(a)

a commitment to become a co-operative council which would put people in control of their own communities and services; staff would also have a stronger stake in how services were improved;

(b)

the co-operative approach would be applied across council services which would look at what amenities and local services could be best run by local people and how they might do this;  a community economic development trust for the north of the city would be set up together with a co-operative energy supply company or mutual; 

(c)

there were a number of themed commitments (the top five promises were) -

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a new plan for jobs, to get young people back to work;

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keep the roads and pavements clean and in good repair;

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encourage more homes to be available to rent or buy;

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a new deal for older people’s care;

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campaigning to bring down crime and keep Plymouth safe;

(d)

a commitment to open government and greater public involvement which was fundamental to the co-operative council approach; progress in delivering the programme would be communicated to the media, customers and staff;

(e)

a continued commitment to the vision for Plymouth to be ‘one of Europe’s finest, most vibrant waterfront cities where an outstanding quality of life can be enjoyed by everyone’;

(f)

the adoption of a cooperative council approach would result in openness, working together and putting the trust in the people that the council served.

(g)

the airport was closed in December 2011 because it was financially unviable for Sutton Harbour Holdings to continue to operate it; the council was not in a position to be able to subsidise the airport nor was it in a position to operate an airport;

following the decision of Sutton Harbour Holdings to auction items of equipment and assets from the airport, the council had requested that the auction cease and a meeting would be arranged to discuss the way forward; the council firmly believed that all key airport assets should be retained by Sutton Harbour Holdings to avoid jeopardising any potential for re-opening the facility;

a copy of the business plan outlining the proposals to reopen the airport and provide scheduled air services had been provided by the action group ‘Viable Plymouth Ltd’;

(h)

work was being undertaken to obtain the contractual detail of the agreement that had been signed for the incinerator; this was an extremely complex legal agreement and a clear understanding was required in order to ascertain what the Council had been committed to;

(i)

although the Police and Crime Panel composition had yet to be agreed by all of the local authorities involved, it was proposed that Plymouth had two seats (the Panel membership would be made up of 20 members which was the maximum number permitted under the legislation).