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

a)    August had seen the second busiest day ever at The Box with 3196 visitors and, at that point during the summer holidays, they had been averaging 10,000 visitors a week, with a range of family holiday activities;

b)    The British Firework Championships would be taking place later that week, which would be sponsored by Brittany Ferries, and this year the event would feature the Young People’s Choice Award, where a group of care-experienced young people would give their verdict, and the award was sponsored by Plymouth Citybus;

c)    The Plymouth Culture Project Vending Machine with a difference, which stocked plays, poems and pin badges, all made by local Plymouth artists and it only cost £1, had proved extremely popular and had had to be restocked 3 times its first week, one poem had been contributed by Councillor Laing herself, and she was very happy to see how it had been embraced.

Councillor Chris Penberthy (Cabinet Member for Housing, Cooperative Development and Communities) gave the following updates:

d)    Nearly 8,000 households would be receiving a one-off £25 payment towards their Council Tax bills to help those struggling with the cost of living crisis and payments would be made automatically to people who had completed their Council Tax Support forms and he encouraged anyone who was struggling to pay their Council Tax to check whether they were eligible for their Council Tax Support Scheme.

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

e)    Contractors were starting work that week on creating rain gardens as part of the new sustainable urban drainage system as part of the New George Street public realm improvements, which would collect rain water for irrigation of plants in the scheme and he thanked the hard-working staff involved in the project and he was pleased to see it underway after delays due to voids, Blitz rubble, filled-in cellars and a maze of utilities under the tarmac which had slowed the scheme down;

f)     The development of the Community Diagnostics Centre had only been made possible because of the proactive approach taken by the Council over recent years and a planning application had been submitted for a temporary facility, with the main building expected for completion by 1^st April 2025 and confirmation of funds had been received that morning;

                      i.        The new facility would undertake a range of 280,000 diagnostic checks a year, easy access for people from a variety of city centre car parks, and cover 3,000 sq. ft.
Councillor Mark Coker (Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Transport) provided the following updates:

g)    A bus champion, Councillor Kevin Sproston, had been announced, as the industry was struggling to recover following the COVID-19 pandemic and it was important to have a Councillor as a single point of contact for bus companies, support groups such as PADAN, and for bus users;

h)    Councillor John Stephens would be officially announced as the walking and cycling champion later that week to give residents and involved companies a single point of contact;

i)     Plymouth City Council’s Active Travel team, in partnership with the Plymouth School Sports Partnership had been announced as the top performing local authority in the country for training Year 6 pupils, by the BikeAbility Trust and he also took the opportunity to thank the active social prescribing team, who have been delivering adult cycle safety training.

Councillor Sally Haydon (Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Libraries, Cemeteries and Crematoria) provided the following update:

j)     During the school summer holidays in 2022, 3,018 children registered for the Summer Reading Challenge, and the numbers were already higher with 3,358 children registered by 10 August 2023, an 11.5% increase and she thanked the librarians who helped this happen, and volunteers;

k)    The Community Safety had been signed to tackle anti-social behaviour, whose aim was to involve a wide range of local organisations, charities, businesses and groups in crime prevention and she had worked with Councillor Coker to have Plymouth CityBus on board to promote this.

Councillor Sue Dann (Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Sport, Leisure and HR & OD) provided the following update:

l)     The Fit and Fed programme had continued to support disadvantaged families, co-ordinated by the Sports Development Unit, and there had been over 78 holiday clubs and 30 teen-taster sessions providing free activities and food for children and young people on benefit-related free school meals and other eligible children;

m)  Plymouth Active were also hosting a variety of free and low cost summer activities throughout the summer holidays, including diving tasters and Family fun Swims at the Life Centre with 24,066 spaces available across the activities in total;

n)    A well-supported community open day had been hosted at Brickfields on 20 July 2023 for local residents and stakeholders to learn more about the sports centre refurbishment and the vision for the future of the site, and give them a chance to provide feedback on the proposals;

                      i.        To enable the refurbishment work to be carried out, the sports centre would be close from 1 September and Plymouth Active would cease to manage the site;

                     ii.        The trust had been working with Plymouth Active Leisure to ensure existing customers and hirers had been invited to use alternative local facilities in the meantime;

                    iii.        The pitches and athletic track would remain open until the end of March 2024, when the second phase of the redevelopment would begin.

Councillor Tom Briars-Delve (Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change) provided the following updates:

o)    At the end of July 2023, eight parks in Plymouth were awarded the prestigious green flag for their high standard of quality and cleanliness and he took the opportunity to thank the hard working staff as well as the dedicated friends groups and volunteers across the city, who gave up their time to look after Plymouth’s green spaces;

p)    The Council had celebrated Love Parks Week 2023 with a range of free events, tying in with what had been mentioned by Councillor Sue Dann already, as well as the online promotion of the week reaching over 60,000 people who were given the opportunity to enter a competition by providing feedback on their favourite parks;

q)    Upgrades had been made to the Pattinson Drive playground in Mainstone with a focus on inclusivity for all abilities and work would also be undertaken with the probation team, artists and local families to create nature-based murals;

r)    As part the solar rooftops project, 7 of the 8 projects had been completed at Prince Rock Depot, Chelson Meadow, Ballard House, The Council House, The Box, Crownhill Court and Prince Rock Admin Block with the installation of the 8^th project at Theatre Royal due to commence shortly;

s)     To date the Council had installed over 2,200 solar panels, reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 198 tons year;

t)     The heat decarbonisation programme was progressing well, with 5 sites complete and a further 4 sites with heat pumps in the design stage.

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

u)    She thanked Whitley Primary School for inviting her to a session on the Dental Task Force with year 6 pupils, for them to ask questions.