Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to report of the Service Manager Business & Regeneration.

The Service Manager Business & Regeneration presented the report which sought endorsement of the draft Blaenau Gwent Destination Management Plan (Plan) for 2020-25.  He said when the report was previously reported to Scrutiny decision was taken to defer the report, and following Members feedback the Plan was reviewed.

He said the report provided a summary of the Plan contents and the themes around which it was based. The report also summarised the context of the Plan, and the role of the Destination Management Partnership and other stakeholders in its production.

The Officer pointed out the Plan was a strategic document and had been co-produced by a number of stakeholders and overseen by the Design Management Partnership.  The document itself differed from some of the Council’s other documents and strategies in that it sat both within the Council and Design Management Partnership, and also stakeholders across the tourism sector, so this was not solely a Blaenau Gwent document.  The document was an important piece of work and was recognised by Visit Wales as a strategic approach to developing tourism within the geographical area and would also be used to help with funding applications.  The key aim of the Plan was to ensure that people, businesses and organisations work together to deliver agreed targets. 

A Member referred to discussions when the Plan was reported previously to the Committee, and said he felt that the report now provided clarity that the Plan was not just about Blaenau Gwent.

Another Member agreed, and said the Plan was more condensed and would be more fluid moving forward.  However, he also pointed out that developing tourism was an extensive piece of work and questioned the limited resources within the Council.  In terms of the document, he still felt that the Plan did not sufficiently recognise some partners, and also lacked reference to community tourism in terms of some of projects and investment that had been made, e.g. the THI Project, 10 The Circle, Tredegar.  He said this project had received investment of £400k by Coalfields Regeneration Trust, and said projects of this scale of investment should be mentioned within the Plan.  He referred to the action plan on page 23 of the Plan, Home of the NHS, and said Coalfields Regeneration Trust should be identified as a stakeholder.

In response the Officer agreed that greater clarity should have been provided previously in terms of the scale of the involvement of partners and the range of stakeholders.  He said community tourism was a fundamental aspect of the Plan and was a key strand through, not only the Plan, but type of work being done in the area.  He also agreed with the Member’s comments regarding Coalfields Regeneration Trust and said they had been fundamental to the project.  They had been omitted in error but the Officer confirmed that they would be included in the final Plan. 

Another Member said when the report was submitted previously in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6