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Councillor Patrick Nicholson

Councillor Sally Haydon

With regard to the email sent out last week to all members relating to the vaccinations and the concerns regarding the use of facilities across Plymouth, could an indication be given regarding what City Council facilities had been offered and whether health and wellbeing centres were amongst these, in order to assist the NHS in its vital work in carrying out vaccinations in Plymouth.

Response: The vaccination programme was being administered by the NHS and not Plymouth City Council, so no details were available. With regard to the location of the vaccination sites this question was better directed at Councillor Kate Taylor (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care). The aim of the email to all Members was to be helpful, in view of the large number of queries being received from members of the public on vaccinations.

Supplementary: Councillor Kate Taylor (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) was aware of the concerns and this issue would be pursued further with her.

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Councillor Nick

Kelly

Councillor Chris Penberthy

Councillor Nick Kelly had been approached and had read the recent article in the newspaper relating to the Council match funding to a maximum of £20k the Lord High Admiral pub project. Crowd funding was a very powerful initiative that brought the community together and it was an essential way of providing funding.  People had been astonished at the large sum given to a single company.  Could the Cabinet Member clarify the criteria and review it, in light of the public outcry to the recent funding?

Response: The City Change Fund and its partnership with Crowd Fund UK had been hugely successful and had won both national and international awards since its launch in 2015. To date, it had distributed £1.5m over 100 community projects.  This was funded through the Community Infrastructure Levy and other external sources and was not funded by the tax payer. This was a levy that developers paid to help support development in the city.

The Lord High Admiral pub was a specific project which had been in response to the Covid pandemic.  It met the terms and conditions and the seven assessment criteria as set out on the Council’s website, as well as Crowd Fund UK’s website. The project had demonstrated how it supported the local community in a deprived area of the city which had experience a large amount of development.  The hub was used by other businesses, worked closely with the arts community and was also heavily involved community organisations.

A review of the criteria had taken place last year when a climate emergency bonus was introduced.  This included updating the criteria to reflect issues arising from the Covid pandemic which had been already impacting the city.  It was not the right time to change the criteria for existing or potential applicants as this could impact the work that had already started.

Anyone could apply to the scheme  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75