9 May 2024 - Jarrow Town Board meeting minutes

Jarrow Town Board meeting minutes for Thursday 9 May 2024.

Attendence

Present:

Susan Wear (Chair)
Geoff Thompson (Vice Chair)
Cllr Margaret Meling
Cllr Stephen Dean
Cllr David Kennedy
Louise Lydon
Roweena Russell
Ruth Durham
Sarah Currie
Steve Martin
Shaun Sadler
Martin Johnson
Tracy Beaton
Michelle Caisley
Sarah Currie
Rachel Smith (for Ruth Durham)
Charlotte Bone (for Kate Osborne MP)
Paul Atkinson
Joanna Tuck

Observers:

Rory Sherwood-Parkin
John Scott
Hayley Johnson
Carolyn Senior

Apologies:

Charlotte Harrison
Patricia Blanchard
Sue Newton

Welcome and introduction

The Chair welcomed Board members to the first meeting and described the background to the creation of the Board and its role in working with local residents, businesses and organisations to create a plan to unlock £20m of Government funding for Jarrow over the next 10 years.
Government guidance indicates that a plan (with a high-level vision and three-year investment plan) needs to be submitted by 1 August and should focus on three themes; Safety and Security; High Streets, Heritage and Regeneration; Transport and Connectivity.
The Chair explained that minutes of the meeting would be made public on the Council's website.
The Chair explained that Council officers have written to Government (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) to ask to amend the Government's original map of Jarrow to reflect the NE32 postcode area. Government feedback is awaited.

Delcarations of interest

The Chair asked Board members to compete the Declarations of Interest forms which would be placed on the website and confirmed that members were happy with the Code of Conduct, Registration of Interests and Conflicts of Interests policies. The Board agreed.
Susan Wear declared an interest in the agenda as a Chair of Live Theatre Newcastle, a trustee of Groundworks and the Tyne Coast Schools Academy Trust.
Cllr David Kennedy declared an interest in the agenda as a trustee of the Primrose Community Centre.
Action: All members to complete the Declaration of interests' form.
Action: Declarations of Interest to be a standing item at future meetings.

Draft terms of reference and roles of the board

Council officers provided background to the creation of the Jarrow Town Board. The Government's Long-Term Plan for Towns identified 75 towns, including Jarrow, based on a combination of data, each of which would receive £20m over 10 years to spend on interventions to help local areas.
Three core priorities identified by Government around safety, high streets and regeneration and connectivity.
The funding works out at around £2m a year, circa £1.6m capital and £0.4m revenue. The fund is flexible and unspent allocations can be moved to the next financial year without any clawback.
A paper is being prepared to go to the Council's cabinet to allow the board full authority of delegated decision making of what the money can be spent on (within the parameters set by Government of those three priorities set out above).
To access the funding, Government have asked for areas to create Town Boards. Government have been clear that the Board should be independently led, reflect the local community and have a good mix across public, private and voluntary sectors.
Council officers confirmed South Tyneside Council would be the accountable body and that information on the Board and minutes and decisions would be published to ensure maximum transparency.
The Chair and Vice Chair stressed that this was a major opportunity for Jarrow and a broad blank canvas to start from; each Board Member was then given the opportunity to talk about their background, role and initial thoughts and ambitions for the work of the Board.
The Terms of Reference were agreed and members agreed to form a smaller Executive group to make progress on board decisions when appropriate. This, as per the Terms of Reference, would comprise the Chair, Vice Chair, MP, Lead Member from the Council and representatives from the public, private and voluntary sector. The Chair asked members to express an interest if they would like to be part of the Executive group.
Action: Board members to contact the Chair if interested in being part of the Executive Group.
Action: Council officers to update biographies and membership of the Board.

Discussion on Initial Priorities: Outline timeline and process

The Chair described the proposed timeline set out in the papers and how a template from Government is awaited which will need to be returned by 1 August. This will capture the high level vision for Jarrow over the next 10 years and the outline of a 3 year investment plan.
Board members discussed the timeline and agreed that a sensible next step would be to ask independent facilitators to talk to each Board member individually, and to other key partners, to draw out high level themes and priorities.
The results of this market intelligence gathering exercise would then be presented at the second board meeting in June, in the form of a facilitated workshop.
This could then be used to inform the investment plan (for the Council to submit by 1 August) and to frame the community engagement and consultation which will start in September.
Members agreed that community engagement now would be too rushed and that Autumn would allow for a comprehensive process to take place.
Action: all members of the board to meet the independent facilitators within before the next board meeting.
Action: Council Officers to send out information regarding the above around to members of the board.

