Due to the Chair’s submission of apologies, Councillor Gilmour (Vice-Chair) would Chair this particular meeting.

The Panel agreed to appoint Councillor Coker as Vice-Chair for this particular meeting.

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

There was one declaration of interest made:

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 22 October 2025 as a correct record.

The Panel agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 22 October 2025 as a correct record.

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

There were no items of Chair’s Urgent Business.

Councillor Sue Dann (Cabinet Member for Customer Experience, Sport, Leisure and HR and OD) introduced the PAL Contract Extension report and discussed:

a)     This was Councillor Dann’s final report to Scrutiny as a Cabinet Member, and she was pleased to present it for pre?decision scrutiny;

b)    Plymouth Active Leisure Ltd (PAL) had been established in 2022 in extremely challenging circumstances during the COVID?19 pandemic, opening with reduced visitor numbers at the same time as rapidly rising utility costs and inflation, which made the first year of operation particularly difficult;

c)     Councillor Dann had worked closely with Rhys Jones (Chief Executive of PAL) since 2023, undertaking significant work to stabilise and improve performance across the service;

d)    Despite a challenging start, PAL’s current management arrangements had delivered a significant impact, with key performance highlights including:

                     i.         memberships increasing by approximately 48%;

                   ii.         growth in the swim school of around 31%;

                  iii.          an increase in income of approximately 29%;

e)     The social impact of PAL’s activities, measured using a recognised national social value tool, was estimated at around £11.7 million of added social impact for Plymouth’s communities;

f)      The Life Centre alone welcomed over one million visits a year, with more than 50,000 unique users. PAL also operated other key facilities including the city’s pools and outdoor leisure sites, demonstrating its reach beyond a single venue;

g)     In addition to sport and physical activity, PAL contributed to other Council priorities including tailored offers for looked after children and care leavers, and delivery of health?related programmes such as new “Active Referral” schemes for residents with long?term health conditions;

h)    PAL was due to receive national recognition from Swim England, with a memorandum of understanding due to be signed at the Life Centre, evidencing the quality and reputation of its swimming and aquatic offer;

i)      PAL formed part of the Council’s “family of companies”, which allowed a more commercial, flexible approach while retaining strategic control and alignment with corporate priorities;

j)      A new Chair had been appointed to the PAL Board in 2024 and, since that appointment, a full strategic review of PAL had been undertaken to address early issues, ensure financial sustainability, and position PAL to grow and move into its “next phase”;

k)     The Strategic Plan underpinned PAL’s contribution to “Thrive Active”, including the ambition to make Plymouth the most physically active coastal city, and to support residents to live happier, healthier and more active lives;

l)      The Strategic Plan was built around three core pillars:

                       i.    increasing participation and engagement;

                     ii.    improving health and wellbeing;

                    iii.    inspiring people in Plymouth, including supporting the development of talented swimmers and divers and running facilities to a consistently high standard;

m)   Sustainability was central to PAL’s ambitions, both in terms of financial resilience and environmental responsibility, including work to reduce carbon emissions from facilities;

n)    PAL had developed an ambitious 20?year financial plan which would involve total investment of approximately £200 million over the lifetime of the contract.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Chris Penberthy (Cabinet Member for Housing, Cooperative Development, and Communities), Caroline Marr (Senior Policy Advisor) and Glenda Favor-Ankersen (Head of Elections and Democratic Services) introduced the Commemorations and Celebrations Policy and discussed:

a)     Plymouth City Council had a long?established civic tradition of marking special and significant days each year through civic events, lighting Council?owned buildings and flying flags, as well as opening books of condolence and organising moments of silence;

b)    The Council’s existing flags protocol dated back to 2016, had never been a published document and largely repeated central Government guidance, providing no clear, transparent process for officers to follow when requests were made, and no indication for members of the public about how, where or when to make requests;

c)     In recent years, the Council had experienced an increase in ad?hoc requests from residents and communities to light buildings or fly a flag in connection with particular illnesses, conditions, or traumatic experiences, often made at very short notice, which was disruptive and inconsistent;

d)    The current informal position meant that requests were often made directly to Cabinet Members on the basis of personal acquaintance. The intention of the new Policy was to democratise the process so that residents could submit requests via a clear public route rather than through personal contacts;

e)     The Council owned a significant number of flagpoles across its corporate estate, sitting under different service areas, budgets, and management arrangements. The draft Policy was the first of two papers intended to support wider asset management work by providing consistency in how flagpoles were used, regardless of which part of the Council managed them;

f)      The Policy was built on two core principles:

                        i.         Political neutrality – the Council, as a corporate body, would not use flags or lighting to express support for particular political parties or political causes;

                       ii.         Inclusivity and fostering community cohesion – ensuring that commemorations and celebrations supported, rather than undermined, relationships between communities in the city;

g)     The Policy summarised key points from Government guidance and relevant planning legislation, including the Town and Country Planning Regulations 2007, and clearly set out which flags were on the Government’s ‘pre?approved’ list so that both officers and the public understood the planning constraints;

h)    The draft Policy established locally agreed criteria for requests to:

                     i.         fly a guest flag;

                   ii.         light a Council?owned building (predominantly Smeaton’s Tower at this stage);

                  iii.          hold a civic moment of silence;

                  iv.         open a book of condolence;

i)      The Policy explicitly recognised “exceptional circumstances” in which the Council might reasonably wish to act at shorter notice, for example, to celebrate Plymouth Argyle reaching a significant stage in a cup competition, or to mark the achievements of Olympians. Discretion was reserved for flag?flying and lighting outside normal notice periods, so that “special” moments that mattered to the city could still be marked appropriately;

j)      The policy was designed to ensure a clear, accessible and transparent process (including an online request route) for members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

