Good evening welcome to this Prosperity scrutiny Committee just got a quick notice to read out this is a meeting of the council held in public it is not a public meeting there is no fire drill planned so if a fire alarm sounds please leave by the exit nearest the large screen at
The front of the room and proceed down the fire exit to the courtyard once it is safe to return counselors will receive a text message officers will also advise when it is safe to return to the meeting we also recording the meeting this evening using our webcasting system the webcast will be
Transmitted live and will also be available on the council’s website following the meeting all mo mobile devices should be switched off or set to silence so that the meeting is not interrupted by ringtones okay thank you first can we have apologies for absence please yes apologies have been received from
Councel Hollman and counc n and Council Harrison is substituting thank you very much any Declarations of Interest no okay just moving on to the minutes is it agreeable for those who were here last time that they’re an accurate record of the previous meeting all those for against exensions thank
You all okay item number four uh call to for overview report if I can hand over to officers to begin brilliant thank you very much um Christine and I going to um do a double act on this I think it kicks off of me and then over to Christine um the first
Item you’ll see on there is um an update on South Essex Advanced technical skills which if uh members remember is the um uh joint project uh between South Essex councils to um try and drive um demand for degree apprenticeship so to grow uh a Technical University in
South Essex um uh recent developments uh have resulted in the appointment of a managing director and a business development manager which has predominantly been funded by um contributions from the temps Freeport so they’re now in and they’re working in our offices so um that project is moving
Forward uh quite well and the plan is next year as part of the South tics council’s uh work to um ramp up uh that delivery and uh as I said try and grow the overall um degree apprenticeship Market in South Essex um the um second report um on um Economic Development
Including UK shared Prosperity fund just simply reports about where we are in our Economic Development strategy work um after um some discussions um at greater essics and South essics um it’s clear that um uh the greater essic upper tier local authorities have been asked by central government to produce an
Economic development strategy by um September October this year and that is true for pretty much every upper tier local Authority who taken on the responsibility for local Enterprise partnership activities um so in tandem with that South Essex has just commissioned um some Consultants which will be developing it South essics plan
Which is going to align to about the same time so we’ve just decided in the last um month or so that we’ll try and produce a economic strategy to align with those three as well to get an integrated Suite of strategies so that’s really just what that one is
Reporting um in terms of um other exceptions that I’m just reporting on the BB BBG basle and business group uh capacity development and build um earlier this week we held a launch of um the business Network which is a Rebrand which is now called Business Leaders and we’re very
Much trying to grow the capacity of the private sector to take on ownership of running that business group and leading the development of the business group and we had about 60 people who came to an event with the bank of England and T rest growth board so it was a very um uh
Successful event so that’s going in the right kind of Direction uh Wickford business improvement district and biller rookie business improvement district is a substantive item on the agenda so I’ll pick that up there if if everybody’s okay with that and um um just in terms of other UK shared Prosperity fund you
Know activity um all in delivery heading in the right uh Direction probably um should say we’re looking for some more feasibility studies so we’re going to issue a a call for more funding for projects so far we’ve funded um a feasibility uh work into um Wickford FC’s 3G pitch um some walking and
Cycling infrastructure um and we’re also in discussion with somebody wants to set up a popup uh retail uh operation so again you know if you’re aware of anybody that that has got sort of projects that they want to check out the feasibility for to see whether they can bid for larger
Money um we’ve got little bits of money to support those um kind of projects so I’m going to stop there and hand over to Christine if that’s all right thank you very much um we start um again with the Strategic infrastructure and planning enforcement Council and mo
The first one of those relates to um obviously the that the local plan um the the update from that and the exception is the fact that on the 12th of um March we did in fact respond to the Secretary of State and we have reviewed our local development scheme which is the timeline
For the new local plan that seeks a draft planned for um consultation by winter 2024 submission plan for consultation at Spring 2025 and submission of the local plan as required by central government by summer 202 5 so therefore we meet we meet the requirements under the new reg under the
Current 2004 regulations um so the there’ll be examination in public we reckon around Autumn 2025 um recommendations from the SEC from the inspector around spring 26 and the new local plan adopted we hope around summer 2026 so we brought the whole whole program forward by about 18 months um so
That’s quite a um an added piece of work to the to the service but obviously we can we can manage that terms of other exceptions um there isn’t there isn’t much else we get to until we get to the um creative Center for screening in and digital Industries over to Jim yeah just
Just to report that um members may remember that we um have secured £4 and a half thousand from the Arts Council to invest in the old Robin Cinema and the British Art Foundation um and um we sought uh an operator to run that facility for us uh uh um managed
Workspace operator um and we went out to the market and we got 10 responses we shortlisted four um and then in the final phases of that um uh selection process the three of the four um withdrew predominantly because they had um lots of other work on and we were
Left with one single operator we got into the final discussions with them and they effectively told us that despite us advertising the opportunity as being outside the 1954 landlord antenna act they wanted to be inside the act so at that point um the negotiation ended because we couldn’t change the um uh
Procurement Arrangements that we gone out and indeed um we won’t subsequently change the procurement Arrangements uh uh to be any different than we originally went out so um last week we went out again for an operator and we’re just in the process of um uh uh warming
The mar market and trying to encourage some people to submit proposals we’ve got a virtual briefing with some of those operators um uh on Friday morning I think with a deadline of the 22nd of March for them to submit their proposals and then effectively what we’re seeking
To do is to try and bring back the decision about the operator to the June um cabinet meeting with a view to then if we’re successful in appointing them continuing the capital build program and opening the facility in about August uh 2026 and so everything else is is on track in that
Regard thank you uh any questions from the committee please um so so moving on there there is no other exceptions on on the report um as from from my side um until we get to the only one exception is um and that’s the project titled Lon
Public realm um I think it’s a bit of good news is the fact that um we are we have we are now in active discussions with um Sanctuary housing over the the Redevelopment now of the lon scheme so obviously we can um move that um piece of um public realm work into those
Discussions we’re having on on that at the moment so that’s a a good news story I think for for us all we finally got that that project moving again um back to you sir I think oh no it’s not no um I think I think that’s it actually the
Last one is just the py CDC which we’re all aware has um Planning Commission Now 106 is just about to be signed so the consent is almost granted for that so that’s the um sort of the exceptions from our side please do I yeah um I was wondering with regards to the um
The um Proprietors that would want to work on the rubbing Cinema about how many have we got this time around on the um because because the uh closing date hasn’t um landed yet the um the number is zero because uh it on the 22nd of March will be the time when we know
How many have submitted so um we have not received any proposals yet because we only went out last week but I think at the as of close of play today I think we have about five or six um operators coming to the briefing session on Friday
Morning and then they will have uh the remainder of the time between Friday and the 22nd in order to uh prepare their proposals and submit them but we’re we’re aiming again for I say a good place to be would be around about six to eight operators I think okay so the so
The um so the aim of having those operators is to work on the on the building and also to run the run the center more to run the center so uh separately um we will uh go out for a design and build operator in order to um
Do the capital work to the building but this is principally more um the person who’s going to run it and the reason the person to run it is front loaded is because we actually want them to help us actually finalize the design of the building so we’re at Reber stage two at
The moment and we’ve paused all other design work pending um uh the appointment of the operator because having the operator help us design in Reba stage three will mean that it’s more suited to the end user and the operator gets the kind of configuration
That they want in order to make it a a viable um uh facility for them ask um so what’s the main criteria for um approvals so I’d need to refresh my memory about the um the evaluation criteria to give you a a really accurate detailed answer but what predominantly
We are um we built the evalu valuation framework around is to try and um score people higher who principally look like they have a more viable sustainable long-term business model that doesn’t necessarily um impact on our uh Capital uh situation or our Revenue situation after the first couple of years of
Operating so we might in principle be open to um providing a small Grant during the first couple years you’d expect in this kind of situation you might give an operator um a rentree period or something like that but after that we very much want the operator to
Be a sustainable viable operator so they whatever Revenue they make from selling space and using that facility covers all of their costs pays their business rates and and and avoids the council needing to continue to support them with some form of subsidy I know you spoke about um Sanctuary
Housing um that there’s that project but there’s another project um by Church Road another housing bill that’s happening at the top of Church Road in St Martin’s would you know about that one um no I don’t I’m not sure which one you which one just at the top of Church
Road is it the is it the CER housing scheme on Broad on Broad main it’s just got the Holdings around at the moment yes that’s a CER housing scheme okay so um could I ask um because residents wanted to know this that um residents were opposed to the Bild
But what led to the approval would you know what led to the approval of that piece of land at this and the matter came to planning committee it was a I mean it was a major application it was a council scheme it had to come to planning committee so the
Um the decision was made by planning committee to Grant Planning Commission subject to signing a 106 agreement the 106 agreement’s been signed planning mission’s been granted and they’re about to commence on site I mean yes so so the views of the residents weren’t taken into consideration or was
