Agenda item

Lesley Crisp presented the report.

L Crisp said that the Enterprise and Investment Team now have three full time and four part time posts and only 1.5 of these are paid for by DBC as the rest are self-sustainable. She added that in order to continue to be a sustainable model, they now charge for many of their services.

L Crisp explained that in 2018 there were 7,900 enterprises in Dacorum which were responsible for £3.6 billion of gross value added and as an area Dacorum is doing very well. L Crisp discussed how they are working very closely with start up businesses to get them off the ground through the European Regional Development Fund – the ERDF programme, which has been extended to run for a further 2 years until 2023.

There was a conversation regarding events to encourage local residents into the area including the Halloween event and the Christmas Light switch on which, this year, is going to be a joint venture with The Marlowes, Riverside, The Hemel Hempstead Bid and the Market combining together to make a much bigger event than in the past. 

Cllr Birnie asked how many businesses comprised the 16.6% mentioned in paragraph 1.2.

L Crisp answered that she had made a table which she would pass round for the Committee to see, she said that micro business accounted for 7,205, small businesses, which have about 10-50 employees is 555. In addition there are 105 medium and then there are 35 larger businesses.

M Jeffrey clarified that the 16.6% related to large businesses increasing by 5 in 2018.

Cllr Ransley asked a question relating to 3.2.10 and where £1.8 million was spent with regard to leisure facilities in Tring.

L Crisp replied that she did not know the answer but would find out and forward it via Sharon Burr for Cllr Ransley and the Committee.

Cllr Riddick asked what kind of rail crossing had been built in Apsley as referred to in 3.2.5. The answer was the bridge to the Manor Estate widening.  J Doe replied that this was the additional bridge at Featherbed Lane, entirely funded by Bovis.

Cllr Birnie said that it would be useful if the source was mentioned when figures are used in reports.

Cllr Riddick asked how the figures regarding the Tourism Industry were reached as in paragraph 4.7. as 3.4 million visitors into Dacorum seems a large figure.

M Jeffery replied that it is actually about visitors both internal and external to Dacorum.

Cllr Riddick said that in paragraph 4.8 it states that there have been 64 days of filming in Dacorum but the income was only £14,455 which seems low.

M Jeffery said that we have a lot of filming which takes place in Dacorum that is not managed by the Council as it does not happen on Council owned or managed land.

L Crisp said that we charge a small administration fee mainly so that we are aware of where and when filming is taking place and if it is likely to affect businesses in the area, but if it is not on our land we cannot charge for it.

Cllr Birnie asked if it was a small administration fee.

L Crisp confirmed that it was.

Cllr Beauchamp said that in the report it talks about filming in 2015/16 bringing in an estimated £5 billion to the local economy and he asked if there are any up to date figures available.

L Crisp said that the figures were the ‘knock on’ effect of the filming, people want to see where things were actually filmed, she added that she could get an updated figure.

Cllr Beauchamp asked if there was a filming policy, and asked if within that policy there could be some consideration for the shop owners and traders in the Old Town because their businesses are seriously impacted during filming.

L Crisp said that there was a filming policy in the making and that they were working closely with other areas of the Council like Parking, who also charge for filming, as there is a lot of parking suspension required. L Crisp added that the policy should be ready by the end of the year.

Cllr Birnie suggested that it would be a good idea to inform the appropriate Councillor when filming would be taking place in their area.

Cllr Silwal asked if local business have been affected by Brexit.

L Crisp replied that the main reaction from businesses is that they just want it resolved.

Cllr Birnie said he was disappointed to see that the failed bid for fibre optic was concentrated mainly on supplying schools with FTTP because for the development of industry in the Borough, it is most important that businesses have FTTP.

L Crisp said that although it is not her team that deals with this, her understanding was that to get the fibre in the schools and other public buildings are used almost as connection points so that in rural areas businesses can actually get the full fibre.

Cllr Birnie asked that as we have pulled out of the Visit Herts contract has our tourism budget increased, he also asked how much the saving was.

L Crisp answered that we have not increased our budget, but are working with Tourism businesses on a one to one basis to see how we can help them.

J Doe said that £21,000 had been saved on the Visit Herts contract and that was part of the Council’s saving target for the current financial year.

J Doe said that the feedback that they had regarding the FTTP bid was that it was a very competitive bidding round and there that perhaps there was not enough critical mass in our bid. He added that a key point was that it was not just about supplying the schools with FTTP, but about identifying any public sector assets where you could potentially take a connection point from when high grade fibre is laid elsewhere in the area. Indeed the experienced consultant has advised us to bid again in future rounds,because the underlying case is very strong.

The report was noted.