Purpose

On 1 October 2023 Government announced that
Clacton-on-Sea will be one of 55 towns across the UK to receive a
ten-year endowment-style fund, with £20 million of funding
and support to give towns long term certainty to deliver projects
over multiple years. The funding will be underpinned by an
investment plan overseen by a new Towns Board, in consultation with
local people.
The allocation of £30,000 for community engagement and
consultation in support of the development and implementation of
Clacton’s Long Term Plan for Towns was approved by Cabinet on
24th May 2024 from the £250,000 capacity funding
budget.
Tendring District Council on behalf of the Clacton Town Board went
out to get quotes to get support with the community engagement in
order to gather feedback and opinion from a diverse range of
Clacton-on-Sea residents to inform the development of a long-term
vision and a three-year investment plan focused on improving
community safety, transport and connectivity, and heritage/town
centre regeneration. (Note that this was planned to be in addition
to separate consultations with the business community and young
people.)
Only one quote out of three sort was received. This was from
Community Voluntary Services Tendring. It was scored by officers
and is a strong proposal and is within budget approved by Cabinet
(May 2024).
However, due to the election being called and a pause on the
programme, we were unable to go out to consultation, and the
consultation and contract were therefore put on hold until we were
able to proceed.
On the 31st October 2024 in the Autumn Budget the Government
announced that the Long Term Plan for Towns will be retained. A new
prospectus will be published in the New Year that this will include
additional interventions and a new timetable.
The quotation received by Community Voluntary Services Tendring was
revisited by the Board on 12th December 2024. It was agreed that it
still represents good value for money and there was no requirement
to go back out to market.

Content

To approve the use of up to £17,975 from
the Cabinet approved allocation of £30,000 from the Long Term
Plan for Towns budget to award a contract to CVS Tendring.
This is to undertake community engagement, which will help inform
the Clacton Towns Board with their Long-Term Vision and Investment
Plan and follows a procurement exercise.