Agenda and minutes

Liam Scully, Chair of the Lincoln Town Deal Board, opened the meeting and welcomed attendees.

Apologies for absence were received from:

• Tim Chambers
• Councillor Richard Davies
• James Foster
• Caroline Killeavy
• Karl McCartney
• Nick Worboys
• Karen Stanton
• Matthew Russell

The Democratic Services Officer confirmed the quorum of 6 members. The Chair warmly welcomed new Member, Kevin Kendall to the Board.

It was requested that the minutes of the last meeting held on 8 September 2023 be amended to include Neil Corner’s departure from proceedings at the halfway point.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Lincoln Town Deal Board held on 8 September 2023 be confirmed as a true record, subject to the above amendment.

Gill Wilson, Growth Strategy and Funding Manager confirmed that:

• the revised terms of reference for the Board had been circulated to Members
• a formal invitation had been circulated to all Board Members for attendance to meetings of the Investment Sub-Committee
• a new business advisor had been appointed through UK Shared Prosperity Funding (UKSPF) and work on a business support landscaping map would be presented to Members of the Board in March 2024
• the Communications Team had considered wider community engagement options.

Jaclyn Gibson, Chief Finance Officer confirmed that:

• confirmation had been received from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), that there were no restrictions on the accrual of interest accumulated under a s.31 grant. Any interest that had been accrued would be used towards local priorities. To date, approximately £200K of interest had been earnt on balances. The City of Lincoln Council (CoLC) had made additional contributions to both Central Market and Greyfriars projects. Remaining balances would be used towards resources for a feasibility study for both Wigford Way and Sincil Bank projects.

RESOLVED that there were no outstanding actions or resolutions.

Gill Wilson, Growth Strategy and Funding Manager:

a)    provided the Board with an update on the alterations that had been made to the draft Terms of Reference, reported to Board in September 2023, prior to sign off and final approval

b)    highlighted that Membership of the Board had been added to the draft terms of reference

c)    requested comments and questions from Members of the Board.

Question: Would the name of the Board change to ‘City Board’? Would the name reference Lincoln as a place?

Response: The Board remained known as ‘Lincoln Town Deal Board’ however a name change would be considered in the future.

Comment: Work would be carried out over the next two years through the City Centre masterplan, in the strategic context of place.

Response: Reviews would take place periodically.

RESOLVED that:

1)    the draft Terms of Reference, as presented to the Board, be approved

2)    the Democratic Services Officer be tasked with ensuring that valid Declaration of Interest forms be held on record for all Members of the Board.

Gill Wilson, Growth Strategy and Funding Manager confirmed that copies of the Monitoring and Performance Report and a covering report had been circulated to members of the Board. Members were reminded that the City of Lincoln Council (CoLC) were required to submit monitoring returns to the Department of Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) every six months to cover expenditure, progress, risks, outputs and outcomes.

The next report due was for the period 1 April 2023 to 30 September 2023 and submission was required by Monday 4 December 2023. The monitoring return required sign off by the Council’s Chief Finance Officer and the Chair of the Lincoln Town Deal Board. In addition, there was the requirement that the document be circulated to all members of the Lincoln Town Deal Board. The main points highlighted for the Monitoring and Evaluation Performance Report to DLUHC were:

Programme

• HEAT, The Drill and Store of Stories had a combined value of £2.3M and had reached completion by September 2023
• Lincoln Central Market and Lincoln Be Smarter were projects that remained on programme with a combined value of £7.9M
• There had been slippage across the remainder of the projects, however all were expected to be completed by March 2026. There were no issues to raise regarding deliverability

Expenditure

• Spend was under forecast but within percentage tolerances acceptable to DLUCH
• Expenditure was expected to accelerate as the delayed projects started and completed delivery.

Outputs and Outcomes

Evidenced Outputs to be reported included:

• 1 x new Cultural Facility
• 1 x new Community Hub
• 1 x Historic building renovated and restored for reuse as commercial space
• 22 x Full Time jobs
• 106 x Temporary jobs supported
• Capacity for an additional 125 people to be trained with 243 trainees enrolled overall at the new facilities

Other reported benefits included:

• HEAT project had led to the creation of 4 new businesses
• The Store of Stories, Community Grocery membership continued to increase with 1055 new members since opening and 14,030 customer visits a month - approximately £584 per week. The project had also evidenced that through the service offered, it had been able to support 1413 children from the impact of food poverty.

