Agenda item

The Director of Commercial Development and Outreach apologised for an error in paragraph 5 of the report, which should have stated that the Integrated Commercial and Outreach Development Plan, listed as a background paper, was presented to Members at Strategic Finance Workshops open to all Members in October and November 2016, not to meetings of the Strategic Advisory Group.

The Director confirmed that following Members’ ratification of the Giving Strategy at the Authority meeting in March 2016 (Minute No. 14/16), the Director and his team had been reviewing potential ways to diversify and boost income streams, including the possibility of setting up a charity vehicle.

The Integrated Commercial and Outreach Development Plan had been developed by the Director and his team to cover the Authority’s trading and fundraising activities and to provide a means of co-ordinating the Authority’s work in increasing awareness, understanding, support and income in line with the Authority’s three-year Corporate Strategy, which required the provision of options by Year 3 (2018/19). In view of a feasibility study being carried out by the National Parks Partnership and National Parks UK into the setting up of a national charity and given the Authority’s current in-house knowledge of the not-for-profit market place, the Director had concluded that work on developing a charity vehicle could be brought forward to Year 2 to enable an earlier assessment of the required level of financial and time investment.

The Director stated that the charity vehicle was not being proposed as a panacea for income generation. He added that the potential risks of the charity’s independence from the Authority would be partially mitigated by closely linking its objectives to the Peak District National Park purposes and to the Peak District National Park Management Plan. He acknowledged the imperative of clear differentiation between the proposed charity and other not-for-profit organisations.

Should Members not approve the development of a Charitable Trust, the Authority would continue to mine existing funding channels.

The following made representations to the meeting in accord with the Public Participation Scheme:

Mr J Lambert, Chair of Friends of the Peak District

Dr P Owens

Members were keen to be involved throughout the process of setting up a charity vehicle. A new sub-group of four members of the Audit, Resources and Performance Committee, chosen by the Chair of the Authority and the Chair of the Audit, Resources and Performance Committee, was proposed and seconded, to be added as a third recommendation. The sub-group would work with the Director of Commercial Development and Outreach and his team and report back to Members on progress.

The recommendations including the additional third recommendation were moved, seconded, put to the vote and carried.