Transcript

who is working. We have apologies from Councillor Pierce and Councillor Dunkin' Wood. Councillor Wood was taken into hospital last Friday with an operation. It's okay. Stones or something like that. He's now recovering at home and I feel sure the old meeting will wish him well for his recovery. So if you are watching, which is very disappointing if you are Councillor Wood, get well soon. I need you. So we've got the minutes of the 5th of March of 2024. Are you agree that I signed those as a true record? Good. I move and can I have a second to please. All those in favour? Okay. Please declare any deparations of interest. There are no part to items. There are no questions from the members of the public. That's item

1. So I'll go straight into item 6, which is the overview of the general fund revenue budget for quarter three. Here there are five—well, one recommendation with five points and so Dave, if you can talk to the paper please. Thank you, Chair. This is the third quarter budget monitoring being presented to you and very similar story to the previous two quarters. We have a number of areas of income that are troubling and we're not going to deliver the targeted income budget for the financial year. We've been through each quarter and the pay award obviously was higher than we budgeted for. That has been offset somewhat by the decision around VAT on leisure and an improved net interest position as a result of higher interest rates. Interestingly, the local authority, interestingly to me, the local authority lending borrowing regime has really peaked and at one point local authorities were willing to pay over 8% for money in recent days. Unfortunately, we didn't have any available. The one key change in this quarter is that a number of the projects that have been run by services are likely to run over into the next financial year. So we're actually showing a position where our services are predicted to understand by £2.9 million which is really significant but it does relate to the fact that in the vast majority of cases it's projects that are going to be paid out in the new year. So you'll be getting requests for supplementary budgets and I'll just give you a few. The Liverpool Exeter program which is funded by central government grants, the local plan which is approved, they'll be funding going forward for that. The demolition of the bus station, you will see it's happened but it mainly happened in April so we'll pay the vast majority of that in the new financial year and members have approved a budget to negotiate an agreement with a couple of secure tendencies and those negotiations whilst in one case they've agreed but not yet signed off and paid. So again, significant budgets to be carried forward so expect in the out-term report that you'll receive in July some quite significant requests for budgets to be carried forward. So all in all, generally a stable position we knew about the income challenges early on in the financial position. Just to say there are requests for three supplementary budgets, two of them are reductions in the budget for elements that are funded by EMOPs and they will be carried forward into the next financial year. The third one is depreciation budgets which don't actually impact on the taxpayer, they come out below the line so it's just there for your information and I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you David and leave us. Councillor Mitchell. First of all, I think David, this comprehensive report per se I'll be getting to find appendix 4 more helpful, I wish I'd read that first of all before I had planned through all the other pages first which is the highlights and your coloured scorecard so I can follow which one of those going into. Not rather detailed specifics, just like a general phraseology you use that comes in throughout the report and I just wanted to ask non-accountants and non-specialists what it means. You talk in the parking services of 700,000 income budget realignment, you talk in the waste charges service of 400,000 realignment of this income and I'm just wondering to us as lay people what does that mean, additional income, is it a survey or making cuts next? How does that balance, what does that mean in relation to balancing? In relation to borrowing, I didn't believe we were currently considering borrowing because of high interest costs so why we got an iceman and that borrowing having to consider borrowing if we've got none planned or is this a carrying forward of existing borrowing from a previous time that no need to be re-capitalised. Okay, thank you, Councillor. Okay, can I have any contributions? Oh, sorry, Councillor More. Thank you, I apologise for being late. Thank you very much for the report. I just got a couple of questions about the risk scores in the end. The issues are, again, around the lack of generation of commercial income so I wanted to know what you saw for the executive of thinking about in terms of addressing those ongoing issues in relation to income generation thinking. Thank you. Can I have any contributions from members? Councillor Williams. Thank you, Chair. Great report, Dave. I'm a thing for the traffic light system in the appendix or it's extremely useful. I think I can clarify the wall about trade