Agenda item

Mary Stuart, Chair of the Lincoln Town Deal Board, requested that in the interest of transparency, members declared any interests that may affect their ability to participate in the meeting if projects were discussed in detail. These were noted as follows:

·         Mary Stuart – declaration of interest in the Health and Wellbeing Centre, Lincoln City Football Club Stadium and Community Redevelopment and Hospitality Events and Tourism Institute projects due to her role at the University of Lincoln;

·         Liz Price – declaration of interest in the Health and Wellbeing Centre, Lincoln City Football Club Stadium and Community Redevelopment and Hospitality Events and Tourism Institute projects due to her role at the University of Lincoln;

·         Liam Scully – declaration of interest in the Lincoln City Football Club Stadium and Community Redevelopment project due to his role at the City of Lincoln Football Club. He also declared that he was a member of the Lincoln City Foundation;

·         Ursula Lidbetter – declaration of interest in the Barbican project due to her role as Chief Executive of the Lincolnshire Co-operative. She also declared she was the Chair of the Lincoln Business Improvement Group Board;

·         Charlotte Goy – declaration of interest in the Hospitality Events and Tourism Institute and Lincoln Central Market and Vibrant Public Realm projects due to her role at Visit Lincoln;

·         Councillor Ric Metcalfe – declaration of interest in all City of Lincoln Council projects due to his role as Leader of the Council;

·         Angela Andrews – declaration of interest in all City of Lincoln Council projects due to her role as Chief Executive;

·         Marc Jones – declaration of interest as he owned the building proposed by the Hive Project.

All members confirmed that should specific discussion ensue on any particular project for which they had declared an interest they would leave the meeting accordingly and have no involvement in the matter to be determined.

Jo Walker, Assistant Director for Growth, City of Lincoln Council, presented a final draft of the Lincoln Town Investment Plan for approval. She reported that the content and structure had been discussed at the previous meeting of the Board and that the document had subsequently been refined as a result of the Government’s check and challenge process. The main points emerging from this process were noted as follows:

-          overall it was felt that Lincoln had produced a strong Town Investment Plan, covering all of the key points;

-          the vision was very strong and should be included at the beginning of the document together with a Foreword;

-          it was important to emphasise how the schemes would specifically address the key challenges identified;

-          there was a need to highlight market failures;

-          it needed to be better demonstrated how the projects had been selected and prioritised, together with crystallising the funding and outputs for each as well as making it clear who the lead partner was in each case;

-          there was a requirement for a stakeholder engagement plan, looking forward to continued engagement post submission of the Town Investment Plan;

-          there should be better use of graphics to help illustrate the plan and a strengthened narrative to explain the focus on the city centre;

-          it was important to avoiding duplication where possible, but ensure that key points were reaffirmed as appropriate

It was noted that development of the final document had sought to address all of these points.

RESOLVED that the Lincoln Town Investment Plan be referred to the City of Lincoln Council’s Executive with a recommendation for approval.