It if you review if you look at the um the the reports are done for planning committee they set out um the number of objections that we have or oh sometimes people actually speak in in favor of the development they’re set out in the report and there’s a balanced report um
Delivered that sets out any challenges were to the were to the application they’re all set out in the report so we don’t ignore the comments of residents they’re included in the planning report and members who are sit on planning committee have chance to review the planning the the planning report have
Chance to ask additional questions and residents can turn up our Planning Commission and make their views known now I think at that one there weren’t any residents that turned up and if they did write in they’d have been made aware of the planning committee and they could
Have come to planning committee and made their their position um known to planning committee at the time I think what might be important for any followup is to take it offline if you want to go into any more detail please councelor Harrison thanks chair um just around the the local plan um
Changes that you that you mentioned Christine the sort of the Bring It Forward by 18 months the the final deadline um what what will there be any Financial Savings in bringing it Forward 18 months or will there be any any changes at all with with that and then
Also sort of on the Practical point of view sort of what what steps will be getting missed out to bring It Forward by so much and if they are able to be you know it it’s there’s clearly there clearly has been scoped to to bring It Forward so FR why
Was it such a long process in the first place if we could have brought it Forward by 18 months the I mean firstly it’s obviously pressur to deliver plans on time and and we have been put under that PR pressure by central government now and all local authorities have been written to
Requiring them to update their local development schemes our local development scheme um gave us the opportunity to um to sort of spread the the regulations stages over a longer period of time time and also um the way that we are looking at delivering this new local plan is the fact that the
What’s called the reg 18 draft plan which is the first plan that we’ll be producing will be mainly what’s called an allocations plan with some very high strategic policies so it’ll be a plan that will set out the allocations um the future sites residential and employment
Sites um so that will come very quickly as we hit the new um um the June obviously following the elections once we very quickly get um obviously committees up and running will’ll be then hitting members with a lot of information around housing numbers and obviously looking at then looking at
Allocations we’re coming forward at that point um the way that the plan that the government’s changing the way that you do um that you create plans there’s not so much in terms of additional policy so a lot of the policies are what called strategic policies a lot of the lowlevel
Policies are going to come out as National development control standards so we a lot of the the more the more interesting stuff that we talk about planning committee will actually be um part of national guidance soon so like the mppf there’ll be some additional guidance on development control matters
Which will still be relevant in the in in decision making but we don’t have to write those policies ourselves so there’s less and less requirement to go into policy details so our plan is that we we produce the reg 18 plan as we planned as we had planned to do so that
Would have been that would that was tracked about the same but underneath it we will we will start working on the final submission document almost at the same time so they actually they actually so when we’ve done the consultation on the reg 18 the two should actually hit
Allowing us almost to go straight back into a consultation on What’s called the reg 19 the submission document so it’s what we’ve done is we’ve actually moved we’ve we’ve the the longer bit which we’re doing now we’ve kept the same but we’ve actually shunted back because of the policy the policy changes we’ve
Shunted back the amount of time it’s going to take us to produce the reg 19 plan so that’s what we’ve done is we’ve shortened that that that period um you know we we hope we can deliver it in that time you you know you know we we
Want we need a local plan we need a plan that sets out allocations and sites so I think that um I can’t guarantee it will be a cheaper plan because obviously we’ll have we’ve got to rofile the same amount of work but under a short under a short period but hopefully it might
Might it might be a cheaper plan to deliver um but you know it’s going to be it is going to be a lot of work and a lot of work for members because members are going to have to get on board very quickly um once we hit you know hit the
Uh hit that June date on being prepared to you know need members to sit in a in working groups to work on sites and work on housing numbers and everything really quickly and understand that and then there’ll be work um work with all members to make make sure members all
Agree with it and then obviously the consultation will start hopefully in November of that plan itself okay yeah thanks um hopefully we’ll have a Administration by then that’s that’s Keen to to get moving on it um and then just around uh Lon that you that you men mentioned as well um
Obviously it’s it’s in my my ward and I get residents asking me about it all the all the time as as I’m sure all the the Le chapel and and Lon councilors um do I mean I remember a few months ago there was a sort of a photo shoot with with
Officers and and counselors of of like we’re getting started on it and then nothing’s happened since um I mean is is there a do we know when they’re actually going to make a start and and how long it’s gonna um take and and what’s the reason why we’re there’s currently still
Nothing happening even though we were told months ago that it would be starting so councelor Haron I have a meeting tomorrow morning actually on site with them to start so basically what we’re looking at now is a is a new a new section 73 A variation of the
Original Planning Commission as you now know because you planning committee we’re looking at a variation of planning visual planning application because obviously some of the build that was on site they’ve had to change because of the changes in in in um in in in the typee of buildings that we need so we’ve
Got our first site walk tomorrow to look at the site itself and then we’ve got a design session with um sanctuary and their and their Architects tomorrow so it is now it’s ramping up into a prea um plan performance agreement position on to hopefully an application we hope um
Late summer so once that’s approved then obviously you’ll be looking at construction starting probably I reckon this time next year hopefully if we can get it all moving maybe a bit l later but I I think within I reckon within about 12 12 to 15 months we’re going to
Start seeing some changes there um and obviously the starting point we we’ve had some pre-out meetings with them already and we’ve got one on site tomorrow morning which is all morning we’re out there um so doesn’t rain um looking at the site because that’s the problem with the site there’s so many
Different site levels you can’t do it over we tried to do it over a teams meeting and I got a bit lost so I said no I need to go out site I need to do this in in real terms so I think what we
Can do is that I think it um that as a standing item on the the overview going forward what quite important to just to see where we are and obviously what we can do at some point we hopefully be able to do some Show and Tell around around what’s happening as
Well okay thanks yeah I hope that that does get moving and and you say they hoping to start within sort of 12 15 months I mean do you have a rough idea of when it’ll be actually finished how long they’ll take to to actually build this thing
No okay no that that’s that’s everything that I had CH thanks thanks councelor it’s also worth pointing out why we ended up in this position which was um sort of the previous administrations before we came in in 2021 the sort Hatchet job they made of it but I don’t want to go over
The past looking towards the future um but just picking up on something you said Jim particularly on the cycling and walking projects you’re saying about advertising it I think what might be a good point is to use our sort of council email list that gives updates of what
Would residents think would be helpful um obviously as a Wickford resident I’ve got some interesting things about what I particularly like with cycling um but it’s obviously just trying to engage with people particularly the County Council because in Wickford which I’m sure Christine would know we had the
Active travel Forum which made some changes to sort of parts of nevendon it’s obviously if there’s stuff that can link in with that because there’s already a sort of standing committee we can sort of go through that but just some feedback on that yeah I mean just to say in the
Context of that particular project um uh obviously it was part of a funding package that was funded by UK shared Prosperity funding um uh Tom Oliver Oliver thank you our cycling and walking uh infrastructure lead has been very active working with Christine and with um the county and with parishes and um
Uh town councils on looking at what the um LC Whip and the walking infrastructure and cycling infrastructure should look like as a solution um and really the feasibility money is then just about trying to do some calculations about what that might cost to bring forward so I’m not sure I
Think the the normal process and the channel for residents in order to comment was the normal consultation and strategy development work all the ukbf feasibility money did was put a little bit of money into the system in order to bring in some Consultants to work out
What the cost of making that or bringing forward that that work would be so in that scenario I’m not sure I’ve got a great deal that I could do in terms of engaging with um residents because it’s quite a it’s quite a technical uh piece
Of work if you know what I mean but certainly Tom I’m sure you know and and um through the planning work in the LC whip has done lots of Resident engagement work it I mean it just it’s just been out a consultation the whole document has been um out a consultation
Was and we made members aware of that consultation and residents were so that was on the website for the whole local cycling walking infrastructure update um so that’s been done um that has just closed um I’m not sure how many responses and the were there were quite a few workshops with relevant cycling
And walking organizations um and and basically the the the money that this the the prosperity fund has gone to fund is the fact that um planning funded the initial work itself and then this is the and there was some money we got from County towards that and this is
Basically just working out how much it cost to put into in the individual routs in terms of just the overall costings and then what we then do is that we then seek that funding either from central government or from new developments that are coming forward yeah thanks for that a lot of it
As well is we’ve got quite a lot of public rights of way particularly in my world I’ve taken a trip round and sometimes get lost and make sure I have to stay on the trail um if no one has any further questions I hope to move to
Item number five which is South essics council’s SEC super fast digital brilliant thank you so um just whilst colleagues are bringing up the presentation I um uh just wanted to say there are some technical points uh in this presentation which um I will freely put my hand up and say I’m probably not
The best person uh to answer them but I can certainly um take them away and um liaz with the team who’ve been behind the infrastructure build um my um role I guess in this piece of work now the infrastructure has been established is to really think about how
Do we utilize that for the benefit of the burrow both uh in terms of digital exclusion for improving uh uh residents ability to use digital Technologies to improve their skills and to get access to services but also from an economic development perspective so I’ll walk through this presentation and as I said
