Transcript

And welcome everyone to the meeting of the Worthing Joint Strategic Subcommittee being held in the committee in the Gordon Room in the town halls. This is our public cabinet meeting for Worthing cabinet. The meeting's been streamed on the council's website so please could I remind everyone who's speaking this evening to speak clearly into the microphone. The microphone's provided. We want to make the meetings welcoming environments. If you have any questions then please do come along and ask them if you are listening at home. These meetings happen regularly. We've got lots of public meetings happening so you can find out when these are on the council's website. Okay I'm just going to read the health and safety announcement. There's no fire alarm plan during this meeting therefore if the fire alarm sounds please leave via the nearest exit and go to the assembly point. Do not stop to collect your belongings. The assembly point is the pavement in front of the museum. Please remain at the assembly point until advised it is safe to return to the building. Any persons with mobility issues must head to the nearest stairwell and await further instructions. Okay if we just introduce everybody first before we start. So I am Councillor Sophie Cox the deputy leader and I am stepping in for Councillor Becky Cooper the leader of the council this evening. Do we have any other apologies? We've got Councillor John Turley. That's everybody. Okay do any of the members wish to declare any pecuniary interests in relation to the business tonight? Okay should we just introduce ourselves to everybody else who's around the table? So everyone listening at home. I'm Catherine Howe, Chief Executive of the council. I'm Rita Garner, Cabinet Lead for Culture, Leisure and Wellbeing. I'm Councillor Caroline Baxter, Cabinet Member for Regeneration. I'm Tina Favier, Director for Housing and Communities. I'm Sam Gray, Investment Officer in Place and Economy. I'm Andy Williams, Assistant Director for Place and Economy. I'm Odey Warlow, Cabinet Member for Equalities Inclusion and Safer Communities. I'm Councillor Vicki Wells, I'm the Cabinet Member for the Environment Council. I'm Chris Cavandando, Senior Democratic Services Officer. I'm Andrew Mathias, Senior Solicitor. Lovely, thank you. And that's just to confirm there's apologies obviously from Councillor Becky Cooper as well. Okay have all of the members seen the minutes and can we confirm if everyone's in agreement and approved the minutes of the Joint Strategic Subcommittee that was held on the 14th of March? Lovely, thank you. We've not received any pre-submitted questions for public question time for tonight's meeting. I can't see anybody in the gallery. I'm just going to welcome Councillor Bosker as well, our cabinet member for housing who's just arrived for anyone listening at home. I can't see anyone in the gallery who'd like to ask questions so we will move on to members questions. I've received three questions in advance from Councillor Jenkins for the Leader and Cabinet Member for Regeneration. I'm going to invite Councillor Jenkins to come forward and ask his first question. Thank you Chair. First question was to the Leader of the Council but obviously she's absent tonight. In her absence can you please advise what work has been done to source an alternative mayoral gown? Thank you Councillor Jenkins. I will take the question on her behalf and also as the new cabinet lead for communities and young people as well. This also fits into my portfolio. So we are committed to finding an alternative mayoral robe for the Mayor to wear. Officers have done some research, we've looked at quotes and had some quotes done for an alternative gown but I'm also pleased to say that the Council's approached us here at College to look at whether we can work with the students there in terms of a new design and we'll be meeting them soon to discuss how this might work. Officers are also waiting information from a few of these different providers and a report will be coming out, a public report for consideration once all those options have been explored. Do you have a supplementary question Councillor Jenkins? Yes I do. Can you give a timeframe to that and do you think that the quotes I've obtained for £1500 are unrealistic? I haven't personally seen the quotes. We're looking at the Northbrook College option first so all those options will be explored before we make a decision. I think it will depend on Northbrook and the students there and it will be working to their timeframe. Okay would you like to ask your second question Councillor Jenkins? Yes the second question was again addressed to the Leader of the Council but in her absence I'm sure you'd like to take it. The Council, the Leader has previously indicated in her social media comments that incursions of unlawful encampments by various groups on Council land will be facilitated with access to waste services and toilets and has asked that the settled community show tolerance alongside this. Given the regularity of incursions on the Gore and Greensfalls do you still stand by this approach as an administration? So I will also take this question as Councillor Cooper isn't here so she, Councillor Cooper apologises she isn't here to give you her response in person but Councillor Jenkins as you're aware officers from the Borough Council are working closely with West Sussex and always do with Sussex Police to deal with each arrival of the travelling community on a case by case basis. The Council does provide basic facilities