Issue - meetings

The report attached sets out an overview of the 3 workstreams (Re-opening, Resilience, Renewal Vision) for Panel Members to scrutinise and comment to Cabinet.

There will also be a presentation at the meeting.

David Trethewey - Director of Partnership & Corporate Services and Lynda Deane – Senior Manager, Reopening & Renewing High Streets Workstream Lead, Emergency Management and Eventsgave a presentation to the panel which covered the following:

·  Renewal Board and Workstreams – outline of approach

·  Renewal Workstream Leadership

·  Reopening the High Street Safely (Aim and Objectives)

·  Reopening and Renewing Our High Streets

·  Reopening the High Streets Safely – social distancing measures, access restrictions, retail reopening, licensed premises and visitor attractions

·  Reopening Safely Guidance and Support

·  Reopening the High Street Safely – Webinars, New Planning and Business Bill and ‘I love local’ campaign

·  Reopening the High Street Safely – Next steps

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

Councillor Hirst raised the following points. Officer responses are shown in italics:

·  Which Cabinet Member does this sit with? The Leader and whole Cabinet with Cabinet Members leading on specific parts of the workstreams.

·  What are the timelines? There are some timelines regarding reopening and we are starting to build timelines into the other programmes.

·  On the issue of reskilling – unemployment is a current issue, we are working to build a skills hub and are in discussions with WECA and colleges. This can be reported to a future meeting of the Panel.

·  Regarding governance, there is a gap for Bath as it has no forum, we need to find a solution for this. Every area is different regarding governance, there will be discussions about the gap for Bath.

Councillor Craig asked that members be kept informed and involved, especially as Bath does not have parish councils. She also asked about contingency plans for each workstream in case of any future outbreaks. The officer agreed that engaging with members is important. He explained that public health officers are built into the action plan for each programme.

Councillor Walker asked if the work done on reopening would bring the High Street back to Bath. The officer explained that public health has been the priority rather than attracting visitors from elsewhere, but this could now be considered in moving forwards.

Councillor Born stated that the ‘I love local’ campaign was good and asked if food outlets with no space for tables and chairs would benefit from a central food court area, signposted in the city where people can eat take away food. The officer explained that she had been looking at ‘parklets’ which are areas of benches and seating although finding space is a challenge. She explained that work would start on Kingsmead Square soon.

Councillor Davies asked if we know how we are doing relative to other authorities and if best practice was being shared. The officer explained that the BID footfall data showed that the trend is going up and that the area is above average for our comparator cities, particularly at weekends. She explained that she attends the Local Resilience Forum that other cities representatives also attend so best practice can be shared.

Councillor O’Brien raised the following points. Officer responses  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58