Uh talk to you about some of the technical build stuff but I feel more able to answer some of your uh questions about how we might then um really realize um some of the benefits of this infrastructure so just in terms of um the first slide and giving you a bit of
A story about um how we got here basically since about 2018 um South eics councils have been working together in order to identify a range of um different funds uh that have um kind of followed reasonably sequentially um to build uh a a backbone fiber Network across South essic that essentially
Connects up a range of public sector buildings um and therefore allows us to um in theory provide you know good quality internet to those buildings but also look at how we might improve the quality of public services using um uh you know digital infrastructure and fiber and and and mobile Communications
Um at the same time um that infrastructure build has um enabled us to put a backbone infrastructure in the ground which has also improved connectivity to the business community and to Residents which makes them get faster internet which allows them to do um uh a load of of um things that they
Previously couldn’t do on Legacy infrastructure and that’s really the point we’re at now so all this first slide does is talks a little bit about the the different um funding packages which have come together um um including the department of um uh uh culture media and Sport uh Southeast LEP uh and the
Department for transport who’ve all uh in various sequences funded um bits of this as it’s expanded out and reached out into more and more communities if I can go on to the second slide what this second uh slide really does is gives you an overview from a South essics
Perspective about where that kind of fiber backbone infrastructure uh is and where it goes to and as I said the predominant Focus has been about really just trying to connect up uh sites and points of presence where you’ve got uh public sector buildings the Nuance between the two colors is um just a
Simple uh build uh program um whoever designed this map um the first bit the blue bit came first and then the red bit came second so they decided to illustrate it in that way but it just goes to show you there’s good coverage across um bason and good coverage across
South Essex if I go on the next slide this then Zooms in in a bit more detail into um bason town center and um again this largely um describes the the kind of backbone infrastructure what the operators of this infrastructure have done um since this diagram uh has been
Built is if you look at where the industrial Estates are uh on the north of that map uh just south of the a127 they’ve also fibered up uh all of that industrial estate thereby connecting those businesses to a much more resilient and high-speed Broadband Network that then feeds into the red and
Blue bits so that they can get really good connectivity so one of the advantages um for lots of the businesses in the area they can get better Broadband uh connectivity if I can move on to the next um slide and then that just again shows you where the backbone
Infrastructure in in Wickford is and I’d love to be able to tell you um what why certain trajectories and paths were chosen I suspect it’s the the weird anomalies of picking up public sector buildings along a path and a journey in a way that you’ve got land ownership and
The way you can get way leaves and uh and where you can actually go without necessarily having to get uh permissions from private sector land owners but but again that just gives you a flavor for Wickford if I can move on the next slide and again this uh shows you therefore um
From a public sector um perspective which the predominant buildings are that have been um enabled so again you know I would expect most of you uh to be able to recognize some of the buildings in your um own Wards in some of those uh sites and as I say uh that list was
Developed by um the team pulling it together if there are others then you know that we think we should be thinking about we can certainly feed that into the process if I can move on to the the next slide uh and then this then talks about some of the other um connected
Sites in uh bason so uh Lon Community Center and shopgate Community Hall and it talks a little bit there about how that’s been funded and what the uh what the annualized cost is for providing a really good quality internet service um uh to those uh facilities but with a
Vision here about again around the digital inclusion piece of thinking about are there things that we can do in those Village Halls that uh you know might for example put a training room on the end of that and start you know delivering uh training to um you know
People who maybe are struggling to deal with um internet banking you know people in their um senior years who are struggling with internet banking or people who are digitally excluded because they haven’t got access to um the right kind of uh technology and kit so there are things that we can start to
Do in some of these buildings about really kind of empowering and addressing kind of digital inclusion and then there’s um some other sites there um that are added in including Library sites fire stations and and and medical practices which might allow for tele health and and and tele related services
And things like that uh if I can move on to the next slide uh this sort of summarizes some of the the benefits I mean I think you know it’s fair to say that it’s unlikely that this infrastructure would have been built uh without it you know it would not have
Been built without public sector intervention it needed it in order to Prime the investment uh to make the business case stack up but um the potential here as I say is to is to prove improve connectivity to a range of of residents between different local authorities two business parks and then
Start to look at the kind of services that we might run over this infrastructure but at the same time um to enable connectivity through that infrastructure in such a way that if the commercial model works and builds and builds and builds it creates a syncing fund which then allows the network to be
Expanded further and further and further as the the people who are using um the network um grows and that’s really important particularly around places where you’ve got quite significant notot spots or really poor Broadband connectivity which you generally tend to find in rural areas um because it’s not
Viable to take uh Broadband often to rural areas so the model here is about trying to see whether uh to some extent we can improve the connectivity into those areas that have particularly poor broadband and wireless networks uh next slide if I can take that on uh and then
Just in terms of um some of the other benefits it talks about you know attracting uh new business to Business Services into the area uh and leveraging um you know the infrastructure to improve the quality of mobile Mass so improving 5G access I know when I talk
To people when you drive down B Ricky High Street that you drop you drop out the mobile signal just drops out like that I’m sure we’ve all had that experience and this may allow us to improve some of that um connectivity as well um the other thing that the latest
Development is this thing called a lauran um which is a um a a wireless Network a low power wireless network which will allow um you know uh people with mobile phones to do a lot more sophisticated stuff on their on their mobile phones that they would wouldn’t
Have been able to do without this kind of technology in place so again we can start looking at some of the ways in which that technology can be used both uh to service better public services but also to work with the private sector to to help them develop new applications
Grow their businesses and and create more jobs uh and then the last one around the bottom is an example in thork where where they’re using it to um support uh sheltered accommodation looking at how they can deliver remote health care and virtual lessons and courses delivered by South tic College
To kind of um improve the the living experiences of people who are living in in sheltered accommodation uh couple more slides I think and then this is the bit that that we’re really thinking about now having built the network what we are um now trying to do is to as an
Economic development function across um South essics is really to promote the availability of this network to the business Community um I was at a business meeting in December where um somebody ironically put their hand up and said one of their biggest frustrations is their poor broadband
Connection um in bason and I was able to introduce them to a local company which is called Arc systems which is just next to Festival Leisure which is one of the commercial um retailers that sells space on on on um on this network so um they
Were able to talk with this company and improve their Broadband connectivity and their therefore the company was able to do things that they they can’t um they they were not able to do previously so we’ve got a big job to do to try and Market it and promote this this network
Uh if I can go to the the next slide um the company that um built the network has uh its own plans it launched the network on the 22nd of January um it’s expensed a bus that it’s bought itself and it’s plan is to tour this bus um
Around uh South essic so if you see um uh faster fiber connectivity and Britain we’re speeding things up on the side of a bus you’ll know that’s the the bus that is promoting uh this network they’re also talking about launch events and uh there’s a big business expo in
Brenwood tomorrow with about a thousand visitors and they’re going to be there promoting this network so very much trying to get businesses connected up to it if I can go to the last uh I think couple of slides what we also now need to do is to really think about how can
This network be leveraged um basically to deliver a better um uh kind of economic but also social benefits and environmental benefits um for the for the benefit of Bas and South essic and there are a number of ways that we can do that one of them could be around developing use
Cases project ideas so for example that um enabled Care Home example that I cited in thork if we got some ideas about how we think Broadband connectivity might be able to improve the lives of residents then we can start to develop some use cases and some business cases try and seek funding in
Order to bring those projects forward um and um you know the other thing that we can be doing and we should be doing is thinking probably about how we can collaborate with the private sector on some of this stuff as well in the sense
That if I give you a um an example I’m aware of a project that um uh worked in another place in the UK where a number of local authorities came together and put all of their data into a big data warehouse um um and then said to the development Community people who develop
Mobile applications and it um Solutions um will make this data available for you and you can use it to develop new applications that will help create um cussing Edge uh technological solutions and you hope that those companies then grow develop create jobs and so on and so forth so by
Collaborating in that way with the public sector in a kind of test bed model and a what they call a living lab you have the ability to kind of collaborate with the private sector to try and create uh economic growth in the area so that’s really where we are at at
The moment is really thinking about how can this technology really be leveraged to create better quality jobs to help the companies that are here grow develop use this technology better but also how might it help us de deliver more Innovative public services in a challenging Financial environment I
Think that is uh everything I think for me if that’s all right and happy to take any questions thank you uh very good presentation uh however um my ignorance is going to show because I’m going to be asking some simple questions I only know internet providers so sort of home
Broadband and how you get that what’s it going to plug into the the infrastructure you built and do you have to pay whoever you plug it into um uh if that makes sense and uh so that and does that incurrent ongoing cost uh to the council building the infrastructure and
