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.

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.

Option 1 - The alternative option was undertake the consultation in-house, but it was felt that given the resource constraints within the Council, that the community consultation was better led by a community organisation, and this is in line with the Long Term Plan for Towns guidance.