Todmorden Town Deal is a £17.5M investment programme for Todmorden encompassing developments in enterprise, learning, heritage, health, sports and wellbeing, alongside a greener, more accessible redesigned town centre. The programme is led by Todmorden Town Deal Board, made up of experienced and skilled local people from the private, community and voluntary sectors, along with Calderdale Council as the Accountable Body, and the local MP. You can find more about the Town Deal programme on the dedicated website.

In late 2019 Todmorden, alongside 100 other towns across the UK, was invited by the government to develop and submit proposals for a “Town Deal” for up to £25M of investment.

The Todmorden Town Deal Board secured agreement to £17.5m subject to “Business Cases” regarding viability (financial, operational and deliverability) for each project being approved, of which Centre Vale Park was allocated by the Town Deal Board an amount of £1.138m to take forward six individual projects.

Scoping for these projects were put forward by the “private sector”, in this case by voluntary organisations, with schemes agreed as follows:-

• Fielden Hall – Energy Efficiency Improvements
• Hard surface/ Multi Use Games Area (MUGA)
• Refurbish existing three Tennis Courts and build a new one
• Extend Bowls Pavilion
• Restore/refurbish the Grade 2 Listed Bandstand
• Restore/renovate the Conservatory in the Memorial Garden

As part of the Business Case submission for Centre Vale Park it is clear that to deliver all of these projects will require circa £1.934m of investment with circa £671k of additional funding to be sought by way of external grants.

This is a massive challenge and if not secured then some projects may not move forward unless there are changes agreed by the Town Deal Board to the amount allocated to the Centre Vale Park Projects , funds are available and this also assumes Government will allow such changes to be made under their funding agreement.

Each project required a viability proposal to be prepared and a willingness to assume legal ownership, liability and responsibility to deliver each project, including all of the associated challenges involved in taking forward construction projects.

Early on in the process the Town Deal Board identified that whilst for its other projects, there were already bodies in existence with experience willing to take on this challenge, the Centre Vale Park Project was different in that assuming liability was an issue, some groups were not even yet formed and experience was limited apart from the Fielden House project.

With the Town council having already delivered the Wheelspark and Festive lights replacement schemes under the Accelerator Fund, The Town Council was approached to initially take on the role of “Sponsor” for all six Centre Vale Park Projects.

Todmorden Town Council formally resolved at Full Council to agree to be Sponsor and retained the services of the former Town Clerk /Responsible Financial Officer to lead on taking forward all requirements in their role as Sponsor.

In its simplest form it is to try to make this all happen which includes:-

• Receive and disburse of all funds within formalised financial rules and procedures.
• Prepare Business Case and Business Plans for each project in consultation with consultants appointed by Calderdale MBC as the Accountable Body.
  • Appointing Architects for Design Stage to RIBA stage 2
  • Feasibility Reports
  • Operational Delivery
• On approval of the Business Case and award of funds from Government to take forward all issues to enable construction to move forward to include:-
  • Agreeing transfer of land
  • Agreeing lease terms and conditions
  • Obtaining of other approvals
  • Planning Permissions
  • Listed Building Consent
  • Environment Agency Approval
  • Fields in Trust Approval
• RIBA stage 3 to 7 leading including formal tender preparation for construction, selection of contractor(s) and contracting for works to be carried out.
• Management of construction projects
• Handover on completion to Groups to take forward day to day delivery

The role of Sponsor ends when the projects are handed over, all financial payments made and all returns submitted as required.

As part of the business case each project has had to be considered in terms of need and requirement, detailed drawings where necessary and schedules of work drawn up for costing by externally appointed costing professionals.

Significant increased differences have arisen from those costings originally estimated, reflecting more detailed knowledge of what is needed, land use restrictions and substantially increased building costs and allowances for future inflationary costs.

It is only at Tender Stage that accurate pricing will be obtained but the overall summary of requirement as submitted in the Business Case is as follow

Apportionment of Funding and shortfall – additional Grant funding needed

Each projects financial requirement has been considered against the likelihood of obtaining external grant support and how the overall allocation of £1.138m is initially apportioned against each project. This will be adjusted accordingly as and when we are successful in obtaining grant awards.

The Town Council delegated responsibility to the lead officer to form a group of representatives for each project to take forward each project, reporting back to the Resources Committee / Full Council as required and urgent decision making under delegated authority with the Chair of Resources Committee.

That group has met mainly fortnightly to look at all issues and through the process considered aspects of:-

• Land ownership
• Design and costings
• Operational Management
• Constitution and Structure for each group
• Formulating a Business Plan

Yes. The Town Deal Board approved Business Cases for the Centre Vale Park Projects, Climate College and Town Hall on the 2nd August 2022 and have been submitted to The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC),for approval.

Other Town Deal project Business Cases are due for submission by 5th September 2022.

