Agenda and minutes

Ambitious Plymouth - Monday 23 September 2013 10.00 am

Venue: Council House, Plymouth (Next to the Civic Centre)

Contact: Ross Johnston, Democratic Support Officer  Email: ross.johnston@plymouth.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

21.

APPOINTMENT OF CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIR

Minutes:

Agreed that in the absence of the Chair, Councillor Monahan is appointed as Chair and Councillor Sam Davey is appointed as Vice-Chair for this meeting only.

22.

TO NOTE THE VICE-CHAIR

The panel will note the appointment of the Vice-Chair for the remainder of the municipal year 2013 – 2014.

Minutes:

The panel noted the appointment of Councillor Monahan as Vice-Chair for the remainder of the municipal year 2013 – 2014.

23.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of this agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest in accordance with the code of conduct.

24.

MINUTES pdf icon PDF 85 KB

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting held on 12 August 2013.

 

Minutes:

Members reviewed the minutes and commented that Minute 17 (e) should read ‘where eligible FSM were available for full-time pupils at school, this included nursery children who attend full days and also sixth form pupils. Meals were not available for children at further education colleges’.

 

Agreed that subject to minute 17 (e) being amended as above the minutes of the meeting held on 12 August 2013 are confirmed as a correct record.

25.

CHAIR'S URGENT BUSINESS

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

Minutes:

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

26.

CITY OF CULTURE BID

To receive a verbal update on the City of Culture Bid.

Minutes:

Councillor Peter Smith, Deputy Leader of Plymouth City Council, David Draffan, Assistant Director for Economic Development, Nicola Moyle, Head of Arts and Heritage and Adrian Vinken, Chief Executive of the Theatre Royal and Chair of the Plymouth Culture Board, provided the panel with an update on the City of Culture Bid.

 

Councillor Smith informed the panel that –

 

(a)

the Plymouth Culture Board lead the city’s bid for the UK City of Culture 2017; this board led by Adrian Vinken had been brilliant in developing this bid and through its commitment unified the city and gathered many of the city’s major stakeholders together to develop and submit a bid that would celebrate Plymouth’s culture and history and seek for the city to be recognised as an ocean city both nationally and internationally;

 

(b)

Plymouth’s UK City of Culture Bid had a very strong social media campaign, which, along with some of the world class events that the city had hosted, significantly raised the city’s profile;

 

(c)

the city’s bid was seen as a stepping stone to continue the city’s ambitions to become a strong cultural centre and the foundations for the city to deliver its plans for the transatlantic celebrations in 2020, the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower ship’s departure from Plymouth to America;

 

(d)

in total 11 cities bid for the City of Culture 2017, and only four cities were shortlisted for the next bid stage, unfortunately Plymouth wasn’t shortlisted but this would not deter Plymouth from carrying on its vision to establish itself as an ocean city with an excellent cultural offer and many events and initiatives had continued to be progressed to ensure this vision is achieved;

 

(e)

some of the events and initiatives that Plymouth had been working on included the development a history centre, the opening of world class art exhibition, refurbishment of the Theatre Royal, guarantor for Ocean Studios and hosting a visit of the president of Massachusetts Senate.

 

Adrian Vinken further commented that –

 

(f)

the decision making for the shortlisting was undertaken nationally and had political elements and this gave Plymouth a minimal chance of being shortlisted, the city was disappointed to not be shortlisted; however it wasn’t completely unexpected and the feedback received was positive;

 

(g)

in moving forward in preparation for future City of Culture bids the Board requested further feedback to enable the city to learn from any mistakes, the feedback received commented that the proposed growth and visitor numbers was overly ambitious although it was believed by the Council’s Economic Development department that the figures submitted as part of the bid were, in fact, conservative and modest;

 

(h)

in preparing for the City of Culture bid the Board managed to bring together some very senior city leaders and the enthusiasm and commitment of this group would be a big driving force in delivering the city’s cultural aspirations in the future;

 

(i)

as part of the bid process the Board approached a number of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

27.

REVIEW OF THE LIBRARY AND MUSEUM PROVISION

To receive a verbal update on city’s library and museum provision.

