Agenda item

Cabinet Member Updates

Minutes:

Councillor Jonathon Drean announced the following:

 

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Councillor Drean advised members of some examples of what the Plymouth Highways team had accomplished over a three month period; 525 carriageway potholes had been repaired; 326 footway holes repaired; 227 emergency jobs undertaken; 629 reactive gullies had been cleaned and cleared; 186 reactive lining jobs; 458 curbs; 547 concrete slabs; lots of planned resurfacing construction, patchworks; three bridge refurbishments; 4600 metres of white lining had been completed. 50 street lighting columns had been replaced during the week; cleaning and updating of subways; 

 

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Major utility works for Pennycomequick and Stonehouse Bridge had been completed two weeks ahead of schedule.

 

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The government had restored the Dartmoor line from Exeter to Oakhampton

 

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Planned work had continued on the Tavistock to Plymouth line and funding had been sought to develop the outlined business case subject to funding for the final project the estimated timescales for the project could be between 2024 – 2027.

 

Councillor Mrs Vivien Pengelly announced the following:

 

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The City Change Fund

 

The City Change Fund was launched in 2015 with the aim of supporting local projects for local people using what is called the ‘neighbourhood portion’ of the Community Infrastructure Levy. In the first 6 years, the City Council had pledged £765,684 on 130 projects. Those projects had attracted 15,399 supporters. In total the City Change Fund has supported community projects valued at nearly £2.3 Million.

 

Projects supported had been the Children’s Theatre in Devonport Park, the ‘Memory Matters’ Dementia Café in New George Street, creating Plymouth’s first ‘library of things’ where you could borrow tools rather than buy them, and supporting the opening of the Jar a zero waste shop in Looe Street.

 

The City Change Fund had won numerous national and international awards. We were also increasingly supporting climate change initiatives through the Climate Emergency Bonus which had provided over £30,000 of additional funding to local projects.

 

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2021 Climate Challenge

 

Following on from the success of last year we are again holding a Climate Challenge Event. Last year this live challenge was won by the ‘1,000 Tyres Project’ which sought to collect and recycle discarded tyres from Plymouth Sound.  This year prize money of £50,000 was up for grabs with a live event taking place on the 8th November in the Devonport Market Hall Immersive Dome. This had been planned to coincide with World Town Planning Day and is the same week that the UN Conference on Climate Change would be taking place in Glasgow. The event would be streamed online via YouTube.

 

Councillor Mrs Vivien Pengelly would be working with Councillor Maddi Bridgeman who led on climate change to see what projects would come forward from local communities and who would win the top prize of £20,000.

 

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2021 Abercrombie Awards

 

The Abercrombie Awards were held every 3 years to recognise and celebrate the best projects and initiatives that had helped shape the city. The awards range from the best small building project and best conversion, to the best building and best housing scheme. The best of the best is crowned with the Abercrombie Award itself.

 

This year we are introducing a new category for most innovative project that is helping to address the challenges of climate change.

 

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Housing

 

Plymouth City Council had received £177,500 from the government’s Brownfield Land Release fund to help deliver 12 new affordable flats in partnership with Bournemouth Churches Housing Association, on a brownfield Council owned site at Victoria Place, Millbay.

 

Another Plan for Homes site at Ham Green Lane would be completed at the end October 2021 and be ready for the new tenants to move in before Christmas. Using the Land Release Fund to demolish the disused buildings on the site, the Council had worked with Westward Housing Group to redevelop this site for 5 new bungalows for older persons.

 

Plymouth City Council had successfully passed the first hurdle in applying to the government’s new Estate Regeneration Fund for £227,000 to help meet demolition costs associated with the redevelopment of Clarion Housing’s estate in Barne Barton.

The scheme was part of the City’s wider estate regeneration plans and the Clarion scheme will remove unfit housing that no longer meets the housing needs of family’s to create 204 high quality houses and flats for rent and affordable home ownership, kick starting the regeneration of Barne Barton.

 

More affordable homes are set to be built in Plymouth as a result of a new Housing Partnership Agreement which would be signed on Friday 15th October between the City Council and LiveWest. This is the second Housing Partnership Agreement the Council have entered into: the first being with Plymouth Community Homes; and both with trusted partners of the Plymouth Housing Development Partnership who had very good track records of delivery of homes through innovative approaches.

 

This new agreement would bring forward £30.8 million of investment into Plymouth, with the City Council providing land and £2.5million of financial assistance through the Plan for Homes.

 

Livewest, supported by a Homes England grants, would contribute £28.3 million of funding.

 

Councillor Mrs Vivien Pengelly provided Cabinet members with an update on the Child Poverty Working group and highlighted a few highlights from key city partners which included; Plymouth Children in Poverty, Schools Uniform Project, Free school meals, work to narrow the achievement gap and dental health.

 

Councillor Mark Deacon, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Culture, Leisure and Sport announced:

 

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Plymouth’s Waterfront had been awarded Gold award at the 2021 South West in Bloom Awards, a regional heat of the renowned Britain in Bloom competition.

Plymouth Waterfront Partnership Business Improvement District (PWP BID) led the entry into the awards’ BID category and judging took place in July.

 

A huge amount of work has been done across the city’s Waterfront, from Royal William Yard to the Barbican and the Hoe, to ensure the area looked its best.

 

This included some brand new flower power along Southside Street and the Barbican with the installation of 19 new planters. Over the summer, those were filled with thousands of stunning trailing petunias and they’ve now been replanted with new seasonal flowers to ensure they offer a colourful welcome throughout the winter. The planters had also been decorated with new signage, which included fascinating facts about Plymouth and artwork created by local schoolchildren.

 

Other work that had taken place along the Waterfront this year to make sure it looked at its blooming best included:

 

 

·         Installing new tree lights at Exchange Street Car Park

·         Supporting art installations and improvements at Bretonside, with new murals on Moon Street and North Street

·         Installing a new monolith containing useful visitor information outside Royal William Yard

·         Developing a strong partnership with Shekinah and Community Payback which has resulted in painting and cleaning in Elphinstone car park, High Street and around the Mount Batten peninsula

·         Fixed the lights in the Leviathan (also known at Barbican Prawn) sculpture, so it is now illuminated at night.