Councillor Jemima Laing (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, Culture, Events and Communications) gave the following updates:-

a)    The Box had welcomed its 500,000^th visitor since opening; it had received 250,000 visitors in a year, compared to the previous Plymouth Museum’s 80,000 visitors per annum, and was still increasing despite the fact that most new attractions have high first year attendance and then plateau;

b)    The Box’s Summer Programme – ‘Summer of Colour and Light’ had been announced and would be opened on 24 June 2023 by the President of the Royal Academy, Rebecca Salter, and would include the following three shows:

                      i.        Reframing Reynolds: A Celebration - The 300^th anniversary of Joshua Reynolds, who founded the Royal Academy, and the only national show celebrating the anniversary;

                     ii.        Rana Begum: Dappled Light – a 21^st century Royal Academician;

                    iii.        Solomon Hart: The Execution of Lady Jane Grey - The story of Solomon Hart,  which would include a picture that had been lost in the archives for 100 years by the most important 19^th century Jewish artist, who was also a Royal Academician;

c)    The LGA Culture, Tourism and Sport Board would be making their first visit to Plymouth on 21 June 2023, hosted at Market Hall, TR2 and The Box to hear more about Plymouth’s cultural journey.

Councillor Sally Haydon (Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Libraries, Cemeteries & Crematoria) provided and update and highlighted:-

d)    The Bereavement Service had invited staff, Councillors and partners from the funeral industry, to an open day at the new crematorium which would be known as ‘The Park’ which was set to open in Spring 2024;

e)    Plymouth’s Purple Flag status for the evening and night time economy areas had been renewed with no recommendations, but work continued to try and make people feel safer following feedback from the VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) perception survey;

f)     She was proud to announce that Plymouth City Council would be signing up to the Community Safety Charter (a scheme under the Neighbourhood Watch banner), whose aim was to involve a wider range of local organisations, charities, businesses and groups in crime prevention activity to extend the scope of the work towards a goal of eliminating harassment, antisocial behaviour and intimidation.

Councillor Mark Lowry (Cabinet Member for Finance) provided the following update:-

g)    There would be an investment of £25m in a new community diagnostics centre in the west end of the city centre, with more announcements to come in creating a ‘Health Village’ in the west end.

Councillor Mark Coker (Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Transport) provided the following updates:-

h)    He had worked with Councillor Kevin Sproston in approaching Plymouth City Bus on getting involved with the Community Safety Charter, as mentioned by Councillor Sally Haydon;

i)     Mount Wise pools had opened in the weeks previous with no charge to the public which was important to allow local people, and people from across the city, to access the water for free and to reduce social isolation and improve mental health, who had expressed in feedback that they might not have been able to afford to use the pools, had a charge been introduced and he thanked Ruth Harrell (Director of Public Health) and Plymouth Active Leisure for working with him on this.

Councillor Mary Aspinall (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) provided the following updates:-

j)     There were 9,000 people on the NHS waiting list in 2019 and this had increased to 21,000 in 2023 and so a Dental Task Force was going to be launched and would report quarterly on progress;

k)    An ‘Ageing Well’ agenda would have been launched with the aim of better looking after, treating and working better with older population;

l)     She had been involved in making a video to say thank you to carers across Plymouth for all of the wonderful work they were doing and to help raise awareness of the support services available to them as carers.