Then getting people I get that idea and that you build it and you innovate and you provide Innovation but I just wondered about plugging it in and then the second question that came to mind was um is this a real need uh because all the people around there I’m just
Wondering could they have just phoned up um virgin or O2 or whatever it is and asked them to install a full fiber connection so are we providing anything new and Innovative uh and and about the ongoing cost and whether it’s and then and then risk uh what happens if it goes
Down is the council at risk uh for any profits lost brilliant thank you um in terms of the first question that is quite a technical question um in in relation to um the cost issue whether it costs us to connect to the um the the worldwide
Internet um I’m not best place to answer that what I do know is that this um network is effectively called back hall so it it connects in into um you know the the uh Global fiber uh system um uh and um you know this is a you know
Resilient Network built by a company with a long track record of building uh similar um networks around the country so uh I can’t answer the question about the um the cost of connecting into the back hall but I can tell you that effectively yes it does uh you know it
Does you know enable connection into um uh into um Global networks in order to allow communication around um the world the issue around the the the um second question in relation to is it a market need I think I described an example of a company that was in bason um that was
Reporting that they were um having problems in terms of getting good solid uh connectivity and part of the challenge I think is that the world is moving at such a pace that we’re becoming a very data Rich uh community and you know if you look at um things like augmented reality and virtual
Reality it requires uh kind of um you know very data hungry um uh uh infrastructure so um you know what uh this uh has done is build a um a network that allows that kind of traffic to be um Comm you know to to to travel on it
And and to answer your last question in terms of um the model the advantage of the model that I think we’ve built here with a in a kind of public private partnership um is that it does ultimately allow and uh enable reinvestment in the network that will
Potentially um you know gives us at the level of our place a stake in the future of the network whereas sometimes you’re right whilst there are other operators that are out there they tend to not have um Place top of mind so their um reinvestment models are sometimes um
Focused more on other places than they might be on buzzon so the advantage I think around this kind of this approach to the delivery of infrastructure of this nature is it is exactly as you say much more scalable much more resilient and much more of capable of adapting and
Developing um in its investment model and perhaps some of the more um uh kind of national models okay um because because you’ve described the fact that the um um infrastructure has been rolled out so what we’re looking at um so it’s rolled out so we’re not looking we’re looking
At further rolling out anything more and then are we looking cuz I want to understand what the project is is the project um raising awareness is that what it is and why is it taking aren’t there channels for raising that awareness so that businesses can readily Connect into into that
Infrastructure yeah I think I think that um yes there is a job to be done in terms of raising awareness and um you know the advantage as I said of the way that this model has been built is that the more commercial traffic that rides on it we’ve created a reinvestment uh
Vehicle in such a way which enables the money to be plowed back into the network to make it grow and develop as uh more traffic joins it the um the critical point I think in that regard is that you know I I wouldn’t necessarily um I think
Our our our marketing has to be quite targeted around some key uh development opportunities and key development areas um geographically I wouldn’t necessarily go to large sways of the resident population and say there’s this new network here I think the industrial Estates are particularly a a a strong opportunity because they’re quite Daya
Hungry they also operate in quite an expensive least line market so the price that businesses often pay to get their broadband connection is is comparably higher than you might pay if you were an individual resident so there are there are opportunities there to help businesses reduce their costs and
Improve their connectivity that will make them more efficient I think the answer to your um uh your last question in terms of um uh you know um uh oh it’s gone um I can’t remember what your third question was it was there a minute ago um I think it was
About um uh what’s the opportunity that’s right I think the the other thing is that how do we encourage and support and help people to take advantage of the what I would call the end of pipe technologies that help them do things better faster and different so if you
Take for example you know augmented reality and virtual reality we were at a event uh last week as part of the Creative Tech Festival where somebody was demonstrating that a car company had built a a virtual car where you could um effectively um imagine how your personal how you could
Personalize that car you could have a different color you could have different seating you could have a different configuration of the interior and so on and so forth and that’s probably quite a common experience if you go and buy a car now that they’ve built kind of
Virtual models so that you can select it in and see it and imagine it in its reality that’s quite a data heavy and quite a hungry functionality could small businesses in in bason for example be using similar Technologies if they’re doing interior design or if they’re
Doing uh U you know um stuff around um training for example there’s lots of people now who are are doing uh training using virtual reality and augmented reality instead of needing to create complex and hazardous environments you can do it with uh you know kind of
Goggles on and and haptic gloves so how do we encourage the businesses that are on The Cutting Edge of doing some of that stuff to come here and to start using those Technologies in order to um win customers and and and grow their business I think that’s really where the the big opportunity
Is just I’m just trying to tie this down so we’ve got this um opportunity um is is it something that the council is implementing or is it Essex County Council and what is the um activity what’s the action that what are we doing and what
What’s the action plan or um do we have have uh time scales or an implementation plan yeah so um across South Essex councils the councils have been predominantly responsible for securing the funding in order to Prime and build the network they’ve then subsequently put the tender to build the network out
For a procurement in the normal way that they do a procurement and then a company has come in to build the network so in reality the network has been built by a third-party commercial professional firm but the nature of the the the commercial relationship with that firm has been
Defined by the council and um in terms of um the development plan and the delivery plan we’re just going through at the moment some work um uh both on the economic development side and on the digital uh it build side where we are um developing the implementation plan for
The next phase of the development the the the infrastructure people the technologists will be thinking about how can we continue to build the infrastructure to continue to provide better services and better reach and so on and so forth on the economic development side we are structuring a
Project which is very much around how do we use um this infrastructure in order to enable business growth in order to enable uh job creation and how do we um help businesses reduce their cost and improve their productivity there is a massive amount of stuff going on I think
Around um for example smart factories and and uh digital manufacturing what’s called industry 4. not how can manufacturers take paper out of their production system so that everything is digitized I’m working with two or three companies who are doing that at the moment and there are quite a significant
Amount of Grants out there that will able able them to do that so we’re introducing them to those grants helping them use that money to make a more digital manufacturing system and then to some extent their product becomes uh cheaper and more costeffective to make because they’ve not got so much
Bureaucracy and paperwork and therefore they can compete better on a global scale because they’re um they’re using digital Technologies better than their competitor okay cuz Okay so now we’ve got the we’ve got all that we’ve got an implementation plan my concern is that with technology it goes um becomes obsolete quite quickly
If we’re not so we have it seems as if we have this infrastructure that’s not being taken advantage of and by the time we get to start taking advantage of it things would have moved on and so what’s the strategy to make sure that this can be done in a timely
Manner so I think you’re right if you if you look at the presentation the current um uh commercial relationship with this company lasts for 15 years so we have a a 15year window in the within the current commercial arrangement with this company to you know um uh exploit U uh
It and grow it and develop it and extend it uh and clearly through that 15-year process um you know we’ll need to reconfigure and rethink about how in the next phase of the development beyond the 15 years how that relationship works I I think you’re right I think you know
Technology is incredibly fast in terms of its life cycles and you’re right if you stand still then I think there is a very real danger that somebody will come along and introduce something else that um supersedes it I think the really positive uh thing uh you know at the
Moment is you know this Project’s been working you know as you can see from the dates since 2018 2019 and it’s and it’s still um been able to maintain a very kind of Cutting Edge system uh a very Cutting Edge place in the market more than perhaps some of the existing
Infrastructure providers have been able to do and that’s largely around the competencies of the people who’ve come together to build it which is the the partnership between the public and the private sector um but I think I think you’re right that you know there you’ve got to keep moving in that world you
Can’t stand still for any period of time U my final question has to do with costs because um how is it a project where we’re expecting to get um um earn an income from earn profit from or is it a project that um how how what’s what’s the financial strategy around so
I think I think the overall Financial strategy is um more focused on um uh creating a syncing Fund in order to continue to um uh improve the use and the um application of the infrastructure rure to deliver better economic social environmental outcomes for the residents of South
Essic in saying that what I’m kind of trying to make clear is that I wouldn’t expect to see a balance sheet um in one or two years time that says and we’ve got an income stream as a council because we’ve got this infrastructure I don’t think there is I don’t want to I
Don’t want to make you think that we’re making money off this it’s more about um building the highways of the future in order to make sure that we can continue to make sure that people are not excluded from um you know the digital world and so on and so forth what I
Think is really interesting is that there is quite a significant amount of um money research money out there uh and I was looking today at let me give you an example Oxford County Council um used to have um this function within their Council which is called The Innovation
Hub and over about a period of 10 years they Drew in about 100 million pounds worth of investment into public services by collaborating with the private sector that kind of investment comes from people like UK research and Innovation innovate UK and Horizon Europe which is you know these These are the kind of
