Agenda and minutes

No Apologies for Absence had been received.

Members and Officers are invited to make any declaration of pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests that they may have in relation to items on this agenda, and are reminded that they should re-declare their interest before consideration of the items or as soon as the interest becomes apparent.

Members and Officers should make their declaration by stating:

a)             the item they have the interest in

b)             whether it is a pecuniary/personal interest and/or prejudicial interest

c)             the nature of the interest

Councillor Nash declared a Personal Interest in Agenda Item 7 (Community Asset Transfer Policy) as a Member of Bognor Regis Town Council.

Councillor Northeast also declared a Personal Interest in the same agenda item as a Member of Littlehampton Town Council and asked if the Declarations of Interest table displayed at meetings of Full Council and the Planning Committee could be produced for each Committee Meeting.

The Committee will be asked to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the Economy Committee held on 22 October 2024.

The minutes of the previous committee meeting held on 22 October 2024, were approved by the Committee and signed by the Chair.

          There were no urgent items presetned to the meeting.

To receive questions from the public (for a period of up to 15 minutes)

The Chair confirmed that no questions had been submitted for this meeting.

This report seeks the approval from the Committee of the final draft of the Creative Vision for Bognor Regis.  This is an Arts Council, England funded project.

Consultation with local partners and public exhibitions were held to seek the views of residents.

The aim of this project is not only to set a new vision for Bognor Regis but to facilitate partners in working together to boost the creative industries.     

            The Chair invited the Economic Development Projects Officer to present his report to the Committee which was proposing a final draft of the Creative Vision for Bognor Regis for approval. It was explained that the Creative Vision project had been funded successfully via grant in the sum of £10k from the Arts Council for England.

In providing some further background, the Economic Development Projects Officer outlined that consultation had taken place with local partners, residents and Councillors using public exhibitions and meetings to obtain views in terms of how the Creative Vision should be built and developed. The Economy Committee at its meeting held on 5 October 2023 had approved the commissioning of a Creative Vision for Bognor Regis.

           Before inviting members to debate the item, the Chair requested members to propose and second the officer recommendation as detailed in the report. The recommendation was proposed by Councillor Stanley and seconded by Councillor Woodman.

          The Chair then invited debate. The Committee in welcoming the report stated that it was pleasing to see a project that had successfully developed to its final stages and reached the approval stage. From a Bognor Regis perspective, it was important to achieve this level of diversification in the economy, the creative digital side of the town was something that could be of benefit in developing this vision. A question was asked  regarding the stakeholder group as many of the positions and names listed had changed. Councillors were interested to learn what the plan was to manage this moving forward and as some key stakeholders were felt to be missing from the group listings such as Butlins and the Picturedrome Cinema, especially as both had been active in setting up and driving the consultation exercises forward. In response, it was explained that some of the personnel listed in the stakeholder group had either left their positions or changed job titles. The list set out in the report was accurate and represented the stakeholder group in place at that time in the development phase of the project. Reassurance was provided that the group would be refreshed to reflect the current position and in developing the next stages.

Further questions were asked around timelines and stakeholder group numbers which had reduced from 46 at the early stages of the project to the ten set out within the report and the Group confirmed as part of the Vision.  It was explained that 46 stakeholders had been engaged through the process and as part of the development of the vision and that this process did involve engaging with a significant number of commercial and educational community based groups in and around Bognor Regis. As the vision developed it was necessary to keep it as a vision that all could sign up to so that when there were bigger projects such as Alexandra Theatre and the new hotel coming forward, the Vision could be used and recognised as a platform that all could sign up to. 

          In view of some technical  ...  view the full minutes text for item 467.

This report seeks Committee support for the adoption of a policy document which provides a transparent and consistent approach to applications and the decision-making process governing the transfer of assets to community organisations (where applicable). To achieve this, the policy document requires that it be demonstrated how community asset transfer supports direct service delivery, the Council’s Corporate Plan, its objectives and other corporate plans and policies.

The Director of Growth presented his report to the committee which was seeking support for the adoption of a policy document providing a transparent and consistent approach to applications and the decision-making process governing the transfer of assets to community organisations.

           Before inviting members to debate the item, the Chair requested members to propose and second the officer recommendation as detailed in the report. The recommendation was proposed by Councillor Stanley and seconded by Councillor  Penycate.

