Agenda item

[Ian Fegan to deliver Report to the Panel]

The Member for Visitor Economy raised the relevance of events in the City and explained how they benefitted the City’s economy, culture & social well being.  Further work was being done to further add to the City events.

The Director of Vibrant City began the presentation (a copy of which is attached to the signed minutes) by linking up the Event plan to the wider City Objectives and Strategies. He displayed a video to the Panel which showed the diverse nature of events that occurred in the City from 2022 up until the day of presentation. These included the Commonwealth games, music events, religious cultural events and Wolverhampton Pride. He confirmed to the Panel that the visitor economy had returned to pre-pandemic levels with the City hosting over 1000 events in the past year, of which the Wolverhampton Wanderers football team, The Grand Theatre, the newly re-opened Halls (formerly known as the Civic Hall) and the racecourse were highlighted for the large number of visitors they brought to the City.

The Director of Vibrant City highlighted the Council’s contributions through investment into arts, culture and City events. He stressed the importance of events, as well as the complexity and cost in working towards these events. He said partnership working was extremely important as it could not be a “Council fixes all” approach. He discussed the “events ecology” of the City, which looked at the City’s role in international, national and regional event hosting.  Focus on better communications/advertisement with customers as well as enabling easy transport access to the City were key areas for strategy highlighted.  Working with partners to increase the City’s customer retainment through improving the City’s infrastructure, transport, hotel availability were emphasised. Visitor numbers 2022 showed 92% percent of the City’s visitors were day visitors so there was a desire to increase those staying over night. He informed the Panel of opportunities available for the next 3 years, these included secured grant funds from: the Towns Fund, The United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), Arts council NPO funding and the Arts Council Uplift fund.

The Chair thanked the Director of Vibrant City and informed the Panel that a Task & Finish Scrutiny Review Group would be occurring in the near future on the City night time economy.

A Panel member praised the report and celebrated the cultural diversity of Wolverhampton and the events reflecting that. She was pleased at the job creation from these events.

A Councillor expressed praise for the report but added a general criticism/observation that he felt the voluntary sector needed more support and promotion. He discussed his own volunteer work with a local Canal Club and talked at length about the canals Wolverhampton had to offer. He argued that these areas were hidden contributors to the economy, as people travelling in canals for leisure would set up near the City whilst passing through and spend money. He recited figures about the Canal Festival, its success and mentioned this should have been mentioned in the report also.

The Vice Chair agreed with the Councillor and added that he felt it would be a good inclusion to the strategy to consider events within Wolverhampton that occurred outside of the City.  He raised inconsistencies he found in the figures within the report and presentation and asked the Director of Vibrant City to explain why the figures were not consistent throughout.  He wanted to know also if the Council were able to host their own events at the Halls.

The Director of Vibrant City explained that the Halls had now been taken over by EAG and that it was now a commercial enterprise with the running decided by them. He said it was not impossible for the Council to use the Halls, but this would require working with partners.

A Councillor said the report was a welcome remedy to negative comments other Councillors had made about the City. He read numerous figures about well attended events and money generated from them. He wanted to know if the figures showing that a high percentage of people only visited the City for the day was down to consumer choice or because of a lack of accessible accommodation within the City.

The Director of Regeneration noted that an item on Hotels was set to come to Scrutiny in the future and said more information on this would be available then.

A Panel member wanted to know what was occurring with the Creation Day Festival. He also wanted to know if the Council asked local residents what they wanted in the City rather than trying to attract external customers.

The Director of Vibrant City said they had used data and research from local sources and that the Council was using customer feedback to target and deliver what people wanted. He said it would be difficult to discuss Creation Day due to the legal discussions which were on going but he would give an update when it was possible to do so.