Maidstone Borough Council

Economic & Commercial Development

Overview & Scrutiny Committee

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Draft Events Review

Report of: Sam Bailey, Research and Performance Officer

1.      Introduction

1.1        At the meeting of the 22 October, the Committee decided to undertake a review of events in the borough. The scoping document for this review can be seen in Appendix A.

1.2        Subsequently, the scope of the review was expanded to include an assessment of how the council supports those who run events in the borough. This was because during the meeting of 28 January 2014 Dawn Hudd, the Head of Commercial and Economic Development, informed the Committee of a toolkit to measure the impact of events that the Council will be introducing. It was explained to the committee that this toolkit would not be able to measure the impact of past events. Therefore the committee decided to increase the scope of the review.

 2.     Recommendation

2.1     That the Committee consider the draft report, suggest any changes that it wishes to be made and approve the report. 

3.           Review of Events in Maidstone

3.1        The committee has interviewed a wide variety of witnesses to gather evidence for this review, including:

·         Dawn Hudd, Head of Commercial and Economic Development at Maidstone Borough Council;

·         Jennifer Hunt, Local Economy Project Officer at Maidstone Borough Council;

·         Alan Reading, Chairman of Maidstone Tourism Association;

·         Ken Scott, Chairman of Maidstone Area Arts Partnership;

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

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

3.2     The recommendations set out in the report are recommendations suggested by members as a result of the evidence heard from the above witnesses.

4.      Impact on Corporate Objectives

4.1     The Committee will consider reports that deliver against the     following Council priority:

·         ‘For Maidstone to have 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 over the       next year.

5.      Background Documents

          Appendix A: Original Events Review Scoping Document

          Appendix B: Draft Events Review