(a)

the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park (NMP) originally declared as the first in the UK in 2019, had secured the first significant investment through a successful bid to the National Heritage Lottery Fund’s  Heritage Horizon Awards; the development of the wider NMP was also being progressed through other secured funding and the recruitment of an Interim Chief Executive Officer;

(b)

provided an update on the development stage of the NMP Horizons project and the plans up until the submission of the delivery stage bid in June 2023, as well as the progress and plans for the wider NMP development.

(c)

sought clarification on the following key points -

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as to whether there would be early engagement with Councillors relating to the outline Activity Plan; this would enable Councillors to link issues together as well as having a democratic input (as had previously been achieved with Green Minds);

?

as to whether the engagement process for the NMP would provide a real opportunity to include engagement on the wider environmental agendas (such as climate change, ocean recovery) which covered both the green and blue areas of the City;

?

on how visitors would recognise that they were in part of the National Marine Park;

?

as to whether other organisations across the City, such as the Tamar Estuaries Consultative Forum were being engaged with on this project;

?

with regard to the community strand of the outline Activity Plan (P4), whether further explanation could be given relating to the different (HR) roles allocated to this stream and what the community stream would look like (ie benefits and developments);

?

as to how the NMP would link to the Freeport;

?

with regard to the governance arrangements for the NMP, whether this could be staffed with individuals that were able to make material contributions to this project, such as subject matter experts, and people working in business; there were concerns that individuals would be appointed to the Board, who were not engaged;  it was important to have a real public/private sector partnership, in order to bring communities and businesses together;

?

with regard to the outline Activity Plan, in particular the ‘heritage will be in better condition’ section, whether this related to the built heritage, natural heritage or cultural heritage, or all three of these areas, or whether this had already been defined;

(d)

raised -

?

that it was important for the success of the project’s mission, to make the whole City feel its identity as Britain’s Ocean City, and that Councillors were fully engaged with this project, as they would be able to assist in getting this message out in their communities;

?

the importance of evaluation in the process and qualitative measures being put in place, such has how wellbeing had improved within the communities;

?

the importance of individuals learning about how the blue and green areas interacted, in order to raise environmental credentials and to be able to link this with the impact of the disposal of waste and plastics.

(1)

it became a key point of engagement in the development of the NMP future vision being led by the Interim NMP Chief Executive Officer;

(2)

it endorsed the approach to the development phase of the NMP Horizons Project and that scrutiny had a continuing role in assessing the outcome and impact of the Activity Plan and development of the delivery phase bid;

(3)

it asks for the Activity Plan for the NMP Horizons project to be presented to it in February 2022, with in depth focus on the community engagement methods and aims.