Issue - meetings

The Panel will receive a presentation regarding this agenda item. Supporting information for the presentation is attached.

Simon Martin, Programme Director Bath Enterprise Area gave a presentation to the Panel on the Programme Management tool for project delivery (copies of this presentation are saved with the agenda papers for this meeting).

Panel members made the following points and asked the following questions:

Councillor Macrae thanked the officer for the clear presentation and set of structured thoughts. He commented that, at ward level, member input is important. He has concerns about external impositions such as Network Rail. He also asked that this does not stop at the boundary and that there should be prioritisation agreed by the Cabinet. The officer stated that adjacent projects should be built in.

Councillor Darey asked if this could be accessed by the public in the future and if it has a patent. The officer responded that other organisations do similar things. He explained that there is an intention that the system may be open to the public in the future but it is still in its early stages at present. It will be used internally in this financial year.

Councillor O’Brien stated that it is an excellent tool and may stop incidents of clashing road works which have been an issue. Councillor Ball commented that the system would only be as good as the information that is put in to it. Councillor Appleyard commented that the tool is very good and he looks forward to when it can be used by members to see when and where different projects are running and it could also be used when scheduling public events. He further commented that the effects of the weather should be built in on long term projections.

The officer explained that this is a good tool for long term events but with a short event eg. marathon, the impact on a major project may be shown as small yet there may be a significant impact on the community.