Agenda for Culture, Tourism & Enterprise Overview & Scrutiny Committee on Thursday, 25th November, 2010, 4.00pm
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Agenda and minutes
PDF 195 KBVenue: Council Chamber, Hove Town Hall
Contact: Julia Riches, Scrutiny Support Officer
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Minutes: Substitutes
Councillor Warren Morgan for Councillor Craig Turton
Declarations of Interest
Councillor Mo Marsh declared an interest as a member of the Brighton Dome & Festival Board.
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 not excluded. |
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MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING Minutes: RESOLVED – that the minutes of the meeting on 30 September be approved and signed by the Chair. |
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CHAIR'S COMMUNICATIONS Minutes: The Chair told the Committee about Ride the Wave, a new programme of free support to help local businesses grow and thrive during the tough economic climate. A series of workshops were being held – the first was on 18 November and was a great success.
The Ice Rink had received national coverage and was rated the second best in the country by the Financial Times. A new exhibition Capturing Colour: Film, Invention and Wonder was opening on 4 December and the 355.0rg sculpture would be on Hove Lawns this weekend.
White Night had been an overwhelming success with an audience of around 40,00 and all events at full capacity. The Sealife Centre broke all previous records for attendances, and the indication is that the BPB events did aswell. The Midnight half marathon was fully booked and all 330 people turned up to race. Each event – 63- was created especially for the festival and included 10 new commissions from local artists. The Chair hoped that funding could be found to allow White Night to continue in future years. |
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PUBLIC QUESTIONS No public questions have been received. Minutes: There were none. |
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WRITTEN QUESTIONS FROM COUNCILLORS No written questions have been received. Minutes: There were none. |
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LETTERS FROM COUNCILLORS No letters have been received. Minutes: There were none. |
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THE STRATEGIC DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITIES Invitation for the Strategic Director of Communities to speak to the Committee. Minutes: This item was taken before Item 29.
The Strategic Director: Communities introduced himself to the Committee and informed them he would be attending all future meetings. He apologised that diary commitments meant he could not stay for this meeting. |
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Presentation on the Brighton Dome and Festival Presentation/update by Andrew Comben, Brighton Dome & Festival. Minutes: Andrew Comben, Chief Executive of Brighton Dome & Festival informed the Committee that this year’s festival had been a great success with 74,000 tickets - the highest ever amount sold. The guest curator, Brian Eno, had had a huge impact. There had been 230 performances over 3 weeks, with dreamthinkspeak extended beyond the festival for a further 6 weeks. 13,000 people attended the dreamthinkspeak installation at the old Co-op building on the London Road. In total, 949 people were employed by companies and there were 350 volunteers during the festival. dreamthinkspeak employed 120 people from October 2009 until July 2010 and involved 131 volunteers. The impact of the festival on the city is enormous – not only artistically, but economically and financially.
65% of the audience were from Brighton & Hove, demonstrating the local base. There had been a 37% increase beyond the catchment area this year, indicating the impact of Brian Eno. The balance between the Brighton & Hove audience and tourism had worked well this year.
Mr Comben then played a DVD to the Committee giving highlights from the Sky Arts Show (that had focused on Hofesh Shechter) and from the Culture Show that had based itself in Brighton for the festival.
The Committee congratulated Mr Comben and his team on such a fantastic and successful event. Following questions, Mr Comben told the Committee that some of the experimental work and rock and pop events were bringing in a younger audience. 92% of those who attended No Fit State on The Level were from Brighton & Hove and 17% were welfare dependent. There were 120,000 people who attended free events, including 33,00 at Brian Eno’s 77million paintings. Mr Comben also confirmed that there was a late train arranged back to London during the festival, and New Writing South had delivered poetry workshops on this train.
The Chair thanked Mr Comben for his very informative presentation and congratulated him and his team on behalf of the Committee. |
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PRESENTATION BY MYTIME ACTIVE ON GOLF COURSES Presentation by Ian Mitchell, Mytime Active. Minutes: Mr Toby Kingsbury, Sports Facilities Manager, introduced members of the management team from mytimeactive: Mr Stephen Blake, Director of Golf, Mr Michael Weekes, mytime Group Course Manager, and Mr Cameron McKillop, General Manager. Mr Blake gave a presentation (for copy see minute book).
