Agenda item

To consider the report and make any recommendations to Cabinet and to note that a further update report will be presented.

Members considered the Rural England Prosperity Fund report presented by Simon Jackson and Dawn Caplin.

Members made comments, asked questions, and received responses as follows:

·       Councillor Count stated he was in agreement with the funding proposed but queried The Men’s Shed as he understands there is a Men’s Shed at the FACT offices, and the report also indicates that there is a Men’s Shed in Wisbech so has there been a misunderstanding or is it a different type of Men’s Shed? Simon Jackson stated he would take that question away and check with Councillor Christy who runs the FACT site.

·       Councillor Mrs French asked which is the other company and location in March for the Men’s Shed? Simon Jackson responded it is listed as unused space on Station Road, Cemetery Chapel, March to renovate the inside of the two Chapel buildings that have recently been repaired externally. Councillor Mrs French confirmed this is a disused building, and there is a Men’s Shed at FACT on a Wednesday and Saturday and is open to women too. She continued there is a conflict here with the two sheds and feels the funding needs looking at to see if this project can be moved into one big shed as she does not feel this project needs duplicating with when the extra funding could be used elsewhere.

·       Councillor Marks stated, in reference to apprenticeships, is this something that is being pushed as there are a lot of youngsters between the ages18-25 who are starting their own businesses and there are a lot of local businesses looking for apprentices, but travel and access is an issue? Simon Jackson responded there is a wider programme of support for skills apprenticeships, when Cabinet made a decision with the shared prosperity funding this was to provide a top slice of it to the CPCA as other local authorities have done to add to an areawide skills programme which would include apprenticeships, internships and so on, so what the Council are being careful of is as this programme is much smaller it will add value to what is already planned and happening as the CPCA and other colleges are already doing a lot of work.

·       Councillor Marks asked if this was common knowledge as the businesses, he speaks to are struggling to recruit apprenticeships and there seems to be money sitting there and local business do not seem to know this is available and feels this is something that should be pushed. Simon Jackson agreed and stated the CPCA are mindful of this fact and in the past, there was an extensive database built up of businesses and as an Economic Growth Team this is the main mechanism for communicating directly with businesses. He stated there are currently 2500 businesses on the list and the Council is about to procure a customer relationship management system which will help to improve that communication even further, there is a regular newsletter that goes out  with information about what the Council, other stakeholders and other partners are doing including around skills so part of the team’s role is to make sure people are opening those emails and engaging with the information sent. Dawn Caplin added when undertaking site visits every effort is made to connect with businesses and conversations are had around apprenticeships but there is a worry that this is not just treated as cheap labour and that there is a proper programme in place and the right people are being connected to the right job, so the support is out there not just with grants but with ensuring the apprenticeship is supporting businesses too. Peter Catchpole added there has been many times when grants have been given out to businesses particularly in the Covid years and one of the sources the Council relied on was Councillors sharing names that are not on the database so if there are any names Councillors can share then a dialogue can be set up with those businesses to see if they are eligible for a particular grant on what funding can be offered for the future.

·       Councillor Taylor stated he would like to ask about the grants because in his experience since the reservoir has been mentioned the banks have denied financial funding for the local agricultural businesses as farmers are classed as high risk because the banks do not know what length of time Anglian Water are talking about which affects the farmers business finance plans and asked, are the Council looking at grants surrounding the proposed reservoir area or is it being classed as high risk, with the same approach as the banks? Simon Jackson responded the funding that is being referred to in the report ends in March 2025 so this would not affect someone who is applying for a grant within the proposed reservoir area. Dawn Caplin added that she would be recommending some trusts and foundations to Anglian Water to help with the funding of the project.

·       Councillor Clark stated in the report it states that businesses have until the 6 April to log an expression of interest for the grants and asked what the process is after the closing date? Simon Jackson responded there is £163,500 worth of funding available and once the expressions of interest forms are received, they are carefully assessed and scored then the grant is given out to the right candidates, but if there are not sufficient candidates then the grants will be opened again. He continued that Dawn and himself have learnt that when there is money with an end date the project needs to have a strong start so Dawn has undertaken work to get expressions of interest etc and the marketing in place before the launch date so that in theory when the grants are launched the Council could be paying money out quickly so there is not  a lot of this money left in the pot in the new financial year, however even though this is a front loading plan the candidates will need to have good plans in place a good quality application with clear outcomes and objectives, good job creation, which can later be presented to the CPCA. Dawn Chaplin added if Councillor Taylor has any contacts, he wishes to share then the team would really like to focus on farmer and farming diversification, tourism and also there is a meeting planned with the NFL to relay the information available so this area can be specifically targeted and supported.

·       Councillor Mrs French asked if any of this funding was available for the local shop owners and businesses within March Town Centre in relation to the redevelopment? Simon Jackson responded in theory they could apply because this falls within the geography however the way this scheme is designed is Government led and providing it delivers what the Government wants delivered the team would not stop them applying.

·       Councillor Booth stated he understands what this is doing for the businesses but he would like to know about section 2.6 and the community place funding applications as this is a Rural England grant process and it seems the free grants are going into the towns and not into the surrounding villages which has completely missed the mark and he feels very disappointed because he raises this every time there is a business plan discussion because it looks at what is happening in the big towns and not what is going on in the local villages. He feels that no one seems to have gone out to these villages to find out what they want so while he supports the business aspiration, he does not support what they are proposing under section 2.6 for the community place because it is not supporting the rural end of Fenland, it is only supporting the towns.

·       Councillor Count expressed the view that this was a case of letting the more rural communities know and getting the bids in as this is not a case of the Council allocating this because they have favouritism of towns it is because rural bids have not come in with a strong enough bid so if local councillors represent a rural village let them get the message out and advise on the things they could bid on with a strong form. Councillor Booth responded he agreed and feels that the message needs to go out again as he feels councillors are failing to deliver on this funding. Dawn Chaplin stated she finds that a lot of the rural communities want grants to renovate their village halls and there is not enough money for these kinds of projects so that is something to be mindful of when communicating with rural residents. Simon Jackson added he agreed with Dawn Chaplin that this money is for ‘rural’ areas and that does mean everywhere in the Fens, apart from Wisbech, so technically these towns apart from Wisbech are rural towns not withstanding the point made today and he will take this point back.

·       Councillor Booth stated that he feels Cabinet needs to relook at the funding for the community place, particularly for the rural areas. Councillor Mrs French stated that she did not feel that Cabinet have missed out the rural villages but would like it noted that these villages cannot be forced to apply. Councillor Count stated it would be worth talking to the Parish Councillors and getting a data base put together of local businesses and community groups that could benefit from the funding so they can be contacted directly instead of through the parish newsletter which Councillor Booth mentioned does not seem to be affective enough in this situation. Simon Jackson stated this is definitely something that can be looked into but this is something that is already happening within his team.

Member noted the Rural England Prosperity Fund Report