waste and what this realignment means. It means that's the target that has been set the historic one with completely unrealistic and in order to support the service we needed to set a realistic, more realistic target and it's certainly helped in terms of achieving better income. I think we're up to about a million moment, Dave, aren't we? So, we're doing really, really well and so it's improved the ability of the service to increase its trading. So, it's actually just reflect the reality of the situation. So, although we're on a red here, it's more to do with all this historic setting of targets and that's why it's been realigned to actually set a challenging target but a realistic challenging target. Thank you, Chair. Okay. Anybody else? No. So, Dave, if you can briefly just explain, is it along the lines that Councillor Williams said about realignment and to assure us that we're not going to be borrowing that high rate of pay and also about any few quick views about commercial income and what we may or may not be doing without that? Thanks, Chair. So, in terms of the realignment of the budgets, Councillor Williams is absolutely right. So, in the 24/25 budgets, we have reduced the budget, income budget for trade waste and for car parks to reflect the reality of where we are. As Councillor Williams says, it's still a challenging target. So, we haven't reduced it by the entire 600,000 short fall but it's more closely addressing the reality of where we are similar with car park income and the other significant budget that we've reduced is the housing benefit of the payment income that we've received and that's to reflect the fact that with real-time information from DWP, it naturally reduces the amounts of overpayments you make and that you can recover. So, that has also been realigned. In terms of the borrowing, members will recall that we had a significant capital program based on the condition surveys of all our assets. When interest rates started rising and rising very quickly, a proposal was put to members to reduce that down to deliver the significant and important areas of the capital program but to scale back from the complete works that were planned under the condition survey. Now, the element that was still left was fairly significant and did require borrowing and that kept in the capital program. But as you will see from the next report, the capital program is proving challenging to deliver and therefore we haven't had to physically borrow when interest rates were low. We would probably have gone out and physically borrowed the money at the moment we're using a process of using our own existing funds to finance that even though it shows us borrowing, we don't have to pay the interest on that. And in terms of commercial income, then I'm sure that's something that we'll be looking at over the next year as we look to the 25th, 26th budgets and trying to finance that. Thank you and indeed, as we do look forward to that and I will read with great interest leaflets and stuff that gets put in the world of X and everywhere else exactly how we're going to maintain the reserves at 3.4 million, find 5.6 over the future years and find 3.8 million next year. I'm really waiting to see what everybody else is planning to do that. I know what they want, but nobody's given me any thoughts on that at the moment. So those are the recommendations before us. Can I have a seconder please? All those in favour, please? Sure. Thank you. We move on now to item 7, which is the general fund capital monitoring statement for the third quarter. And again, David. Thank you, Chair. This is the report of the capital program. Just to start, I'd like to remind members that after we covered forward the schemes from last year, so in June, July 2023, members approved at Council a general fund capital program of £72 million. As at the end of December, we had spent 3.45 million of that, which gives you a real indication as to the challenges we're having in delivering the capital program. Indeed, the total forecast spend for the financial year is 8.6 million, and as we sit nine days beyond the end of the financial year, I imagine even the 8.6 million is potentially a stretch. So we'll have a significant capital program being carried forward into the new financial year, some of which you've already approved at the end of the budget in February, and the rest will come to your consideration in June, July time. On the other side, we're also having challenges delivering capital we see. So we've only delivered £20,000 worth of general fund capital we see in the financial year. So everything in the world of capital is extremely difficult at the moment. Members will see the schemes that have been deferred into the new financial year and a couple of schemes, the BLOS schemes, which are not now proceeding where we have handed the money back to the one public state. The other thing I'd like to draw your attention to is section 8.6. So coming to council, seeking further funding requests, whilst we're seeking them in this financial year, they will actually roll forward into the new financial year to be delivered in the May. Firstly, Defigrant has been given to us by the University of Texas as they fit streets for, environment agency, funding for bronze farm