Economic and Commercial Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Review of the Year 2013-2014

Economic and Commercial Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Following a review of overview and scrutiny arrangements in 2012-2013, Maidstone Borough Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committees were structured around Cabinet Members’ responsibilities. The Economic and Commercial Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee holds to account the Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development, and its terms of reference mirror those areas of the council that would fall under this Cabinet Member’s influence. This committee’s remit is closely aligned to the Council’s priority: ‘For Maidstone to have a growing economy.’

Along with the changes to scrutiny, there has been considerable organisational change within the Economic and Commercial Development Department at Maidstone Borough Council. The Council employed a new Head of Economic and Commercial Development in December, brought the following services together under the Economic and Commercial Development Department:

·         Parks and Leisure;

·         Economic Development; and

·         Cultural Services.

A Cultural Services Manager was recruited, and a new post of Commercialisation Projects Manager was created to drive forward commercialisation projects across the council.

The committee’s membership for 2013/2014 was:

Review Topic

Early on in the year, at the first meeting in June 2013, members decided that their main review for the 2013-2014 municipal year would be events and cultural activities. This theme was developed and the primary objective of the review was ‘To evaluate the value of borough council supported events to residents, visitors and the local economy’.

To achieve this aim, the committee felt it would be important to develop a toolkit in order to measure the value of events. However the committee heard evidence early on from Dawn Hudd, the council’s Head of Commercial and Economic Development, that such a toolkit has already been identified and that the council will be using it to measure the value of events in the future. On hearing this evidence, the committee changed the focus of the review to examine how the council supports those putting on events in the borough.

The committee heard evidence from the following witnesses in relation the review topic:

·         Dawn Hudd, Head of Commercial and Economic Development;

·         Alan Reading, Chairman of Maidstone Tourism Association;

·         Ken Scott, Chairman of Maidstone Area Arts Partnership;

·         Natalie Price, General Manager of the Hazlitt Arts Centre;

·         Emily Hirons, General Manager, and Natalie Kirk, Events Manager, of Kent Life; and

·         Jennifer Hunt, Local Economy Project Officer, who gave evidence on behalf of the Town Team.

The review brought all the evidence together and made recommendations that focused on making it easier for event organisers to organise events in the borough.

Cabinet Member involvement

As the new scrutiny structure provides a strong link between cabinet members and their relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee it was anticipated that cabinet members would have greater involvement in each committee. This proved to be the case as the Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development attended the committee as a witness for three items, these were:

·         Cabinet Member Priorities for the year 2013/2014;

·         Maidstone’s vision for the visitor economy; and

·         Cabinet Member review of the year 2013/2014.

One off topics, pre-decision scrutiny and site visits

The committee heard evidence for several items that were one off topics. Some of these related to previous reviews undertaken by overview and scrutiny committees, including the Market review and Visitor Information Centre review. The committee heard that the recommendations from both of the reviews which had been accepted had been progressed. The committee heard that the recommendations that had been accepted had a positive impact on both of the services that had been reviewed.

As well as several items that were updates on current work programmes within the Economic and Commercial Development Department, such as the Enterprise Hub and the Skills and Employability programme. The committee heard that the work on the Enterprise Hub was progressing well and that the Skills and Employability programme had been moved over to the Economic Development department and a new officer recruited to the post.

There were no major cabinet member decisions taken during this municipal year, therefore no opportunity for pre-decision scrutiny. However the Museums’ collections policy will be due to be decided on the 30^th May, and the Regeneration and Economic Development Plan is expected to be considered by this committee in the municipal year.

The forthcoming cabinet member decision on the Museums’ collection policy prompted a site visit to the museum in April 2014. The purpose of the visit was so the members could see the current collections and speak to the Officers involved in developing the collections policy.

Key Facts