3 March 2025 - Jarrow Town Board meeting minutes

Jarrow Town Board meeting minutes for Monday 3 March 2025.

Contents

  1. Attendence
  2. Welcome and introduction
  3. Minutes from the last meeting
  4. Community engagement
  5. Any other business and next meeting

Attendence

Present:

  • Susan Wear-Brown (Chair)
  • Geoff Thompson (Vice Chair)
  • Roweena Russell (Big Local Jarrow)
  • Councillor Stephen Dean
  • Councillor Margaret Meling
  • Andrew Watts (Groundworks)
  • Sarah Currie (Nexus)
  • Melissa Whitelaw (Kate Osborne MP's office)
  • Ruth Durham (Police and Crime Commissioner's Office)
  • Martin Johnson (Torgensens)
  • Tracey Beaton (Bede's Helping Hands)
  • Inspector Dave Heron (Northumbria Police)
  • David Chandler (ICB)
  • Carolyn Senior
  • Jane Burns
  • Annabel Watson 
  • Rory Sherwood-Parkin
  • Kirsty Ostell
  • Rachel Jones
  • Natasha McDonough (MMC)

Apologies:

  • Councillor David Kennedy
  • Paul Atkinson
  • Shaun Sadler
  • Sue Newton
  • Patricia Blanchard
  • Joanna Bage
  • Charlotte Harrison
  • Steve Martin
  • David Gardner
  • John Scott
  • Hayley Page

Welcome and introduction

  • No additional declarations of interests to declare

Minutes from the last meeting

  • Minutes agreed from previous meeting on 29 January 2025 and all actions acheived or being covered as part of the meeting.

Community engagement - Overview of potential creative and questionnaire approach

  • The survey (circulated with the agenda and agreed by the Board) will be open for 12 weeks and will be promoted in a phased approach (initial launch on 5 March), using a limited amount of paid advertising in social media, and posters on bus stops and metro platforms, directing people to the website and to a phone number to find out  local community centres where they can get more information and assistance in filling the survey. 
  • The survey has been co-designed with the steering group and with a focus group of young people (who also helped to shape the look and feel of the advertising images).
  • The majority of the engagement will be through specific activity with various groups, including work by Groundwork and Cultural Spring (the agreed brief for this specific community engagement was also circulated with the agenda). Big Local, Jarrow Hall and South Shields Football Club suggested events and football matches where the survey could be promoted.
  • Along with on-street researchers in the town centre during Easter, there will be the opportunity for people to call in to Jarrow Focus or other community centres for assistance, or to complete the survey over the phone, or with researchers who will be attending  the Jarrow Festival.
  • Seven focus groups will complement this and ensure if there are areas where responses are low, then specific groups will be run to capture feedback.
  • The aim is to have an all-encompassing and inclusive 12 weeks of engagement and awareness  and this will be overseen by regular check-ins with the steering group (which will monitor response rates ).
  • Board members discussed free text boxes to allow maximum feedback from residents (which is incorporated into the survey and focus groups), the importance of the Jarrow Festival as a way to promote the survey (creating a jointly produced publication for direct mail to all households) individual households) and engage with residents on the day, which will be the final activity in the schedule.
  • The content for posters, social media and the video were all presented. The video will be twofold; one overview video and further short film clips for social media, all with the aim to introduce the campaign, raise aspirations of what can be achieved and encourage people to take part).
  • 14 residents of Jarrow volunteered to be part of the film and photography, ensuring the creative is authentic and is reflective of the town of Jarrow,  The Board was very appreciative of the support from the volunteers. 
  • The materials shown were in draft but at an almost complete stage and subject to agreement from the volunteers themselves. The plan allows for the survey to open on line on 5 March with limited promotion for one week to check and test the creative materials and the mechanics of participating in the survey.  The promotional campaign time table begins on 12 March with posters and engagement activity staggered over the 12 week period.
  • Given the opportunities to reach most residents through traditional media channels are limited, the direct mail to all residents jointly promoting the Jarrow Festival programme, will be supported and undertaken to increase awareness across the NE32 area. A meeting was being held imminently to take this forward with the Jarrow Festival organisers.
  • The responses to the survey will be collated and ultimately feed into a report in June upon the conclusion of the community engagement. 
  • The potential to ask well-known Jarrow people to give their views on film for further promotion was discussed.  This may conflict with any further external perceptions work to be carried out separately and will be discussed by the engagement steering group before any approaches are made.

Actions agreed were as follows:

  • Action 2: O Agency to continue working with Jarrow Festival on a joint  brochure (and link in with Big Local Jarrow and South Shields FC on how they can support)
  • Action 3: Slides from the meeting to be circulated to the Board for information (it should be noted that following discussion, as above, the toolkit will be bespoke for different organisations and there will not be a specific toolkit for the board).
  • Action 4: Steering Group and Executive Group to meet with O Agency and MMC around 20 March to analyse initial impact of the campaign (with regular updates thereafter)
  • Action 5: STC to check with Jarrow Focus staff about filling out the survey on behalf of residents in person / over the phone.

Toolkit

  • The toolkit will be made available to over 130 groups (circulated with agenda).
  • The toolkits will be shared around the 12 March and include where appropriate (they will be bespoke for schools, businesses and voluntary sector organisations); example newsletter copy, activity ideas, team intranet text, awareness calendars, printable flyers, posters and information on where to get further  support.
  • In addition, the Council has agreed to help by printing multiple posters for distribution in local shops and businesses.
  • All Board members were asked to be champions of the survey or to nominate a champion within their organisation to encourage residents to take the time to give their views and ideas.
  • Action 6: Toolkits to be sent out by STC / Chair / O Agency (list of 130 breaks down best contact) to all key partners 12 March.

Next steps, any other business and next meeting

  • The board also discussed how to maintain momentum, and engagement with residents, not just during the survey period, but over the next year or so before any significant funds are released.   
  • It was agreed that we should keep working on developing the ten-year plan in parallel with the survey. This will include research and insight from other towns in the UK and elsewhere where they have had success in making a difference, and alignment with other investment plans by South Tyneside Council or the North East Combined Authority. 
  • It would also include ways of increasing the impact of the fund by leveraging additional funds from partners. It was agreed that the process and decision-making criteria should be agreed with the executive group over the next few weeks and that a PR plan be developed for when the engagement has concluded (ie this is what you told us and this is what we are doing).
  • Discussion was also held on how to ensure such momentum through ideas such as a pot of funding for local community projects to bid into that could be a tangible difference before the scheduled  funding starts, possibly April 2026. This could also include a pledge or charter with local residents around local spending, a focus on skills and place based engagement with schools and young people.

Actions

  • Action 7: STC to work with colleagues across the Council to look at examples of town centre regeneration in other parts of the country (through conversations with areas such as Blyth and Bishop Auckland, as well as research through the Future High Streets Taskforce) and report back to the next executive group meeting
  • Action 8: Chair to update Board members when guidance received from Government (and next steps around the investment plan and potential external support) and to continue engaging with national partnerships about potential for additional investment
  • Action 9: STC and Chair to engage with NECA on their High Streets Commission plans (For more information, see GOV.UK: Mayor and local leaders to agree high streets commission).
  • Action 10: STC  to update on conversations with a potential Partnership Manager for Jarrow Forward
  • Action 11: STC to draft plans on a funding framework using information in the Investment Plan and advice from NECA, STC and other towns, and report back to the Executive Group. 
  • Action 12: Future meetings to be arranged of the Engagement steering group,  Executive group and Board, potentially more often than quarterly if guidance is received and progress needs to be made swiftly.