Discussion on Initial Priorities: Data Pack on Jarrow provided by Government

Council Officers talked through the key headlines from a data pack provided to the Board by the new Towns Unit (part of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities). The data focussed upon the three key priorities of the funding; Safety and Security; High Streets, Heritage and Regeneration; and Transport and Connectivity.
The key issues emerging from the data (which the Officer stressed was only a snapshot and should be supplemented with further data from Board members and consultation with residents and businesses) are; higher commercial property vacancy rates, lower footfall, lower productivity, lower skills rates and higher crime rates than the national average.
Following discussion on the key themes from the data, Board members picked out issues around our-community, deprivation, crime and social trust, the latter figure being very low.
The Board agreed that members would share their existing relevant data during the initial consultation process and that the data would be helpful to help frame the investment plan.
Action: Board members to provide data sources as part of consultations with the independent facilitators. As part of this, Council Officers to share list of Government interventions.

Discussion on Initial Priorities: Existing projects underway in Jarrow

The Board discussed a paper prepared by Officers on existing projects underway in Jarrow (as well as best practice from elsewhere) across the main three priority themes and other projects. Officers emphasised that this was not comprehensive, but aimed to give a flavour of the activity happening across the area, how it is funded and when that funding runs out.

A number of ideas and issues were discussed following this, with board members keen to be ambitious and to use the funding to do something transformative and long-lasting and not to plug funding gaps elsewhere. Such themes included:

Further celebrate the heritage of Jarrow (it's history with the Venerable Bede, shipbuilding and the Marches) to both attract investment and visitors and to boost sense of pride and aspiration;
Need for more youth provision and diversionary activity (such as sporting facilities and culture and hosting wider services such as skills and health) to help reduce anti-social behaviour, increase skills levels (particularly digital, literacy and numeracy) and raise aspiration amongst young people;
Potential to help tackle issues around crime and anti-social behaviour (seen as a major issue) through the co-location of services, particularly between police, local authority and community development (such as Local Area Coordination) to enable people to determine priorities and target funding accordingly (model that is working in Sunderland)
More links needed between employers and young people to boost aspiration, break down barriers and show young people the jobs and opportunities that are available here (linking to available provision at Job Centre Plus);
Could do more to enhance digital inclusion and skills as, while digital coverage is good (although Jarrow town centre does not have free wifi), there are barriers to take-up and usage (which prevents people accessing the digital economy);
A lot of good work is already happening (see mapping document) supporting residents and offering vital services, but it is difficult to always know what is happening - could be a role to promote, join up and coordinate existing projects (such as through the Plinth tool) or consider a common brand.
Support for parents and families, particularly around food and health provision given the cost-of-living impact and deprivation in pockets of Jarrow and poor health outcomes.
Bringing back into use empty commercial properties in the town centre and Viking Shopping Centre back given high levels of vacancies and issues in maintaining footfall.
Action: Officers to continue mapping out current projects happening in the area and timelines of when funding is ending.
Action: Board to consider need for sub-groups at the next meeting

Community Engagement

Council Officers talked through a paper and presentation on a proposed approach to community engagement.
Board members also discussed wider partners to engage, including young people through the South Tyneside Youth Council and other routes. It was agreed that the consultation, to take place from September, should be comprehensive and based on an extended version of the Our Conversation approach in South Shields in Hebburn.
Action: Officers to present at a future meeting with a more detailed community engagement plan.

Other business

Council Officers updated on the creation of a Partnership Manager post to help support the Board and manage the process; the advert will be going out shortly and Board members were encouraged to share amongst their network (See North East Jobs for the advert. Closes 31 May).
A short update was given around communications with the Chair stating the web page was ready to go on the Council website and Council officers confirming that there would be a piece in the Residents Newsletter in June saying that the Board had started its work.
Action: Officers to circulate next meeting date, likely to be Thursday 13 June.