Mytimeactive were a not for profit charitable trust that had to make a surplus to re-invest the profits. They operated 26 facilities and managed 10 golf courses on 6 different contracts. They were a successful social enterprise. At Hollingbury Golf Course the visitor numbers were up 43% from last year, although numbers were slightly down at Waterhall. They had reduced prices at Waterhall to encourage more visitors. Existing members had responded positively to the improvements in the interior and in customer service. New tills and online booking had been introduced.
Four schools to date had free school coaching with eight scheduled for next year. Out of the four schools, two junior members had joined. The inter-school golf competition had involved 20 schools.
Around £300,000 had been spent on new course equipment which had resulted in improved playing services and had also led to a very positive feedback from the course staff. In terms of the club house development, at Hollingbury phase 1 had been completed and had increased the secondary spend. Subject to planning permission, phase 2 would create a balcony to make the most of the fantastic views.
Following questions, Mr Blake explained that Waterhall and Hollingbury were different entities - the budget and higher end of the market respectively. A question was asked about encouraging people with learning or physical disabilities and Mr Blake told the Committee that they were looking into promoting buggy routes. Mr Kingsbury explained that the Council’s team would help mytimeactive engage with the traditionally harder-to-reach.
In response to a question, Mr Blake told the Committee that they hoped that in twelve months time the course at Hollingbury would be of a sufficient standard to host regional events. Following a request for an update in 12 months time, mytimeactive agreed to an update and it was suggested that the Committee may wish to visit the golf courses next year.
The Chair thanked mytimeactive for an interesting presentation and welcomed the offer of a visit and an update next year. |
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UPDATE FROM ENVIRONMENTAL INDUSTRIES Report of the Strategic Director of Communities. Minutes: Ms Paula Murray presented the report. An Economic Development officer had been appointed who will be responsible for sub-sectoral development, working with the environmental industries and the creative industries. Many of the other recommendations will flow from the work of this officer. A recent business survey conducted as part of the Business Retention and Inward Investment (BRII) work backed up the anecdotal evidence of the Scrutiny Report. Two other strategies were being revisited, the Sustainable Communities Strategy, and the City and Employment Skills Plan (CESP). The CESP particularly highlighted the environmental industries. The issue of workspace was already on the agenda but the BRII Board has stepped up the focus on this. On the recommendation that the Council supported the new Environmental Innovation Network, this had unfortunately stalled when the funding from the Innovation and Growth Team was withdrawn. It was recognised that a network was very useful and other funding options were being explored.
One third of the places found through the Future Jobs Fund apprenticeship scheme had been in environmental industries. This funding was ending in March 2011. A European bid was underway for other funding. This would be for apprenticeships but was a different structure to the Future Jobs Fund.
Following questions, Ms Murray explained that the new Economic Development post was a change to an existing post. This had gone through the Council’s redeployment process and consequently had taken longer to finalise. A question was asked encouraging the refurbishment of commercial space. The Chair of the BRII Board, Councillor Ayas Fallon-Khan (Cabinet Member for Enterprise, Employment and Major Projects) was present at the meeting. He told the Committee that they were looking at more creative ways to release land. They were contacting those that owned large amounts of land in the city to see if they were willing to increase their office space. Out of four contacted, there was one planning application due to be submitted. Cllr Fallon-Khan informed the Committee that at Shoreham Harbour they were looking at more economic regeneration than housing. Additionally, although the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) were designed geographically, they were working with others outside of the LEP. Environmental industries and retention of students were high on the agenda.
The Chair thanked Cllr Fallon-Khan for his input.
RESOLVED – to note the contents of the report and the planned actions for developing the sector in Brighton & Hove. |
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SUSTAINABILITY GUIDELINES
Report of the Strategic Director of Communities. Additional documents: Minutes: Ms Jayne Babb introduced the report. The outdoor events team were awarded BS8901 in August 2010. Combined certification of BS8901 and ISO 14001 was awarded to the indoor venues team. Brighton & Hove were the first local authority to have the joint standard.
