Agenda for Culture, Tourism & Enterprise Overview & Scrutiny Committee on Thursday, 30th September, 2010, 4.00pm
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Agenda and minutes
PDF 197 KBVenue: Council Chamber, Hove Town Hall. View directions
Contact: Julia Riches, Scrutiny Support Officer
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Minutes: Substitutes
There were no substitutes
Declarations of interest
There were no declarations of interest.
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 are excluded from the meeting during item 27, Minutes from 1 July 2010.
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MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING Minutes: Resolved - that the minutes of the meeting on 1 July 2010 be approved and signed by the Chair.
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CHAIR'S COMMUNICATIONS
Minutes: The Chair of the Committee, Councillor Amy Kennedy highlighted how busy the city was at present. There was good news in the number of conferences confirmed including the Liberal Democrats in September 2012 and British Nuclear Medicine in 2013. She congratulated Visit Brighton for their work on the British Arts Festival Association conference which was expected to attract over 300 delegates in November.
Time Out, the listings magazine, has announced that it will be publishing a Shortlist guide to Brighton (as already done for cities such as London and Berlin). This showed Brighton’s status as a European city break destination.
Cllr Kennedy reminded members of the visit to the Brighton Centre on 04/10/10 and congratulated the Centre on achieving ISO9000. There would be more information on this in Jayne Babb’s report to CTEOSC on 25th November.
There was a cluster of cultural events this autumn, which included:
CTEOSC would hear a 6 month update on the Festival from Andrew Comben at their November meeting.
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LETTERS AND WRITTEN QUESTIONS FROM COUNCILLORS No letters or written questions have been received. Minutes: There were none.
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PUBLIC QUESTIONS No public questions have been received. Minutes: There were none.
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Verbal update from Tim Hutchings, The Grounded Events Company. Minutes: Mr Tim Hutchings, of the Grounded Events Company, told the Committee that they faced 3 key challenges in planning the 2011 event:
The 2011 event would be 25% bigger with 10,000 runners. Improvements from this year included:
There had been 6,000 runners this year (from 8,000 entries), which was also the anticipated number for 2011. However, they would be aiming to increase to 8,000 runners in 2012. Mr Hutchings also welcomed the launch last week of the half marathon.
Grounded Events had moved into new offices in West Street and taken on a new member of staff, an international runner who would be a great resource, for 3 days per week.
The Chair congratulated Mr Hutchings on the progress of the Marathon. He reassured the committee that they would be increasing the number of toilets and improving their location. The number of stewards would also be increased, including professional ones. These stewards would be replaced when needed and provided with lunch. The issue of late road closures was being addressed, by closing roads an hour earlier. He highlighted the work being done to stop the mixing up of spectators and runners next year. At great extra cost, the number of marquees on the beach would be increased to speed up the repatriation of runners.
A question was asked about publicity and Mr Hutchings explained that the radio coverage would be more comprehensive than television, as the city was in between Kent and Hampshire. There would be greater coverage on Sky Sports next year.
A question was asked about increasing the use of public transport. Mr Hutchings thought that Park and Ride had been oversupplied this year, but understood that trains had been very well used. The aim next year was to have 60% of spectators arriving by train. He expressed his concern at having to pay a five figure sum for the parking restrictions effect. The Chair thanked Mr Hutchings for the update and asked scrutiny officers to arrange a visit to the Grounded Events office in the new year.
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Legibility Study Presentation by Jim Mayor. A copy of the Streetscape Design Guidelines can be found at:
http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/downloads/bhcc/transport/Streetscape_Design_Guidelines.pdf Minutes: Mr Jim Mayor, Project Manager, gave a presentation about the Streetscape Design Guidelines which had been approved in July by the Environment CMM. The purpose was to ensure a consistent and high quality approach to street furnitureand materials. It was one of the key documents that would support delivery of the Public Realm Strategy - alongside the Public Space Public Life Study (vision), Public Space Public Life Delivery Document, the Materials Database (for ensuring consistent reinstatement of materials) and the Urban Characterisation Study. The overall aim of the Public Realm work was to ensure that all work in the city was coordinated and sought to improve things for all residents – historically the focus has simply been on accommodating traffic.
