To note the appointment of Councillor Richard Bingley as the Chair and Councillor Ian Tuffin as the Vice-Chair for the Municipal Year 2023 – 2024.

The Committee agreed to note the appointment of Councillor Richard Bingley as the Chair and Councillor Ian Tuffin as the Vice-Chair for the municipal year 2023-24.

Councillors will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on the agenda.

The following declarations of interest were made by Councillors in relation to items on the agenda:

To confirm the minutes of the previous meetings held on 21 February 2023 (Call-In) and 1 March 2023.

The Committee agreed the minutes of the meetings held on 21 February 2023 (Call-In) and 1 March 2023 as a correct record.

Councillor Salmon asked for the update mentioned in minute 89i could be re-shared with committee members.

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

There were no items of urgent business.

To note the Growth and Infrastructure Overview and Scrutiny Committee Terms of Reference.

The Committee agreed to note the Growth and Infrastructure Overview and Scrutiny Committee Terms of Reference.

The Committee is invited to review the risk register as published for the Audit and Governance Committee in March 2023.

Ross Jago (Head of Governance, Performance and Risk) provided an update on the risk register and highlighted:

a)    A new risk report would be agreed at the Audit and Governance Committee at the end of July 2023 that would then go to the September 2023 meeting of Growth and Infrastructure Overview and Scrutiny Committee;

b)    Risk number 6 – Insufficient economic performance to sustain the City’s economy and growth plans –  was the only risk relevant to the Committee at that time, and was covered in that meeting by the agenda item on the Freeport.

In response to questions it was highlighted:

c)    The approved plan was to move toward a new MTFP (Medium Term Financial Plan) which would go before Council in September 2023 and Performance Scrutiny would lead on that work;

d)    A glossary would be added in the future to explain the acronyms.

The Committee agreed to note the report.

Councillor Tudor Evans OBE (Leader of the Council) introduced the report and highlighted:

a)    The National Marine Park (NMP) was one of only 5 projects in the UK to have secured over £10 million from The National Lottery to celebrate their 25^th anniversary;

b)    The past year had been spent testing, and getting feedback on, the ideas that were in the original bid;

c)    The NMP had worked with 27 schools and 7,000 school children and had reached millions more people through digital engagement;

d)    There had been 42 community events including Big Blue Splash, school archaeology camps, swim safe, art sessions, NMP open weekends and more as well as having a volunteer programme;

e)    57% of attendees at events had come from the target audiences;

f)     Feedback demonstrated that the people of Plymouth liked and believed in the NMP and wanted to engage;

g)    Marine citizenship was a birth right and it was important to try and remove the barriers that people faced, reconnect them to the sea and change their behaviours;

h)    There were plans to restore waterfront gems with 21^st Century twists at Mount Batten, Mount Edgcumbe and Tinside;

i)     There would be a new National Marine Park Festival and a new large-scale community engagement programme with 5 digitally immersive events.

Kat Deeney (Head of Environmental Planning), David Draffan (Service Director for Economic Development) and Elaine Hayes (National Marine Park Interim CEO) added:

j)     Important to invest in the waterfront so people could access the water, it was important to engage with people across the city, particularly in the north and west of Plymouth;

k)    The digital approach would be important to engage people with what was happening below the water;

l)     The garden battery at Mount Edgcumbe was not accessible at that time but would be turned into a heritage centre;

m)  Access to the Mount Batten Tower would be improved, as well as the public realm in front of the Mount Batten Centre.

In response to questions it was explained:

n)    Councillors would continue to receive a calendar of events and activities to share with residents to keep them involved;

o)    If there were any schools that wanted to work with the team on engaging with the project, they should get in touch and a list of schools that the team were engaging with would be shared with Councillors;

p)    A ‘teach the teacher’ programme would run alongside the schools programme with the aim of giving teachers the knowledge, tools and confidence to run sessions on the NMP and to have a teacher in every academy that would lead on this work;

q)    It is important to use the funding to bring unused gems back into use through the project, such as the garden battery at Mount Edgcumbe;

r)     The digital immersive approach aimed to give everyone access ‘under the water’ without getting wet:

s)     A digital asset bank would be built to be used in different places and spaces to engage as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Councillor Tudor Evans OBE (The Leader of the Council) introduced the Freeport update report and highlighted:

a)     The Freeport was a continuation of themes already present in Plymouth such as net-zero, good growth, green investment, well-paid jobs and innovation;

b)    The Freeport could be used to unlock national opportunities, including pursuance opportunities like Celtic Array and the importance to improve the national grid, also a priority of the Great South West;

c)     Carlton Power’s 10MW hydrogen hub project at Langage, was the first of its kind in the South West and was earmarked to enter operation in 2025 and would help Imerys and Sibelco achieve their sustainability goals;

d)    Babcock had a £40m contract in partnership with Devon defence vehicle designer and manufacturer Supacat, which would deliver 90 new jobs and enable Babcock to expand its operations in the Freeport’s South Yard tax site, with an initial order to manufacture 70 ‘Jackal’ military vehicles;

e)     ABP Port Improvements would utilise £1.3m of Freeport seed capital, plus private sector match, to facilitate higher volumes of freight and increase short sea shipping potential;

f)      Capital Programme Funding of £55m included 2 new Council direct developments at Oceansgate and Langage;

g)     Private sector investment was expected to reach nearly £250m which would bring the total investment to over £300m;

h)    The Freeport was planning for 3,584 jobs from inclusive starter roles through to high value technical roles; 2,745 would be jobs that would pay above the average wage;

i)      10 % of jobs created would be filled by inactive claimants and people registered unemployed, and 300 to 500 people would be upskilled per annum.

Ian Cooper (Operations Manager, PASDF), Nina Sarlaka (Inward Investment and Enterprise Manager), James Whitelock (Head of Oceansgate Infrastructure) and David Draffan (Service Director for Economic Development) added:

j)      A run through of the PASDF governance structure, posts filled and an update on plans to fill the remaining vacant roles;

k)     The centrepiece of the ambitious net zero agenda was the green hydrogen plant which included the 10MW plant at Langage which Carlton Power was bringing forward;

l)      In the original business case for the Freeport, the Council’s part of that had included an innovation centre, a substantial scheme for which £7.2m of seed capital had been secured, but it needed an additional £10m of levelling up funds, but this was unsuccessful so the project at Oceansgate had had to be re-scoped considerably to ensure the seed funding from Freeport was used;

                         i.         The seed funding would be split between the project at Oceansgate and another at Langage which had planning consent;

                       ii.         The development at Oceansgate would consist of workshop units over 1,700sqm using £3.2 million of the seed funding and approximately the same in service borrowing;

                      iii.         The development at Langage would be known as Beaumont Way and was planned to be 4,615sqm (around 3 times the size of the Oceansgate development) and would be soon ready to go out to tender;

                      iv.         Combined, the two  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Committee agreed to:

a)    Combine the items Sustainable Transport in the City, Bus Service Delivery and Improvement in the City, and Non-Commercial Bus Route Service Reductions into one item and look at the BSIP (Bus Services Improvement Plan);

b)    Look at the BSIP as part of a larger item on Transport Provision in Plymouth;

c)    Add an item on Water Quality with contributions from South West Water and to look at micro plastics in industry run-off;

d)    Add an item on The Box;

e)    Hear from local artists on how they are supported by the Cultural Plan;

f)     Move Chelson Meadow Solar Farm item to be scheduled for 2024/25 due to delays in the supply chain that had consequently caused significant delays to the project;

g)    Add an item to hear more about Green Investment and the Plan for Growth;

h)    Add the NMP Strategic Plan to the work programme;

i)     Refer the Taxi Select Committee to the Performance, Finance and Customer Focus Overview and Scrutiny Committee;

j)     To add the Adaptation Plan and Mitigation Plans to the work programme;

k)    Not schedule the Environment Bill item yet as further clarity was needed from central government;

l)     Not schedule the Commercial Estate, including Plymouth Airport, item yet as there were complex issues surrounding the airport which would mean public scrutiny would be extremely limited at this time.

The Committee noted the tracking decisions document.