The standard requires a Sustainable Environmental Management System (EMS) for outdoor events. This had three sides to it: environmental impact, social impact and economic impact. Ms Babb told the Committee they were developing smaller assessments for community events in addition to the detailed form required by large events. Achieving BS8901 was the start and the standard will now be implemented. There would be some handholding for a while as the standard was rolled out. 19 outdoor places are licensed but the standard applied to all open spaces. The will also be looking to see if local contractors and suppliers are being used.
There was a Sustainability Steering Committee which involved officers across the council working to share best practice and looking at the process as it evolved. In response to questions, Ms Babb explained that new events were already thinking about the issues and it would be more of a challenge for the long-established events that would need to think differently. She explained that the list of events appended to the report included bold type for major events and that other small items were on the list when the organisers had filled in an event application form asking to hold an event in a public space.
The Chair congratulated all those involved in achieving the certification and requested that the Committee have an update in a further 12-18 months. The Committee agreed to add to the existing recommendation of noting in the report a record of the Committee’s thanks and support to those involved.
RESOLVED: to note the achievement for BS8901: specification for a sustainability management system for events; and to extend thanks and support to all those involved. |
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LOCAL AREA AGREEMENT - 2010/11 Verbal update and briefing note. Minutes: Mr Richard Miles gave a verbal update to the Committee on the Local Area Agreement (LAA). There have been substantial changes and the national framework has been largely cancelled by the Government. The LAA was in its last six months (2008-2011) and has been an important framework for performance partnership working. The control of the LAA has been handed to local authorities so it was now down to local authorities to amend or drop targets. The performance reward grant has also been abolished (around £2m). The Public Service Board were putting together a framework to ensure joint working.
Mr Miles introduced a briefing paper on those Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETs). NEET figures had been dropping and the city compared well with other cities. The key issue was that people were dropping out of employment. Jobcentre Plus reported that appointments for under 18s were very rare. They were working with City Curriculum 2015, and there were discussions in schools about KS4 engagement to try and increase engagement. The On2Brand was the successor to Entry to Employment (E2E) and information on this was going to the Children Service’s Board in December.
The Chair thanked Mr Miles and emphasised the need to work with employers to invest in young people. |
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SCRUTINY PANEL REPORT ON CULTURAL PROVISION FOR CHILDREN Report of the Strategic Director of Resources. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair of the Scrutiny Panel, Councillor Melanie Davis, introduced the report. She expressed her thanks to her fellow Councillors and the Scrutiny Officer. She explained that the drivers behind the Panel were how important this area of provision was for young people and exploring ways to extend that, plus the fact that funding for the Express Strategy for the arts had not been forthcoming. The Panel discovered that whilst there were many great events and activities, it was not always easy to find out about this and to access them. The recommendations in the report were aimed at including as many children as possible and encouraging more joined-up working. A more coherent approach to helping all young people to engage in arts and cultural activities across the city was required. Cllr Davis also welcomed the recent audit undertaken by Children’s Services that had occurred during the Panel’s inquiry.
As a Panel Member, Councillor Carol Theobald expressed her support for the report and gave her thanks to all those who had been involved in the Inquiry. She commented that there was a lot going on in the city, but often not enough schools were involved. More publicity and a new website could help. There was also a recommendation that there should be a visible central notice board in the Jubilee Library.
Other Councillors on the Committee welcomed the report and agreed with the recommendations. They remarked on the need to work more closely with schools, the value of arts and cultural events, and the theme of inclusion.
The report would also be forwarded to both the Cabinet Member for Culture, Recreation and Tourism and for Children and Young People for executive response.
The Chair informed the Committee that there would be a report back in 12 months time.
RESOLVED – the Committee endorsed the Scrutiny Panel Report on Cultural Provision for Children and Young People. |
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Minutes: The Chair introduced the work programme. The next meeting of the Committee was 26 January 2011 at 2pm to consider the budget papers.
It was agreed to ask Tony Mernagh, Chair of the Brighton & Hove Economic Partnership to a future meeting. |
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ITEMS TO GO FORWARD TO CABINET OR THE RELEVANT CABINET MEMBER MEETING To consider items to be submitted to the next available Cabinet or Cabinet Member. Minutes: The Scrutiny Panel Report on Cultural Provision for Children and Young People was referred to Cabinet or the relevant Cabinet Member Meeting. |
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ITEMS TO GO FORWARD TO COUNCIL Minutes: There were none. |