Agenda item

To consider the CEF’s future funding arrangements for Tadcaster Today magazine.

The Board considered the report attached to the agenda at pages 27 to 32 and were asked to consider the future of the Tadcaster Today and the CEF’s support for it.

The general view of the Board was one of support for the publication, and it was agreed that the CEF should continue to financially contribute to the running of the magazine.

The Chair was pleased that the flyers for the Forums had been very successful and had encouraged attendance at a number of meetings, and that other promotional work was also undertaken by the Council’s Communications Team.

Board Members felt that Tadcaster Today was one of the best ways to get information out to people in the Tadcaster and Villages area, and was often the only publication delivered in a number of the rural surrounding villages. It was agreed that the quality of the magazine was of a high standard and that it was important to have information disseminated via a medium other than social media.

However, the Board also agreed that the magazine could be more effective and the timing of the publication should be looked at in order for it to coincide with the Forum leaflets and meetings. It was suggested that the flyers produced to promote the Forums could be incorporated into the magazine.

In addition, some Board Members felt that the magazine needed to feature more articles and information about future events, and limit the number of features reflecting back on past events.

The Development Officer explained that it would be useful to have the dates of the Forum meetings for the following municipal year as soon as possible, in order to make planning, promotion and flyer design easier; currently, the meeting dates for the next year were agreed by Council in February. The Board agreed that it would be better for forward planning if this could be done earlier in the year.

The Board agreed that two members from the CEF should join the committee that produced and collaborated on the magazine, in order to contribute to a review of its design, content, value for money and distribution. It was suggested that this group could meet separately and produce a properly costed out proposal for a new Tadcaster Today magazine, which would be brought back to the Board at its next meeting. Kirsty Perkins and Steve Cobb were proposed as the two CEF members to join the magazine committee.

The Democratic Services Officer clarified that the production of the magazine was not a formally contracted service with the CIC, and that the majority of the funding for the publication had been done through applications to the CEF from the CIC.

The Board agreed that the review of the magazine was the best way forward, and that it should be seen as a vehicle to promote all the groups represented on the CEF Partnership Board, as well as the CEF itself.

RESOLVED:

i.       To agree the Partnership Board’s support for the continued production of the Tadcaster Today magazine.

ii.     That Board Members Kirsty Perkins and Steve Cobb join the Tadcaster Today magazine production committee in order to assist with a review of the publication’s design, value for money, content and distribution.

iii.    That the committee report back on the review of Tadcaster Today at the next meeting of the Tadcaster and Villages Partnership Board (to be confirmed, likely late May/early June 2019), with a fully costed proposal for a new magazine.