The Guidelines had been developed with people across the organisation and benefited from the input of critical friends such as Graham Smith and CABE. Living Streets would be using the document as a good practice benchmark in their autumn campaign. The document would be published in editions to provide the opportunity to update it. Guidance was offered on considering, specifying, siting and installing street furniture and materials, the latter included the need to improve quality of workmanship. Another objective was ensuring the needs of all users were properly balanced in street design. Brighton Station was used as an example of a poorly balanced space: for example 74% of the station’s users arrive on foot but only 23% of space was allocated to pedestrians, whilst 4% of users arrive by taxis which were allocated 27% of the space.
Research had found that if you limit the guidance offered to drivers, this resulted in increased care and reduced the number of accidents. An example was New Road, where drivers drove slowly and there had been no accidents. An example of pointless street clutter was white centre lines on roads: introduced in the 1920s to remind early drivers which side of the road to drive on yet still added automatically on most roads today, even though research showed that they encourage drivers to drive faster and more closely together
The Cabinet Member for the Environment had emphasised that the benefits of these guidelines included; attracting more people into the city, improving safety and sustainability and reducing the amount of money spent unnecessarily. The Committee heard that the guidelines would be turned into a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) and then incorporated into the Core Strategy after August 2011.
When asked if these guidelines took enough account of the needs of those with disabilities, Mr Mayor confirmed that they had incorporated the suggestions of Jon Hastie at the Brighton & Hove Federation of Disabled People, but that a general theme of the Streetscape Design Guidelines was that compliance with guidance such as DDA regulations should not be seen as the sole quality benchmark of a scheme. In many instances a scheme would need to surpass minimum DDA recommendations to be of value to users. For example, the required width between items of street furniture would depend on aspects of wider street context, such as pedestrian volume – not just what the DDA cites as the minimal acceptable width to allow wheelchair access.
Although wide consultation had taken place about New Road, they had found it hard to engage with the disabled community. The Council was working with the Federation to make sure that the needs of people with disabilities were better represented in the future, including a workshop next week. It was not always possible to design spaces that work absolutely perfectly for everyone, as everyone had slightly different needs. Mr Mayor promised to look at the work being done on Lifetime Neighbourhoods suggested by a member of CTEOSC.
A question was asked about how these guidelines would be policed. Mr Mayor said that whilst the Public Space Public Life study recommended that 2 dedicated Public Realm posts were needed, one to lead realisation, and the other to enforce the standards of the Public Realm vision, the exact implementation of this would be incorporated into the current restructuring.
A member of the Committee highlighted a notorious bus stop in North Road and asked whether departments in the Council worked together to rectify poor practice. Mr Mayor reassured the Committee that staff were talking increasingly regularly and that the guidelines would remind them of the need to do so.
The Chair suggested that Councillor Marsh to send a letter to the Environment CMM which outlined her concerns about bus shelters. It was agreed that an extract of the minutes of this meeting would be sent to the Leader of the Council, alongside a letter from the Chair and the Deputy, to welcome these guidelines and urge this issue to be included as part of the restructuring process.
RESOLVED: That the Chair of the Committee writes to the Leader and Chief Executive of the Council and forwards a copy of the minutes from this meeting.
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Leisure Contract - update from Workshop Verbal Update by Toby Kingsbury, Sports Facilities Manager, B&HCC. Minutes: Mr Toby Kingsbury, Sports Facilities Manager, informed CTEOSC that they had received ten expressions of interest in the leisure contract (8 from charitable organisations or social enterprises and 2 private sector companies). The workshop had informed the specification and contract and now 6 organisations had been shortlisted (4 social enterprises and 2 private). A briefing session had been recently held for all tenderers. An evaluation of the tenders would be carried out from 25th October and a report would go to Cabinet in December to seek approval for the chosen organisation.
The Chair welcomed how this workshop had assisted the work of CTEOSC.
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Statutory Local Economic Assessment Duty Additional documents: Minutes: Ms Paula Murray, Head of Culture and Economy, explained that this report described an important piece of work currently being carried out. It was no longer a statutory duty, but as Brighton & Hove had been allocated the funding was going ahead with the Assessment. Para 3.3.1 of the report outlined the purpose of the Assessment. Part of the reason that it would be so important to have up to date economic data at this point in time would be to inform the ongoing development of the Local Enterprise Partnerships. The timetable could slip because there was no longer the requirement to finish by March 2011. The aim was to take the Assessment to Cabinet early in the New Year and then bring to CTEOSC to sign off.
