Agenda item

The Committee considered the report of the Director – Planning & Growth which sought to update Members on the delivery of the identified priority projects in the Town Investment Plan (TIP) through the Newark Town Deal (NTD).

The report set out the process undertaken in developing the TIP and noted that the final Newark TIP had captured a clear ambition to target legacy projects across the following four pillars of intervention: Skills, Education & Business; Connectivity; Town Centre, Regeneration & Culture; and Town Centre Residential.  The pillars of intervention then helped define the ten priority projects, as detailed in paragraph 1.5 of the report together with a further thirty potential future projects.  The report also provided details of the latest position of the projects and their associated finances and how those were monitored and evaluated with the next steps for the projects being detailed in paragraph 6.0.  It was also reported that the Council’s Auditors had been asked to carry out an audit of the Towns Fund Process and Levelling Up Process to provide an additional level of scrutiny and to identify any issues which could be learned from for possible future projects. 

In considering the report, a Member commented on the work that had gone into securing the funding and developing the projects to their current stage.  He queried whether there had been any issues/lessons learnt that could help with any similar projects in the future.  In response, the Director advised that speed and cost inflation had been reflected upon as had the fact that it was challenging to make progress at an early stage when dealing with a £47m capital programme, noting that any impact of the projects was not immediate and could be generational.  He added that it was the intention to feed back to the Government the competitive nature of the bidding process for funding, in that the ambition of the bidder was limited to the timetable and the word count of the submission documentation. 

In response to what the latest position was with the recruitment of new members to the Newark Town Board the Director advised that the Board was in the process of refreshing their remit and membership noting that the Board was different to that of the one initially established. 

In referring to the Gateway Project and the development of the Full Business Case for that, a Member queried how much of the Newark Lorry Park would be required to successfully deliver the project.  The Director advised that a report would be taken to the September meeting of Cabinet in relation to the relocation of the lorry park, adding that the works for A46 bypass also had implications with National Highways providing clarity as to how much land they required in August 2023. 

In relation to the YMCA project, a Member advised that he would like to see more in-depth information as to the outputs, aims and what was deliverable as he had concerns about the long-term viability of the project.  The Director advised that the Full Business Case went into some of that detail and could provide information to the Committee after the audit had been carried out. 

AGREED      (unanimously) that the progress made in the delivery, assurance and monitoring of the Town Deal and proposals within the Town Investment Plan be noted and welcomed.