playing fields, remediation works, correcting the proportion of the shared personality fund for capital, additional £50,000 as was announced in council in February for the Corn Exchange lift, that will be funded from revenue and £48,800 to improve the AV equipment at the Civic Centre for Hybrid Meetings. And that will be funded from the transformation reserve. I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you, David, leaders. Councillor MURPHY. Thank you very much. I'm intrigued by the AV Budget for Equipment, which it sounds like a good thing to do. Will it enable better transmission of meetings to the general public as well as use for internal meetings, too? Thank you. Any other members of the committee? Councillor B like ours. Yeah, I just had a question about, you mentioned that there's lots of issues with delivering capital strategy at the moment. I just wondered if you could go into that a bit about what the main issues, because I was reading your comments in the Section 151 Office of Comments, and it was talking about timing. Is it all to do with timing or are there other sort of things going on? Thanks. Thank you, Councillor. If there's nobody else, if you could just answer that, because I've read the last few lines of that section, which it does actually say that it will let us support better. So, I think the answer is there, but I'm just declarifying, because I want to give a bit of justice to the question. It is going to make it better, because I'd want to spend anything that ain't going to make things better. Will these microphones be a bit better, isn't it? So, the AV program should improve all the technology that we have to deliver meetings. We'll certainly be looking and should be looking at having suffered these microphones for a number of years now. We should certainly be looking at what we can do to improve that. In terms of the reasons for the challenges, I'd say they're three folds. So, one reason is, as you say, some of the capital projects that we have in our program are certain by their family nature. So, to give you an example, we have the capital program. That's entirely dependent on pieces being ended by occupiers and a new lease being undertaken to come out. So, we don't know when, necessarily, someone won't renew their lease and we get new tenants in. How the commercial property market tends to work is the owner pays for the capital cost up front, and then becomes it through the rent throughout the life of the lease. Secondly, we are struggling to recruit and maintain in both engineering and in corporate property, which are the two principal areas that manage the really big expensive capital program. So, bridges, walls, rivers, canals and that property are covered by those two areas and we're having real challenges in terms of recruiting those staff. So, that is the, those are the main reasons why we're struggling to deliver the final one, as you all have seen from some of the reports that have come back, like the MIRF in areas, we're struggling to get things in on budget. So, you set a budget by law, that's what officers can go and spend. We're going out to tender, the price is coming back significantly higher, we have to come back to council to get additional funding and all that takes time and therefore you struggle to deliver in the timeframe that you are hoping to do. And in terms of the other question, I will not answer the other question, sorry, thank you. So, we've got two recommendations there, which I'm going to move from the check, another second of please, go to the dining, all those in favour please show. Thank you very much, we move on there to item eight, which is the HRA Budget Monitoring Report 4 to 3, and there are two, record one, four, two parts of this one recommendation, David. Thank you chair. HIV is remained remarkably similar right throughout the financial year, but there are three things that I really want to highlight, the bad news first. So, there's been significant challenges in the repairs and maintenance budget and it's significantly overspent 1.1 million pounds, there's been a substantial number of voids, and as members can imagine, it's a balance between having to spend the money quickly to get the void to be occupied and get the rents back. And so, that budget's been under pressure, but we've been reporting that since quarter one. That has been offset by two significant areas. Firstly, interest rates, again, the general fund pays the HRA for the use of the funds for its own purposes, and therefore, the HRA has attracted more investment interest than was anticipated when the budgets were set. And secondly, capital charges are about £350,000 lower than budgeted. That sounds like good news, but actually the capital charges are allowed, we are allowed to use them for capital expenditure to find capital expenditure and therefore, it's taking out of one and giving with the other, unfortunately. So, I think looking forward, repairs and maintenance is an area that we're really going to have to monitor closely going forward. We've taken some of the benefits in setting the HRA budget for 24/25 from the investment interest and therefore, repairs and maintenance will have to be closely monitored and managed. As members will be aware, the more we spend in