Agenda for Culture, Tourism & Enterprise Overview & Scrutiny Committee on Thursday, 1st April, 2010, 4.00pm
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Agenda and minutes
PDF 200 KBVenue: Council Chamber, Hove Town Hall. View directions
Contact: Julia Riches, Scrutiny Support Officer
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PROCEDURAL BUSINESS (a) Declarations of Substitutes - Where Councillors are unable to attend a meeting, a substitute Member from the same Political Group may attend, speak and vote in their place for that meeting.
(b) Declarations of Interest by all Members present of any personal interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the Members regard the interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct
(c) Exclusion of Press and Public - To consider whether, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, or the nature of the proceedings, the press and public should be excluded from the meeting when any of the following items are under consideration.
NOTE: Any item appearing in Part 2 of the Agenda states in its heading the category under which the information disclosed in the report is exempt from disclosure and therefore not available to the public.
A list and description of the exempt categories is available for public inspection at Brighton and Hove Town Halls. Minutes: 57(a) Substitutes Cllr Mo Marsh for Cllr Craig Turton
57(b) Declaration of interests Cllr Mel Davis declared that she sat on the South Downs Committee
57(c) Exclusion of the press and public In accordance with section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, it was considered whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of any items contained in the agenda, having regard to the nature of the business to be transacted and the nature of the proceedings and the likelihood as to whether, if a member of the press and public were present, there would be disclosure to them of confidential or exempt information as defined in section 1001(1) of said Act.
RESOLVED – that the press and public not be excluded from the meeting.
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MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING Minutes: RESOLVED – that the minutes of 4 February 2010 be approved and signed by the Chairman.
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CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS Minutes: The Chairman informed the Committee how impressed he had been by the exhibition at the Phoenix. He believed that the plans for the refurbishment were stunning. The external changes would transform the building which is seen by over 90,000 car journeys per day and would be matched by the internal changes. While a total of £2.5m was needed, they were confident of being able to raise the finance. Both Ms Murray and Cllr Amy Kennedy were involved in this process. The Chairman had also enjoyed Hedda Gabbler this month.
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PUBLIC QUESTIONS No public questions have been received.
Minutes: No public questions had been received.
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WRITTEN QUESTIONS FROM COUNCILLORS No written questions have been received. Minutes: No written questions from Councillors have been received.
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Marathon update - Tim Hutchings, Grounded Events Company Verbal update. Minutes: Tim Hutchings of the Grounded Events Company gave members a verbal update on their progress in staging the Marathon. Good progress was being made in areas such as:
· signs were now up informing people about road closures on the day · the clearing up of Madeira Drive · skips had been secured to reduce littering and increase recycling · good parking arrangements set up at the University sites and Mill Road · a good working relationship with the railway network has meant that an extra 6 trains have been put on for people to get to the Marathon · working well with the police to ensure crowd control · a Heart FM stand and stilt walkers to both entertain spectators and pull them away from between the piers, which was the place most likely to become congested. Concerns about overcrowding in this area had made them reconsider having cinema screens outside the Odeon showing the runners · securing branding, and dressing the event, to create an atmosphere, including a tunnel for the runners to come through · mobilising over 1,500 marshals, the majority of them volunteers It was anticipated that at least 30,000 people will come to watch the Marathon, or between 40,000-50,000 if it is sunny.
Although there would be very large crowds in areas such as Jubilee Street and New Road, this should finish about 10.15am and the runners would be away from the city centre by 11.00am. There was a big buzz in running communities. A number of people involved in establishing a marathon in Liverpool this winter were coming to observe this event.
They have undertaken a table top exercise with agencies such as the police, the fire and ambulance services. This was chaired by Richard Hebbard,who was satisfied by the responses of them all. They were robustly positioned to cope with all that might come up.
In response to questions, Mr Hutchings told the Committee that while their income had been £700,000 they had spent £750,000 in order to make this a strong event. They were relying heavily on volunteers and so the job creation in the city had been minimal. However, they would be using significant levels of casual labour on the day. It had been possible to increase staff numbers from 2 to 7 and hoped to have 12 in year 2. However, they were using local suppliers where possible, and local agencies such as City Clean. This support for local businesses was appreciated by the Committee.
Mr Hutchings emphasised the importance of sustainability when planning the event - from not having balloons released to influencing the choice of Skip Company. At Preston Park, skips would be signposted as being either for ‘bottles’ or ‘general waste’. The bottles would be recycled. This was vital as there would be up to 20,000 bottles used on the day (of which only 60% may get used). Volunteers would work to ensure the most effective use of these bottles, including taking the tops off them for runners.