The Chair congratulated officers on continuing this work although it was no longer statutory. In reply to a question about office space, Ms Murray confirmed that this issue would be tackled under ‘business needs’. Members heard that it was hoped to hold a workshop on this issue in November. This would look at the key findings to date, alongside the CESP, and give members the opportunity to feed into the project. A member of CTEOSC requested that this workshop be opened up to other members.
Resolved - The Committee welcomed the decision to proceed with the Assessment, noted the contents of the report and welcomed the approach outlined in the report.
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In Year Budget Savings - Free Swimming Initiative Minutes: Mr Toby Kingsbury, Sports Facilities Manager, told members that the BHCC was one of only two local authorities in Sussex to offer the full scheme to both over 60s and children aged 16 and under. The funding for this initiative had ceased in July 2010, but the Council had decided to continue the scheme for the remainder of the school summer holiday. This would be extended for children aged 11 and under until 31st March 2011, because reducing childhood obesity was a key target. The extension of free swimming had been made possible by the continued support funding of the PCT. Of the 18 authorities researched, BHCC was the only one who had extended this initiative to the end of the financial year.
Figures showed that there had been an increase in number of swims since the initiative started. It would be hard to measure the impact of ceasing the scheme, except for those aged 11 and under, until later in the year. The future of the scheme was uncertain, but the Council would talk to the PCT about it towards the close of the year. Mr Kingsbury also reminded the Committee of the intention to develop a leisure card scheme offering discounted rates for residents in receipt of certain benefits.
A question was asked about whether the abolition of PCTs, to be replaced by GPs consortia, would have an impact on sports provision. Ms Murray told members that talks needed to continue with those who would hold the finance. A member of CTEOSC suggested that the Council looked at the example of Tower Hamlets who offer swimming and gym use on prescription. Mr Kingsbury agreed to provide information about the funding and pricing of the GP referral scheme in the city. This currently operated for gyms but could be explored in relation to swimming. A letter had been received from the Older People’s Council expressing its concern about the withdrawal of free swimming for the over 60s.
According to a member, a white paper was expected in the next 3 months which would give local authorities greater power in relation to public health. However, it was not clear whether this would attract additional funding.
RESOLVED – The Committee noted the success of the Free Swimming and were advised of the extended version of the scheme.
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Minutes: Members noted the proposed work programme and were concerned that the proposed agenda for November was very full and may need altering with the Chair and Deputy Chair. It was also requested that the workshop on Credit Unions could still happen in the future.
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CTEOSC Scrutiny Panels
Additional documents: Minutes: Tom Hook, the Head of Scrutiny told members that a public consultation had received 69 separate suggestions for scrutiny topics (8 relating to CTEOSC). The Panel on Kids and Culture was currently running and so the next topic would begin after this one had been completed. The paper recommended that the first 3 topics outlined would make suitable subjects for a scrutiny:
The chosen topic needed to be tightly focussed and undertaken between December 2010 and March 2011.
The 5 topics that were not felt to be worth proceeding at the moment, and the reasons for their exclusion, were as follows:
It was recognised that the music industry was an important economic sector and this could provide an opportunity to host a workshop for promoters to meet all the economic drivers e.g. licensing. It was suggested that the city was not properly on the music map and could benefit from recognising the financial benefits it can bring. There were problems with venues closing and also a range of venues of different sizes were needed in the city. It was felt that this issue could be tackled in 3 months with a particular focus on a workshop session for both Members and invited participants from the Music sector.
Support was also expressed for looking at innovative ways to support culture and learning from the example of Glasgow. This was because supporting all forms of art needed to be a priority for the city. Ms Murray added that there were case studies also available from the US and Europe, including private sector sponsorship.
Resolved – the Committee voted to establish a scrutiny panel to examine the music industry in the city. The Committee also requested that they receive a report on innovative ways to support culture, which could then potentially be considered as the subject for a future scrutiny or workshop.
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ITEMS TO GO FORWARD TO CABINET, THE RELEVANT CABINET MEMBER MEETING OR COUNCIL To consider items to be submitted to the next available Cabinet, Cabinet Member Meeting or to Council. Minutes: Resolved - The extract from the minutes on Item 20 and a letter of support for the Legibility Study to be sent to the Leader and Chief Executive from the Chair
Item 23 on Free Swimming Initiative to go to Council for information.
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Minutes from 1 July 2010 - Part 2 Minutes: The Committee went into part 2 to agree these minutes.
Resolved - The minutes from 1st July 2010 were agreed.
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