Risk

• Cost risk was to be reported in respect of all pre-tender projects. Such risks had been managed and mitigated by projects through detailed pre-tender cost analysis, evaluation assurance and cost engineering
• No projects had raised any issues of non-deliverability due to raised project costs, but all projects had reported cost pressures to some degree. Regular meetings and updates with the projects aimed to ensure that any issues were identified promptly
• Raised mitigated scores had been identified with Wigford Way and Greyfriars
• Progress had been made since September 2023 on the delivery plans for Wigford Way as reported under Item 4 of the supplement pack.

Comments and questions were invited from members of the Board. Discussions concluded with confirmation that Focus Consultants had been commissioned for the creation of a mid-term evaluation report which would likely be completed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.

Angela Andrews, Chair of the Investment Sub-Committee:

• confirmed that the Investment Sub-Committee had not met since the last meeting of the Board in September 2023 

• highlighted that progress had been made with both Sincil Bank and Wigford Way projects, both of which would be discussed at a meeting of the Investment Sub-Committee once the full programme had been put together and the appropriate due diligence had been undertaken by Listers.

RESOLVED that the update be noted.

Gill Wilson, Growth Strategy and Funding Manager:

• confirmed that the outstanding deliverables identified from the programme had included the delivery of an options report from Lincolnshire County Council

• highlighted that the expenditure of full allocation for the project of £340K was outstanding

• added that the proposed delivery was for the City of Lincoln Council to lead alongside the City Centre Masterplan review process

RESOLVED that the update be noted.

Gill Wilson, Growth Strategy and Funding Manager:

• confirmed that all expenditure claimed to date had been evidenced and a project Board had been established

• highlighted that it had been agreed that Lincolnshire County Council ‘subcontract’ delivery of Gateways and Greenways to City of Lincoln Council

• added that community and stakeholder engagement had commenced and included liaison with LCFC and a community event at Sincil Bank Football Club on 21 November 2023

RESOLVED that the update be noted.

The Board received a presentation from Madiha Nazeer, Digital Business Development Manager, University of Lincoln. During consideration of the presentation, the following points were noted:

• The project aimed to support small/medium enterprises in the adoption of digital technologies to improve processes, productivity, skills and capacity and had a budget of £2.34M
• Support would be provided through workshops, networking events, access to academic expertise and march grant funding
• Workshops took place both face to face and digitally and included the Digital Leadership Programme – CMI Level 7
• The project ran bespoke digital marketing accelerators developed through collaboration between University of Lincoln Academic and an external trainer
• The total number of businesses supported was 23. Completion was currently 77% of a total target of 30 businesses. The predicted job creation was 31 FTE roles
• Funded projects to date included Battles Ltd, SRC UK, Light Dynamix and Lincoln Training Academy
• The project ambition was to leave behind certified digital leaders in Lincoln.

The Chair thanked Madiha Nazeer for the informative presentation and welcomed comments and questions from Members of the Board. The project was fully supported by the Board and particularly the extent of the legacy that would be left behind after the project had reached completion. The opportunities for the project to connect with established companies was highlighted.

RESOLVED that the content of the presentation be noted with thanks.

Kirsty Cheetham, Senior Communications Officer provided the Board with a Communications Update presentation. During consideration of the update, the following points were noted:

• Announcement of the reopening of Lincoln Central Market in early 2024 had been received positively on social media. Modern restoration had been carried out however the history of the building had been retained
• An illuminated comet ahead of the Christmas light switch on and festive season, had been installed on the front of the Cornhill Market which offered great photo opportunities for the public in front of the new building
• Planning had taken place for a statue of ‘Snips the Dog’. A press release would be prepared for the announcement.
• Frequency Festival on 28 October 2023 had featured Polaris, a show with lasers, lights and music and was supported by Lincoln Connected project. The response received on social media had been positive
• Representatives from DLUHC had visited the city in November and received a tour of Town Deal projects which included talks from LSIP. The visit went well and DLUHC were very pleased with the progress within the city
• Lincolnshire County Council and City of Lincoln Council hosted an event at LNER Stadium on 21 November 2023 which informed residents of an improvement scheme for the area. Feedback received from residents had been positive
• The delivery of a monthly Be Lincoln Town Deal e-newsletter for Board members had launched in September. The e-newsletter offered a breakdown of the highlights of the previous month and updates and progress on notable projects. Work had been scoped in the delivery to the public in 2024
• Subject to the approval of the Board, the Town Deal pages on the City Centre website would be updated with the revised Terms of Reference.