Funders of this kind of digital Innovation work and effectively what you can do if you’ve got this infrastructure is then start to identify areas where you think you can improve Service delivery through digital by design a digital by Design mentality pull this money in and then see whether you can um
Improve the quality of Public Services but drive down cost by using the external funding to Prime Innovation if that if that if that’s clear um and that’s really where I think we um need to get as a group of councilors we’ve not I don’t think necessarily done a lot
Of that work but there is evidence of people who are doing that very well in other places in the country um I think we have the potential there’s nothing to stop us from drawing on that kind of money to start to really continue to put investment into things that if you
Excuse the metaphor sit at the end of the pipe not just about building the pipe it’s what what are we doing with this the to make people’s lives better which I think is more interesting thank you very uh indepth uh questioning there so so cut down what I
Planned on saying which was I very big support of this been rolled out on our industrial Estates and know I’ll particularly point out that in Wickford it’s sort of gone the wrong way it could head towards our sort of shotgate industrial estate um and make sure they’re supported down there there
Obviously sort of small businesses that may need better connectivity and one of the big things for me is Import and Export which the government’s quite keen on and maybe with the government’s change to corporation tax which is the investment in sort of capital that may be slightly more helpful um just on one
Quick point if there’s sort of suggestions for new routs and businesses that may um want some say like the industrial estate I mentioned in Wickford is there sort of the feedback process available to bring that down or shift where it goes yeah I mean to give you some sort
Of Faith and Hope about the um the Wickford situation um you know um you can run Spurs off this backbone this is really um this is a bit like the National Motorway network uh and you can run a-roads off this so there’s no there’s no uh there’s nothing necessarily inhibiting this network
Extending to um shopgate industrial estate in Wickford it just has taken the backbone route that it has a bit like you decide why you going to put hs2 or why you going to put the motor so it’s not a problem I think you can you know you it’s solvable for the shotgate issue
Um and I think yeah in terms of you know ideas and opportunities there’s a gentleman who project manages the infrastructure bill called Michael SN he’s very good if you want to send me an emails I’ll happily make an introduction and you he’s very open to having conversations with anybody about how the
Thing works he’s very very knowledgeable about infrastructure and you get him on any other subject he’ll tell tell you all about infrastructure as well so yeah he’s good thank you for that Jim is there any further questions on Bas water do you have one I just I thought you
Know you really shouldn’t but I I I couldn’t help I really need to on the obso obsolete Point hasn’t technology already moved past uh joining to a hard baked full fiber network isn’t it really about broadcasting 5G and ever Now with starlink uh satellit connection to the
Internet uh I’d answer by saying my level of understanding of that is that the answer is yes in part but I still think you need a a a fiber Backbone in order to um transmit the back hall so you know the the story in here about being able to improve um 5G connectivity
Across the whole of the region it still requires this kind of back hole and um you know the the lauran network um clearly um you know is an example of where you know we’re running with the support of of um the Department of Transport running a wireless low power
Wireless network that um uh enables um connectivity across the region but it still needs that um back hul in order to get it around the globe thank you for that it’s also I always remember that particularly with Wi-Fi there can be some loss as opposed to ethernet which directly runs into the
Computer and if you’re sitting by a sort of metal pole good luck getting a good Wi-Fi signal I have that sometimes as well so um if everyone’s happy with that I’ll move to the next report which is biler Ricky and Wickford business Improvement bid update over to you
Jim brilliant thank you I’ll try and keep this um simpler and Tighter um so members will be aware that um again through part of our UK shared Prosperity funding the money that government um uh gave basilon to replace European funding we had to write a prospectus with a a group of
Partners um about where we would spend approximately 1.27 million with the funding over three years and one of the things that um the partners identifi um uh through the course of developing that prospectus is that um Town centers were in need of some investment and um
They were minded to ask us what we might do in order to improve the kind of investment potential of particularly three of our larger Town centers um uh B rii uh Wickford and basilon um um we focus promly on those larger ones because the the recognized kind of
Convention of trying to get investment into your town centers um uh is a business improvement district they’re quite common it’s quite a well recognized mechanism it’s a global mechanism um for for trying to um improve uh the commitment of the business community in an area to work
Together but also then to leverage in some funding in order to support that investment the more you get into smaller centers um L and py it becomes harder because you don’t have the critical mass of businesses and you don’t therefore have the community that’s um large
Enough in order to do something so what we um if I can move to the next slide what we um uh what I intend to try and cover off today is a little bit about what a business improvement district is our approach to developing business Improvement districts and then give you
A little bit of an update in terms of where we are in biler rii and where we are in Wickford and then just to give you an example of what the financial implic are for local businesses from um business Improvement districts and then um a little bit about next steps and and
The thing that I would just ask you to note is that we’re working with two different consultants in biller Ricki and Wickford so there isn’t a a complete consistency about the way data and images are presented here because it’s taken from the work of the consultants
And then um shown back to you so if you think something looks different for some reason it’s no other reason than there’s just different styles of different Consultants if I can move to the next slide so that map on the right hand side um shows you where all of the business
Improvement districts are around the country you can see there’s quite a significant number and I’ve missed off the two that are in the Shetland Isles and um uh uh uh that predominantly just shows you where they are in the British ises the way they basically work is um
They asked the business Community to come together as a um community um in order to decide what is important uh to them about the future of their town center and you form um a group of people called a town team and that town team um largely comprises probably eight or 12
Is a good decision making size the sooner you get bigger than that it becomes slightly more complex in terms of decision- making what you clearly want to do on that town team is to have representation from the County Council from the burrow Council and from the Town Council so that um the public
Sector is all aligned and supportive of of of the work and then you try and grow the capacity of the business Community to say what’s important to them you research it you talk to them you work with them to try and um assess whether they are committed to the place and
Whether they are willing to invest time effort and money in trying to improve um that place and and you go through a process called a feasibility study and once you finish the feasibility study if it says yes there could be some potential to develop a business improvement district you then develop a
Business plan and once you’ve developed the business plan all the time working with the business Community you then put that business plan to a ballot and the business Community then gets an opportunity to vote on that business plan and if you get enough votes the principle of the vote is that
Essentially you’re asking the business Community to vote for a small percentage increase in their business rates which then gets pulled into a pot and that that community of business people then creates a mechanism through which they can then spend that money on um improving the Town Center so it’s a
It’s a very Democratic process but it’s a process that’s also predicated on to some extent the public sector leading that build process trying to grow the capacity and the propensity of the business Community to work together and then uh getting them to form a mechanism and then to some extent falling into a
Kind of Observer situation and hoping that they step up and they lead this process so that’s how the the um process works the final bullet point on the slide which says bid levies are basically hypothecated and devolved funding what that means is that um they are ring fenced for Town Improvement
Activity if one thinks about things like council tax and one thinks about things like uh uh corporation tax and vat they are unhype funding they go into a big pot somewhere where they get spent is not up to you it’s up to somebody else sitting somewhere else in whiteall this
Money is essentially solely focused and can solely be invested in town center Improvement and it’s led by the business community in terms of if the ballot is successful they’re the ones who decide where that goes we sit at their shoulder and say well you might want to do that
You might want to think about this we’re doing this you know go here and so on and so forth but the important thing is for lots of business people it’s hypothecated funding so it it in theory should be going towards improving their bottom line and helping them make more money that’s really what
You’re trying to do with the money if I can move to the next um slide um so we chose to do biller Ricky first Wickford second and basilon third the reasons for doing that are principally that um biller rii has a really strong self-identity
It has a group of people who are from B Ricky who are um have a really strong belief in the value of B Ricki and it it has a very strong social uh Fabric and a a strong level of community cohesion that was demonstrated by when we asked
The question and said what do you want to do everybody oh B we love B let’s do this let’s do this so it it it showed that there’s a lot of enthusiasm passion I think the other thing is that if you look at some of the data um biller riy
According to some work that Essex County Council um did with a company called osci as much as we like to think it’s an aent place it’s actually the sixth um uh Urban connation in the whole of Essex with the highest level of community need it doesn’t have an education facility on
Its High Street it doesn’t have a lot of green space on its High Street it doesn’t have a cultural center on its High Street so there’s lots of evidence that there’s quite a high amount of community needs in um B rii we went to Wickford second and um uh but pretty
Much it’s caught up and so you know I can come on and talk about that the issue around basilon as a place to develop a business improvement district um is that it uh a business improvement district you know requires a really strong symbiotic relationship between the private sector and the public sector
And in reality the past trajectory of where bason has been over the last two or three years has um meant that the relationships have not been as strong as as we needed between the public and private sector in order to make a business improvement district work I
