South West RDA: Board Meetings - Board Minutes

Apologies:
Helen Holland - Board Member
Caroline Bull - Director of Enterprise and Innovation

1. THE SOUTH PRESENTATION ON THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT OFFICE FOR WEST AND OBJECTIVES 1 AND 2

Jane Henderson and Richard Bayly were welcomed to the meeting and gave presentations on GOSW and Objectives 1 and 2 respectively.

In response to questions from board members, Jane Henderson said that DEFRA was reflecting on the role of the Countryside Agency, particularly in respect of rural proofing government policies and access to standard services. DEFRA needed to have its own grasp of these issues. Board members felt that the current role of the Countryside Agency was confusing and hoped it would be resolved shortly.

In respect of Objective 2 funding, Richard Bayly agreed that spending pressure on funds could be to the detriment of small rural projects but felt that this would be improved as coherent strategies were developed. Local authorities' differing approaches to the strategic economic agenda resulted in a fragmented approach across the region towards accessing European funding. Some authorities were already very effective in an economic leadership role, others less so. Richard Bayly assured the Board that both GOSW and the RDA were involved in encouraging those authorities which were not playing a full part in developing their local economy to embrace this role.

He drew a distinction between the rural development and agriculture agendas. There was much to do to develop coherent integrated rural strategies including alignment with the Market and Coastal Towns Initiative. Early agricultural projects had been small scale and unadventurous and exemplar projects had not yet emerged. Although GOSW was taking a proactive role to improve the quality and strategic focus of agricultural projects, the nature of the industry made it difficult to reach small farmers and producers. Jeremy Pope added that the Chamber of Rural Enterprise (CORE) would be tackling this issue. Jane Henderson added that it was important to bring forward innovative and diversification proposals to support the UK's arguments for CAP reform.

Board members were concerned that it was difficult for small local authorities, rural areas and local projects to identify opportunities for European funding because of the barriers created by what was perceived to be a difficult, bureaucratic system. Richard Bayly felt that there was scope for improvements in the front-end process of grant assessments, and these were being looked at. However, he acknowledged that the monitoring information small businesses were required to maintain was very extensive and was a real deterrent to applicants. Unfortunately the indications were that the Court of Auditors were becoming more rigorous in their interpretation of monitoring regulations, and there was little comfort that we could offer applicants about this aspect.

GOSW provided some assistance to applicants seeking European funding, but the general lack of awareness of the various funding streams available, not necessarily European, meant that many opportunities were missed. Some discussions were taking place about providing advisers to inform businesses what funding opportunities were available. GOSW was also beginning to explore sharing of best practice across similar projects, such as credit unions in Cornwall, but this depended on an exemplar project emerging. The Regional Centre of Excellence would hopefully address many of these issues including sharing of best practice and identifying exemplar projects; joint commissioning of appraisal work; signposting to funding; and providing assistance to deal with bureaucratic application processes.

GOSW said that the new rules for the European Social Fund (ESF) were less complex and allowed greater flexibility, and that, with co-financing in place, a higher number of applications through local learning and skills councils should be successful. It was important that sub regions had a coherent approach to meeting skills shortages; however board members were concerned that funding restrictions meant that local LSCs had little opportunity for regional working or to develop discretionary projects. Sir Michael Lickiss confirmed that the national Learning and Skills Council was seeking that DfES reduce the number of silos for skills funding which created constraints. Jane Henderson confirmed that GOSW was also ready to pursue these issues at a national level.

Through pursuing co-financing of projects GOSW aimed to improve access to European funding, drawing on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for experience. It was hoped that co-financing would help to resolve bureaucratic difficulties or delays caused by projects having to go through two procedures. Jane Henderson said that GOSW would work with the RDA to develop this.

Sir Michael Lickiss thanked Jane Henderson and Richard Bayly for an informative and useful session.

