Agenda and minutes

The Democratic Services Officer drew attention to the emergency evacuation procedure.

Councillor Geoff Ward had sent his apology to the Panel.  Councillor Les Kew was substitute for Councillor Ward.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officer before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

Councillor Cherry Beath declared an ‘other’ interest in agenda 11 as she is a Member of the Cultural Forum Board.

There were none.

The Panel confirmed the minutes of the previous meeting as a true record and they were duly signed by the Chairman.

The Panel commented that there were few recommendations made at the last meeting in respect of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) report and asked if these recommendations had been submitted to the PCC office.

The Democratic Service Officer responded that all recommendations, including the debate, had been included in the minutes and circulated to all recipients, including the PCC, when they were published.

The Panel requested that the Democratic Services Officer check with the PCC office what had happened with the recommendations made by the Panel, in particular 6^th recommendation – ‘ To invite Sue Mountstevens to visit night-time economy hotspots in Bath and in North East Somerset’.

The Cabinet Member will update the panel on any relevant issues. Panel members may ask questions

The Chairman invited Councillor Ben Stevens (Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development) to give an update to the Panel (attached to these minutes).

The Panel made the following points:

Councillor Andrew Furse asked about the Guild co-working hub and asked what the take-up is in number of clients and whether it is working as expected.

Councillor Stevens replied that the initial expression of interested massively outperforming anything that was predicted.  It is still too early to report if it is working as expected considering that formal opening was only last night (25^th September).

Councillor Furse added he would like for the Panel to monitor this project as it is quite exciting project

Councillor Cherry Beath added that the Guild Hub was instigated by her and backed by the Cabinet during her time as Cabinet Member and she was quite pleased with the progress in these early days. The project had drawn a lot of interest and support from the creative and digital sectors.

Councillor David Martin commented that one of his residents took the opportunity to be in the hub and that they were very enthusiastic with the whole idea – the prospect to work with other people from similar industries and the support available from the facility.  Councillor Martin welcomed this initiative from the Council.

Councillor Dave Laming congratulated Councillor Stevens on working closely alongside the River Regeneration Trust.  Councillor Laming suggested that the Panel, with the Cabinet Member, could look at the rugby ground proposals which will have some impact on the river.

Councillor Patrick Anketell-Jones asked if looking at options for improving the conditions in which our nationally important archive collections are kept and accessed by the public is for archive kept in the Guildhall.

Councillor Stevens replied he was working with the Bath Abbey and universities to see if they want to combine with the Council, and/or to share best practice, rather than proposing to move our archives away from the city centre. 

The Chairman said that he is a Member of the Radstock and Westfield Economic Partnership. The Chairman asked if the trading profit forecast of £758k above the annual target level forecast in the Heritage Services Business Plan is in comparison to last year or if this is a target that was looking over the last 5 years as an average.

Councillor Stevens replied that the target is based on the average was based on previous years not just the previous year. It is a record year not a record rise; there have been more visitors than ever before.

The Chairman asked about the Tourism Levy.

Councillor Stevens replied that he would hope that a report on Tourism Levy will be ready after April 2014.  There will be a need for very close working with partners, like Bath Tourism Plus, to make sure that this is deliverable.

Councillor Furse asked if the report on Tourism Levy could include options that were dismissed along with the options that were approved.

It was RESOLVED to note  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

The Panel are asked to note the progress being made with Connecting Families Strategy.

The Chairman invited Paula Bromley (Connecting Families Manager) to give the presentation to the Panel.

Paula Bromley gave the presentation as included in the report.

Members of the Panel felt that the map showing Connecting Families by Ward should be more specific.  Each Ward in Bath and North East Somerset has community pockets where there are more troubled families than in the other areas of Ward.  Members of the Panel also commented that this is long term project and it needs to be seen if 16 families who claimed Payment by Results (PbR) will be the same families next year or there will be more families on top of these 16.

Paula Bromley replied that she will circulate a list of troubled families by Ward. 

Paula Bromley also said she is working on having more families in terms of the support.  The next big project is to create a proper sustainable strategy in terms of the troubled families.

Paula Bromley mentioned, as one of the positives, that Sainsburys has taken one young person from the programme that had no education since they were 14 years old (now they are 16-17 years old) for a 4 week trial.

Members of the Panel asked what is the current process to identify the abuse towards children and how the project works with river dwellers/travellers.

Paula Bromley said that the Council has really good and strong safeguarding policies in place.  The Connecting Families team works really closely with the colleagues from safeguarding teams (children and adults).  The officers working with troubled families will report straight away if there is any abuse towards children in those families.

Paula Bromley also said that it is not that easy to engage with river dwellers/travellers, considering that they do not have permanent site where they live and invited the Panel to offer any suggestion, or advice, on how to get in touch with those people.

Members of the Panel asked about the use of volunteers for helping with troubled families.

Paula Bromley replied that she would be interested to use volunteers in her team at some point, though not at the present time.  Some of the workers are in the potential works and there are quite strict policies in place when working on site with these families.  It would be very difficult to put volunteer to work with high dependency family, where there are drug, alcohol or other similar issues. 

Paula Bromley added that she was invited to speak at one multi-faith event which will be good opportunity of partnership working with other organisations on this matter.