Would say very positively that that is changing and that there are really positive shoots of uh green shoots of recovery whereby we’re starting to have some really positive conversations with the development community and so going to basilon Third and waiting for things just to settle down after um
Uh a number of planning disputes has been a very uh sensible and I think wise decision um in terms of um uh you know the other points on this um slide I’ve said you know different levels of community cohesion um you know we’ve sought to get a strong Town Cent uh
Public sector alignment um with one or two public sector reps and trying to build the business uh commitment uh and also build wider business ambassadors in the town so you know people don’t necess need to sit on the town team but if they’re Pro beid and they they like the
Idea um you know we need to keep them as as a positive force and we need to try and get as many people into that box of being a positive force and a positive energy rather than a negative force and a negative energy um and then the goal
Here is to create um business groups and forers and companies in each of the towns um that are leading uh the thinking about how do we create more footfall how do we get more people spending more time in the Town Center how do we get more people spending more
Money in the town center and things like that and the process generally takes about 12 to 24 months to build a business improvement district if I go to the next um slide uh in terms of the biller rii process the feasibility study have has reported as I said um you know
It broadly has um uh uh indicated that um uh you know there is the potential to get a business improvement district uh uh away in the Town Center there appears to be a lot of positive support uh for um improving the Town Center people are very committed to the town center it’s
Got quite a um a professional culture um lots of um professional service companies that you know are prepared to invest time and effort and the town team has now grown to a level where we’ve got um uh the manager of waitr on it who’s been a chairman of three business
Improvement districts two business Improvement districts sorry in St Albin and Saffron Walden so he’s got understanding we’ve got some of the major businesses from Radford way industrial estate on there so you know there’s some some good quality businesses there and there’s about 10 or 12 private sector people who are
Committed and and really Keen um so you know the the town team has now agreed to set up a private limited company as um the biller Ricky um bid proposer so they then write to the council and say we would like you to hold a ballot on our
Behalf we then appoint um uh uh uh or we choose to run it in house um somebody to run the ballot on behalf of the council it runs exactly like a local election or a refere but the voters are the business Community the business Community get
Sent a business plan and they’re ask do you want to do you want these benefits that come to you and if you do it’s going to cost you this much in terms of your business rates or it’s not going to cost you anything at all because there are thresholds where certain people
Under a threshold don’t pay anything and and the and the business plan sets out what the percentage increase that they uh you know would likely pay then we write to the Secretary of State and say we’d like to hold a ballot uh and then um the ballot happens and then you know
We find um whether the business Community have voted or not you may remember that Brentwood recently went through this process and voted yes and they now have a business improvement district in brenford brenwood sorry there’s one in um South End and there are others around essic so you know
They’re starting to um uh uh build the capacity of the businesses in those town in those towns to work together and and kind of create an investment model that is predicated on those businesses putting a little bit of money in themselves in order to make that work if
I could move to the next slide um the um area that you can see for the biler rii business improvement district is shown in that map and it um it covers uh the High Street as you’d expect and it covers um uh Radford way industrial estate so it’s a two-part business
Improvement district um and effectively the the issues that the business Community have um told us that they consider to be important that they’d like to see improved about their town are issues around access um and that includes things like improving parking and improving the connectivity between Radford way some of the businesses are
Saying that actually they go to stock when they have a business visitor for lunch because it’s easier to park in stock when it is to take their uh business visitors uh into B rii so we’re losing some trade if we can solve that problem you get more commercial activity
Happening um issues around growth tackling vacant units creating more popup more small businesses uh and things like that event with an emphasis on community and family so how do we bring more footfall how do we get more cash over the tills and then streets things that we’re obviously doing but um
You know pushing beyond that how can we improve the cleansing the rubbish collection the Pavements and and The Greening and the town centers how do we make it a more attractive place so that’s where B Ricky is if I can move to the the next um slide there’s the ballot
Timetable so essentially The Proposal here is to start and initiate the ballot after the local elections so um uh it it didn’t make sense necessarily to go before the local elections and overly politicize something which is largely um a democratic process that the businesses
Get a chance to to to vote on um and the principle is that um you know according um to this timeline we will um pretty much know in um early August whether um you know the bot the ballot has been successful and the business improvement district has been successful if I very
Then quickly move to Wickford and give you a very quick summary and then I’ll finish on a financial slide um we’ve got a different set of consultants in Wickford who are working on the same process and and again if you look at the member representation we’ve got councelor ball from County councel
Brockman from bur and from uh town uh Don’s been very helpful councel Morris sorry I should say in in uh in supporting this process and has been actively involved in it um and also um we’ve had councelor Bradley from um the Town Council and we have been working
Very hard to get um the business Community involved we just appointed the the chairman which is a guy who um runs a uh a very successful shop called the GE Garage in Wickford and then we’ve got um other people from restaurants and and various other uh businesses um uh debut
Academy involved um uh in the town team as well so we’re moving forward around broadly the same process if I can move to the the next slide side you’ll see this is the area that’s being focused on and it again is predominantly you know mostly the sort of High Street area um
And those kind of surrounds again issues around access marketing and events to bring more footfall in to get more cash through the tills um crime and antisocial behavior is an area where Wickford uh businesses have said they’d like more focus on and also improving the general area and that’s the feedback
From the consultation with all the businesses if I move to the last couple of slides a same ballot timetable sorry that’s a a a bit small but the ballot date would then be um July 2024 so again early August we’d know whether the um whether Wickford businesses had voted
For this or not and the very last slide I think if I’m right is just to give you some financial implications because I think you know there is in some quarters I think a concern that business Improvement districts Place more financial pressure on businesses who are already struggling to keep their head
Above water um what I would say is that um the way the levy works the bid Levy works is you as part of your business plan you publish what um your plan is in terms of that increased percentage so how much um uh increased percentage would a particular business would would
Every business need to pay and you also set a threshold and the threshold is um normally at a level where um which is consistent with small business bu rates relief so if you if you set the level at the threshold of small business rates relief which is 122k anybody under that
Anyway is getting rates relief anyway business rates relief and it generally means that there’s lots of stuff like um advertising um signage and things like that that also is ratable um so they’re very difficult to contact so you set a threshold where you take a large section
Of the people out um and then you um publish that in your business plan and I’m just giving you an example here in terms of Wickford as a rough estimate in Wickford if um the bid and the ballot is successful top 10 highest Levy payers generally contribute around 20% of the
Levi pot they tend to be more institutional investors or large National retailers um and I’ve said here that you know having done some wet finger calculations the top 40 retailers contribute around 50% of the pot or the top 40 businesses I should say contribute around 40% of the pot and
Then in that 40 in Wickford there are about eight local Independents but the rest of the of the uh businesses are National chains or significant institutional investors so if we’re worried about essentially um transferring uh more cost to small businesses you can see from this that
Most of the cost is carried by more of the larger National and and institutional investors and then lastly in terms of the um the level of increase uh if I look at all of those um people who would be charged uh in theory um if the bid is successful the lowest
Increase would be about 60 a year which if you work that out at 365 um days a year is a few Pence or even 52 you know weeks a year it’s a pound or1 pound1 probably a week uh that the individual business is being charged with the average being about £300 but
The critical point is that that money goes back into a pot and that the uh town team decides how they can use that money to improve the nature of the town team and then lastly bid levies are a separate Levy to bills and rates so technically it isn’t an increase in
Business rates it’s actually a separate Levy I know that’s a technical argument but if anybody ever says to you this is an increase in business business business rates you go well actually not it’s a separate it’s a separate Levy thank you very much I hope that describes a little bit about how that
Process works happy to take any other questions on the next steps of are just around um we’ve got to um you know keep the community positive on this and get them you know um behind it and and we develop the business plans and then we as a council check the business plans um
And then we go to ballot and hope that they get behind it thank you thank you very much for a good presentation I have two questions um uh I’ll the first one’s about the scheduling yeah uh and how you’ve decided to go uh B Ricky with wford and
Then basilon and that it seems to be based on a principle of loow hanging fruits effective because you will have people who interested um where it’s where it seems to me that the greatest need is actually that those are the very reasons why you should have
Done it the other way around because low low business uh engagement Etc are exactly the the high fruits that we need to be aiming for so that’s the first thing so it’s really worrying to me that there was no presentation on um the the bason part of it there was only B Ricki
And Wickford which probably which means to me and I don’t know if I’m correct in thinking this that there isn’t a consultant working on the Basildon one yet which just sounds really bad because lots of people say it the Town Center is dead and I just wondered um uh should
That not be the priority so that’s the scheduling question the other one is about how the risk that a business investment District that is funded where the 20% is from the 10 largest where where Lots of city centers are becoming homogenized and they’re all betting shops and uh you got loads
Of betting shops and loads of hair and nail places I’m just wondering if you have these big businesses big ones that dominate The Town Center or the current makeup of the Town Center the decision- making of that town Council for the business investment District how do you