2. COMBINED UNIVERSITIES IN CORNWALL (CUC)

Gordon Kelly, Professor Livingstone and Niamh Lamond joined the meeting to set out the current position of the CUC project. In welcoming them, Sir Michael paid tribute to the work Jane Henderson had carried out to bring this project into existence, and asked the Board to reinforce its previous commitment to the project.

Following a detailed presentation a general discussion took place. CUC was designed to give students in Cornwall an opportunity to pursue higher education in their county, as well as attract other students nationally and internationally, and to create opportunities for graduate retention. Independent research carried out during the first stages of the project revealed that there was a significant demand for increased HE places and that students were studying closer to home.

Plans were being developed through CUC to create post-graduate provision and opportunities in Cornwall and the project team was working with the Cornish business community to encourage it to meet the challenge of providing opportunities for graduates and under-graduates. Sir Michael Lickiss cited the Tripos development in North Cornwall as an example of how the skills level of a local community can be dramatically changed. CUC had longer term plans to provide HE opportunities in North Cornwall.

The Peninsula Medical School (PMS) was being developed as part of CUC but in parallel because of a different funding structure. Colin Molton said that the RDA was exploring various opportunities to provide funding for PMS.

Niamh Lamond said that the building programme was extremely tight and depended on various stages being completed on time. The appointed contractor was already working with the design team and in August an agreement would be entered into which set the final cost and completion date. The Board was assured of a total commitment to sustainability in the design and issues that had been raised in an environmental impact assessment would all be addressed. The Board wished to see all opportunities maximised to demonstrate the region's commitment to renewables which are of primary importance in the South West. CUC agreed to examine the feasibility of including photovoltaic panels and make an application for the 65% funding available from the Dti demonstrator programme. The RDA offered all necessary support for the application.

Sir Howard Newby, Chief Executive of HEFCE, considered CUC to be an exemplar project and was due to visit shortly. The Board agreed that it would host an event to secure wider support for the project, for example from the new vice chancellors of Exeter and Plymouth universities, the Met Office and the Eden Project.

Board Decision

Board members agreed unanimously to support the CUC project and approved expenditure of up to £12,780,000 in the project, subject to detailed appraisal and Departmental approval.

3. REVIEW OF THE REGIONAL STRATEGY

Suzanne Bond and Simon Hooton presented the process for reviewing the Regional Strategy, and described the historic, legal and regional context against which the review would take place. The proposed consultation document and questionnaire were circulated to the Board.

Board members were concerned that consultation was too process-orientated and that the RDA was not taking on its full leadership role, but were advised that previous experience indicated that a strong lead from the RDA disengaged people. There was some doubt about the usefulness of the questionnaire and the validity of the responses, but members were assured that the questionnaire would be sent to representative or umbrella organisations, not average businesses. The first phase consultation, taking place over the next six weeks, was designed to find out what the region wanted, and the Board would be asked to agree priorities before the second phase of consultation began. The July Board meeting was therefore very important as members would be asked to indicate the RDA's role in the regional economy. The results of the Spending Review 2002 would also be known by then which could substantially change the RDA's work.

It was agreed that during the first six weeks of consultation the advisory group chairs would review feedback relating to their group's area of work and that, after the July board meeting, an ad hoc group of board members would be set up to assess emerging data from the consultation. Members felt that they would benefit from a session looking at economic indicators and regional issues so that they could fully contribute to the prioritisation process. The board meeting on 29 July would therefore begin at 8.45 am to allow an extended session considering the Strategy review.

4. FALMOUTH MARITIME

Commercial in Confidence

5. ROYAL WILLIAM YARD

The Board were joined by Carl Budden, RDA Regeneration Consultant and David Caird, of Acanthus Ferguson Mann, for a tour of Royal William Yard for members to see the Clarence, Brewhouse, Mills Bakery, Melville and New Cooperage buildings, and learn of plans for public realm works and car parking provision. A full report setting out plans for the Yard had been circulated with the agenda. Following the tour, board members had the opportunity to examine a display of plans and photographs of the Yard.

South West Regional Development Agency

Board Meetings

Board Minutes - 17th June 2002