TOURISM, LEISURE & AMENITIES COMMITTEE

WARE TOWN COUNCIL

A meeting of the TOURISM LEISURE & AMENITIES COMMITTEE was held in the Council Chamber, The Priory, Ware on Monday 16 January 2017 at 7.30 pm when the following business was transacted.

PRESENT Cllr’s J Kaye (in the Chair), P Ballam, M Standley.

ATTENDING Jill Rowlinson (Town Clerk); Rosalyn Montgomery (Events Officer); Craig McKenzie, Ken Meger

250. APOLOGIES Apologies for absence were received from Cllr’s Curtis and Reed

251. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST None.

252. MINUTES Minutes of the meeting held on 14 November had been circulated and were approved, adopted and signed by the Chairman as a true record.

253. TUDOR SQUARE ENHANCEMENT SCHEME

i) Enhancement Scheme - Progress since 14 November: Discharge of Planning Conditions – full discharge of all planning conditions had been received.

Tender – following a meeting with East Herts Council, a revised bedding specification for the Yorkstone setts could be used on the East Herts Council land. The contractor was repricing the job on this basis. It was hoped that this would reduce the cost.

Highways A draft S278 agreement had been received from HCC Highways to give permission to work on the highway. As part of this HCC need payment of a deposit of 110% of the value of the work on the highway. 70% would be repaid on satisfactory completion of the work with the balance being retained for a year. The estimated cost of the highway work was £20,000 which would mean a deposit of £22,000. Once the job had been repriced Highways would be advised of the cost of works.

Funding - East Herts Council had agreed to provide an additional £8,000 from the Town Centre Enhancement budget. The Town Council had agreed additional funding of up to £35,000 from the New Homes Bonus so that the project could start in early 2017. Funding for the scheme was as follows:-

McCarthy & Stone S106 37,370 Asda S106 32,761 TOURISM, LEISURE & AMENITIES COMMITTEE East Herts Council Town Centre Enhancement 28,000 Ware Town Council New Homes Bonus 93,000 Total £191,131 Lease - East Herts Council were waiting for a start date for works so that they could finish preparing the draft.

Start Date –working towards a start date of February 2017 with the aim that the project was complete by the Food Festival on 31 May. If this was not possible, the Food Festival would be relocated to the Priory this year.

Businesses, residents and the market – once the start date was known local businesses and residents surrounding Tudor Square would be advised of the works and what measures would be taken to minimise disruption from noise, dust etc. East Herts Council’s Market Manager would attend a meeting to discuss relocation of the market during construction.

The report was noted.

ii) Rising Bollard HCC Highways had repaired the rising bollard at the entrance to Tudor Square from Rankin Square. This would not be operational until local management arrangements had been put in place and it was understood that the Town Council could be approached about this. It was likely that this would mean issuing key fobs to those entitled and taking a payment (possibly a deposit payment). There would be a phone number on the bollard for motorists to contact in the event of problems with the bollard itself and HCC would respond to these. The Town Clerk had contacted HCC to find out the exact details of what would be involved. The report was noted.

254. TOURISM

i) Visit Herts A meeting was held with representatives of Visit Herts on 1 December. Notes of the meeting had been circulated. A further meeting would be arranged with Graham Watson of Ware Museum.

The Town Clerk had asked how Visit Herts could assist Ware Town Council in pro- moting Ware to visitors over and above Ware Town Council adding events to the Visit Herts website. Visit Herts had suggested this could be by WTC becoming an investor partner and had provided a partnership proposal. The cost to Ware Town Council would be £1,000. The budget for Tourism for 2016/17 was £1,000 of which £141 had been spent to date. The proposed budget for 2017/18 was only £500. It was

RECOMMENDED not to become and investor partner of Visit Herts. ii) Blue Plaques TOURISM, LEISURE & AMENITIES COMMITTEE At the last meeting the committee considered the provision of a blue plaque for Figment House (to be renamed Godwin House) It was agreed

 That the wording for the plaque be agreed with the property owner and the Ware Society.  That the Town Council could make the arrangements for this but the plaque should be funded by the owner/ developer.

The developer has been contacted and was happy to proceed on this basis. Ware Society had been contacted about wording. The report was noted.

255. EVENTS

i) Ware Town Council Programme of Events

Mayor’s Christmas Reception for Volunteers 6th December 100 plus guests representing local organisations attended the Mayor’s Christmas Reception which was very well received.