Councillor Chris Penberthy (Cabinet Member for Housing, Cooperative Development and Communities) introduced the Public Toilets in Plymouth Briefing Report and discussed:

a)     Councillor Penberthy had been asked to undertake two related pieces of work: to review the Council’s public toilet strategy and to develop an asset management strategy, noting that public toilets formed part of the wider corporate estate;

b)    As work progressed, it had become clear that the most useful immediate product was not a detailed stand?alone public toilet strategy for the existing estate, but a clear set of principles to guide decisions about all toilets owned by the Council that were open to the public, whether or not they were classified as “public toilets”;

c)     These principles would be used to inform future planning and development work, including the next Joint Local Plan (JLP), proposals for a new town in the city centre, and other development opportunities, by setting out what the Council meant in practical terms when it said new developments should provide appropriate public toilet facilities and where those should be located;

d)    The briefing note contained high?level information about the current estate but was focused on establishing the key principles that officers and Members could apply consistently when planning, managing and investing in the corporate estate, rather than prescribing detailed changes to individual toilets at this stage;

e)     Having a clear, agreed framework of principles would make it easier to plan maintenance, prioritise investment and advise Members transparently on options and trade?offs;

f)      That the same set of principles was intended to be used across three major areas of work: the Strategic Asset Management Plan, the preparation of the new Local Plan, and work on the “new town” proposals in the city centre, so that decisions about toilets were consistent across planning, regeneration and estate management;

g)     That public toilets were a non?statutory service, funded from the same capital budgets that were required for other critical assets such as sea defences, corporate buildings, operational depots, scheduled monuments, memorials, and other office buildings, and therefore needed to be considered alongside over 1,000 other corporate assets;

h)    The principles proposed included ensuring public toilet provision at key transport interchanges, in areas of high visitor and tourist footfall such as the waterfront and Barbican, and in heavily used green and blue spaces, in order to support the city’s economy, tourism offer and residents’ health and wellbeing;

i)      Footfall data had been mapped against Council?managed public toilets, toilets available to the public in Council buildings and toilets provided by partners’

j)      Where future development created new areas of demand, the principles were intended to support the Council in seeking contributions from developers (for example, securing toilet provision as part of new schemes) rather than relying solely on limited Council capital budgets;

k)     The briefing note emphasised the role of partnership working, including with statutory partners and with organisations whose existing toilets already served as de facto public provision, and that the Council did not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

Councillor Tom Briars?Delve (Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change) introduced the Central Park Ponds Update Report and discussed:

a)     This was the third scrutiny update on the project within the year;

b)    The July 2025 report had included a bullet?pointed list of works scheduled for the summer, and each of those commitments had now been delivered;

c)     Soil movement from Barn Park Sports Pitch to Reservoir Field had been completed alongside levelling of the sports pitch, installation of pitch drainage, and levelling of Reservoir Field;

d)    Grass seeding across the affected areas had been undertaken and was now completed;

e)     Planting on the northern pond remained underway in accordance with the seasonal requirements for tree planting, with winter being the optimum planting period. Tree?planting works would continue over the coming month;

f)      Additional works beyond those originally listed had also been completed, including end?of?season maintenance at South Pond and improvements to fencing around Reservoir Field;

g)     The previous six months had been “incredibly productive” following earlier challenges, and officers were now providing the regular updates that scrutiny had previously requested.

In response to questions, the Panel discussed:

h)    Recognition of visible improvement on site, and welcomed confirmation of the completed phases of work;

i)      Recognition of residents concerns and frustrations. It was confirmed that the only remaining elements were tree planting, minor fencing adjustments and final asset checks, and that most delays related to protecting newly seeded ground. Temporary fencing remained in one section due to fresh grass seeding;

j)      Councillor Briars?Delve emphasised that removing the fencing prematurely would have resulted in trampling, mud, and the need for reseeding the following year;

k)     While no exact removal date could be given due to weather dependency, fencing would be removed as soon as the ground was stable enough to withstand footfall;

l)      Some fencing sections had partially fallen, giving the impression that fencing had been abandoned. It was confirmed that staff from the Green Communities Team, who were regularly on?site, would continue monitoring fencing with project team oversight during landscaping activity;

m)   Members were encouraged to report collapsed fencing as casework so it could be corrected immediately;

n)    Members sought reflections on learning from the project to inform future parks schemes. Councillor Briars?Delve highlighted the impact of climate change on rainfall intensity and frequency, referencing that August 2025 had seen the second?highest daily rainfall in Plymouth’s recorded history;

o)    Sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) would need to feature more prominently in future projects across Council green spaces and in partnership schemes with organisations such as Plymouth Community Homes;

p)    Lessons from Central Park were already being applied to the Trefusis Park scheme in Lipson Vale, another SuDS?driven project affecting up to 150 properties, where improved communications, school visits, public engagement, monthly updates and contract management processes had directly drawn on Central Park experience;

q)    Members welcomed the positive progress at Trefusis Park and recognised the importance of resilience  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

Elliot Wearne?Gould (Democratic Advisor) introduced the Work Programme and discussed:

a)     The Panel’s next meeting was scheduled for 11 February 2026;

b)    A draft theme had been identified covering three linked areas: antisocial behaviour, community cohesion and community safety;

c)     Members were invited to contribute further items to the work programme.

The Panel agreed to note the work programme.

The Panel agreed to note the progress of the Tracking Decisions Log.