Issue - meetings

Report of Cabinet Member for Cyber, Regeneration and Commercial Income, Councillor Mike Collins

RESOLVED THAT:

-       the updated ‘Corporate Advertising & Sponsorship Policy’, as at Appendix 4, is adopted, to come into immediate effect.     

The Cabinet Member for Cyber, Regeneration and Commercial Income introduced the report, saying the corporate advertising and sponsorship policy had been introduced in 2015 and not updated since.  In view of the many changes over that time, it was important to bring it up to date, in line with the corporate plan and priorities.  It would be reviewed again in 2027.

He said the policy must meet current best practice, core values and principles.  It was short and reasonably easy to understand and digest, with clear and helpful definitions, and links and guidelines to national best practice.  He highlighted the following:

-       the policy doesn’t contain an exhaustive ‘allow list’, but follows a ‘deny list’ where the basic assumption is that advertising is permitted unless it falls into a prohibited category or is deemed to have an adverse impact;

-       the potential impacts used when assessing whether or not to approve an application for advertising or sponsorship are set out at Paragraph 6.5 of the policy;

-       the Head of Commercial Income and Regeneration is responsible for implementing the policy, with additional expertise provided by the council’s communications team.

He hoped that Members would be happy to endorse the revised policy.

The Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency commended the Cabinet Member for Cyber, Regeneration and Commercial Income on this long-overdue update of the policy.  She was happy with the overall quality of the document, permissive yet with clear guidance being the right approach to make us more robust and clear about what we stand for as an authority.

The Leader also thanked the Cabinet Member for Cyber, Regeneration and Commercial Income,  saying that before Covid, the authority was doing well on its advertising policy and generating income to help the revenue budget.  She welcomed this update.

The Cabinet Member for Cyber, Regeneration and Commercial Income said he spent time with the officer team, and considered the policy to be short and succinct, easy to follow and doing what it needed to do.

RESOLVED THAT:

-       the updated Corporate Advertising & Sponsorship Policy, as at Appendix 4, is adopted, to come into immediate effect.