Minutes: LEP Rural Economy Sector Group

14th May 2014, 10:30am

Smith & Williamson, Portwall Place, Portwall Lane, Bristol BS1 6NA

Attendees:

Chris Head (CH), John Mortimer (JM), Melissa Houston (MH), Mandie Berry (MB), Alex Stevens(AS), Mike Amos (MA), Chris Smith (CS), Sam Holliday (SH), Steve Ashworth (SA), Chris Lyons (CL)

Apologies:

Duncan Sigournay, Charles Hignett, Michael Weaver, Roger Smith

  1. Welcome and introductions
  • CH welcomed the group and introductions were made for the benefit of SH.
  1. Minutes from previous meeting
  2. Minutes were distributed in advance of meeting. No matters were raised.
  1. WE LEP Update
  2. Main activity has been the SEP submission to Government. The amount of money coming through the SEP will be lower than first thought. CH recently attended a positive meeting chaired by Colin Skellett who highlighted that we had a coherent WE plan.
  3. It was announced at the WE LEP Collaboratorium that a new Sector has been created – Health & Wellbeing. MA challenged that the WE Sector groups are wealth creators; this will be the only one that’s a wealth user.
  4. Around 150 delegates attended the first half of the Collaboratorium, which was great. MH has received some good feedback but the general consensus has been that there was a missed opportunity for the groups to cross over more (as sector Chairs were the one’s facilitating the breakout sessions).
  5. MA enquired about the Tourism group. MH explained that the LEP has struggled in finding a chair. At present John Hirst (Destination Bristol) and Nick Brooks-Sykes (Bath Tourism) are joint chairs until they find someone. Group felt the WE were missing a trick as tourism will only get bigger. JM suggested that the group take the lead with Rural Tourism.
  6. ACTION: MH and CH to have preliminary talks with John Hirst
  1. EU SIF and SEP Update
  2. JM asked if there had been any Government feedback on the EU SIF. CH confirmed that feedback still isn’t public.
  3. JM expressed his concern that we need to be ready for the next stage which is delivery especially when funding lines start to become clear.
  1. WE Leader local Action Group
  • The bid writing process will involve 4 consultationevents with a final “wrap up” in Bristol being held at the Engine Shed in August. These will be 2hr sessions to show what we have, how to applyetc – held end of June/July.
  • SH asked how the money will be disputed – There will be a standard form which will then be scrutinised by local LEP and then up to the relevant Government department.
  • CH clarified that “Rural” = population less than 10,000. ACTION: CH to email DEFRA rural maps/links
  1. Food Agenda
  2. Open discussion – all agreed that there needs to be a “Food” cross cutting theme, especially as there will be a second Bristol Food Connections event next year. It’s also important that members from other sectors are involved – CH confirmed that (following a recent conversation) Paul Wilson agrees with this.
  3. MA highlighted the struggle to get producers to come into Bristol. Could the event join up with the North Somerset Show? There are also a lot of people that open their farms on ‘Open Farm Sunday’s’.
  4. At present the plan is to hold the event at the same time next year = May BH weekend.
  5. It is also about supporting businesses all year around (not just a 2 week event) and as food crosses over all sector/cross cutting groups, there is a need for a longer game plan.
  6. Paul Wilson will be calling a meeting to discuss the Food Agenda to determine the purpose. CH will attend and bring back information for the group. CH felt that going forward he may not be the best person to represent the RESG on this subject.
  1. WE Rural Development Strategy
  2. Unfortunately due to a family illness, Roger has had to take a step back. CH is meeting with Roger next week to get an update – info will then be circulated.
  1. Broadband Update
  2. Activity in South Gloucestershire’s roll out of cabinets is ahead of schedule.
  3. No other update.
  1. Skills – Update
  2. Nothing to update. Group agreed that Adam Powell (Head of Skills for the LEP) should be invited to attend the next meeting.
  1. Communications
  2. As a number of emails have recently been sent containing paperwork and presentations, CH asked is this flow of information was the best way to communicate. Group agreed that sending emails with the relevant attachments was best as not everything can/should be published on the WE website.
  1. WE Local Nature Partnership
  2. The group hasn’t met since February. Dominic Hogg (Eunomia Research & Consulting Ltd) has been appointed the new chair; Bevis Watts was always in the position temporarily.
  3. A proposal has gone into the SEP to set up an environmental trust. LNP doesn’t sit in the formal structure but Bevis will be involved in the Health & Wellbeing group.
  1. AOB
  2. JM requested that Food and Tourism are added to future agendas.
  3. MA expressed that the next stage for the Food Innovation Centre is to find a mechanism to work with KarunaTharmananthar. Outcome from the SEP – is it something we can do independently if unable to be funded by Government?
  4. Alex expressed a wish for the consultation dates to be circulated ASAP.

Next meeting: Wednesday 23rdJuly, 10:30am

Marshfield Bakery