Show for further support projects to Mid Devon producers.  This included networking events, membership support schemes and subsidised trade stalls.  This supported delivery of outputs for businesses receiving non-financial support and supporting enterprises to reach new markets.

·       Through the Devon Agri-tech Alliance, as part of the Business Support project with Devon County Council, 4 specialised events for farm businesses were being organised, the first of which would focus on "Routes to Market" taking place on 22 February at Pipers Farm.  The next two events were pencilled in for end of March/ early April looking at Diversification and the third event in November looking at Regenerative Farming.  The fourth event would take place early 2025 with the topic to be confirmed.

Visitor Economy

·        Project work continues on both the Walking Festival and Tiverton Swan Trail.

·        The programme for the Walking Festival was being collated, with the initial content to be featured in a promotional campaign - "Escape to Mid Devon" - running later this month to encourage holiday bookings in Mid Devon.

·        The swans were with the artists until the end of January, when they would return for an anti-graffiti lacquer coating before being ready for installation by the end of March. The Planning Application for the Swan Trail would go to Planning Committee in February.

·        A more in depth update on both the Walking Festival and Swan Trail would be presented to the next Committee meeting.

·        With regards to other Visitor Economy projects outside the SPF:

·        The Bradninch board was installed Friday 8 December opposite the SPAR, outside the Guildhall. Many thanks to the Town Council and residents of Bradninch for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.

Members are asked to note that the following items are already identified in the work programme for the next meeting:

·       Field to Fork – project update

·       Economic Team Update

·       Visitor Economy Events update

·       Flexible workspace provision – summary findings of a study

·       J27 update

·       Performance Dashboard for Quarter 3

·       Chairman’s Annual Report for 2023/2024

Note: This item is limited to 10 minutes. There should be no discussion on the items raised.

In addition to the items already listed the following was requested by the Group for either the next meeting or a future meeting:

·         An update in relation to J28 as well as J27, to include the Culm Garden Village, the Cullompton Relief Road and the Cullompton Railway line.

·         The Chairman’s annual report. This would also be used as a wider agenda item at the first meeting in the new municipal year to highlight achievements during the last year, take stock of progress with regard to the Shared Prosperity Programme and also identify work programmes for the following year.

·         An informal session of the Group (to which all Members be invited) to be arranged to discuss income generation.