the revenue account, the less we have available for capital projects in the HRA. Happy to say any questions. Thank you, David. Thirdly, there's Councillor Mitchell. Just following up on what David said about the repairs and maintenance, as he says, an ongoing situation, is there a strategy in place to recover the situation, and what timescale is that likely to take place, so this seems back in balance again. Thank you, Councillor Moore. Thank you. I just wanted to give the report further. I might report back on some of our conversations about the budget from the Council Housing Advisory Board, because we discussed this budget in a bit of detail, particularly about the non-expenditure on the sundry land maintenance in relation to trees, but also in relation to the issue of property maintenance, because this is obviously the quarter three report, and then there was concern about people being able to get their repairs done during the last quarter and what the final out turn will be in terms of an overspend, because there'll be a big demand for repairs this quarter because of the weather. So, you know, it's quite an uncertain picture at this point, because this is a quarter three report, thank you. Okay, thank you. Any other contributions, we'll deal with that in a moment, and there's no need to go into detail on that at the moment. Any other contributions from executive members? I'm reluctant to get into a scrutiny of what's going on with the Housing Advisory Committee, because I feel sure that is the role of that housing over. I'm assuming that some of this is discussed with them, and I think that is the best way, the best support of detail, but if you could just, and I don't want a lengthy report, just are these things being dealt with at the appropriate level of community? Thank you, Chair. Yes, they have been at the property level, as Ketchum all know, we have taken on some other contracts, so that other people can go in and repair, okay, an over mayor, so we are dealing with that. The thing is, you know, about the costs, we need, as they've said, we need to get the repairs done, and we do need to do the voice as well to make sure that people move in, and also that we regain the rents. In regard to the housing board, there are reports done, and they are brought up at the housing board, and if Ketchum all wishes to send an email, then we can answer those questions. So this point, Gage? Yeah, there was one. Okay, so we've got the recommendations before us. I'm going to move those recommendations from the Chair. Can I have a seconder, please? All those in favour of the recommendations and the like, mate? Thank you. We now move on to agenda item 9, the household support fund, Scheme 5, and here is one recommendation. David? Thank you, Chair. Yes, this is Scheme 5, which was announced on the 6th of March by the Chancellor in the Budget. It's six-month extension to the household support fund to run from 1st of April 2024 to 30th of September 2024. Given the timing of the announcement, the timing of the notification of the award and the guidance from DWP, we are seeking delegation to myself in consultation with you as leader and portfolio holder for Council Housing Development and Sports Services to agree the Scheme to ensure that we're able to spend the money by the 30th of September. If we were to wait till the next Executive and Council, that would give us just 11 weeks to be able to spend, and it's highly likely we would not be able to distribute all the funds. I can give you a couple of updates, however, from the time the report was written. So we've now had an indication from Devon County Council that our allocation of funding may be £309,000 with £54,000 for administration of the Scheme. But we have not yet had the official grant agreement to confirm this. Devon's required to send that overall delivery plan to DWP by the 10th of May, so hopefully that will be forthcoming very quickly. We have had guidance now that the support should rather than focus on one group, it should be brought to a cross-section of vulnerable households, including disabled people, care leavers and people with caring responsibilities. The team is currently working on the policy as we speak to reflect this guidance and I'm happy to take any questions. Before I go to the leaders, some of that information about the £309,000 and about the grant agreement, we may be able to say something about the 23rd of May, about the full Council in relation to that. And if we can't then as soon as that does come, I'll be asking us to do an all-counselor, email, so keep up the speed. Okay, leaders, can I submit? Thank you Chair. In relation to 8/8 which identifies all the categories that you refer to and the extensive number, whilst some of them can be easily recognised in data banks held by councils, my concern is how to ensure those people who are really need this help of a safety net can apply and can get hold of this funding rather than us directing it towards people, people being directed towards us, how do we ensure that happens? Thank you, Councillor MOUR. Thank you very much. This money is welcome, but it's too little and too late and too short a period of time. It's six months people. We need to have more certainty about this. My question sort of