Agenda item

The Assistant Director – Strategic Growth and Development to provide a presentation.

The Assistant Director for Strategic Growth and Development gave a presentation to update the Forum on the Spalding Town Centre Improvement Plan, which covered the following points:

 

• The Spalding Town Centre Plan was launched in February 2020, as a Council-led initiative to develop a programme of work to deliver improvement to Holbeach and Spalding Town Centres. This was subsidised by a £500k one-off investment to develop initiatives, supported by a coordinator, along with an officer, employed for a fixed period of time to help kick start the project.

 

• Spalding had previously not been identified in the government funding to award £25 million towards Town Centre Regeneration, however Spalding took a view to set up a steering group, partnered up with businesses, local representatives, stakeholders, charities, and various other organisations, chaired by SHDC. The prime issues they wanted to address were Town Centre access, promoting Independent Businesses, Public Realm, Heritage, Culture, and Events.

 

• The Spalding Town Centre Improvement Plan has a number of aims, including:

·         Diversify the Town Centre offer.

·         Laying foundations for long term impact, alongside with delivering immediate activity.

·                 Focus on building partnerships, especially those that may support with securing access to future and additional funding Such partners include the Arts Council, National Heritage Fund and National Lottery, along with private funding.

·                 That town centres generally have been hugely impacted by the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis and contraction in retail nationally.

The Assistant Director for Strategic Growth and Development set out four key areas of note, in respect of the plan.

·                 Under the theme of Supporting Local Business, that the authority was activity supporting local businesses in an exercise to develop a Business Improvement District for the town. This work was being led by the Spalding Business Board; a newly formed group with an aim to aid independent businesses.

·                 The Spalding Business Board’s ambition would be to raise £1m over 5 years under a Business Improvement District model, with objectives to invest in;

 

• SHDC had committed £30K to allocate toward professional advice and guidance to support the group and develop the BID to the next stage.

• Plans had been positively progressed. Spring 2024 would be the expected timescale to vote on Business Improvement District Proposals.

• A cohesive supportive business community would help to attract new businesses within the Town,

 

• Under the theme of heritage and public realm, The Assistant Director for Strategic Growth and Development set out details of the Spalding Reconnected Project. The National Lottery, Heritage Fund and Historic England were major funders of Town Centre investment. The council had sought to develop a relationship with these funders, leading to £235k being secured using £12,500 in match funding from SHDC. The Spalding Reconnected Project would deliver five heritage projects that explore both short and long-term investment for the town, including;
  • Improved wayfinding totems - to enable the public to navigate around the town.
  • Riverside improvements - through increased planting and habitat creation, alongside heritage and riverside trails.
  • Identify areas for future investment via the Town Centre Heritage Strategy. This would be a long-term project to further strengthen the heritage within the town.
  • Develop a future Public Realm Strategy, to interpret the public perception on what would their Town Centre resemble, detailed proposals for future and transformational investment in the wider public realm.

 

·          In addition to the Spalding Reconnected project, a further project was in development focusing on Public Realm Investment involving 3 areas of the town: Hall Place, Riverside and Red Lion Street

• A budget of £280K had been generated to deliver investment, consisting of funds from the Improvement Plan, Springfields and funding through a S106 payment from Broadgate Homes.

 

• Plans would be shared with the public to seek views on;

 

• Slides were presented to share the collaboration with the Planning Department, who had encouraged shop owners and landlords to maintain the outside appearance of their properties, many had already adhered to this, with vast improvements noted.

 

• The final part of the Improvement Plan was the Events and Cultural Arts Council. Through this relationship Ayscoughfee had been successful in securing £2m of funding over a three-year period, to deliver Heritage, Culture and Arts to the area.

 

• The aim would be to deliver an enhanced cultural programme to draw footfall into the Town Centre and to support economy across 2023/24 – 2025/26.

 

• Events would be planned for early 2024.

 

The Assistant Director of Strategic Growth and Development provided the STF with a finance update to clarify how the funds had been spent and what budget had been allocated for future projects.

 

The Assistant Director thanked the Chairman of the STF and the Portfolio Holder for Health and Wellbeing, Conservation and Heritage for their work with the Town Centre access work, led by the STF.

 

Members raised the following questions:

 

• When would the Public Realm Survey be available for the public to view?
  • The Portfolio Holder for Strategic Housing, Leisure Centre Delivery and Spalding Town Improvement responded that the findings from the survey had been made public at the STF meeting. An official launch would happen through Council channels and social media and the results would be based on the data that is received back.

 

• Could the river be opened up, allowing residents and visitors to paddleboard, canoe and use river boats, working alongside Anglian Water and the river authorities?
  • The Assistant Director for Strategic Growth and Development replied that work could form part of the public realm and heritage strategy work.

 

• Had any of the Officers visited other market towns to view the seating areas that they offered and could an alternative material, perhaps concrete or polished marble be considered?
  • The Assistant Director for Strategic Growth and Development said that it was important to gain everyone’s views on the seating and would look into visiting other towns.

 

• Would the continuing Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) in the Town Centre be dealt with?
  • The Chairman of the STF responded that ASB should be clamped down on and encourage the public to report any ASB.

 

• Could a Town Centre Policy be put in place regarding shop fronts and the number of stickers/transfers that were used to blank out the front windows?
  • The Assistant Director for Strategic Growth and Development said that this was a concern and had been picked up by the Policy Development Panel as this was a broader issue of concern and affected the whole District.

 

• Could the Bus Station timetables be updated, as they were showing times for buses that no longer run?

 

• Could the pedestrian route from the bus station to the Town Centre be more accessible?
  • It was noted that the bus times were not regular enough to encourage visitors from other towns and cities.

 

 

It was recommended that the accessibility from the bus station into the Town Centre would be raised as an action with the Assets Team.

 

• Was the bus regular between the Town Centre and Springfield?
  • It was stated the buses ran every half an hour.

 

• Was signage available at Springfields to encourage some of the 2.2million visitors to visit Spalding Town Centre whilst visiting Springfields?

 

 

• What was the possibility of a minibus taking visitors to and from the Town Centre, making continual circuits to encourage more visitors?

 

• Could coach access into Spalding Town Centre be more accessible and of easy walking distance?

 

 

• How would the Enhanced Cultural Programme be more transformational?
  • The Assistant Director of Strategic Growth and Development responded that the Cultural Programme had been developed but had fallen a couple of months behind schedule. This had established Ayscoughfee as a National Portfolio Organisation, which enabled additional funds for culture and arts. Further details would be available in the coming months.

 

• When would the new Spalding Town Centre seating area be in place?

 

• It was noted that it would be beneficial for the South Holland Centre (SHC) to offer up to date films when they were released and more comfortable seating. Would a separate cinema be a possibility?
  • The Assistant Director for Strategic Growth and Development replied that this was discussed at the last PMP meeting and a piece of work had been commissioned to look specifically at the SHC, its business plan and opportunities.

 

It was noted to feedback any questions on SHC improvements to the Portfolio Holder who would be able to assist.

 

The Chairman thanked the Assistant Director for Strategic Growth and Development for the informative presentation.