Agenda and minutes

The following new members were introduced and welcomed to the Lincoln Town Deal Board:

·         Leo Scott Smith – Tended, digital sector;

·         James Kirby – Stirlin, developer sector;

·         Edward Strange – Brewin Dolphin, finance and investment sector;

·         Lisa Donini – Marks and Spencer and Chair of Healthy High Street – retail/high street sector.

Consideration was given to the accuracy of the minutes of the meeting held on 23 January 2020.

Karl McCartney MP had requested that the names of businesses or individuals he had listed at the meeting on 23 January 2020, who he felt should be invited to sit on the Lincoln Town Deal Board be placed in the public domain as an amendment to the minutes.

It was agreed that the names would be placed in the public domain and put on record in the minutes, but only on the basis that the businesses and individuals concerned were aware they had been nominated to sit or be represented on the Board.

Upon receipt of a nomination, which was seconded, and there being no further nominations, it was RESOLVED that Mary Stuart be elected Chair of the Lincoln Town Deal Board.

Upon receipt of a nomination, which was seconded, and there being no further nominations, it was RESOLVED that James Kirby be elected as Vice-Chair of the Lincoln Town Deal Board.

The Board considered the latest version of its Terms of Reference which reflected an increase in membership, further to which the quorum for the Board had been increased to 10.

Councillor Richard Davies highlighted his concerns that continuing to meet on Thursdays would preclude members such as Karl McCartney MP and Lord Cormack from participating due to their commitments in the House of Commons and House of Lords, respectively.

Mary Stuart gave an assurance that future meetings would be held on a day and time convenient with Lincoln’s democratically elected members in order that they could attend.

Councillor Davies sought clarity on the use of substitutes at Board meetings as he was of the understanding that they were not permitted, following advice provided to the Police and Crime Commissioner. It was his view that members of the Board should be able to appoint substitutes to represent them if necessary and that not allowing them to do so would be a retrograde step.

Edward Strange supported this position and agreed that it would be helpful for members of the Board to send a substitute on those occasions when they themselves were unable to attend meetings and that there may even be merit in sharing the role with senior colleagues occasionally.

Ursula Lidbetter suggested that the Board would be in danger of losing strategic consistency in allowing use of substitutes, suggesting a compromise in that substitutes could attend meetings on behalf of members of the Board but not vote.

Councillor Ric Metcalfe agreed that continuity was very important and that the work of the Board would move forward relatively quickly, with ownership of the Board also being an important aspect of its membership. Deputisation could often become normal practice and, given the significance of the work of this Board, he felt that substitutions should be used by exception.

Scott Flemming reminded the Board that he was present at this meeting as a substitute, therefore, a precedent had already been set.

Following further discussion on this matter, it was RESOLVED that the Terms of Reference be approved subject to the membership and attendance sections of the document reflecting that named Board members may nominate a substitute to attend meetings on their behalf, but that the substitute will not be entitled to vote.

The Board considered the latest version of its Code of Conduct, which was based on the Code of Conduct adopted by the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership.

It was RESOLVED that the Code of Conduct for the Lincoln Town Deal Board be approved.

The Board considered a location plan which set out the proposed area that would be covered by the Lincoln Town Deal.

The original boundary proposed by Government was set out in blue on the document, however, it had since been agreed that the boundary could be extended to include the wider administrative city boundary represented on the plan in red. The final area for the Lincoln Town Deal would therefore include the City of Lincoln administrative area plus the areas shaded blue on the plan, extending beyond this administrative boundary.

It was RESOLVED that the revised Lincoln Town Deal area be approved.

The Board considered a report which confirmed that the City of Lincoln Council had been awarded £173,029 of capacity funding to support the Town Deal Programme. It was noted that this funding could be used as follows:

·         to convene the Town Deal Board;

·         to run business and community engagement events;

·         to develop Town Investment Plans;

·         to provide technical expertise for business case development.

On 23 January 2020 the Lincoln Town Deal Board had proposed three key priorities for the Town Deal Programme in Lincoln, as follows:

·         digital;

·         transport;

·         skills.

The Board, at the meeting on 23 January, had also discussed the need to promote the city in order to attract inward investment alongside support for existing firms. In addition, the Board had further proposed that existing expertise, governance structures and resources should be used wherever possible to maximise value throughout the programme.

It was reported that the following allocation, consisting of notional values at this stage, was proposed:

·         Town Investment Plan and development of L3 Lincoln Living Lab proposal - £50,000;

·         technical support for development of business cases for priority projects identified in the Town Investment Plan - £70,000;

·         project support - £30,000;

·         ‘Be Lincoln’ investment marketing - £20,000.

Caroline Killeavy questioned whether it was too early to dive into marketing at this early stage of the programme, suggesting that it was unclear what would be required. She felt that that further information on this particular project was needed.

Jo Walker informed the Board that further information would be presented in due course. These allocations were indicative at this stage and reports would be submitted to future meetings of the Board setting out how money had been committed and spent in order that there was clear overview as to its allocation.

