Agenda item

Interviews with Dawn Hudd, Head of Economic and Commercial Development; Laura Case, Cultural Services Manager and members of the Night Time Economy Forum.

The Chairman invited Dawn Hudd, Head of Economic and Commercial Development, Marcus Lawler, Commercial Projects Manager and Laura Case, Cultural Services Manager to speak on item 8: Maidstone Culture and Leisure Business Plan 2014-2018.

Mrs Hudd made a presentation that covered the following points:

·  The formation of the Maidstone Culture and Leisure (MCL) service was decided on by Cabinet on the 28 June 2013. MCL consisted of the Parks and Leisure team and the Cultural Services team which included museums, visitor economy and festivals and events.

·  The Business Plan was not something that required a formal decision- it was an operational document for MCL to refer to.

·  The core functions of MCL were:

o  Museum management;

o  Managing the Leisure Centre and Hazlitt contracts;

o  Parks and Open Spaces;

o  Management of the Cobtree Estate;

o  Festivals and Events;

o  Visitor Economy; and

o  Commercial projects for the service- including those listed in the business plan.

·  The commercial projects listed in the business plan were not fully formed business cases- they were ideas at differing stages of development;

A visiting member was invited to question the witnesses. The visiting member was concerned that projects listed in the list of commercial projects would be going ahead, regardless of member or officer input.

Mrs Hudd stressed to the committee that none of the commercial projects listed in the report had been decided on, and reminded the committee that cabinet had reserved full decision making powers for all commercial projects. This meant that, in keeping with the principle of pre-decision Scrutiny, each project would be considered by the Economic and Commercial Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee before any decision was made on these projects.

The visiting member enquired about the monitoring arrangements for the Hazlitt contract.

Mrs Case responded that there was a contract monitoring officer for the Hazlitt. Mrs Case confirmed that both herself and the Cabinet Member were satisfied with the current performance of the Hazlitt.

The committee enquired whether there were any plans to re-launch a leisure card.

Mrs Hudd confirmed there were no plans to re-launch a leisure card. However Mrs Hudd informed the committee that Canterbury had a ‘My Canterbury’ app that operated as a more high-tech version of a leisure card. Mrs Hudd believed this option was worth exploring in more detail for Maidstone instead of a leisure card.

The committee were concerned that, as the County Town, Maidstone should have a better market. The committee asked Mrs Hudd what plans there were for improving the market offer in the town.

Mrs Hudd replied that she had the ambition of improving the market offer in Maidstone, particularly farmers markets. However at the moment there were no firm plans for this and other commercial projects were a higher priority.

The committee requested clarification over the scale of the retail outlet in Mote Park that was mentioned in the report. Mrs Hudd explained that the concept was a visitor centre, café and gift shop; but that further development of this idea would take place in January 2015.

The committee raised concerns around three areas of the report:

·  The business plan had very few mentions of members within it;

·  There seemed to have been a lack of member engagement around the commercial projects; and

·  The plan appeared to focus purely on making a profit.

In response to these concerns, officers explained that the plan was currently being used as an operational document, hence the lack of reference to members. However it was accepted that a renewed focus on member engagement would be beneficial for commercial projects. Officers also confirmed that generating income was not an end in itself for MCL- it was a way to protect non statutory services from budget cuts and to expand and improve the culture and leisure offer for the residents of, and visitors to, Maidstone.

The committee asked Mr Lawler whether any of these projects may affect local businesses. Mr Lawler explained to the committee that some of these projects had potential to affect local businesses, mostly in a positive way by bringing more visitors into the borough, and due to this the decision whether to go ahead with such projects should be left to members.

Mrs Case also highlighted that the projects were not just about competition, and that a lot of mutual benefits could be gained through collaboration with local businesses.

RESOLVED: That

1)  The Scrutiny Co-ordinating Committee be asked to decide on the constitution of a group of members to give early input for commercial projects;

2)  The Head of Economic and Commercial Development be recommended to refine the language in the Maidstone Culture and Leisure Business Plan to make it clear that the formation of Maidstone Culture and Leisure is not purely a profit making exercise; and

3)  The Head of Economic and Commercial Development, at the earliest opportunity, be asked to give all councillors access to the full list of commercial projects for their positive input.