Ensure that the smaller voices that are going to be setting up the smaller places that aren’t paying the biggest amounts I also have a voice that’s equal to the big players so that you don’t get a a cookie cutter Town Center yeah brilliant brilliant Point um
I guess in terms of the SE sequencing question the issue with Basildon is um 80% of the property ownership in bason is is in the hands of around about four or five major developers and in order for a business improvement district to work you need to be in a positive and proactive
Relationship with those developers in such a way which delivers symbiotic benefits I.E the developer um doesn’t want to hear that you want them to come and join your party I don’t mean party political party I mean party you know as in the um or join your Club um uh in order for them
To help you deliver benefits for you there has to be mutually beneficial benefits that both parties are willing to ascribe to and given that I guess um that symbiosis has been probably not as acute in bason over the last few years than it um has in billeri and in
Wickford we’ve had to take a longer time to build the relationships and and to build the collaboration I think and also you know the market has changed you know two years ago development was a very difficult thing to do in baser and because of global geopolitical issues of
You know postco inflation Ukrainian War you know that it was very difficult to get stuff happening for the development community so I would I would say to you that I think the decision to keep warming the relationship but not go for the kind of marriage we’ve been dating and we’ve been kind of
Um you know uh talking a lot and collaborating and I think that’s starting to pay off fruit because we’re starting to see things move in the Town Center the relationships are genuine symbol the other thing that makes bason kind of interesting is around um the existing structures around um you know
We have for example btcm as an interesting vehicle in the Town Center which in theory could notionally play a very positive role as being the bid company if we wanted it to be there but at the moment we’re not clear on what that is so we’ve got a little bit of
Work to do you’ll remember through some of the Town Center Vision work that we did previously we’ve talked about Ambassador boards we’ve talked about um um you know reviewing um btcm and seeing how collectively as a group of stakeholders we might make that stuff work better for us so be be confident
That those things have been going on but it would have been probably um inappropriate to spend that the little amount money the these things are costing us 30 40 Grand a year it would have been inappropriate to spend that in year one before we’ done some of the the
Kind of warming and the collaboration so be confident that this year we’ve got that amount of money set aside in our budget and one of the things that we’re doing at the moment is developing a specification around what that consultant might come and do for us this
Year together with those four or five key developers the other thing that I think is really important is to remember that at the moment a large number of the velers in the Town Center are rate are mitigating against rates so lots of them are currently not paying any rates
Because they’ve soft stripped or you know they’re waiting to bring the development back out of the ground again so it’s not an ideal time necessarily to go to them and say would you consider um you know having one or two% more on your existing rates when they’re trying
Desperately to get their cost down in order to be able to get their development away so I think you know I understand the frustration and I think you’re right the need is clearly more acute here but the circumstances and the relation ships and the situation was not
I think right to spend that money then and we we needed to take a longer run at that the point about biller Ricky is that we were able to take a short path to that because there was this commitment and the other thing is that
If we get B Ricky away I think it will actually also create a a a little bit of competitive tension that the other places have also got to get one as well but also a little bit of positivity that actually somebody is doing something I
Didn’t say but if it works in theory in biller Ricky they could have about 200 to 300,000 per anom in order to invest in in in the town giving you about a budget of a million pounds over five years in Whitford it will be a slightly smaller one because the area is smaller
And the number of businesses be about 80 grand but it’ll still give you half a million uh a year in order to invest in the town um so I think that’s the first one um the risk of you know homogenized um I agree with you I think that that uh
Again part of the discussions around what are the challenges in each of the towns you know an example in beleri one of the greatest challenges is that um the town becomes hollowed out as more residential takes over the town um and you know residential development encroaches onto Radford way and some of
The um buildings and offices get converted to residential property if that path continues there’ll be less people just by pure density who are actually in the town in the daytime so there’ll be less people spending money in the shop so people so one of the
Things I think we um the town team and the businesses recognize that they need to fight together in order to stop that encroachment of residential and they need a strong voice to say actually think about the business Community they also I think are um you know kind of
Quite um you know Keen to look at how they can um work to protect uh uh their businesses and save their um businesses and also make sure the trajectory of place doesn’t become a homogenized how do we help independent retailers how do we help those kind of artisan uh you
Know small businesses that might want to set up something that makes the town distinctively different than just a me too thing so I I think you know that um that is something and that that’s lots of the conversation that’s going on in all of these towns at the
Moment thanks chair um yeah you mean you you briefly touched on this um on the last questions um but and obviously this will create growth in the in the town centers and and we’ll we’ll make be hopefully making money for for everybody in the in the future but in terms of actually rolling
This out doing the the actual ballot I mean will the ballot be online or people will get sent um voting okay yeah yeah so so obviously the that side of things will all will all cost money and sort of the the advertising campaigns to try and convince as many
Businesses as possible to to vote for this I mean do we have a figure of how much this will all cost um for for both B and Wickford and in the future hopefully Bon as well yeah so um you know I think to answer your question around the voting
It is a physical voting um exercise um and in terms of um I’ll come to the costs in a minute I I think um you know there is in my view in lots of our Economic Development policy lots of stuff that we’re thinking about is how
Do we teach a man to fish rather than just give them a fish and a business improvement district to some extent is um teaching a man to fish or teaching the people or giving the people in the town the ability to come together and create the capacity in order to be able
To to to demonstrate you know more Civic action and more pride and that I think is probably more I wouldn’t say it’s more important because you can’t do one without the other in order for the the the community to come together in that way you do need to give them a resource
And a budget in order to come together you need to kind of almost put the money on the table and say you know how do you want to spend that and and they then feel empowered um to make a decision so for me the really important bit about a
Business improvement district is growing the capacity of the community to work together there are times where I’ve been in wiford I’ve taken somebody from a shop and I’ve walked them Three Doors Down and they don’t know the person in Three Doors Down they go to their shop
They open it up at 9:00 in the morning they lock at 5:00 and they they go home and and you know that’s not an uncommon experience so creating that Network and creating that Community I think is really important your issue in terms of costs is I would estimate that we will
Probably end up spending about 45,000 in actual external uh uh funded work per business improvement district and at the moment £30,000 of that is funded from UK Prosperity fund money um but it is very much a um a Sprat to catch a mackerel in the sense that if
£45,000 they gets you a million pounds worth of investment I’d see that as a reasonably good return on investment but more importantly if you create some kind of Legacy around a community that starts positively thinking about this is my town I’m going to make a difference this
Town you know I’ll be really honest I’ll finish on this point but one of the real problems that that we have in in in in witford I think is that a large proportion of the people who live in Wickford don’t sorry who work in Wickford don’t necessarily live in
Wickford whereas in biler rii it’s the complete opposite you actually find that the the the civic pride piece comes because it is their town when I when we walk the high streets of of wiford and we ask you know where are you from we get quite a lot of ilford and Romford um
And things like that so you know the reality is how do you create that that that sense of place and that important that this is you know uh somewhere that I care about rather than something somebody just as I said opening the shop at 9:00 a.m. extracting the value out of
The town and repatriating the profits back to some North London burough that’s our biggest that’s our biggest challenge and I think that’s what um a business improvement district if you can get it to work has the ability to do is to start getting people who work in that
Place to say actually this place is important to me one just one thing with regards to the plan then something slightly outside it you mentioned that there were is it business ambassadors or Champions did you mention and how do you do do we have any of those at the moment and and how
What’s the criteria for selecting them so yeah um the um the answer to your question is no there are no business ambassadors in the sense of a business improvement district at the moment um what um what if you remember as part of the basilon Town Center growth Vision we had
The Consultants who came to us and told us that in stevenage what they did was they established a business Ambassador board in order to to sit over the town and to create a kind of public private partnership in order to to work together in order to improve the general
Direction of that town those Consultants used the phrase a business Ambassador board and and to answer your question there is no business Ambassador board in basilon at the moment and there is no governance structure for um yet established apart from btcm which is a legacy uh company but there is no um
There is no uh other governance structure in bason um in order to take this forward in the case of biller Ricki and Wickford um we did make a decision about how to structure the town teams and in simple terms we went to each one of the um political institutions in each
One of the towns Town burough and County and said can you amongst yourselves nominate a member to come and sit on this town team group and in the case of of um witford colleagues nominated councelor uh Morris and we um nominated councelor Brockman in order to get
Balance in the political system and not become a political mechanism and in the in the case of County they nominated um councelor ball and so on and so forth um then in terms of how we recruit recruited the private sector people we went out and wore out Sho lever knocking
On doors saying exactly what we’re saying to everybody here and people who were willing to give their time and money self-nominated that at this point in time I would say to you the problem with that is that it’s probably not um as balanced as it could be um you know the