The Committee heard that the event would commence at 9am with Steve Ovett. Danny Mills, a wheelchair athlete would have already started solo at 8.45am to ensure his safety and prevent blockages. There would be an international presence at the event, including runners from Kenya and the Himalayas. The expected winning time would be about 2hrs and 15mins. By 3pm the majority of runners would be finished, with 95% finished in 6 hours.
It was anticipated that the roads would be closed until 4pm. Minibuses would be used to encourage slower runners to move to the pavement. A partially sighted runner was planning to complete the course in 2 days. The roads would be closed progressively through 7 zones and by 8.00am the majority of the course would be closed. However, blue light crossings would remain for emergency services. It had been agreed with the Brighton and Hove Bus Company that St James Street would be re-opened by 11am.
Over 160,000 information booklets had been distributed in the city and they were working closely with Heart FM and the Argus. There was a Grounded Events website and information on the Bus Company’s website. They were aware that the event would attract complaints in this first year, which would be personally handled and were confident that these would reduce in future years. The Committee felt that this was an important day for the city, hoped it became a regular event and were pleased to hear that 6 street parties were being held on the day.
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Music Venues in the City - Kevin Nixon, Brighton Institute of Music Minutes: The Chair welcomed Kevin Nixon of the Brighton Institute of Modern Music (BIMM) and highlighted the importance of this sector to the city. Mr Nixon said that BIMM had chosen be located here, 60 miles from London. This was because there was a healthy music scene in the City, although he felt that a couple of areas could be improved.
Mr Nixon had been concerned by an Argus headline in February which announced that:
‘… the party is over for summer festivals’.
He asked the Committee what criteria were laid down for people seeking to establish a festival, who replied that it was ultimately satisfying the emergency services and dealing with issues such as litter. A significant number of people in the Council were experienced in dealing with this issue, including the objections raised to the Fat Boy Slim events. These concerns were usually about noise, parking and litter. Better arrangements for events, such as the second Fat Boy Slim event, had lead to fewer complaints. The Council had produced a guide to cover the technical and practical aspects of arranging a festival and was held up as a good practice authority.
Mr Nixon then told the Committee that the other key concern was the financial viability of events. While officers had a good relationship with promoters and offered advice on issues such as timing of events, this work did not happen with Beachdown which was a festival which the Council had no jurisdiction over.
He suggested that the promoters would appreciate further support from the Council, especially the new generation of promoters. He asked the question whether or not it would be beneficial if there was an advisory group to assist people who wanted to set up new festivals, especially looking at their viability? Mr Nixon would be very to help with this and knew of other colleagues who could help. The Committee asked Ms Murray to look into taking up this offer of advice. It was also confirmed that Licensing Committee dealt with issues relating to these events.
The Committee expressed concern about the loss of smaller music venues and how to increase the number of larger venues in the City. Mr Nixon suggested that Falmer Stadium could be a great opportunity to attract top acts and sufficient audiences. This could be a more suitable venue than the Cricket Club which had hosted artists such as Elton John. When it came to seeing bands, significant numbers commuted to London to venues such as the O2. Promoters felt that the City did not have the right venue for the following reasons:
· The Brighton Centre has a reputation for lacking in atmosphere · The Brighton Dome, while a great venue, was regarded as expensive to hire, which led to high ticket prices It was also felt that the staff at these venues were not always sympathetic to younger audiences. This was due to the range of events they held. Ms Murray agreed to talk to Andrew Comben about this issue. While promoters were keen to also use the Pavilion Theatre, they relied on the Komedia, Old Market and Concorde 2. The Committee thanked Mr Nixon for a great report. They expressed hope that while Falmer currently had planning permission to hold 2 events per year, this could be extended to allow it to stage more events. This would make the stadium a great cultural and economic resource for the city and much more than a football club. Ms Murray told the committee that she was due to visit Falmer and would discuss this issue with them.
Donna Close, the Arts & Cultural Projects Manager, agreed with the suggestion that workshops for new promoters (like those held at SxSW) could be held at Brighton Live – which was targeted at promoters. Increasing live music was important at a time when record sales were decreasing.
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Children's Festival - presentation by Lucy Jefferies Verbal update. Minutes: The committee heard a presentation from Lucy Jefferies, Arts Development Officer, on the Children’s Festival 2010. This was run by the Arts Commission and formed part of the national project which had led to the Liverpool as a City of Culture. It was now held bi-annually to provide enough time to plan suitable events, but had been lengthened from 4 to 7 days. They did a lot of targeted work between the festivals to build up the audience, for example a project for Looked After Children who were given 2 free tickets for themselves and a friend/carer.