The committee asked a range of questions. Firstly, the disposing of assets at market value was of interest and how equity across the district in such actions would be monitored. The Director of Growth confirmed that he did not propose to speculate how this might be applied to any individual asset and reminded the committee that the purpose of adopting the proposed policy was to ensure a transparent and consistent approach to the transfer of assets that may not have existed in the past. If adopted, the policy would assess one application for a community transfer against another whilst at the same time applying consideration of other areas as set out in the policy. 

As the report confirmed that community asset transfers had been possible since the General Disposals Consent (England) Act 2003 had been introduced, it was queried why had it taken this long for a draft policy to be presented for approval. Was this because the council suddenly had a desire to consider such transfers and needed to introduce a framework to allow it to do so? The Director of Growth highlighted that the council was currently undertaking an accommodation review, the outcome of which was not known at this stage. Having a community asset transfer policy in place would allow the council to consider all common themes and any implications that might arise as part of that work.  There were no other direct examples that he could identify at this stage.

The Chair emphasised that it was important to have a framework in place so that the council could fully consider the risks and benefits of any potential transfers. The  adoption of the policy was seen to be a reasonable starting point and especially as the council was looking at its accommodation needs coupled with local government reorganisation which was on the horizon.  A question was asked in terms of how the policy would be reviewed. It was acknowledged that this would be every 3 years to incorporate legislative regulatory changes and amendments. If changes needed to be made sooner than every 3 years, would the Property and Estates section make the required changes and report these back to committee, as this was not clear from reading the report. The Director of Growth stated that the report had been written before the Government white paper on devolution and local government reorganisation had been published and so this would be a matter for any successor organisation to action.

          The Committee

                     RESOLVED

                     To adopt the policy document.

(During the course of the discussion  ...  view the full minutes text for item 468.

This report sets out the 2025/26 revenue and capital budgets for this Committee to consider and recommend for submission to the Policy and Finance Committee on 13 February 2025.

The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer presented the committee’s revenue and capital budgets for inclusion in the council’s 2025/26 budget which the committee was being asked to approve.  The committee was alerted to a supplement which provided an updated report and additional information on some of the key changes set out in the table at paragraph 4.4. It was confirmed that no adjustments had been made to any of the figures contained within the report.

          The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer explained the key changes and confirmed that the revenue budget showed a net increase of £38k between 2024/25 and 2025/26. The investment of £280k in the asset management review project would produce high level business case option appraisals within the general fund portfolios generating proposals for further investigation.  This was a key piece of work confirmed in the council’s financial strategy approved by council last year and would develop an Asset Management Strategy which would generate and identify ideas for cost savings and opportunities for increased revenue income and capital receipts.

It was acknowledged that this was a prudent and cautious budget and that it was  essential for the council to approach the budget in this way so that it could address the  budget deficit.

Before inviting members to debate the item, the Chair requested members to propose and second the officer recommendation as detailed in the report. The recommendation was proposed by Councillor Stanley and seconded by Councillor  Northeast.

          In considering the report, there was interest in economic regeneration and what previous expenditure, or any new expenditure was proposed to be spent in supporting businesses in the district’s high streets. The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer confirmed that no growth had been identified in this budget other than the £235k investment in the asset management review project mentioned earlier. In terms of what had been spent, the Director of Growth confirmed that the council had allocated some money received from the West Sussex Business Rates Pool towards supporting town centres and in particular Littlehampton given the challenges it was experiencing and that funding had also been directed to supporting the Littlehampton Town Centre Task Force being set up by this council in conjunction with Littlehampton Town Council.

Further discussion took place regarding the figures for economic regeneration in Appendix A and if further detail could be provided regarding the variances as there had been a reduction in budget from 2024/25 to 2025/26. The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer confirmed that if members wished to receive expanded information, these would be provided in writing outside of the meeting He also referred Members to paragraph 4.4 of the report which summarised the changes in the budget since 2024/25.  Debate continued where it was claimed that it was that it was proposed that the economic regeneration budget would be cut by 27% yet the property and estates budget would increase by 77%. An explanation was sought, and concern was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 469.

For information purposes only.

          The Chair confirmed that no feedback reports or updates had been received.