Maidstone Borough Council

Economic & Commercial Development Overview & Scrutiny Committee

Tuesday 28 January 2014

Head of Commercial & Economic Development - Priorities

Report of: Clare Wood, Performance & Scrutiny Officer

1.          Introduction

1.1        As part of the Council’s management re-structure in 2013 and the reorganisation of the leisure and culture services into the same directorate a new Head of Service post was created to lead on commercial and economic development.

1.2        Dawn Hudd was appointed as the Head of Commercial and Economic Development and started at Maidstone Borough Council in December 2013.  Mrs Hudd was previously Deputy Head of Culture and Enterprise at Canterbury City Council.

2.          Recommendation

2.1    The Committee are advised to consider the verbal update from Mrs Hudd on her priorities and vision for the service.

2.2        The Committee should focus its questioning on the following areas to help ensure that its future work programme and review topics are reflective of, and can be aligned to, key decisions and priority pieces of work being undertaken during the year ahead. 

·         Major pieces of work being undertaken by departments;

·         Priorities and long-term vision for the service;

·         Key decisions; and

·         Pre-Decision scrutiny.

3.      Reasons for Recommendation

3.1     The Economic & Commercial Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee are responsible scrutinising items that relate to their terms of reference which are detailed at Appendix A. The Head of Commercial and Economic Development oversees the following services:

o   Parks & Leisure

o   The Museums

o   Economic Development & Tourism

o   Arts Centre; and

o   Commercial Projects.

3.2     The Committee are currently reviewing the value of events to the borough and have already interviewed the Tourism Manager, Laura Dickson. The Committee is considering how best Maidstone Borough Council can support partners putting on events and ways to quantify the values of events (Extracts from the Economic Impact Tool-kit for events are attached for reference at Appendix B).

3.3     The Committee may find that there is some cross over with their responsibilities and other Scrutiny Committees.  The Committee should focus primarily focus on its terms of reference but can make recommendations to the appropriate Overview and Scrutiny Committee or the Co-ordinating Committee should a piece of work be highlighted that falls outside its jurisdiction.

4.      Impact on Corporate Objectives

4.1        The Committee will primarily consider reports that deliver against the Council priority: ‘For Maidstone to be a growing economy.’

4.2        The Strategic Plan sets the Council’s key objectives for the medium term and has a range of objectives which support the delivery of the Council’s priorities.  Actions to deliver these key objectives may therefore include work that the Committee will consider throughout the coming year.

Appendices

Appendix A – Scrutiny Terms of Reference 2013/14

Appendix B – Economic Impact Tool-kit

Appendix C – Economic Impact – where do I start?

Appendix D – Economic Impact - what do I want to measure?