Agenda item

Interviews with:

·  Charlotte Osborn-Ford, Chief Executive, Voluntary Action Maidstone; and

·  Liz Tredget, Volunteer Centre Manager

The Chairman welcomed Charlotte Osborn-Forde, Chief Executive, Liz Tredget, Volunteer Centre Manager and Kate Dickinson, Volunteer, all from Voluntary Action Maidstone (VAM) to the meeting.

Mrs Osborn-Forde explained to the Committee that they had previously occupied a large unit in The Mall and had moved to the Town Hall foyer after the space was offered by the Council. She informed the Committee that use of the Town Hall enabled the Volunteer Centre  to attract a much higher number and broader range of people to volunteering and that the high street location gave them a higher profile and was easy to access.

In response to a question about location it was clarified that when the Volunteer Centre had been in the Mall they had received a huge number of enquires about volunteering but the conversion from enquiries to placements had not increased. At the Town Hall potential volunteers book an appointment to discuss what type of volunteering they want and hours available etc, this leads to more successful placement.

The Committee heard that although approximately 25% of visitors to the Town Hall want visitor information very few wanted help or advice on hotel bookings. The majority of the visitor enquires were for directions which the Volunteer Centre had been dealing with. It was noted that the Volunteer Centre provided maps and informed the enquirer where the Visitor Information Centre was located.

Mrs Osborn-Forde was asked if there was a possibility of the Volunteer Centre providing Visitor Information. The response was that with the right support, training and funding they would be happy to take this on.  It was noted that VAM were also responsible for the successful Gateway Volunteer programme and that Gateway Volunteers had attended the Council’s own customer service training.

VAM indicated that they would support opening the Town Hall/Volunteer Centre on a Saturday if a partnership arrangement for VAM providing visitor information was in place.

The Committee raised concerns about the priority given to tourism by the Council. The Chairman welcomed Christopher Garland, Leader of the Council to the meeting, who went on to clarify that the prioritisation matrix in the Strategic Plan 2011-15 put tourism as a low priority in financial terms only. He informed the Committee other ways of funding visitor economy development at a low cost were being looked into. 

It was highlighted to the Committee that the Cabinet Member for Corporate Services was making a decision about the future of the Town Hall foyer that week. Several members expressed the view that it was difficult to find a sound economic reason to return the Visitor Information Centre in full to the Town Hall. The Committee agreed that if it was agreed that VAM should stay in the Town Hall a working group should be set up to develop this including their role in providing visitor information. The Committee also considered the appearance of the Town Hall.

Two further recommendations were suggested:

That the Leader of the Council and Chief Executive revisit they way in which portfolios are arranged and officer duties allocated so that there is more cohesion and clarity of purpose.

That this committee either wraps up this report as it has been overtaken by events or a further study as to how the visitor economy can be utilised to assist in the provision of the priority of economic prosperity.

The Committee concluded that they should wait for the outcomes of the Governance Review at full Council before making any recommendations about organisational structure.

The Committee agreed that the review into the Visitor Information Centre should be concluded and that a meeting should be arranged of the working group to facilitate the report writing.

It was resolved that: The Committee concludes the evidence gathering part of its review, with a meeting arranged to write the final report and recommends that:

a)  If the Cabinet Member for Corporate Services was minded to progress an agreement with VAM, part of which included volunteers offering Visitor Information Centre support, that firstly a small cross party group of members is set up with the Cabinet Member, officers and VAM on the detail to how this can be achieved; and

b)  The cross party working group (as set out above) review the visual presentation of the Town Hall both internally and externally.