Name

Subject

Reason

Interest

Councillor Mrs Beer

Minute 48

Employed by Devon and Cornwall Police

Personal

(a)

a number of recommendations had arisen from the Councillor Call for Action, Budshead Trust, which included –

?

work being undertaken by the Localities Manager to identify core funding to deliver the Trust’s current projects and then to examine the Trust’s governance arrangements and potential future funding opportunities;

?

the Trust was taking up the Council’s offer of assistance in preparing future funding bids and seeking similar support from the University;

?

subject to the Community Grant Scheme criteria being met, the Honicknowle ward councillors would be encouraged to donate their allocation to the  Trust as a short term funding solution;

(b)

it had been agreed that the recommendations arising from the panel’s consideration of the Three Year Review of Licensing Act 2003 Statement of Licensing Policy including the Cumulative Impact Policy were referred to Cabinet.

(a)

the Plymouth report identified challenges facing different partners across the city and examined the customer experience;

(b)

the report identified that Plymouth had made progress in a lot of areas across the city, however the current profile of Plymouth did not meet the expectation of being a vibrant waterfront city;

(c)

the Plymouth report became the basis for setting the four new priorities for the city which would supersede the 14 Corporate Improvement Priorities;

(d)

since the publication of the report the Council had worked with key partners to identify a range of measures the partnership needed to focus on, in order to aid delivery;

(e)

Plymouth was a comparatively safe city when compared to other urban cities, with falling overall crime, particularly acquisitive crime such as theft of and from vehicles and domestic burglary;

(f)

offending linked to the night time economy and alcohol remained problematic for the city; (drunkenness, alcohol related violence and offences such as sexual assaults and domestic abuse were the main issues);

(g)

one of the key challenges for the city was the establishment of a customer contact point across the city for all agencies.

(a)

programme governance;

(b)

programme work stream overview –

?

Plymouth Life Centre – progress;

?

leisure management contract including the procurement timetable;

?

ice and associated facilities;

(c)

Project Manager’s report.

(d)

the project was currently on schedule and on budget;

(e)

the Project Manager’s report highlighted a potential four week delay of the project due to South West Water diversion works;

(f)

currently work was being undertaken to make the structure weather proof prior to January/February 2011 to enable the internal works to be carried out;

(g)

work was being undertaken on the issue of the closure of the Pavilions; the anxiety of the gap in service provision of the ice was understandable but it had been made clear that there would be a delay in providing this service;

(h)

the planning application for the skateboard park would be submitted within the next few weeks and work on the site would commence in the new year;

(i)

the timeline of the leisure management contract had been changed to reflect the need to train staff prior to the opening of the new facility;

(j)

Balfour Beatty the main contractor working on Plymouth’s Life Centre had been described as ‘exceptional’ in a report published as part of the ‘Considerate Constructors Scheme’ and received top marks in the categories of considerate, environment and respectful;

(k)

the work that Balfour Beatty had been undertaking with businesses, local schools, colleges and users of Central Park had been highlighted by the assessors and the way in which it organised regular seminars, newsletters and updates.

(l)

the date of the building completion and fit out was 10 October 2011 (commissioning works and testing would need to be undertaken);

(m)

work to identify a site for the provision of the ice facility had proved to be difficult; it had been stated from the outset of the project that there would be a gap in service provision of approximately 12 months;

(n)

the extension to the contract for the ice provision within the Pavilions was on option, amongst others, that were being considered;

(o)

the improvement on the uptake in the activity levels by priority customers, children and young people, older people and those living in the most deprived would be achieved as part of the leisure management contract;

(p)

the transfer of Brickfields formed part of the discussions relating to Devonport Regeneration Community Partnership; these discussions had now concluded;

(q)

the pricing structure would be set, by the contractor, at a level which was affordable.

(a)

experienced staff had been appointed to the six multi agency locality teams; 43 city council neighbourhood liaison officers had also been appointed to support ward councillors and police staff at the neighbourhood meetings;

(b)

a range of training sessions had been held for staff; councillors had also been issued with guidance in August 2010; 

(c)

neighbourhood meetings were held on a three monthly basis and were advertised as widely as possible;

(d)

in June and July 2010, 19 meetings had been held with 237 members of the public attending which averaged 12 per meeting; in September 2010, 11 meetings had been held with 158 members of the public attending which averaged 11 per meeting;

(e)

parking issues, anti social behaviour, speeding/road safety and litter/bins had been identified as the main priorities arising from the neighbourhood meetings from June to September 2010.

(f)

the advertisement of the neighbourhood meetings needed to be improved but overall attendance by members of the public was higher than at Area Committee meetings;

(g)

methods used to advertise Area Committee meetings had been deployed, ie local shops, notice boards, website and the notes from the previous meeting which provided details of the date, time and location of the next meeting;

(h)

the Council’s budget for locality working was comparatively small; there was no additional cost to the police for organising the neighbourhood meetings as they had previously arranged the PACT meetings.

(i)

members of the public were unaware of the neighbourhood meetings;

(j)

there was no consistency of how the neighbourhood meetings were working city wide;

(k)

the wards and the neighbourhoods were not aligned;

(l)

no feedback was provided to councillors from the neighbourhood meetings.