(a)

unemployment benefit claims in Plymouth were at 3.6 per cent of the city’s population, which was lower than the national claimant rate at 3.9 per cent and was a positive reduction on a comparable time in 2012 were claimants in Plymouth totalled 4.2 per cent;

(b)

the largest claimant group were 18-24 year olds, where in Plymouth 6 per cent of this age group claimed unemployment benefits; this was a concern despite the figures being considerably lower than the national average of 7.2 per cent;

(c)

a recent economic review identified an increase in part-time employment as well as comparatively high rates of underemployment in the city;

(d)

in an attempt to bring unemployment levels back to pre-recession rates and increase investment in the city the Economic Development department had created a dedicated Enterprise and Inward Investment team, consisting of three new members of staff;

(e)

inward investment was not solely about obtaining investment from outside of the city but also by creating opportunities for city-based companies to invest further in the city by ensuring that the infrastructure and skills were accessible to these companies;

(f)

a major aspect of the work undertaken by the inward investment team involved providing an excellent aftercare programme; this programme was available to all investing companies and was a key initiative in delivering financial benefits through re-investment and creating additional jobs to drive the city’s growth agenda;

(g)

investment enquiries were another key role within the team and this had been very successful, with in excess of 250 enquiries being dealt with in the past 12 months;

(h)

it was hoped that the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), who had provided six investment enquiries to the Heart of  the South West Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), would generate more investment enquiries as Plymouth improved its inward investment programme;

(i)

vital to delivering investment in the city was for Plymouth to improve its marketing ability and to sell its potential and resources to investors, this had been successfully achieved following the America’s Cup, the City of Culture bid and City Deal opportunity and would further be improved by the creation of an ambassador programme, which would be led by current city-based businesses.

(j)

low-pay was not seen as a significant issue in Plymouth with many of the city’s employees highlighting lifestyle, the local environment, quality of education and infrastructure as more important issues;

(k)

Plymouth was employing an enterprising culture in an effort to improve prospects for young people in the city; this initiative had a partnership led focus involving the University of Plymouth, City College and businesses in the city’s growth sectors;

(l)

other initiatives such as the 1000 club were also improving the prospects of young  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75.

(a)

the Visitor Plan, which was developed in 2011 aimed to deliver economic growth and increase jobs within Plymouth by growing visitor numbers and increasing visitor spend

(b)

the key aims of the Visitor Plan were to deliver growth in visitor numbers to 4.8m per annum, and increase visitor spend to £315m per annum by 2020. Visitor spend for the 2011 year based on Cambridge economic impact model is 5.5 per cent above target growth figures – target figure is £290 million, actual is £307 million. Visitor numbers for 2011 year are also above the target of 4,297,650 at 4,858,001, which is plus 12.5 per cent.

(c)

marketing and promotion campaigns were key in delivering the Visitor Plan’s aims and objectives successfully and as such, a tendering exercise to employ a PR agency to actively raise the profile had been successful with a new agency – Hills Balfour appointed;

(d)

other initiatives were vital in raising the profile of Plymouth and delivering growth, these included the successful branding of Plymouth as ‘Britian’s Ocean City’ and improving the Visit Plymouth website; this website’s growth has increased 170 per cent  yr. on yr. versus March 2012.

(e)

Improving Plymouth as a disability-friendly city for visitors was important for Destination Plymouth and guidance produced by Visit England would be used to support the delivery of this objective by raising awareness among businesses.

(f)

Destination Plymouth will work in partnership with Visit Cornwall and English Riviera Tourism in an effort to attract additional visitors to Plymouth;

(g)

Destination Plymouth will continually review its target audience for promoting Plymouth including opportunities to promote Plymouth at events in Devon and at Exeter Airport if available.

(a)

the department was concerned with the number of cyclists and motorcyclists involved in road accidents and had begun a partnership activity looking at road engineering, educating road users and enforcement action against offenders;

(b)

motorcycle incidents were not isolated to Plymouth and was, in fact, a peninsula wide issue; this was being raised with motorcyclists on a regular basis at the Peninsula Motorcycle Forum;

(c)

local traffic safety schemes had been launched in a number of vulnerable areas across the city; schemes included ‘20mph zones’, ‘home zones’ and a ‘twenty’s plenty zone’ in Whitleigh;

(d)

a ‘learn to live’ campaign had been running at Pavilions for over five years and to date more than 20,000 young people had been to this event.

(e)

the police did enforce the 20mph speed limit in many of the 20mph zones, although not all 20mph zones were enforceable, due to some zones being advisory zones, such as the ‘twenty’s plenty zone’ in Whitleigh;

(f)

positively, traffic improvements targeted using an intervention approach had led to a reduction in incidents with car users and pedestrians.

(a)

the Plymouth Plan was being developed to provide a long-term vision for Plymouth that aimed to deliver change and growth within the city;

(b)

the Plan would replace many of the Council’s strategies and policies including, amongst others, the Core Strategy, the Local Development Framework and Area Action Plans;

(c)

the Plan was currently in the ‘conversations stage’ of the consultation process, where officers were engaging with stakeholders, partners and members of the public at a number of ‘Plymouth Plan sofa’ events, using social media and attending meetings and conferences to give presentations;

(d)

other events that were looking at the future of the city and that had not been organised as a Plymouth Plan event have also been included in the consultation process and termed ‘fringe events’; the outcomes of these events would be used to inform the ‘preferred options’ stage of the Plymouth Plan timetable, due to take place in Autumn 2013;

(e)

in June a Plymouth Plan convention would take place with the aim of highlighting the responses to the consultation so far, and to debate these responses with stakeholders, partners and the public in order to better inform the ‘preferred options’ stage.