which does include access to bins and toilets to travellers who arrive on Gore and Gap. This is to balance the provision of those basic facilities for the travellers and to help the processing of waste on sites such as Gore and Gap and thereby reducing the impact on settled communities whilst all these legal processes are carried out. However I can assure you that as a Council we are committed to finding alternative solutions to see what we can do in the longer term and that will involve work with all the stakeholders involved including the friends, family and travellers, West Sussex and the police. Do you have a supplementary question Councillor Jenkins? Yes I do, do you intend to take any action to try and prevent further incursions this summer which are part of the regular pattern? I think all options need to be explored, this isn't a new problem, this has been happening for years, we need to look at the costs before we can make a decision, we've got to look at what would be cost effective and what would actually work as well for those costs if it will be effective. If we did take action we've got to know that that's going to, we don't want to stop it, we need to look at how that's going to work. We don't want to go and take all that action and then it isn't effective in the long term. Councillor Jenkins would you like to ask your third question? Yes can the cabinet member for regeneration explain what plans they have for 2024/25 to support businesses in Worthing? Councillor Baxter, cabinet member for regeneration is going to answer your question. Thank you Deputy Leader and thank you Councillor Jenkins for your question. So I recently answered this question actually at my scrutiny committee meeting to Councillor Humphries but I'm more than happy to answer it again. So for 2024/25 the council in partnership with Ada District has launched a business support programme and that will run until December 2025. The launch took place on the 20th of May and was attended by a good number of businesses and the programme is split into two parts. So there's consultancy support which covers the areas of start-up support, innovation, leadership and management and sustainability and the council's run an open tender process and recruited FreedomWorks, University of Brighton and Clean Growth UK to deliver the support. Events will take place over the course of 2024/25 with the businesses able to take advantage of one-to-one support. There are also grants, the second part they're aligned to the former, a number of grants will be available to businesses as part of the programme's support. Again these grants will be available through the different themes that were mentioned above. The business support programme has a total value of £500,000 and it's funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Section 106 contributions. The progress and results of the programme are being shared with executive members and will continue to be over the course of the year. I hope that answers your question. Councillor Jenkins do you have a supplementary question for Councillor Baxter? Yes I do. Obviously speaking to those businesses one of the things that they need clearly in the town is access. Could you explain or tell us when the Buckingham Road car park will be open, it's long overdue and can you tell us when the public car park at the Wick will be open which I understand was due for completion back in May? Yes so I'm not quite sure how that is with the business support package but fine. The Buckingham car park is planned, sorry, what we're doing to support businesses. Car parks don't just support businesses though Councillor Jenkins. So Buckingham car park is planned to open this summer as before. I cannot count the number of times I've told you that the materials that have been ordered are coming from Europe and we are at the mercy of delivery times and schedules but I will let you know this again. We were planned to open it or expecting to open it imminently but again we are waiting for the materials to turn up so that the final installation can be done and the wick is delayed. I think you will know that as a member and I haven't got a date for the final open but again it will be this summer. Okay thank you Councillor Jenkins. Okay item five we'll move on to items raised under urgency provisions. I'm not aware that there are any urgent items, nope. Okay item six the construction contract award for Victoria Road has been deferred to our July meeting so I will move on to item seven. Delivering sustainability and accessibility improvements at Colonnade House. If I could ask Alton D. Williams to come and introduce the report, thank you. Thank you Deputy Leader and good evening everybody. So this is a delightful report hopefully in so far as external funding coming into the Council to support one of our assets. As members will be aware, Colonnade House has been a very successful creative and cultural hub over a number of years now in partnership with Ada and Worthing Trust. Ada and Worthing Trust were fully cited in putting this forward as the leaseholder of the operation at Colonnade and just to remind members we have actually split the property holding there into the northern section so this does not include High Streets number five and seven which is being put forward as the EATA. That report came to members at the end of last year. This report only focuses on Colonnade House which is the cultural hub so the gallery spaces and the tenant spaces upstairs. This report essentially with the excellent submission skills of