Issue - meetings

To receive an update on the Long Term Plan.

Contact: David Wildman, Acting Head of Town Centres.

              James Blamires, Economic Resilience Project Officer,

              Michelle Illingworth, Project Officer, Dewsbury Town Investment

              Plan.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the Long-Term Plan update be noted.

2)    That an update on the Kirklees Council strategy for Dewsbury’s disused buildings be presented at the next Board meeting.

The Chair advised the Board that the funding for the Long-Term Plan was originally planned to be available from April 2025, this had now been delayed to April 2026.

Mr Wildman provided an update and explained that the Town Board programme may be renamed and would be reformed, with a new prospectus expected in January 2025 which would include a revised set of interventions, to reflect Labour’s missions and provide more flexibility. It was expected that the ten-year profile and the amount of funding would remain the same.

A small amount of additional programme management capacity funding (£200,000) was expected for 2025/2026 to help the Board rescope additional engagement as required, undertake preparation work, and potentially look at other measures. The Chair advised that discussions were ongoing on how this money could be spent to support the priorities from recent engagement, which would be reported back to the Board. In discussion there was the suggestion that some of this capacity funding may be used to support existing events and safety concerns in the town centre.

James Blamires, Projects Officer, Town Centre Regeneration Team gave an update on recent additional engagement carried out with young people in Dewsbury, which had been commissioned by the Board following a review of responses to previous engagement. This included a targeted social media campaigns by Counter Context, and in-person engagement events. Over 100 young people, aged 10 to late twenties had been consulted, in a range of educational settings, to gather their views. It was found that young people felt passionately about the town centre and wanted to make positive change

In summing up, James Blamires concluded that the priorities of young people were consistent with the wider engagement sessions and aligned with the priorities from previous engagement activities. There were also some new ideas from young people in terms of what they wanted for the future, such as affordable housing, safety & security improvements and supporting homeless people in the town centre more.

During discussion the Board commented on the need for managing the messaging around the pause in funding, and the need to target the capacity funding in ways which would be visible and which responded directly to issues raised during the engagement. It was suggested that an update on disused buildings and the perception of safety in the town centre, be brought to the next meeting.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the Long-Term Plan update be noted.

2)    That an update on opportunities associated Dewsbury’s disused buildings and multi-disciplinary enforcement be presented at the next Board meeting.