Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendation.

The Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance welcomed the Chair of Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Hilary Isherwood, to the meeting and invited her to present the report.

Councillor Isherwood thanked Cabinet for the opportunity to present the report which represented the culmination of work by the Committee, the Cabinet Member for Economic Development and officers.

A workshop was held with over 45 stakeholder representatives which resulted in discussion groups considering their top five priorities for revitalising the town centres.  The recommendations for consideration were that, as a Council, we should:

·         Review town centre partnerships to ensure continued effectiveness and build upon the inter-disciplinary internal team approaches already used in major regeneration programmes;

·         Review and improve communication channels with town centre stakeholders and the wider regeneration sector;

·         Use the opportunity offered by the development of the Local Development Plan to create a flexible planning framework to support the changing roles of the town centres;

·         Maximise the use of external funding in supporting town centre regeneration; and

·         Review and improve the marketing of Flintshire and of the town centres.

The Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance thanked Councillor Isherwood and said this was a good example of a consultation event.

The Cabinet Member for Economic Development said the workshop was valuable as were the discussions at Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  He supported the recommendations but added that they had to be taken in context of what could be achieved in the current financial climate.  He then provided examples of where town centre improvements had been undertaken.

The Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance said work was underway on town centres and the Cabinet would continue to show aspiration and support for that.

RESOLVED:

That the recommendations detailed above be accepted.