An aim of the festival was to encourage people who were less likely to participate in the existing cultural provision of the city. A key group they were targeting was 0-5 years olds, with events such singing and making masks.
The theme for the festival was transformation, to change yourself, your environment and each other. It would include 90 events including:
· In the Frame: where children would appear for five minutes to do whatever they wanted. For example a 5 year old was performing a dance piece on Indiana Jones · Devil’s Sunrise: where families were transported to Devil’s Dyke at 5am to hear a story teller · Café Noir: at the Komedia - for children to experience eating food and hearing comedy and music in the dark · An interactive performance of Alice in Wonderland
These events had been heavily promoted and had a good take-up in areas such as Whitehawk. Other targeted work included going into 5 schools who would lead the Big Sing and the mini-mile which was being run by Active for Life in the last mile of the Marathon. There had been a volunteer programme, which had been able to find 15 very experienced ‘super volunteers’ who could oversee 60 volunteers. The festival had been featured in the Guardian’s ‘top 10 things to do with your child at Easter‘.
The first UK children’s festival network meeting was being held the following week to bring together the organisers of these events. It was being funded by SEEDA and the Arts Council and would have delegates from 15 festivals, including Sheffield who had 20 years of experience of running their event.
The funding for the festival would come to an end this year and so the possibility of INTERREG funding was being explored. The Committee thanked Ms Jefferies and expressed its appreciation of the range of events being held. They wished her luck in her secondment to the South Bank Centre.
They agreed that the festival made a vital contribution to the city’s good reputation for culture.
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Monitoring and funding of Sport Development initiatives Minutes: Jayne Babb explained that due to illness she was here instead of Jan Sutherland, the Sports & Physical Activity Manager. The purpose of Sports Development Team & the Active for Life Initiative was to support, and create, sport and physical activity opportunities. The focus was on the least active and hard to reach groups. Their work included:
· recruiting and training volunteers · assisting clubs in developing policies and procedures and training coaches · one aspect of the work is the Health walks programme - 16 health walks are delivered per week (all are led by trained volunteers and 60% of participants consider themselves to have a disability). The Committee had heard positive feedback about this scheme. · The volunteers are supported by 2 paid members of staff who are funded by the Council and the NHS. (Funding finishes in 2012). · Delivering a range of sport & physical activity session across the city · Summer and Easter Holiday Activity Courses
The aim of the Active for Life team was ‘more people, more active, more often’. The national goal was to have 2 million people active by 2012. Areas were targeted such as Portslade, Tarner, Hollingdean and Hollingbury. Over 3,500 people have engaged in activity sessions, with over 17,000 attendances.
The Primary Care Trust (PCT) was a key partner, as the project is key to delivering the health agenda. A group met regularly to discuss strategic commissioning.
A goal was to raise the profile of sport across the city, with the aiming of getting people to exercise 5 times a week for 30 minutes. Although more people were exercising once or twice a week, this has been exceeded with hard to reach groups. Participants were monitored for age, frequency of activity, postcode and an attendance register was taken and the data was used for funders, PIs and the LAA.
The Committee expressed its support for programmes such as the AFL taster sessions in the Easter Holidays for schoolchildren.
The funding opportunities (contained in the tables on p27 of the agenda) were identified by a part-time funding officer who also helped other organisations obtain funding. While the Council had bid for all the available programmes, the funds were decreasing. The Committee heard how the team worked to help in rehabilitation, including:
· GP referral scheme · Active for Life directory (which goes out to rehabilitation and physio groups) and website which shows the availability of sporting activities by postcode.
The team worked with sports clubs to get them to welcome those who were keen to participate. It supported both the MEND and mini-MEND programmes to tackle child obesity and support adult weight management. There had been a big take up of this programme.
RESOLVED: (1) to note the contents of the report and (2) to endorse its monitoring and evaluation procedures and the benefits of the programmes provided by the Sports Development Team.
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Sports Facilities Update Minutes: Toby Kingsbury, the Sports Facilities Manager, provided an update on the following sports and facilities:
Free swimming initiatives – This was very successful – with an increase of 14% in 60+ swims and 17% in under 16 swims. Free swimming lessons for non-swimmers and weaker swimmers aged over 11 years were now being introduced.
Golf courses management contract - there had been a slight delay in the transfer of staff which would be resolved within a week, once the Admitted Body Status had been finalised and signed. A meeting had been held with the unions to agree the way forward.
Mytime Active are formulating a golf development plan would lead to the promotion of golf in schools and other initiatives to increase the take up of the sport. They also had plans to invest in the development of the clubhouses, practice grounds and grounds maintenance equipment.