follows on to Matt in a way. Do we have any data from previous rounds to inform the level of demand and trends and where we have been, where we in previous rounds were able to fulfil all the requests that were made for the household support buttons. I think we need to know that if we aren't able to do that, we should be telling governments that this is not enough. Thank you. Thank you. Any other members of the Executive Council partners? Yeah, I'm just echoing that this money is obviously really welcome. I was just curious about if it is 309,000, whether that's sort of similar to previous household support funds schemes? As Councillor Williams. Yeah, following on from Councillor Parker, so I just wondered whether once we get that amount, are we likely to get another topic? I believe we've had that in the past where Devon have kept some back and then topped up Councillors where it's been shown there's sort of a greater need in some areas of some districts than others. Thank you, anything else? Councillor Dunning? Hi, as everyone says, these funds are really, really welcome. In regard to finding the right people that are unable for this, we have got records of people who've had these benefits for under payouts, so we can reach them. But in previous times we have actually done things for food banks and made people aware of this as well. I'm pretty sure Dave has got more answers in regard to funds and whatever, but it is too little. We do need more and we do need to tell the government that we need more and that I'm agreement with, but at least we have something that we can give to people that require the extra funds and I know that it will be put to good use. Thank you. Just on that, the data could be made available as it not individuals and that sort of stuff about the amount, so that can be made available and what it's been like and everything else David, if that actually that would be interesting data to give Councillors totally agree it's not enough money, I can ensure the members together with people watching that definitely Labor leaders have been pressing government and making representations hopefully to a potentially new government about these sorts of issues. Not really, we shouldn't continue to have these sorts of houses, everything should be properly done. In view of what Barbara Councillor Dennen has said and we can get that data out once we know a little bit because yes, we got sounds good but I know it's being spent, I think it has been over the time, but we need to know that. So we've got the recommendations there, I'm going to move them from the chair can I have a second to please, all those in favour? I assume that was chair that has been carried. Thank you very much, I'm going to move on now to item 10. So this is for the climate adaptation strategy for Devon Cornwall and the oils of Silly and who I got dealing with this one and take the rest David, Victoria and David Bartram. Thank you Chair. Thank you Chair. So this report is endorsing the climate adaptation strategy for Devon Cornwall and the oils of Silly and the purpose of the the strategies to set out how we can create the conditions to adapt to climate change across the wider region. The strategy has been produced by RSK, it kind of shows on the front cover of the strategy and it's with support from the Devon Cornwall and oils of Silly, oils of Silly, climate impacts groups of the mouthful and the group are coordinating regional action on climate adaptation and to improve resilience across the region, it's myself from the City Council who sits on that group representing the organisation and the city. The group is chaired by the Environment Agency and we meet once a month and it just so happens that we met this morning and reviewed some of the risks that are included within the strategy. The document includes a risk register, it also has the adaptation plan, action plan, all of these will be reviewed in five years time. When the document was put together with a five themes that were scored as being the most severe for the region and again again this is covering the whole region and this is around river and surface water flooding, sea level rising, reduced water availability and temperature change whether that be hot or cold temperature changes and also those cascading impacts such as multiple hazards that concur at the same time or sequentially. Within the strategy there are 64 impacts that have been identified and evaluated and those are across five sectors and 18 are severe, 28 are major, 16 moderate, one minor and one negligible and those sectors been the natural environment, infrastructure, health and the built environment, cross-cutting business and industry. Local authorities such as Exeter will really play a strategic role and an influential role in preparing our communities, businesses, stakeholders for the changes ahead. The City Council will draw in the actions from the strategy to inform the work of the next zero on team and when appointed the new program manager for Citywide Net Zero. Thank you. David, David Bartscher, do you want to add anything? I think I was just going to say that the report probably unsurprisingly doesn't tell us anything that we haven't been talked about for the last few years. It talks around wetter winters, hotter