The Interim Place Manager, Jon-Paul Hedge presented the report as published, outlining the work undertaken so far, the current status of funding and the next steps to be agreed. Tracey Cabache, Director at Torbay Communities outlined the work undertaken since the last meeting, detailing further engagement sessions, potential collaborative projects arising and how the list of proposals presented to the Board had been arrived at.

Tracey also addressed the previous meetings assertion that housing should form a significant part of the projects approved by the Board, outlining that further contact had been made with affordable housing providers, who did not express a great interest in putting projects forward. Further discussions had also suggested that the funding available may not be sufficient to achieve the housing aims of Board Members, so ambitions in this regard had been scaled back.

Tracey emphasised that the project list presented to the Board was intended as the launchpad for further conversations before the final list was agreed.

The Chair expressed his thanks to Tracey and Jon-Paul for their hard work.

The following points were discussed:

· if the list of projects presented met the criteria outlined at the beginning of the process;

· if some of the projects represented value for money, were too risky or had alternative routes to funding;

· a perceived lack of transparency in the scoring process employed so far and a lack of communication and guidance in strengthening proposals;

· the merits of the system employed so far, with the Interim Place Manager re-emphasising the unique constraints of this funding pot, and the decision made to make the application process as light-touch as possible to maximise engagement and proposals from smaller organisations with fewer resources and experience in grant applications;

· if the community knowledge and connections of Board Members was being fully utilised; and

· the number of projects put forward by the Council and how this would be perceived by the community.

Members expressed widespread support for fairness, impartiality and transparency in the later stages of the process, and that projects must be interrogated for reliability, value for money and impact, with appropriate due diligence carried out on those projects recommended for approval.

The Chair acknowledged the concerns raised on the process to date, and highlighted that a condensed timescale and rapidly changing criteria from central Government had presented challenges in the process.

Resolved (unanimously):

1 that the Torquay Place Leadership Board approve the draft Vision statement outlined in Appendix 3 to the submitted report for submission to MHCLG, subject to clarity on ‘Torquay’s vision’;

2. that the Board note that an open call for projects, engagement work and co-production workshops has strongly started to indicate Torquay will be oversubscribed for what should be viable schemes. That, in light of this, the Board approve for the maximum spend profile for the first four years to be returned to MHCLG as set out below, but that the Torbay MP be requested to work with MHCLG to see if the Board can have the money as previously expected equal over each four years to meet the expectation of the community and building on ongoing work from Torbay Place Leadership Board;

3. that the Board approve a formal process for final project funding. Namely that once Torquay’s Vision for regeneration indicative spend is approved by MHCLG, that final schemes return to the Board for a funding by majority vote. In the event schemes become unviable, substitutes born from the community co-design are brought forward to ensure delivery against the spend profile;

4. that the Board initially carry forward the recommended schemes as identified by Torbay Communities set out in Paragraph 5.10 of the submitted report;

5. that the Board approve up to £40,000 a year of capacity funding (and subsequent procurement process) for a community organisation to continue to develop business cases to fruition, co-design, monitor and evaluate, continue with open rounds of applications, engagement, and communication; and

6. that, through the existing partnership with Torbay Council, the Board support the creation of a Delivery Assurance Framework Committee of officers to assist the Board with viability, legal, planning, budget, procurement, and delivery monitoring of proposals.