The the chairman at the moment is also saying well actually we’re lacking a small retailer we’re lacking uh enough representation from the industrial States we need to improve our de and and we need to reach out into um you know uh BME communities or we need to get more
Women on the board so I think that it’s an evolutionary process and what should happen probably in time is that the town team should probably consider how it runs an election and how it opens itself up to recruit people in a in a democratic way in order to represent
That Community but in the early stages of the development you basically lucky if you get any help at all so you actually take it where it’s offered if you know what I mean but as it grows and develops you you develop more sophisticated models for making sure your governance is more
Balanced okay um from what you’ve described about the um business improvement district it’s obvious that it’s a particular type of business business that would fit that criteria what about all the other businesses um the different types of businesses within the B um within the burrow or that
Residents within the burrow um are part of or party off and I’m wondering how are we capturing the needs of those different businesses and meeting those needs and we we have we we for instance we have businesses um of um we’ve got small micro business owners who who
Maybe runs a um a market stall um we have um people who work from home maybe they work they run their businesses from home but serving the the the nation Beyond Basildon how do those other businesses get supported I’ll try and be brief on this one because it’s not a simple decision
Um in reality there’s an element of the service that we provide and that our partners provide which is a universal service so if any body wants help and they want to ask for advice they can phone up um either us or they can phone up a local growth Hub and it’s open to
Anybody it’s um Place agnostic it’s sector agnostic it will go wherever um you know wherever people want it to go it’s a telephone and a web based service clearly with 8,700 businesses in Basel and burrow it’s very difficult for us to give everybody the same level of service
What I would say to you is that I think that at the moment we’re doing some work on thinking about who you um you know you want to spend um the most uh of your effort uh behind and where you want to direct that and I think it’s from my
Perspective it’s interesting that having recently just looked at the business base of South essic um if you take um uh I think there are about 515 businesses over 50 employees I’ll need to check this number but it’s a piece of research that I’ve been doing recently and that
Those 500 15 businesses employ 40% of the population of of um basilon so if in some senses and that drives you more towards I’m afraid a larger business because you’re looking at the totality of employee numbers but we already have a service whereby we provide an account management service to around about 130
Businesses in in the burough who are the more larger strategic companies and we basically give you an example we’ve just relocated the Finishing Line and we’ve kept um and Ico we’ve just done the same we’ve just kept 500 jobs in the burrow because we knew they were coming to
Lease end we were having conversation with them and then we found them other properties so we do a lot of work as a team in order to sustain those large companies in the burrow and look after them but not everybody wants to work with us not everybody wants to work with
The council so you know we do our best and that model is becoming more prevalent and we’re going to find Essex County Council developing that model and we’re going to find the other local authorities and we’ve led the way in the delivery of that service and they’re now
Following us the other thing that is really interesting piece of research is by an organization called Nesta which is it’s called the vital 6% and if you get a chance to Google it it’s um it basically says that 6% of the business base um generates 50% of the growth in
Jobs uh in time and that 6% is largely those really high growth high performance can be small can be dynamic but they’ve got an Innovative idea they’ve got an approach to life which is catalytic um and we have a database where we we um are able to identify the
Companies that are um going through 10% 20% compound growth those companies that are getting Innovation grants those company that are winning Innovation Awards and we look after them as well and we make sure they’re happy so we look after that 6% because if in you know 10 or 15 years time they’ve created
50% of the overall growth in the burrow then that’s important last one is probably the international firms and the reason the international firms are important is because um there’s always the possibility they might do an intra comp transfer or they give us access to foreign direct investment so we try and
Look after those companies that have got an international head office somewhere else because the potential for them to then bring new investment into the burrow is is is often quite higher unfortunately there are other sort of socio demographic characteristics that you could um employ like for example and
I’ll finish on this point one of the really interesting things around the data around bason is if you look at the startup um community in bason over the last four or five years and this is slightly a dubious methodology but I have no other better way of doing it a
Lot of the startup businesses in bason have come from subsaharan africant uh sub Sahar people with a subsaharan African Heritage either Ghan or Nigerian and I think that’s a really positive thing so lots of the work that we’re doing around startup activity is actually deliberately trying to um
Address that Dei agenda we’ve got a lady called Amela fosu who who did our pre-startup Tech accelerator and 80% of the population who came on that course were from BME communities so I think again in the startup space there’s actually a really positive um and there’s a really interesting report by
An organization called hope not hate which picks out bason which says the growth of um bason as a community has been fueled by its increasing and growing diversity and that’s a really positive um thing so I’m happy to share any of that with you but I guess you can
See there is a methodology about how we go about this but it isn’t always that easy to um to to to kind of justify it because you do end up choosing where you put your resource and some people don’t always get as good a service as you might want if you know I
Me thank you any further questions are we all okay just picking up on that point I think it’s important that we engage with the business community so you know we can actually hear what their feedback is cuz a lot of the time is the council may have an impression of what
It feels could be done and that may be not aligned and I think now it’s like the sort of marriage of sort of going through the honeymoon period particularly in bason which is uh particularly pleasing to hear as it’s got a lot to offer um so if no one’s got
Any further questions um I’m happy to move to the work program uh that’s on page 51 for anyone uh scrolling so going through the pages U just on one point Jim as you’re the only officer here I had raised this previously but it was just one point I
Wanted considered which was just an issue that I picked up on was when we’re going through a planning process and particularly consultations for planning is that we get that sort of reply set in because I know I’ve had some corresponds with the planning department um after I
S chewed their ear over this is just that the process that we have for that needs to be much clear in how residents can feel that they’ve been listened to um and if I was to suggest that would that require a vote or is it just
A we can just excuse me suggest it yeah if if the committee have a consensus if the committee is okay with that just to be clear it’s um there’s a particular issue in my P there a I’m sorry I don’t want to mispronounce your last name but
As Theo had raised particularly in your development with c homes one of the issues I had was that the the residents were writing to the planning department but they were sort of met by a wall of silence and what I’m raising now is just whether something needs to be sort of
Smartened up to make sure residents feel that they’re listened to and that they feel that the feedback particularly on your point with the housing is that they can see that there’s been some form of outcome and I think that’s just what I wanted to bring because this is the
Right committee to do it in and I I quite feel quite strongly on this point so if the committee is happy with with that we can add that to the work program unless anyone want to put their hand up for that you okay with that what was the actual subject matter
You want added so I can take it back so when they send out planning consultations is just making sure that the details are correct of where residents can go to and then when they do send correspondents that they’re actually uh sort replied to cuz some of the correspondents i’ scene with the
Planning department um was sort of a oneway Street and I think particularly with the bid that we’ve learned uh is that it’s important to engage with the residents because they’re the direct sort of stakeholder and fund of council um so if we’re happy with that inclusion um it’s just generally notes and
Endorses have to have a vote on next it’s got endorse on yeah um I’ll just read yeah please I know I just wonder whether the topic might be something around um explanation of case management of how um you know the growth team uh and the you know ex how it does case
Management like for example I’ve talked about you know um account management of large firms um you know depersonalizing it and making it more a case management question about how do we respond to inquirers in relation to um business inquiries or planning inquiries just just a general overview about how the
Team does case management it might seem that’s a sensible way of of of including that on the work program as a a topic that’s um generic enough that we can explore what’s good practice in communication if you know what I mean cuz CU what I think where what I’m
Perceiving is that it’s we’re talking about the um the process of Engagement with residents on these particular planning procedures from start to finish cuz if or yeah so so if they’ve engaged and they um sorry yeah yeah just to know even if they’ve not engaged at least there’s something somewhere
To um put that result so that they know that that’s out there somewhere so it’s not left in the air and they’re not sure that if any they’re not sure if anything has been done about the process yeah I’m happy to accept jimon and it’s important that as a council we
Say on our website we want to be open and transparent so I think we might as well follow what it says on the website and that’s something I feel strongly about particularly with planning um so if we’re happy with that I’ll just read the recommendation so those watching at
Home and those here are um clear with what we’re looking at which is that the committee notes and endorses the items currently identified to carry forward to the 2425 work program and considers any further items that need to be added which we’ve done uh the committee notes
The cabinet four plan and identifies any items that Fallin its room that it wishes to consider so can I take the please I I would like to see an item on startups um yeah because we’re talking about the big businesses the big if if we’re not nurturing small businesses um
Then well I don’t know if the small businesses the small businesses supposed to become the big businesses ventually but we need to it’s a sector that needs to be cared for so we need to understand what’s going on within that sector I’m happy for that to be included
Unless anyone objects to that proposal any further proposal before I so wrap up okay um just if I can just take that to the vote all those for unanimous thank you very much okay that concludes this meeting thank you very much for attending everyone and thank you for those watching at home
Have a good evening and save travels home thank you