To seek approval from Cabinet to make a Stage 1 application (of a 2 stage process) to the Heritage Lottery fund for the Townscape Heritage funding stream for Southport Town Centre including Lord Street and the Promenade Conservation Areas.[/FONT]





Recommendation(s)

1) It is recommended that Cabinet agrees the submission of a Stage 1 application for Heritage Lottery Funding for Southport Town Centre;

2) that subject to approval of the Stage 1 application:

a) the Head of Regeneration and Housing proceeds with Development of the Project for a Stage 2 application and that
b) prior to submission of the Stage 2 application a further report is presented for Cabinet seeking its approval to proceed with the application and setting out the Partnership Funding arrangements.

How does the decision contribute to the Council’s Corporate Objectives?

	Corporate Objective	Positive	Neutral	Negative
		Impact	Impact	Impact
1	Creating a Learning Community	√
2	Jobs and Prosperity	√
3	Environmental Sustainability	√
4	Health and Well-Being		√
5	Children and Young People		√
6	Creating Safe Communities	√
7	Creating Inclusive Communities		√
8	Improving the Quality of Council	√
	Services and Strengthening Local
	Democracy

Reasons for the Recommendation:

Historic England (HE) and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) advised very strongly that the best chance of success at Stage 1 would be to focus on vacant buildings and public realm within a specified zonal area within Southport to create more of a Townscape impact and to build on previous regeneration initiatives such as Kings Gardens. It was with close adherence to the advice provided by HE and the HLF, relating to the links between Kings Gardens and Lord Street, that the bid was developed, as this most closely met the Townscape Heritage programme criteria. The bid is complementary to the work and investment into Kings Gardens, is consistent with wider aims of the draft Southport Development Plan and Local Plan and will sit alongside future identified projects.

Both Lord Street and the Promenade Conservation Area were placed on the national Heritage at Risk Register in 2014. As a result the Council responded by forming a partnership with Historic England and identifying a series of complementary initiatives to seek to improve the area until it can be removed from the Register. One of these initiatives is the access to external Heritage Lottery Funding in order to fund the gap to repair and restore vacant historic buildings and to bring them back into sustainable use. The provision of grants will support positive enforcement action by the Council on the poor appearance of these properties. Improvements to the local environment will complement the work being undertaken to grow the visitor economy in the town.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

These two Conservation Areas were chosen over others within the borough as they are currently classified as being "at risk" and so are in priority need of investment. The other four Conservation Areas "at risk" within the authority are not located within any Town Centre and do not have the identified need that that would suit the individual eligibility criteria and outcomes required as part of Townscape Heritage funding stream.


The Townscape Heritage funding stream was selected as a funding option, as there are currently no other grant funding streams available which building owners can access to undertake the necessary improvements.

What will it cost and how will it be financed?

The total cost of the scheme is estimated to be in the region of £2.9m with a bid to the Lottery for £1.6m over 2 phases (Stage 1 & 2).

The Stage 1 application process is competitive. If supported applicants are then given the opportunity to work up (over one year) their outline proposals in more detail.

(A) Revenue Costs

See Table below for cost breakdown and funding source.


(B) Capital Costs

See Table below for cost breakdown and funding source.


Total Project Costs

	Capital	Revenue	Funding Source*		Intervention
					Rate **
Stage 1			£71,000 HLF
Development		£101,000	£30,000 Sefton (secured)		29.8%
Costs
Stage 2			£1,560,500 HLF
Delivery	£2,360,000	£479,000	£100,000	Southport BiD	54.17%
Costs			£676,000	Premises Owners
			£502,500	Merseytravel STEP fund
Grand Total	£2,360,000	£580,000			44.5%

* The Stage 1 Sefton funding has been secured. The Stage 2 funding needs to be sourced, however Southport BiD has agreed their contribution ‘in principle’ subject to a pound for pound match from Sefton Council. This would reduce ‘the ask’ to HLF.

**Intervention rate needs to be above 10% for both stages of the bid – it is the amount of partnership funding in the project stages against the cost.

Implications:

The following implications of this proposal have been considered and where there are specific implications, these are set out below:

Financial

Funding to progress a Stage 2 application has been secured from existing Council resources, no additional resources are required.

A Stage 2 submission would require match funding, the exploration and securing of match funding forms part of the Stage 2 process. The Southport BiD match funding of £100,000 has been secured in principle but this would need to be spent by the BiDs closure in 2019.

Legal

No support required for Stage 1. Should the Stage 2 application be successful, agreements would need to be drawn up between the authority and local businesses. There is sufficient in-house expertise to undertake this task.

Human Resources

Additional resource will be required to implement the project should a Stage 2 application be successful. This will be resourced by the grant.

Equality
1.	No Equality Implication
		√
2.	Equality Implications identified and mitigated
3.	Equality Implication identified and risk remains

Impact of the Proposals on Service Delivery:

This funding opportunity would complement and add value to the conservation service delivery currently taking place in Southport. If Stage 1 is approved a dedicated post will be created, funded by the grant, to develop the stage 2 bid and secure delivery thereafter for the duration of the scheme.

What consultations have taken place on the proposals and when?

The Head of Corporate Resources (FD4227/16) has been consulted and notes there are no direct financial implications in respect of stage 1 of this application. Sefton’s contribution of £30,000 can be met from existing budgets. It is noted that if successful any stage 2 application and associated financial implications will be reported as appropriate to Cabinet at a future date.

The Head of Regulation and Compliance (LD3510/16) has been consulted and has no comments on the report.

Implementation Date for the Decision

Following the expiry of the “call-in” period for the Minutes of the Cabinet Meeting

Contact Officer: Stuart BarnesContact Officer: Paula Lowrey

Tel: 0151 934 3544Tel: 0151 934 2734
Email: Stuart Barnes@sefton.gov.ukEmail: Paula.Lowrey@sefton.gov.uk

Background Papers:

There are no background papers available for inspection

So when a Labour controlled council makes a positive move for the town the story gets tucked away with other news but when it's something you're trying to paint them in a bad light with it's a sticky post for a week.

That's not what I call balanced unbiased reporting.

The other thing that's irritating is councillors from both Lib and Conservative waft stories in here about applying for grants, e.g. to paint railings for a bit of self promotion maybe.....we never hear about them again, the submission and the outcome.

It's an improvement here to see at least the submission rather than having staged photos of our councillors