Cinema The ‘senior’ programme for Jan-April was:

31st January – ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’ 21st February – ‘I, Daniel Blake’ 21st March – ‘A Street Cat Named Bob’ 19th April – ‘Golden Years’

A half term film for children would take place on 16th February.

Town Tours The Annual Tour Guides meeting would take place in February in order to plan the programme of Summer Tours.

Winter Talk Cllr Peter Ruffles had agreed to present the 2017 Town Talk on March 23rd, 7.30pm. The title would be ‘Twin Towns, Really’. Place House would also host a talk by Guy Horlock on Friday 17th February.

Food Festival The Annual Food Festival would take place on 29th May 2017. A survey was sent out in December to all local food businesses whether retail or leisure, asking for their views on the Food Festival & whether they would like to join the Committee. No responses had been received. The mailing for the Food Festival was ready to go out.

Summer Concerts Confirmed dates for the programme of Summer concerts were:

June 11th Harlow Concert Band July 2nd Ware Brass July 9th East Herts Concert Band & Youth Orchestra TOURISM, LEISURE & AMENITIES COMMITTEE August 28th Stevenage Male Voice Choir September 10th Ware Brass December 10th Ware Brass Carol Concert

Confirmation awaited from the Fleetville Swing Band & the Art Deco Rhythm Orchestra.

Proposed Soul/funk music event 22nd July 2017 Discussions were continuing with the Lodge for a soul/funk/blues music event to take place on the Priory Island the day before RiTP. The two days would be separate in identity, but would allow for a weekend music festival at no extra cost to Ware Town Council and would offset some of the costs of Rock in the Priory. The day would run from approx. 4pm-10pm in line with other Ware events. The Lodge would pay for a headline act and provide two DJs. They had a line up in place.

The event would be overseen by the Rock in the Priory Committee; sound and backstage staff would be the RiTP team and the event would use the same infrastructure as in place for Rock in the Priory thus reducing costs for Rock in the Priory. Security would be that appointed by the Rock in the Priory Committee. A cost of approx. £7000 had been put to the Lodge which was half the cost of stage covering, PA, barriers and the remainder to cover security, event team, Red Cross, staff refreshments etc. The Lodge would need to provide gate staff to sell tickets on the door.

The Lodge had asked to have a pop up cocktail bar on the Island as part of the package and this had been put to Seasoned Events who, in any case, would have a bar on the Island & Conservatory plus an opportunity to serve food. Attendees would not be offered the opportunity of bringing in a picnic/alcohol as was the case with Rock in the Priory. The Lodge would be responsible for leaving the site litter free ready for Rock in the Priory the following day. It was

RECOMMENDED to proceed with the event.

ii) Ware’s the Music Correspondence had been received from Craig McKenzie about a proposed music festival in pubs and other music venues in Ware. The proposed date was Sunday 14 May from 12 noon to 9pm. Craig McKenzie and Ken Megar addressed the meeting. They were looking to put on a day of music in established venues in town, mainly in the High Street, Star Street and Baldock Street. The aim was to keep it as simple as possible with venues putting on their own events and Ware’s the Music providing branding and publicity. A police licensing officer had requested a management plan and risk assessment. This should be simple as existing licensed venues were being used. They were asking Ware Town Council for support and help in dealing with East Herts Council. They also asked if Ware Town Council would like to be part of the festival by putting on a concert in the Priory or Fletcher’s Lea. It was

RECOMMENDED to check the availability of the Priory Hall or Fletcher’s Lea. TOURISM, LEISURE & AMENITIES COMMITTEE

iii) Dog Show The Planning Committee had been discussing the issue of dog fouling and, in conjunction with a local resident and East Herts Council, was looking at running a competition for local schools to design posters to prevent dog fouling. Notes of a meeting held on 5 December to discuss this had been circulated.

One proposal was that the prizes for the competition should be presented at a dog show, either in the Priory Grounds or Buryfields (owned by East Herts Council). If the dog show took place in the Priory Grounds the Town Council would need to cover insurance, security costs and staffing required. The Town Council did not currently have a budget for this or any staff resources to run a further event, although the Town Clerk was looking into grant funding for competition prizes. It was

RECOMMENDED that the dog show should take place at Buryfields and be organised by East Herts Council.

256. STREET FURNITURE The Town Clerk had followed this up with East Herts Council and was awaiting a response.

257. NOTICEBOARDS The Town Clerk had visited the station again and was awaiting a response from the Station Manager.

258. DATE OF NEXT MEETING Next meeting Monday 6 March 2017

259. CLOSE OF MEETING The meeting closed at 8.15 pm.

Chairman