dryer summers and the impact to sea level rise. The wetter winters for us, warmer wet winters Devon and Cornwall as a whole is really susceptible to flash rainfall events and heavy flooding as we all know. The hotter dryer summers, we've seen that impact on water resources and as we've seen for the last couple of years, we've had water restrictions in place and the sea level rise for us impacts obviously on our coastal communities but also on coastal erosion as well and that's combined with the stormy nature of the weather patterns that we're predicting. So I don't think there are any big surprises in there. It seems that we've known about at some time but it's sobering and the actions in there are very important for us and our Net Zero team. Thank you, David and Victoria, leaders. Councillor Maw. Thank you very much and for your work on this. It's really important. The report is, again, another sobering read setting out the impacts of climate change which is here and affecting us already and in the report it says that local authorities, a partnership with Defra, need to plan for and implement climate change at a patient at a local level and that relates to some of our statutory functions. So in terms of this recommendation that's coming to council and that we endorse this as a council, can the executive share their thoughts about how these measures set out in this five-year strategy will be incorporated into our new local plan that is emerging because this seems the most relevant statutory function that we do that has the biggest impact. Thank you. Councillor Mitchell. Again, I'd like some knowledge of what the, if any, the statutory function of this document is, it's just an advisory board. Are we signing up to it? Do we have to agree to it? Does planning implications of other implications in the longer term? And I was partly excited by the idea that I need a map to tell me where Devon and Cornwall is on page 99. I just want to add that. I haven't realised before where Devon and Cornwall were, but I know no. Thank you for the map. But I was interested. There's a lot of hard work on in here. It relates to the net zero and as you know, different priorities and different have different timescales. Those going for 2050 have a different horizon. That's going for 2030. So therefore the priorities are different and the timescales are different. And I just wonder how that fits in to this document and the timescale it is thinking about. Okay. Thank you. Any other members? I'll come back to you at the end of Councillor Parkhouse. Any other members wish to talk about it? Okay. Councillor Parkhouse. Yeah. I just want to thank Victoria and David for working on this with the RSK courses of the report. I think it's important to note that one of the first things I asked when I saw this was, okay, what are we not doing? Is it saying we should be doing something that we're not already and the answer is no, which I was glad to hear. And actually a lot of the recommendations within the report and the action plan that targets local government on more county responsibilities and statutory sort of responsibilities of that council. I think it's a new report. It's good to mention as well that it isn't one that we've had every five years. So this obviously covers until 2027 and that hopefully will have another one. Then that will be the next five years that follow that. Climate adaptation is really important and really it is quite sobering. Reading is quite scary. We know we're seeing that, you know, we've had a lot of rain. We've had a lot of droughts. It's not something in the far distant future. It's something that we're all experiencing now. So it is really good to see that, yeah, this report and the organisations are taking this seriously and something that we can as well take up with our new external net zero manager who we're in the process of sort of hiring. And this can be something that we can look at, especially the parts that are also focused on the community groups and individuals and what we can do as individuals like installing rainwater in our gardens or, you know, things about fitting insect screens because it's going to be more mosquitoes because it's hotter, things like that. So it is a really important document and, yeah, I'm happy to end also. Okay, you mentioned mosquitoes and crueenings always an answer to that and you know where crueenings can be found, can't you? But we'll move on. The statutory functions, I think that's quite important, what Councillor Moore has mentioned Victoria. And could we have some sort of feedback to Councillors or somehow to say, here is this report which is good, but what is our to do list as a consequence, as a consequence, as a this report, right? And how that fits in with what we're doing. And also with the local plan, and I'll give you a few moments to think about it in. So I'll mention it when we come up to item 14 in the consultation on local plans, I'll give you a few moments to think about your answer to that on how this can inform local plan and how this would be used in reference to it. And therefore, it's not just another policy document on the desks with all the other policy documents we have over a range of things. So I have to think about that in a minute. And if