We do not yet know the response time from Government, but expect the Todmorden Town Deal award for all of the individual projects to be made at the same time. It is likely to be November but could possibly be earlier.

Who will own the buildings and maintain them once construction has been completed?

Early discussions with the group emphasised concerns about land/building ownership and meeting ongoing financial cost of operating such facilities.

Groups were naturally concerned about personal liability and ability of groups to meet ongoing costs initially pending becoming formally established and new/additional income streams generated to support.

To enable the projects to move forward the Town Council resolved to overcome these issues by agreeing to take on land and building ownership as well as provide a financial buffer at the start of operational delivery, but within an overall revenue cost of up to £25,000 per annum in total, in relation to the Bowling Pavilion, Bandstand, and Conservatory all with recharge arrangements to the groups.

On completion of the MUGA it is intended to be operated by Calderdale MBC under a “back to back” agreement.

Fielden House is owned by the Calder Valley Community Land Trust and any energy efficiency improvements will lead to reduction in the costs so will need no ongoing financial support from the Town Council.

The Tennis Court proposal is based on the Tennis Club gaining planning permission for their existing site, selling this, contributing c £125,000 into the proposal, moving the club operations to be based at Centre Vale Park, meeting operational costs and joining with the Bowls Association to use the extended Bowling Pavilion as a base alongside the Bowlers.

If the Tennis Club cannot sell the land, then an alternative way forward will need to be agreed with Calderdale MBC which may involve seeking LTA grant funding and a reduced specification to be delivered.

Each of these proposals have come from the “community groups” involved in these projects. The basis of the bid for Town Deal Funds was that the voluntary sector would take ownership and run this once construction is completed, and handover to the groups has taken place.

Todmorden Town Council enables and facilitates the community to deliver their own projects usually through their grant giving process, but does not directly operate “services”.

Over the next few months groups will be expected to commit to running these buildings and, on handover, organising and delivering day to day activities.

No. The Town Council does not have the financial resources or staffing capacity, or indeed expertise to run these operations. The agreement of the Town Council to step in for land ownership , legal building responsibility and some limited financial revenue support, will remain in place, as long as the groups operate these facilities and do so within the agreed budget constraints.

If groups fail and or spend is higher than anticipated, the Town Council will reserve the right to hand facilities back to Calderdale MBC, but will make every effort to find alternatives rather than simply close them down.

This is very much a community led initiative to secure this funding opportunity and whilst Todmorden Town Council is prepared to enable the funding to be obtained and construction projects delivered, the voluntary groups for each project must stand up and be counted and deliver.

We need to be entirely up front about this. This is going to be a real challenge. There are no funds available from Todmorden Town Council, or indeed Calderdale MBC to make up these shortfalls.

As part of the Business Case process Todmorden Town Council commissioned a piece of work to identify potential grant funding opportunities for each of the projects.

Over 40 potential grant funders were identified ranging from small grants to substantial ones ranging up to £250,000 .

Each one has specific purposes, outputs and criteria to be met. Some require project to be “shovel ready” e.g. planning permissions, consents, fully specified and tendered contracts in place before even being considered for grant funding.

There will be a need to manage the financial risk to bring to shovel ready stage against the likelihood of grant success.

If unable to secure additional grant funding the only alternative open is to consider dropping a project(s) to match funding availability and manage within the existing allocation of £1.138m, or to seek a reallocation of funds from within the overall Towns Deal Fund if any other projects underspend. In reality other project underspend is highly unlikely with construction costs currently rising above inflation levels.

These will be decisions that will need to be made by the Town Deal Board, but also assumes that the government funding agreement allows them to do so.

Once the Business Case is approved, a formal funding agreement in place and funding actually received, we will then be in a position to start to take Centre Vale Park projects forward.

The Bandstand is the priority project to be delivered and has the greatest chance of securing substantive heritage grant funding , that if successful , may release other funds towards other Centre Vale Park projects

Depending upon grant funders requirements this may require to be “shovel ready” and the Town Deal Board will be approached to give approval to run this project “at risk” and get it ready for grant submissions.

Fielden Hall will also be progressed as a priority project given that there are no land transfers to consider, albeit Listed Building Consent will be needed once a final scheme has been agreed and liaison taken place with Calderdale MBC Conservation Officer to ensure there is an acceptable scheme proposal before formal consent sought.

As we progress on each project updates will be provided.

The schemes are decided in terms of what they each relate to and no opportunity to realign what the Town Deal funding will be used for in connection with Centre Vale Park.

Until the Business Case is approved and more funding released, detailed drawings/proposals for each project are at differing levels of preparedness.

It is the intention for the Town Council to hold an information day to update residents of where we are up to but likely to be in early 2024 , once funding has been approved and the outcomes of additional grant applications made known in terms of success or otherwise.