King Alfred – the health and safety works were nearing completion (mainly structural repairs, but also internal redecorations) and there had been a recent member tour. Other improvements would follow such as the relocation of the fitness suite to increase membership and capitalise on the sea views.
DC Leisure contract - was due for renewal in April 2011. There would be a 6-9 month tendering process. The year-on-year usage continued to grow faster than the Sport England target of 1%. The throughput across the sites was 642,500 up to the end of January 2010. This represented an increase of 11,000 visits (1.75%) compared to the same period last year.
All four sites were now ‘highly commended’ under Quest accreditation. Customer satisfaction surveys were undertaken across the sites in 2009 and feedback was generally positive.
The refurbishment of St Lukes Swimming Pool was about to go out to tender and the works would start in Mid-June. The work would include refurbishing the changing rooms and the reception area. It would create a new entrance and a mixed changing village. This had received a significant amount of funding from Sport England (£175,000)
The improvements at the Prince Regent had taken place, including new flooring and exercise equipment in the fitness suite.
Building Schools for the Future - a pilot Playing Field Strategy had been developed for the Council’s Readiness to Deliver document which focussed upon four schools. Mr Kingsbury advised that this will need to be developed to include all playing fields as part of a citywide strategy.
Nevill Recreation Ground – Mr Kingsbury had attended a meeting a week ago with representatives from Blatchington Mill School and the sports clubs which have combined to form the Brighton and Hove Community Sports Company. This single company would enable close working and be a more attractive funding proposition and members agreed that this was a good model.. The first development would be two all-weather pitches. Mr Kingsbury would sit on the partnership board and hoped that it would include representatives from the County Cricket and Brighton & Hove Albion.
Manor Road Gym – was currently run by volunteers and a very important community resource.
Falmer/Withdean – negotiations regarding the handover of the Withdean facilities from Brighton & Hove Albion (BHA) have begun. The Council was currently assessing the future of temporary buildings there.
County Cricket Ground- Mr Kingsbury was visiting in two weeks to look at the progress. This would include the redevelopment of the Gilligan stand, the south-west stand, hospitality units and new groundsman’s facility.
In response to questions, Councillors heard that the issue of the running track has been raised by the Athletics’ Club who was keen to have the surface re-topped. Funding streams, such as Sports England, would be looked at. They highlighted that Preston Park Tennis Club was very accessible. Although it had obtained funding from the Lawn Tennis Association, had been knocked back by planners and it was good to see the Club taking initiative. Jayne Babb promised to look into what could be done for the cycle track in Preston Park and report this back to members. Mr Kingsbury agreed to liaise with DC Leisure and Cllr Harmer-Strange about roller hockey rinks.
RESOLVED: (1) to note the improvements that have been made to sports facilities in the city over the past year (2) receive a presentation at a future meeting from Mytime Active regarding their plans for the Council’s golf courses.
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Additional documents: Minutes: The Assistant Director of City Services, Gillian Marston, began by informing the Committee that the Shadow National Park Authority (NPA) was in place and would be fully functioning from April 2011. The boundary had been an important issue and 40% of Brighton and Hove’s land would be in the National Park.
Ms Marston went on to highlight some of the key issues for the National Park which included:
· The Downland Initiative which was aimed at securing a more sustainable management for the tenanted farms belonging to the council and surrounding the City. · The management of rights of way, including footpaths. Local authorities could delegate these powers to the National Park or keep them separate. Both West Sussex and Hampshire have indicated their wish to maintain their rights, while East Sussex was not decided. · Planning as National Parks have usually taken on the full planning functions. Due to the potential number of applications, they would be likely to delegate these down to Local Authorities as far as possible - but would have the right to call in certain decisions. This was less of a concern for Brighton & Hove, as they have relatively few applications, but would be a very big issue for district councils such as Chichester. · Location of the South Downs National Park Offices – it was expected that once the shape of the organisation had been decided by the NPA in summer, this would determine the size and number of offices it would need. This could include a number of regional offices.
The Council had been part of the Steering Group to establish the National Park which has met regularly to discuss issues such as Gateway Sites to the Park.
In response to a question about rights of way, the Committee heard that there used to be a dedicated officer who had good local knowledge of the area.
resolved:the Committee agreed to note the report.
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Work Programme update
Minutes: The Members welcomed the updated work programme and offered some additional suggestions:
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ITEMS TO GO FORWARD TO CABINET, CABINET MEMBER MEETING OR COUNCIL To consider items to be submitted to the next available Cabinet or Cabinet Member Meeting or Council. |