Councillor Richard Davies welcomed a report back on the ‘Be Lincoln’ marketing project, stating that care needed to be given to any duplication with other marketing schemes that were already in place.

Mary Stuart made the point that it was very difficult to consider certainties with indicative information, although it was helpful to have a sense of vague percentages. It was the expectation that the next stage of the process would consist of officers working up more details and plans around each proposal, setting out how the money allocated would be used.

Councillor Ric Metcalfe agreed that it was very difficult at this stage and that the proposals as presented reflected the best approach, with flexibility being very important.

Ursula Lidbetter agreed that the proposed approach made sense as a starting point. She agreed with the earlier point regarding marketing, however, in that the Board needed to understand exactly what this consisted of in order to be able to consider whether it was the right allocation.

Caroline Killeavy added that the allocation for marketing should include an element designated specifically to public consultation.

James Kirby made the point, from the perspective of having developed his own business, that £170,000 was a significant sum of money and that it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Presentation on evidence base stakeholder consultation and emerging themes.

The Board considered a report and received a presentation which provided an economic evidence base to underpin a Growth Strategy for the City of Lincoln. A summary of the data analysis was noted as follows:

·         the most profound growth in the Principal Urban Area for Lincoln had been in North Hykeham over the last decade;

·         health was the dominant sector in the Principal Urban Area, with retail and restaurants or hospitality being key growth sectors;

·         manufacture of turbines remained a highly distinctive sector, with 35 times as many people employed in this sector in Lincoln than the national average;

·         health and high education were the key drivers of economic growth;

·         the digital sector was an opportunity area for the city economy, approaching a third of all the jobs and half the turnover associated with digital businesses in Greater Lincolnshire being in Lincoln and Lincoln having almost as many digital businesses as Norwich;

·         there had been a noticeable decrease in Gross Value Added in relation to public administration and defence;

·         forecasts to 2039 from two sources were consistent and suggested modest growth focussed principally in public services and health;

·         Lincoln had a lower skills base than the national average;

·         there had been a decline in professional occupations but an increase in other technical professions. Overall, however, elementary occupations remained the most dominant aspect of the local job scene;

·         wages had increased more slowly than the national average and lost pace with adjoining areas at both workplace and residential level. The growth between 2010 and 2019 had been 4% in Lincoln compared to 17% at the England level.

It was reported that these findings were relative to the ten comparator cities identified for benchmarking purposes, noted as Canterbury, Cambridge, Carlisle, Exeter, Gloucester, Ipswich, Mansfield, Oxford, St Albans and Worcester. The analysis of data highlighted the following:

·         Lincoln had a very stable economy in respect of business and innovation, with a modest turnover of businesses, a low stock of businesses and low Gross Value Added per worker;

·         Lincoln had a relatively small pipeline of 18-24 year old workers and had a high proportion of over 65’s, together with a modest proportion of the population having been born overseas;

·         with regard to housing, Lincoln had a big rented sector and good levels of affordability in terms of the ratio of house prices to income;

·         Lincoln had a very low proportion of Knowledge Intensive Businesses from the perspective of the city’s industrial structure and was at the upper end of the cohort in terms of manufacturing. Lincoln had a relatively high dependency on public sector employment;

·         Lincoln had high levels of economic inactivity regarding jobs and employment, with a modest number of private sector jobs and exceptional levels of benefit claimants;

·         Lincoln was a small service centre for its functionality, in relative terms, and had a higher stock of jobs than its nearest competitors in size and a slightly better level of Gross Value Added achievement;

·         Lincoln had low wages and low skills compared to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Board considered a report and received a presentation which set out the new Lincoln Transport Strategy which had been developed by Lincolnshire County Council, the City of Lincoln Council, North Kesteven District Council and West Lindsey District Council.

It was reported that the development of the Strategy included an extensive engagement process with elected members, stakeholders, officers and the general public through drop-in events, workshops and questionnaires. It also set out to enhance the transport network, improve choice and inclusive accessibility and support the continued growth of the city and surrounding area.

The Strategy would help deliver a modern, sustainable and future-ready transport network in and around Lincoln so that the area could continue to grow sustainably, meeting challenges and taking advantage of future opportunities.

The following aspects of the Strategy were highlighted as part of the presentation:

·         what the Strategy aimed to achieve;

·         delivery of the Strategy and that its success would require a collaborative approach;

·         the Strategy’s vision;

·         the Strategy’s objectives, which were shaped around the key elements of the vision to support economic growth, rebalance movement towards more sustainable modes of transport and improving quality of life for all;

·         the key pillars of the Strategy, which formed the priority infrastructure and included:

-       North Hykeham Relief Road – reducing congestion and improving the resilience of the network;

-       Green Corridors – providing high quality traffic free routes for pedestrians and cyclists;

-       Lincoln Walking and Cycling Network – enhancing walking and cycling infrastructure within Lincoln;

-       Mobility Hubs – promoting shared mobility and providing multi-modal and multi-functional transport interchanges across the city;

-       Bus Priority – improving access and supporting growth, including new routes from the Mobility Hubs to the city centre;

-       Public Realm and Environmental Improvements to Broadgate and Wigford Way and St Mary’s Street – improving the public realm, enhancing Lincoln’s historic core and strengthening east-west movements;

-       Electrification Package – helping reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality through expanding the electric charging network and uptake across the strategy area.