Minutes:

Councillor Peter Smith, Deputy Leader of Plymouth City Council, David Draffan, Assistant Director for Economic Development, Nicola Moyle, Head of Arts and Heritage and Chris Goddard, Library Service Manager gave an update to the panel which reviewing the library and museum provision in the city. The panel was informed that –

 

(a)

one of the key strands of the City of Culture Bid 2017 was an intention to improve the cultural infrastructure in the city and this was captured by the council’s commitment to develop the city’s museum and create the Plymouth History Centre;

 

(b)

in September 2013 the Council’s Cabinet unanimously agreed to approve plans for the Plymouth History Centre, a facility that will be three times the size of the city’s current museum and will become a major cultural resource for the city to demonstrate the city’s history and heritage;

 

(c)

the History Centre will provide a much needed home for the city’s Records Office;

 

(d)

as part of the plans the city’s central library will be relocated in a City Centre location and the allocated funding for the History Centre has the provision to enable this relocation;

 

(e)

the History Centre project is to be funded from a bid to receive £12.5m of Heritage Lottery Funding, which is backed up by an agreed £5m of match funding from the Council and a further £3m funded from the Arts Council and other funding organisations;

 

(f)

the History Centre is a significant project which will utilise the latest audio and visual technology and will become a major attraction for the city leading up to the transatlantic celebrations in 2020.

 

In response to members’ questions it was reported that –

 

(g)

the detailed planning of the History Centre will not begin until 2014 following the result of the Heritage Lottery Fund bid, if successful a further bid would be submitted and decide upon in 2015 and it was hoped that the facility would be open in early 2018;

 

(h)

the Council was completely committed to this bid and the development of the History Centre and had complete support from all relevant organisations, including the National Records Office in London, but if the bid was not successful then the Council would have time to reflect and evolve its plans to provide this facility;

 

(i)

during the construction phase the existing library and museum buildings may need to be closed to the public but the service had an activity plan that would continue to allow access, perhaps at alternative locations, to the library and museums services;

 

(j)

the plans for the History Centre would build in a facility for virtual access to ensure that the services were available to a global audience.

 

The Chair thanked Councillor Peter Smith, David Draffan, Nicola Moyle and Heritage and Chris Goddard for their attendance.

28.

SCHOOL TRANSPORT PROVISION REVIEW pdf icon PDF 95 KB

To receive a report providing a review of school transport provision.

Minutes:

Jayne Gorton, Senior Education Officer presented the panel with an update reviewing the School Transport Provision and answered members’ questions as follows:

 

(a)

the council had agreed plans to expand schools in the Plympton locality from 2015 to help deal with the increase in school places required following the recent baby boom;

 

(b)

parents whose children were allocated school places some distance away from their homes were able to apply for school transport or a petrol allowance;

 

(c)

the agency used to cover for sick leave for school escorts were employed on zero hour contracts;

 

(d)

sickness within the service had been reduced over the past couple of years and was regularly monitored and reviewed, and action taken through occupational health referrals or withdrawal of self-certification where necessary;

 

(e)

the school transport fleet was due to be upgraded in total with a brand new fleet of vehicles; this would reduce the services maintenance costs and provide a better position for the service’s budget;

 

(f)

the Procurement department would be communicated with in terms of scheduling a phased replacement scheme for future fleet replacement, rather than a complete total fleet replacement.

 

29.

'NARROWING THE GAP IN SCHOOLS' COOPERATIVE REVIEW pdf icon PDF 79 KB

To receive the ‘Narrowing the Gap in Schools’ cooperative review’s project plan.

Minutes:

The panel noted the ‘Narrowing the Gap in Schools’ Cooperative Review Project Plan.

30.

TRACKING RESOLUTIONS pdf icon PDF 58 KB

The panel to review and monitor the progress of tracking resolutions and receive any relevant feedback from the Cooperative Scrutiny Board.

Minutes:

Councillor Jordan informed the panel that in response to tracking resolution 12.08.2013 (Minute 14 – resolution 1), he had now met with relevant officers and was working with them to develop a process that would improve the practice of diagnosing and supporting children with dyslexia.

 

Agreed that a progress report is provided to the Ambitious Plymouth panel at its meeting on 3 February 2014.

31.

WORK PROGRAMME pdf icon PDF 74 KB

To review the Ambitious Plymouth work programme 2013 – 2014.

Minutes:

The panel noted its work programme and agreed that –

 

(1)

the ‘School Transport Provision Review’ item is removed from the Work Programme scheduled for the meeting on 11 November 2013;

 

(2)

a ‘Dyslexia Progress Report’ item is added to the Work Programme for the meeting on 3 February 2014;

(3)

a ‘Review of the Progress of the Culture Board’ is added to the Work Programme for the meeting on 3 March 2014.

 

32.

EXEMPT BUSINESS

To consider passing a resolution under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it (they) involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Minutes:

There were no items of exempt business.