Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Sarah Cartwright, Gavin McMurtry, Chris McGinley, Dave Cato (Guest, CBRE), Justin Homer and Becky Guthrie.

The Chair shared sad news with the Board:

As some of you may be aware, Councillor Alan Gardiner sadly passed away in December, he was one of the council’s longest-serving councillors and has been an outstanding advocate for the Dearne, he will be a great loss to the community, the council and the towns board, our condolences go to his family and friends.

The minutes were accepted as a true record.

Actions from previous meeting and matters arising:

Heart of Goldthorpe

There was a discussion regarding the viability of retaining the former Horse and Groom sign.

Decision: It was agreed that the sign should be restored and incorporated into the new town square.

Business Engagement

Decision required – Should this be held on the 16^th December given so close to Christmas or moved to the new year?

Decision: Board agreed that the Business Engagement Event should go ahead on the 16^th December.  An update on the event will be provided in item 7.

Any Other Business

A query was raised by Councillor Coates regarding project sponsors.

Rachael Allington investigated the query and responded directly to Councillor Coates.

Michael Bunting – Embankment

Rachael presented the highlight report that was circulated with the Board papers.

Copies of Plan on a page and the Forward Plan were circulated for information.

Highlight Report

We now have 6 out of 7 projects approved by DLUHC. Project D - Goldthorpe Housing Project was approved in December 2022.

The Business Case for Project M - Housing Retrofit which is directly linked to this project has been slightly updated to include any information from that VFM process undertaken for the Housing project. There are no material differences to the project that was presented to board on 31^st May 2022.

Projects are moving into delivery and alongside their planning, assurance and monitoring is being developed. Summary information provided by Project Leads has been used to feed directly into the M&E that was returned to DLUHC by their deadline of 16th December 22.

DLUHC have shared some guidance for Boards moving into delivery which we will be reviewing and share any action required with Board at a future meeting. An initial discussion is on the agenda for the 12^th January Board.

Key decisions / items for escalation to board

·         Overall Programme: Updated guidance regarding Town Boards received from DLUHC – to be reviewed and actions shared.

·         Project D Housing: For information DLUHC have approved the Full Business Case, and SYMCA have approved the Strategic Business Case and to progress to Full Business Case stage for the unsecured funding gap.

·         Projects K & L:- For information, as minuted at a previous board meeting (25/08/2022 min no 325), project finances are being managed at a programme level to address and project cost variances. Therefore, authority from Capital Oversight Board has been received to vire necessary resources from Project L to reflect and support the revised costings for Project K. This will be reported through to BMBC Cabinet in due course, as it is anticipated that there will be opportunities for cost savings as costs have been based on a worst case scenario construction costs and actual costs for drilling and grouting works.  The overall combined budget for Project K and Project L is still £11,713,777.

·         Project M Housing Retrofit: For information: Approval granted by Capital Oversight Board to submit FBC to DLUHC.

·         Project L: “to approve the format and content of the project application form, to enable the delivery stage of the Goldthorpe Towns Commercial Investment fund project to commence”

Project Updates

Project D Goldthorpe Housing

Approved by DLUHC.  SYMCA funding gap approval process ongoing.

Project F Phoenix Park

The Land Trust have appointed their project team and are actively looking to recruit a partner for the café.

Project G Cultural Hub

Renovation works to the roof of the Dearne Playhouse have begun.

Project H Heart of Goldthorpe

Update provided in Item 5.

Project K New access roundabout

Works to begin onsite at the end of January, programme to be shared with Board once available.

Project L Goldthorpe Towns Commercial Investment Fund

Update provided in Item 5.

Project M  ...  view the full minutes text for item 358.

a)       Project H Heart of Goldthorpe Deep Dive  - Teresa Williams

b)      Project L Commercial Investment Fund – Suzanne Brough

Project H Heart of Goldthorpe – Presented by Teresa Williams

A copy of a presentation was circulated to the Board prior to the meeting.

Designated area for market stalls up to a maximum of 20.

Soft and hard landscaping to encourage natural play but without any traditional play equipment due to the proximity to the main road.

No permanent Christmas tree or fountain to be erected on site due to maintenance costs.

The Horse & Groom sign will be restored and reused on the site.  Restoration progress to be shared once available.

Wayfinding Trail and Selfie Trail to be combined, storytelling map to be included within this.  Consultations to be held at a later date.

Eleven expressions of interest have been received for the construction tender, the closing date for applications is in February.

Works scheduled to begin in March dependent upon contractor and supply chain availability.

Question from Councillor Bellamy – Could a commemorative tree for Councillor Gardiner be included in the square?

Response from Teresa Williams – agreed to discuss taking this forward with Councillor Bellamy once she has had a further conversation with Councillor Gardiner’s widow.

Question from Councillor Danforth – Where will the former pub sign be sited?

Response from Teresa Williams – A decision on the location has yet to be made as design discussions are currently ongoing.

