Presentation by Sally Grindrod-Smith, Director – Planning, Regeneration & Communities, regarding a progress update for the Cultural Strategy.
Minutes:
The Committee heard from the Director for Planning, Regeneration and Communities regarding the progress of the Cultural Strategy. This had been requested, and passed by unanimous vote, at the previous meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in January 2024.
The Committee heard that the Peer Challenge in 2020 had recommended:
“The Council should therefore consider a Cultural Strategy to understand the work that is needed in order to maximise the benefits and to achieve a clear strategic position.”
The Cultural Research Report in June 2021 identified cultural activity already taking place across the district and identified key themes for future work. The Cultural Strategy Action Plan in September 2021 identified five priority work streams and a Cultural Events and Marketing Officer fixed term role was established and recruited to. It was explained that the Director of the Centre for Culture and Creativity at the University of Lincoln, and the Midlands Chair of Arts Council England had supported the Council to develop the brief to tender for the provision of services for the delivery of a Cultural Strategy. In the summer of 2022, Tom Flemming Consultancy was appointed after a competitive tender exercise. In September 2023, a session was held for all Members to explain the background, development and purpose of the Cultural Strategy with the intention of it being presented to the Prosperous Communities Committee for final approval.
With regard to the Leisure, Culture, Events and Tourism Member Working Group (LCET), it was explained that the group had oversight of the development of the Cultural Strategy. Objectives of LCET were:
• To work together to actively promote the district’s strengths and to maximise opportunities.
• To ensure the work undertaken across leisure, culture, events, and tourism is co-ordinated and aligned with corporate priorities.
• To lobby, influence and challenge the wider organisation to highlight the importance of the work of the group.
• To market the district as a location for major events and festivals.
• To champion activities in relation to leisure, culture, heritage, events and tourism.
The Committee heard that the group met monthly and was supported by Officers from across the relevant council service areas. LCET fell under the parentage of the Prosperous Communities Committee and, as with all Working Groups, had no direct decision-making powers, instead feeding into the work plan of the parent committee.
With regard to the next steps for the Cultural Strategy, the Director – Planning, Regeneration and Communities explained that having received feedback from Members following the session in September 2023, and via LCET, the following steps had been identified:
• Strategy to be updated to reflect feedback
• Finalisation of an Executive Summary
• Final review by Leisure, Culture, Events and Tourism Group
• Prosperous Communities Committee receive the Cultural Strategy for consideration and approval
• Funding secured for Cultural Development Officer – move to recruitment
• Delivery of action plan
The Chairman thanked the Director for her presentation and invited questions or comments from the Committee. Members expressed their support for the approval of the Cultural Strategy and recognised the potential benefits for the district. Events such as the Illuminate festival were praised and highlighted as being well received by the community. A Member of the Committee enquired as to the involvement of Ward Members to ensure a district-wide approach, as well as how other areas of ‘culture’, being such a broad term, could be at risk of being overlooked. He provided examples such as the strong biker community in Lincolnshire, the area’s armed forces history and the waterways.
In response, it was explained that involvement from Ward Members was always invited and strongly encouraged, as was involvement with Town and Parish Councils. It was necessary to sustain the funding for cultural events, with the strategy providing the foundation for that, and to then enable the extension of all cultural events across the district.
The Chairman invited to speak Visiting Member Councillor L. Rollings, Deputy Leader and Chairman of LCET. She thanked the Committee for their comments and expressed her support for the views expressed. She also thanked the Chairman of the Committee for his work over previous years to develop the cultural offering in the district. She recognised that the term ‘culture’ covered such a breadth of area and highlighted the desire for the Cultural Strategy to incorporate the grass-roots level work that was already happening across the district, enabling activities in communities and recognising the opportunities already out there. She expressed to the Committee the need for there to be the recognition of local talent, and understanding of how the local communities managed their own events. The need for the Cultural Strategy to progress was well recognised, in order to build those foundations across the district.
The Chairman thanked Councillor Rollings for her comments and summarised to the Committee that the strategy provided the philosophy of what the Council was doing, underpinning all of the threads that had been discussed, and stated it was key for the strategy to be in place in order to open opportunities to secure funding which would in turn build and grow the cultural offering in West Lindsey.
In looking at the Committee to offer support to the progression of the Cultural Strategy, the Chairman read aloud two recommendations. Having been proposed and seconded, the Chairman took the vote and it was unanimously
RESOLVED that
a) the Cultural Strategy be included on the Prosperous Communities work plan for a future meeting; and
b) the terms of reference for the Leisure, Culture, Events and Tourism Member Working Group be reviewed for approval by the Prosperous Communities Committee.