FOI request (FOIR-418712712)

Council Place Narrative and Branding

Requested Fri 29 April 2022
Responded Tue 10 May 2022

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information.

Please may you provide me with responses to the following queries:

1. Does the council have a Marketing Strategy? If so, please provide either a copy of the strategy or a link to the published version of the strategy.

2a. Please confirm the population of the area covered by the council, to the nearest and latest estimate.

2b. Does the council have an approved place brand and/or narrative* (see definition below) for a space, town or city within your local authority area?

3a. If the council have an approved place based narrative what were the key drivers behind the decision to develop a place brand and/or narrative? (For example, inward investment, tourism, community building)

3b. Which geographical area does the place brand and/or narrative cover?

3c. When was the place brand and/or narrative developed and approved?

3d. How did the council develop the place brand and/or narrative?

4a. When developing the place brand and/or narrative, did the council organise any participatory exercises?

4b. If so, please provide details of the engagement undertaken, including the names of any local groups who were involved.

4c. Was the place brand and/or narrative endorsed by the council's Cabinet/Policy and Resource Committee/other political group?

4d. Following approval of the place brand and/or narrative, which organisation is currently the custodian of the place brand and/or narrative?

5. Prior to commencing work to develop a place brand and/or narrative, did the council identify specific benefits that it was believed the place brand and/or narrative would deliver?

5a. If benefits were identified, were these benefits quantifiable (that is, could they be measured)?

5b. Please provide the benefits identified and any quantifiable measurables. These should be broken down by individual benefit lines as listed in your Project Initiation Document, Benefits Realisation Plan or other project documentation.

5c. Was a baseline of the identified benefits taken prior to the implementation of the place brand and/or narrative and, if so, please provide these metrics? These should be broken down by individual benefits lines as listed as the response for question 5b.

5d. Please provide the current metrics for the benefits identified. These should be broken down by individual benefits lines as listed as the response for question 5b.

5e. If the council is monitoring the realisation of the benefits, have the benefits been realised?

5f. What is the methodology for monitoring the realisation of these benefits?

6. How did the council go about implementing the place brand and/or narrative?

6a. Was the place brand and/narrative fully implemented?

6b. If not, what difficulties did the council run into in implementing the place brand and/narrative?

6c. How long did it take the council to implement the place brand and/or narrative?

7. What was the estimated cost to the council in developing and implementing the place brand and/or narrative? This should include the estimated cost of officer and member time and any actual costs such as consultants' fees. The total number should be broken down into categorised lines of expenditure.

If you have a place brand and/or narrative document, please provide either a copy of the document or a link to the published version of the document.

*Place Brand and/or Narrative Definition - For the purposes of this request, the following definition has been used for the term 'Place Brand and/or Narrative' - 'a purposeful process of place identity building to create a favourable internal and external image'. This should not be confused with place branding relating to new, private developments.

Response

Hastings Borough Council does not have a Marketing Strategy or Place Brand/Narrative.

The population of Hastings is 92,554.