Members of the Panel asked if there is any resistance from the troubled families to enter this project.

Paula Bromley responded the team approached these families and there are 35 families who signed up.  Members of the staff that work in the team are persistent and they will go back and knock or put notes in the door.  Though, everything is done by the book.  This is voluntary and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

The Panel are asked to consider the written update and receive a presentation on the B&NES Digital Programme.

The Chairman invited David Wales (Principal EEB Development Officer) to give a presentation.

David Wales gave the presentation where he highlighted the following points:

·  Digital Drivers and Objectives

·  Digital Objectives

·  Digital Initiatives Framework

·  Proposed Initiatives Overview

·  Implementations Priorities

A full copy of the presentation is attached to these minutes.

The Panel made the following points:

Members of the Panel welcomed the future outlook on the digital initiative though they wanted to know how fibre-optic broadband will assist businesses in terms of retention and growth.

David Wales responded that it all depends on what the specific business need though broadband bandwidth and location are becoming more and more important part of the decision to retain and/or grow business in the area.

The Vice Chair asked what is happening with the spots in Bath which have poor infrastructure (with that poor broadband speed, etc.) and as such they are not popular venues/spots for businesses.

David Wales responded that there are some spots in Bath which still have older telephone exchanges, which means that broadband speed is not great due to use of older technology, number of connections, distance from exchange, etc.  The Council is working with the British Telecom to resolve these issues.  The other approach is to use other technologies available, such as mobile broadband (3G, 4G) and also Wi-Fi technology.

Members of the Panel welcomed this information though they felt that the improvements should take place as soon as possible.

Members of the Panel asked what would be Council’s role in this programme.

David Wales responded that Council would have a role of enabler, which means would enable the infrastructure for British Telecom. 

Members of the Panel asked if the Council is having a power to influence inclusion of broadband infrastructure into new property developments.

David Wales responded that the Council will be looking into influencing planning framework.

It was RESOLVED to note the presentation and to receive a further update in near future.

The Panel are asked to consider verbal update from the Divisional Director for Planning and Transport.

The Chairman invited David Trigwell (Divisional Director for Planning and Transport) to give a verbal update on the current position regarding the Arts Strategy.

David Trigwell said that he is having, on interim basis, additional responsibilities to oversee Tourism, Leisure and Culture services.  The Arts Strategy was scheduled to appear before the Panel but it became apparent that Arts Strategy should be looked together with other strategies in the Council.  The strategy landscape in the Council is quite busy with the following strategies to be considered – Events Strategy, Leisure Strategy, Tourism Strategy, Heritage Strategy and also Core Strategy, Transport Strategy, Health & Wellbeing Strategy, etc.  David Trigwell felt that it wasn’t the right way to address the community by considering the Arts Strategy on its own.  The number of the strategies that were considered in isolation will be part of fewer though more comprehensive strategies.  It will enable elected Members and community to better understand how these things are related.  It is hugely important activity for the Council to get involved.  It is about improving the quality of life.

David Trigwell concluded that the Arts Strategy will be included in the Economic Strategy.  It is not enough to consider Arts or Tourism Strategy in isolation.

The Chairman commented that he could understand that no particular strategy should exist in isolation but there is a need to start from somewhere, to start the discussion.  If the Panel, and community, are given the global picture then there will be no opportunity to go into details.  The Chairman also said that the Arts Strategy is a case where particular document/strategy had been withdrawn whilst being consistently requested by the Panel.  Budget discussions will be held soon and the Panel need to see what kind of framework is used when it comes to medium term financial planning.  The Panel will be looking at some point of time in these strategies in isolation and then they will be looked as joint item.  The Chairman concluded by saying that the Panel requested pieces of work to scrutinise which they consistently do not see because someone do not want the Panel to see those documents.

Councillor Ben Stevens replied that the Cabinet is looking at the wide picture.  Councillor Stevens understand the views of the Panel though he welcomed the idea to merge four strategies into one.

The Vice Chair commented that it was vital that officers of the Council work on any strategy in partnership with the community.  The community had been consulted on what they think was an Arts Strategy, and it was a surprise that the arts strategy paper did not go to cabinet as expected.  The community was consulted and the Council has the right to allocate the funding, and formulate a business plan, but it should have been made clear that this was not the Arts Strategy per se. The Panel needs to have a look at the commissioning process before it is implemented, and the Arts community must be involved in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

This report presents the latest workplan for the Panel.

It was RESOLVED to note the current workplan with the following additions:

·  Medium Term Plan and 2014/15 Budget Update Report (November 2013)

·  Community Safety: British Transport Police (November 2013)

·  Arts Development Plan (January 2014 to be confirmed)

·  ‘Green’ jobs (working title) (date to be confirmed)

·  Tourism Levy (date to be confirmed)

·  Delivery of the apprenticeships scheme (date to be confirmed)

·  River Trust Update (from the Chair of the Trust) (date to be confirmed)

·  World heritage site management plan and heritage sites visitors (date to be confirmed)

·  City Deal and Local Enterprise Partnership update (date to be confirmed)

·  Broadband update (date to be confirmed)

·  Connecting Families update (date to be confirmed)