Project L Goldthorpe Towns Commercial Investment Fund – Presented by Suzanne Brough A copy of a presentation was circulated to the Board prior to the meeting.

The consultants CBRE have been appointed to oversee the project.

Towns Fund Deal Webpage will contain a link to the YorTender process for applications.  It will also be available on the Enterprising Barnsley & Chamber of Commerce websites.  The application form also contains guidelines and a template for completion as well as an explanation of the additional social value requirements that will need to be met as part of the application process.

Subject to agreement by the Board, the Fund will be launched on the 9^th February at Goldthorpe Parish Hall and the application process will close on the 31^st March. 

Questions from Andy Lock – Will the Social Value element have equal waiting in the decision making process?  When will the Social Value need to be achieved?

What is Plan B if there aren’t any acceptable projects that could be approved?

Response from Suzanne Brough:  December 2025 – 2029 is the time period within which additional social value outputs are to be achieved and the wording can be strengthened to clarify this.

Plan B:  Working hard to publicise the Fund with Enterprising Barnsley – Paul Johnson working with some local businesses behind the scenes who have shown an interest in applying.  Chamber of Commerce also in discussions with local businesses to promote the Fund.  Communications plans are in place to publicise the Fund.

Separate session to be held with businesses following the launch to clarify requirements to meet the Social Value requirements.

CBRE to carry out due diligence on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 359.

A copy of a presentation was circulated to the Board prior to the meeting.

Two resignations have been received ahead of this meeting from Pauline Phillips and Jeremy Budd, Officers wish to look to fill these vacancies.

Additional project sponsors will also be required and an expression of interest exercise will be held to help facilitate this.

Membership and voting rights to be reviewed.

Consideration to be given to currently under-represented groups.  Officers welcome any suggestions from Board members on this issue.

Recommendations from the review will be returned to a future Board meeting for approval.

Questions from Andy Lock – What is the likely timeframe for the Board to finish?

How many sponsors are required per project?

Response from Rachael Allington – Board meetings to be programmed to the end of March 2025 in the first instance as this coincides with the current Government term.

BMBC would prefer to have at least two sponsors per project to allow for a swifter decision-making process.

Additional note added following the conclusion of the meeting:  A NetZero40 representative was discussed at Board under membership. BMBC have since announced that as part of some internal changes, Sustainability & Climate Change will be splitting from the Strategic Housing Team so the Towns Fund Team will request appropriate membership to cover this strategic area as part of the membership review.

A high level review of the feedback was circulated to the Board prior to the meeting.

Next Steps: Could Police representation be included on the Board going forwards?

To move around to other venues in the Goldthorpe Towns Fund area, for future events, potentially including Houghton Road Community Centre and St Andrews Community Centre.

Comment from Claire Dawson – Respondents at the event provided great feedback for the event, however, some did mention that they would have liked a Q&A session to be added next time.

Comment from Dan Harper – extended thanks to the team for organising the session which ran perfectly to time. 

Comment from Derek Braham - reiterated that he thought that the BMBC team involved in the Towns Fund Project works very well.

Promotion of Business Engagement Event – targeted mailshots / news releases / emails / social media channels.

Section added to website sign posting help available to businesses including Enterprising Barnsley and the Chamber of Commerce.

Website link to the Commercial Fund to be made live following the agreement of the Board at Item 5.

A635 Barnsley Road roundabout works to be promoted.

Update provided by Matthew Blackburn.

Housing Retrofit – awaiting further QA checks to be completed, will report back to BMBC once the results of these have been received.

Matthew Blackburn advised that he will be leaving the department shortly and that Justin Homer will continue to be the representative at the board.

Becky Guthrie was unable to attend the meeting. 

Alison Dalton provided an update regarding SYMCA responses to Housing Funding requests.

SYMCA bid approval timeline for Project D: Full Business Case submission in April 2023 to be discussed at Board in June 2023.

Additional note added following the conclusion of the meeting:  Becky Guthrie has advised that she has changed roles within SYMCA and will no longer be attending the Board meetings, her place will be taken by Rebecca Slack.

The future forward plan for agenda items was presented by Rachael.

The Land Trust have been invited to attend the meeting to provide an update on their plans and progress at Phoenix Park.

Future frequency cycle of Board meetings: Discussion took place regarding the future frequency cycle of Board meetings. 

Decision:  It was agreed to retain six weekly meetings for six months and look to move to eight weekly for the following six months, face to face meetings will also be incorporated into the meeting schedule, with the first meeting of the new schedule to be arranged face to face, venue to be confirmed.

Rachael Allington: Newlands beginning public consultation sessions this month on their proposals for the ES10 site.   Newlands have provided BMBC with copies of their consultation material, this will be forwarded to Board members for information.

Julie Tattershall: With regards to Project D, further to design panel feedback, the team will be arranging site visits to existing schemes in other areas to discuss lessons learnt should members wish to attend.  Details will be forwarded to Board members once available.