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Interim Chair Minutes of Cumbria LEP Board Meeting 17th February 2012, Lakes College, Workington Present: George Beveridge (Interim Chair), Bill Jefferson, Brendan Jameson, Eddie Martin, Elaine Woodburn, Jackie Arnold, Maria Whitehead, Michael Cowen, Mike Mitchelson, Stephen Broughton, Rob Johnston (Cumbria Chamber of Commerce), Allan Haile (Cumbria County Council), Suzanne Caldwell (minutes), Ernie Battey (Morgan SIndall Investments – speaker), Tom Warburton (HCA – speaker), Paul Creed (HCA – speaker) 1. APOLOGIES Fred Story, Moira Tattersall 2. OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVESTMENT/DEVELOPMENT MODELS Ernie Battey presented on opportunities for investment/development models. A copy of his presentation is attached. George thanked Ernie for his presentation who then left the meeting. 3. ASSET STRATEGY Tom Warburton and Paul Creed presented on the HCA’s asset strategy for ex-NWDA assets in place of Deborah McLaughlin, giving Deborah’s apologies. A copy of their presentation is attached. They will continue to work with Fred Story and Harry Dyke on the Cumbria Sites Panel and with the County and Districts. Fred and Harry are setting up Cumbria sites panel as an advisory group, bringing together local authority and commercial and business partners to work out and suggest way forward for Lillyhall and other sites in the county. Fred will update on this. Action: FS Rob reminded that the role of the LEP is job creation and enterprise and that focus should remain on that. It is not the role of the LEP to try to become a land agent and sell space that there is no market for. George thanked Tom and Paul who then left the meeting. 4. GROWING PLACES FUND Rob updated on progress. Guidance is being produced by the County Council and the Chamber and a draft of this had been circulated prior to the meeting on which he invited feedback. The value of the fund has been confirmed as £4,505,274. - 1- The guidance was discussed. Rates of return need to be discussed individually with applicants as does state aid. These issues are to be referred to in the guidance, along with clarification of the County Council’s charging structure. It was agreed that the timescale for round one would be shortened. County Council representatives won’t look at applications relating to their own area. Publicity is to be produced encouraging applications and the scheme will be publicised via the LEP website, partner networks, media releases, etc. The Government has indicated that further funding will be released which will be based on performance not on the original allocation percentages. 5. UPDATE The delayed Department of Transport consultation on devolving local major transport schemes to consortia of local authorities and LEPs is now taking place. Lancashire, Liverpool and Manchester have indicated that they want to do own thing so we may find that no contiguous LEPs want to link up with us. Significant resources are needed to assess transport schemes and Government has indicated that it is not willing to put resources into it so the view is that a consortium with others would be better. It will be discussed with the County Council. Richard Perry?, DoT, has offered to come to the next meeting and brief on the consultation. It was agreed that he would be invited. Action: SC/GB George met with four of the six Cumbrian MPs at one of their meetings. They are keen to support the LEP. Rory Stewart is to act as a conduit with the group rather than us having to go to all six MPs individually - although we will still talk directly when appropriate. He is meeting Rory again next Friday and will develop that relationship. George met with the Prince of Wales with a number of other LEP chairs. Jackie and George are to meet local representatives in Barrow about local Barrow issues. George thanked Michael for leading on the Rural Growth Networks proposal and helping to coordinate a very good proposal. George is in discussion with the County Council and will be meeting with the Chamber President regarding development of a sustainable model for supporting the LEP with more capacity. A mix of public and private support is important in maintaining the balance of the LEP. There was discussion on the current balance of work. Ways of obtaining input on issues from District Councils were discussed. - 2- It was agreed that the Board should produce a vision of its priorities and how it would like to operate and what is needed to support that. The Board was cautioned against creating an organisation, pointing to examples such as Cumbria Vision. The Government has thrust a tremendous amount on LEPs over the past year but the LEP has performed well and achieved three successful RGF bids for the county as well as the Growing Places funding, which would not have happened otherwise. 6. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING Minutes of last meeting were approved. 7. MATTERS ARISING The action to provide information on the Olympic torch relay for circulation to business was carried forward. Action : BJa Brendan reported that the detailed route and names of torch bearers will be announced on 9th March and he asked that information on any events around the relay is sent to him. Action: all Allan updated on Superfast Broadband (SFBB). The procurement is still in the final stages of competitive dialogue with BT and Fujitsu, with the full bids due in five weeks’ time and a decision due in May. An ERDF application is being submitted in March following further clarification on eligibility from CLG. Pre-notification has been issued for state aid approval and BDUK has also put in a request for the whole country. BT has announced further roll outs of SFBB in Kendal, Dalton and some of Carlisle. In one sense this is good news but it does weaken the case for market failure. It was pointed out that excluded areas of Carlisle are key business areas and that BT is now interested in housing estates rather than businesses. Lillyhall is excluded from rollouts to date and there could be other such areas around the county. It was agreed that this issue needs to be addressed. It was pointed out that the ERDF bid is about supporting SMEs and that Connecting Cumbria focussed on market failure. BT roll out is kept very close by BT and an indication given only days before the exchange is enabled. Peter Connor of BT has offered to come to a LEP meeting. - 3- It was agreed that there would be a specific update at the next meeting and a written update. Action: AH Issues are to be raised with the Connecting Cumbria board. Action: BJe Rob reported that Expert Groups activity is now back on track following a change of contractor. The Chamber has taken a central role and a revised project plan for completion is due from the new contractor today. There will also now be a direct contract with CRED. Unsuccessful RGF applicants spoken with report that they have not received any feedback from BIS despite pursuing it. BIS will not feedback to LEPs because of confidentiality. 8. UPDATE ON RURAL GROWTH NETWORKS PROPOSAL Michael updated on the Rural Growth Networks bid to become one of six pilot schemes. A writing team was assembled and various meetings have been held including an open meeting at Newton Rigg which was attended by about 50 people. The landbased Expert Group has finished meeting and its output was fed into the proposal which was submitted at the end January. Notification was received last week that we have been invited to present on Monday. Michael thanked the team and in particular Paul, Suzanne and Sam for a fantastic job done on the proposal. Rob reported that the concept is of a partnership arrangement with activity around the whole county. This is not a political sap but came out of discussion and debate as the best route forward. The proposal builds on fantastic things already happening in the county (e.g. Rural Women’s Network) and addresses some of barriers facing the rural economy. Taking a multi-layered approach the proposal includes a number of Key Employment Sites and Growth Hubs with overlying virtual networks, which are absolutely key, and a range of business support. This is a really big chance for Cumbria to do something exciting to address the barriers we face. District Councils and the LDNPA confirmed their keenness to be included as partners. 9. ANY OTHER BUSINESS Brendan reported that Kendal is hosting the finish of the Tour of Britain cycle race. They have been asked to host a start-finish again in September 2013 but cannot afford to do this. He suggested instead a Cumbrian mountain stage, starting in Barrow and going through Eskdale, Egremont, Cockermouth, Whinlatter and Penrith, over Kirkstone and back to finish in Kendal. The route cannot be more than about 120 miles. He asked whether there was any - 4- interest? The costs would be about £175,000 and he suggested that this could be broken down into say £1,000 each from 175 people or organisations. The event would be televised worldwide. Once the route is known it becomes a destination for keen cyclists to go round it at their leisure and an open day for people to cycle round it is also proposed. On average a stage generates £3-3.5m, attracting 100-135,000 people a day. It is a great profile raiser and international tourism opportunity. It was suggested that Cumbria Tourism should take the lead. Action: BJa Michael highlighted that it had not proved possible to raise £20,000 to get this year’s biggest golf competition, which will take place at Silloth and Seascale, onto Sky TV.
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