·         the key pillars of the Strategy, which formed the key options and packages to support the infrastructure and included:

-       Flexible Demand Response Transport – providing new flexible on-demand connections between people and places;

-       Digital – supporting a future-ready Lincoln and reducing the need to travel via better Wifi and 5G;

-       Payment and Ticketing – enhancing public transport across Lincoln through smart ticketing;

-       Behaviour Change Programme – promoting sustainable travel through a behaviour change programme;

-       Education Travel – improving access to education and reducing the impact of school travel on the network;

-       Sharing Package – improving access to shared and on-demand mobility services including Urban Car Clubs;

-       Last Mile Package – helping people on the last part of their journey and improving connectivity as part of multi-model journeys;

-       Parking Strategy – delivering better parking that supported the wider Strategy;

-       Sustainable Urban Extensions – developing a movement plan that set out the transport and movement  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Town Deal Board considered a report on the progress made to date by the Lincoln Town Deal Delivery Board.

It was reported that the following milestones had been achieved:

·         analysis and final report on evidence base and stakeholder consultation;

·         convening of Delivery Board and workshop sessions to identify high-level vision, outcomes and priorities for further development with associated leads;

·         project proforma and scoring criteria for high level assessment developed and circulated;

·         wider stakeholder consultation taking place via a virtual Citizen Panel reaching 600 residents in March 2020.

A proposed programme to meet the accelerated timeline, allowing for development of high-level project proposals and appraisal, stakeholder consultation and internal reporting to meet the lead Council’s requirements was set out in the report, culminating in approval of the final Town Investment Plan in May 2020.

The proposed vision for the Lincoln Town Deal was noted as follows:

‘A world class heritage city with a diverse and dynamic economy; where harnessing the power of digitalisation drives investment, productivity, skills, innovation, business growth and employment to improve service delivery and raise the quality of life for all, securing Lincoln’s future as a successful and sustainable, smart and prosperous city where people want to be.’

Four key outcomes of the Lincoln Town Deal were proposed as follows:

·         ‘Lincoln will realise its full potential as a vibrant Cathedral city through effective digital promotion and continued investment in its cultural, leisure and heritage assets. The regeneration of strategic sites will further strengthen the urban core through the development of high quality, sustainable workspace and city living to satisfy a growing demand’;

·         ‘Building on its strengths as a centre for learning and research, Lincoln will position itself as a Living Lab – the Lincoln Living Lab – where organisations can collaborate, co-design and test innovative products and services to enable smart growth’;

·         ‘The delivery of a Sustainable Transport Strategy, underpinned by digital technology, will enable efficient movement through the city and work with partners will strengthen the already strong inter-city connections to and from Lincoln’;

·         ‘Investment in training will be tailored to serve industry, the key growth sectors and to address skills gaps. Lincoln will seek to secure the local delivery of specialist training (such as digital coding) to improve workforce skills and support a transition to a higher skill, higher wage economy in which everyone can participate’.

In order to meet these key outcomes, four key delivery areas had been defined as follows:

·         digital connectivity: hard and soft infrastructure;

·         transport connectivity: Lincoln Transport Strategy;

·         skills;

·         city centre vibrancy and urban regeneration.

Emerging activities and projects had been assigned to each outcome, as set out in the report.

Leo Smith Scott provided an update on the Lincoln Living Lab proposal, which would be a place for organisations to test their technology, pilot their innovations and develop their ideas in a collaborative, supportive environment as part of the public-private-people partnership. The Living Lab concept as part of the Town Deal consisted of Lincoln itself becoming a city-wide Living  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

Angela Andrews provided an update following a Civic Place Making Breakfast that had been recently held and represented another group of key stakeholders.

Discussion at the meeting ensued around place making as a city and what some of the barriers were in improving Lincoln as a place. The following were agreed at that meeting as the three key considerations:

·         transport plans;

·         place marketing;

·         the Lincoln Town Deal.

It was agreed that this group of stakeholders should be used by the Town Deal Board as a key consultee regarding some of the proposed priorities and projects that would come out of the Lincoln Town Deal. There were also lots of other governance structures across the county which should be utilised as part of any Town Deal consultations, where appropriate.

It was RESOLVED that the update be noted.

It was RESOLVED that future meetings of the Lincoln Town Deal Board be held as follows:

·         Friday 27 March 2020 2pm – City Hall, Lincoln

·         Monday 27 April 2020 8am – University of Lincoln