RESOLVED that the content of the update be noted with thanks.

Gill Wilson, Growth Strategy and Funding Manager provided the Board with a verbal update on the UKSPF Programme. During consideration of the update, the following points were noted:

• CoLC continued to develop the UKSPF programme for completion by March 2025. The total funding awarded was £2.8M
• Progress would be reported to DLUCH on a six-monthly basis and programme management was expected to cost approximately 8% of the total programme costs

• The programme had progressed and had now delivered live projects which included:
  • Cost-of-Living Programme with several projects underway
  • Community Grant Scheme
  • Community Hub facility assessment had been commissioned
  • Continued business support via Lincolnshire Growth Hub
  • New Business advisor had been appointed
  • Supporting businesses in addressing local training needs
  • No Wrong Door and the Restore Programme
• The next steps included the finalisation of the programme. Projects that had been delivered and unallocated funding would be reported to City of Lincoln Council’s Executive in February 2024 for formal approval and completion in the final year.

The Chair thanked Gill Wilson for the informative update and welcomed comments and questions from Members of the Board. Discussions included suggestions that the evaluation of the future UKSPF programme be presented via an online presentation if necessary, to Board, prior to the progression of recommendations to the Executive.

RESOLVED that the content of the verbal update be noted.

Kate Ellis, Major Developments Director provided a verbal update on Levelling Up Round 2, covering the following main points:

• Discussions with Network Rail had been helpful and concluded in the agreement of a reduction of the original 6.5metre clearance of the bridge, to 5.1metres which made a significant difference to both the structure and the impact on the local area
• Discussions with Lincolnshire County Council, Highways Department had been positive
• The design would be finalised imminently and John Grahams Contractors had offered costs
• The infrastructure had remained affordable as the impact of inflation and cost increases had been successfully considered
• Construction on site had commenced in Skellingthorpe Road, Phase 1a, with Lindum and was a key piece of work for the opening up of the development
• A number of surveys had been completed and finalised costs and risks were awaited.

Kate Ellis welcomed comments and questions from Members of the Board.

In response to a query regarding access into the commercial sector, it was clarified that Beef Street Bridge had been programmed to be implemented at the point that the leisure centre was built. The current focus was a variety of much needed housing. It was added that the North Hykeham relief road would assist with traffic that emerged from Tritton Road and the western side of the A46.

RESOLVED that the update be noted with thanks.

Liam Scully, Chair of the Lincoln Town Deal Board presented Members with a verbal summary of the Boards forward plan which was attached at Appendix A to the report. The forward plan detailed items of business to be considered at future meetings.

RESOLVED that:

1. the following items be added to the forward plan for the next meeting of the Lincoln Town Deal Board on 8 March 2024:

·       Central Market Project Presentation

·       Lincoln Connected Project Presentation

·       Mid Programme Evaluation Report

·       Business Support Landscape Mapping Report

2.  the contents of the forward plan be noted with thanks.

RESOLVED that there were no other items of business to be considered.

Date of Next Meeting: Friday, 8 March 2024 (10:00am)

RESOLVED that the next meeting of the Lincoln Town Deal Board be held on 8 March 2024 at 10:00.

You are asked to resolve that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following item(s) because it is likely that if members of the press or public were present, there would be disclosure of ‘exempt information’

RESOLVED that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item(s) of business because it is likely that if members 11 of the public were present there would be a disclosure to them of ‘exempt information’ as defined by Section 100I and Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

The Growth Strategy and Funding Manager updated Lincoln Town Deal Board on the progress of projects and current risks associated with projects identified.

RESOLVED that:

1.    Sincil Bank RAG rating be downgraded to Amber.

2.    the content of the update be noted.