Decision details

Decision to delegate approval to the Director of Sustainable Communities, in consultation with the S151 Officer, to accept the £295k Love our High Streets grant from WECA.

To delegate approval to the Director of Sustainable Communities, in consultation with the S151 Officer, to accept the £295k Love our High Streets grant from WECA.

Acceptance of the £295k Love Our High Streets grant from WECA will allow the Council to intervene to improve struggling local/district centres. The £295k funding allocated by WECA sits alongside £193k funding from other sources to form a project budget of £488k.

The core objective of the Bath Local Centres High Street Improvement Scheme is to renew and improve the resilience of Local Centres through implementing projects that improve the street environmentand support greater animation of public spaces. In addition, the scheme aims to: sustain footfall and occupancy, support improved sustainability and health outcomes, promote accessibility and empowercommunities.

The ‘15-minute neighbourhood’ principle, where most of people’s daily needs can be met within a short walk or cycle (see B&NES Council’s ‘One Shared Vision’ for further information) has been considered when producing the scheme proposal and the scheme will support this vision. This approach responds to societal changes prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic and encourages a healthier, more sustainable way of living that is not so heavily reliant on the car.

The scheme proposal aligns with strategic policy at national, regional and local levels, e.g. the Build Back Better High Streets Strategy (DfLUHC & MHCLG), the Supporting our High Streets after Covid-19 report (Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee), the aims of the High Street Task Force (set up in 2019), the National Planning Policy framework, the West of England Recovery Plan, the West of England Climate Emergency Action Plan, the B&NES Local Plan and the B&NES Health & Wellbeing Strategy.

There is an option to decline the grant and not progress the Bath Local Centres High Street Improvement Scheme, or to re-scope parts of the projects. However, our high streets are in urgent need of support and releasing funding now will allow benefits for businesses and the community to be realised as soon aspossible.

Other options included project locations, scope and the value of funding allocated:

1  Policy CP12 of the Placemaking Plan was used to set out the ‘long-list’ of locations which could be included in the Full Business Case. Policy CP12 indicates that there is 1 District Centre in Bath & North East Somerset and 21 Local Centres in Bath. The project scope focuses on Bath as the largest urban centre in the district.

2  Bath Local Centres that could not realistically be classified as ‘high streets’ due to small scale/limited number of retail outlets and services were removed from theselection.

3  A ‘Local Centres Vitality Checklist’ was prepared to consider which local centres should be prioritised for initial funding. The checklist was used to identify local centres most in need ofintervention.

4  Officers worked with elected members and undertook community engagement to gather qualitative information about the high streets and opportunities for improvement. Once the four local centres had been determined, officers gathered local intelligence from stakeholders such as community organisations and businesses. Well attended engagement events followed where views were sought from the public about the types of interventions that could make the greatest impact to their localcentre.

5  The level of funding allocated to each local centre is dependent on:

5.1  ‘Need’ identified as part of the Local Centres Vitality Checklist review

5.2  Feedback received from public engagementevents

5.3  Status as a district/localcentre

5.4  Size of thecentre

5.5  Character of the broader locality in which the district/local centre sits

6  If the interventions were allocated across more local centres there would likely be a reduced impact and the objectives less measurable orimpactful.