To receive a welcome from the Chairman, Jim Parker and receive apologies for absence, including notifications of any changes to the membership of the Board.

Apologies were received from Richard Marsh, Laurence Frewin, Steve Reynolds, Alison Hernandez and Michael Westcott. 

a)         To receive declarations of non pecuniary interests in respect of items on this agenda

For reference:  Having declared their non pecuniary interest members may remain in the meeting and speak and, vote on the matter in question.  A completed disclosure of interests form should be returned to the Clerk before the conclusion of the meeting.

b)        To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests in respect of items on this agenda

For reference:  Where a Member has a disclosable pecuniary interest he/she must leave the meeting during consideration of the item.  However, the Member may remain in the meeting to make representations, answer questions or give evidence if the public have a right to do so, but having done so the Member must then immediately leave the meeting, may not vote and must not improperly seek to influence the outcome of the matter.  A completed disclosure of interests form should be returned to the Clerk before the conclusion of the meeting.

(Please Note:  If Members and Officers wish to seek advice on any potential interests they may have, they should contact Governance Support or Legal Services prior to the meeting.)

There were no interests declared at the meeting, but Board Members were reminded to submit their Register of Interest Form to Teresa Buckley, Democratic Services Team Leader as soon as possible.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 9 April 2025.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Torquay Place Leadership Board held on 9 April 2025 were confirmed as a correct record.

To receive a briefing from the Chairman, Jim Parker, on the role of the Torquay Place Leadership Board following a briefing with the Government Minister on the Plan for Neighbourhoods.

The Chairman, Jim Parker gave a brief overview from the Ministerial Briefing that he attended on the Plan for Neighbourhoods, which was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner. It was confirmed the focus of all boards should be community driven with the aim to delivering schemes that will improve the lives of residents.

To receive a briefing from the Place Manager, Jon-Paul Hedge on the development of draft Business Cases for Torquay.

The Interim Place Manager, Jon-Paul Hedge gave a presentation on the Business Case Briefing, set up under Long Term Town for Plans which Torbay Council was a one of the partners. There were two Boards – the Torbay Place Leadership Board and the Torquay Place Leadership Board. The Torbay Board had a wider remit around the three towns with the Torquay Board focusing solely on Torquay. These Boards would be meeting quarterly, and open for the public to attend with agendas, papers and minutes published on the Council’s website to ensure openness and transparency.

It was noted that, following the first meeting, the Board had searched for new members to enable a more diverse and community-based representation to support the community led approach. The new Members who had joined the Board were welcomed to the meeting.

The Board noted that the Government had set draft data for Torquay with an initial deadline for the Business Case of November 2025 and set several actions to meet the deadline.

An overview was provided to the Board regarding developing accountability and structure and the aim was to ensure that the work the Board was doing was open and transparent. The Board would also need to closely monitor how the Government Funding was being spent to ensure it met the Board’s objectives.

Jon-Paul Hedge advised that the Torbay Place Leadership Board had met earlier in the morning and provided an overview on the emerging Torbay Regeneration Vision.

The Board discussed the need to identify priority areas to focus on to make the best use of the funding allocated by the Government to make improvements in Torquay. Members noted that there were over 100 potential interventions identified the Government, and it was suggested that this could be reviewed together with other ideas in order to identify a short list to share and engage with communities, including young people.

The Board was asked if it agreed with the suggested timeline and actions to bring paper back to September Board? This was agreed with the revision that an informal workshop would be beneficial to feedback ideas, key priorities and to go through case studies. This should take place before the end of July.

It was also asked if it agreed for the Chair to be given delegated authority over capacity funding spend to deliver aspects of the delivery and engagement work presented in the timeline? This was agreed.

It was also taken as an action that finance should be a standing item at each meeting moving forward.

It was acknowledged that the Board would need to understand what the workstreams were and review what had been done in other forums in order to avoid duplication as well as bringing in the voice of young people.

Actions:

1. To circulate the presentation slides – Rachel Williams;

2. Finance Update to be added as a standing agenda item – Rachel Williams;

3. An informal workshop to be set up in July to discuss the key priorities, challenges and opportunities  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

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