Mr. Grit who is sitting to my left, we have actually acquired a significant grant funding into this. The proposed scheme as you can see there looks to sustainability measures and accessibility measures. I won't go through the list in 4.2 but there's a number of measures in there that is going to actually help reduce the carbon footprint of that building. It should be noted that the overall project is £508,000 in terms of the refurbishment cost. £46,000 of match funding is coming from a grant that the council holds. This was previously a grant acquired from the government from a previous scheme. In terms of time scales they are listed out in 4.5. I think the one to note under 4.5 is around the start date in May 25. There's a number of proprietary stuff we have to do to get there but within the method statement we'll ask tenderers to look at a method statement and facing plan for around decan and/or minimising disruption for those tenants in situ. We hope there will be minimal disruption as much as possible and obviously for neighbouring properties as well. So the recommendations are in the report for your consideration. Thank you very much for presenting the report. Are there any questions in relation to the content of the report from members? No? Okay. So the item is now open to debate if anyone would like to speak. Councillor Garner. Thank you very much chair. So I'd like to put on record my thanks to Mr Williams for presenting the report but also thanks to Richard Manders and Sam Grit for the work that you've put into this successful bid to Arts Council England. And thank you to Arts Council England for this significant grant that shows their confidence in us as a town. So Colonnade House has proven its worth as a cultural hub and incubator for talent and success in the last eight years in partnership with Adrian Worthing Trust. It's important to the further development of this sector in the town that is increasingly enhancing our reputation as a town. And as we're at the start of the Worthing Festival I also want to thank Colonnade House team and all the artists associated with it for their continued support and contribution. And by contribution I mean both culturally and economically to the town. The achievement of this grant not only makes these improvements possible but signals Arts Council England's recognition of our role along the Sussex coast. I'm pleased to see improvements, re-accessibility of the galleries and contribution to the council's net zero targets. So once again thank you to the officers and looking forward I'm sure to the occupants of the studios and galleries as they are to see the improvements when completed in a couple of years time. Fingers crossed. Thank you Councillor Garner. Would anybody else like to speak? Councillor Wells. Yes, thank you. Thanks for the report and thank you Councillor Garner. That summarises everything I think really succinctly. I'm excited about the environmental aspects of this and look forward to learning more about the improvements that continue to be developed throughout the final design as well. But it's really encouraging and it really does set the standard moving forward for expectation for residents and also local businesses in Worthing that we are green as we can be and we take the cultural heritage of our lovely town into consideration too. So bravo everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Would any other members like to speak? No. I'd just like to add as well if I could add on record my own thanks to all the team, to Mr Williams and Mr Grit and Mr Manders as well for all the work that's been done. I think this colony house has become a real gem of Warwick Street down there and I think the fact that it's going to add to our sustainability target and to be able to spend more of other people's money is even better. Okay, so if nobody else wants to speak I will move onto the recommendation. So the Worthing Subcommittee of the Joint Strategic Committee is asked to agree to Worthing Borough Council taking on the project management and delivery responsibility of the accessibility and sustainability work at Colonnade House supported by Arts Council England through external funding and to enter into a grant agreement with Arts Council England. To note, sorry, recommendation 2.2 to note that Worthing Borough Council will be required to commit to a contribution of £46,000 in match funding towards the scheme which will require an agreement to commit and delegated authority to spend as the project progresses. 2.3 to delegate authority to the Assistant Director for Place and Economy in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Wellbeing, the authority to approve and award contracts for the various elements of the capital work. This will be subject to the development of a procurement strategy, the outcome of a compliant procurement process and the award being within the available budget. 2.4 to approve the creation of a budget of £508,000 within the capital programme primarily funded by Arts Council England as part of the capital improvement programme round 2 fund. Do I have a proposer for these recommendations? Councillor Garner, thank you and do I have a seconder? Councillor Wells, thank you and then so now it's been proposed and seconded can we have a vote by way of show of hands? Okay and that is unanimous so that motion is carried. Thank you and that brings us to the end of the meeting. Thank you everyone for coming. I declare the meeting closed at 6.49. Lovely. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]