we can, I think that would be helpful Victoria. So on that, we've got two recommendations, which I'm going to move from the chair. Can I have a seconder please? All those in favour? That's unanimous, Chair. That hasn't been carried. And before I go on to item 11, welcome to the meeting. Councillor Wright, come and join us. She's not deliberately late. Councillor Wright is one of these strange Councillors with a real job. And she's coming straight from work. So we always appreciate that. So we're now on to item 11, which is the Council's Health and Safety at Work policy. There's two recommendations here. And it's Simon Lane to talk us to. Thank you, Chair. This is a legal policy that we are not required by law as our or major employers who have employees of more than five people. There isn't any major changes to this report other than administrative ones that are outlined in section 8, which largely just destroyed the governance arrangements that have changed in the last 12 months through the change in chief executive. Every two years, am I right in saying that? Any member wish to make a contribution? No. Okay. So we've got the two recommendations. I'll move on from the chair. Can I have a second, please? All those in favour, please, Chair. Thank you. Agenda 12, this is members' training. And I want to come straight to you, Barn, to talk us to the one recommendation that we're noting this report. Yes. Thank you very much, Leader. So this is a costly report I bring for members' information, which shows the progress on members' training programs that we have and deliver. I'm really pleased to say that, again, Appendix B shows that we have high levels of satisfaction. So 59% of members that attended show up. They are either very satisfied or satisfied with the training provided. Nothing below that. So I think there are four members who didn't turn the forms, but otherwise, members are either very satisfied or satisfied with the training provided. And Appendix A in the report sets are at the attendance levels for all the sessions provided. So you'll see the average turnout is around 44%. And to my mind, that means me and my team need to do a little bit more work to work harder to make sure that the training sessions are more easily accessible for members. So we will be working with the Councillor Steering Group to see how we might improve the offer that we give to members. Finally, I just want to draw members' attention to Appendix C's, which sets out the training provided by the SSS or the triple S training platform. You'll see what was on offer for members in that list. And you'll see that safeguarding and GDPR was particularly popular with members and a 44% turnout was made for those. So really, that's all I have to say. I'm very happy to take questions. Yes, thank you. I'm impressed that members are satisfied with every satisfy that pleases me. Leader's. Councillor, can I have some more one to do? Fantastic. Thank you. Can I have some miniature? Are you going to continue the theme here? Yes. I was quoting the average number. The average number. You'll see it on the same page. I knew we were one of the luckiest things. I'm sure if I may say so. So we are constantly working hard to improve the offer when we have to members. We're now looking outside the organisation bringing trainers from external and we've had some really very popular, very informative session as well. Members really did get stuck in, got involved in the detail and the difficulty. And I do hope that we absolutely will continue with that. Okay. Any other members? Councillor Williams. It's also just a little further clarification on the training, the online training in Appendix C that's on the—I think it's the County Council website. Is that my Laura? Yes. So, for example, that's for, in a particular quarter, because I know that, although we've got, for example, North against Misogyny and in-cell subculture, I have done that training. And I think that was in a previous quarter. So that sort of training is for people, it's sort of like a pick and mix and you can do it in your own time. If you feel you've got time to do it and it's appropriate, whereas I think with the first two introduction to safeguarding and GDPR, that's where we were recommended to prioritise that training. So the other—it's there for you to do if—yeah. So although the low numbers don't look good, it's not reflection on the fact that people are just not doing it. Councillor, I'll come on to you at the end, but it's a portfolio. Councillor Rife. Councillor Follm. Thank you, Chair. Just to say that I've chaired three or four meetings of the steering group this year and we sought responses from all elected members across all the parties. We got 20 good responses. We saw an 80% positive response to the training and a record number of attendees was very positive. And perhaps our role as the steering group was to look at the 20% who still had questions to ask. And with that in mind, we agreed to monitor the training provided for licensing and planning. And I believe there's some changes that are in place for those in the coming year, which I'm pleased about. The request for external speakers has been taken on board for more interactive sessions and more variety. And I think the other issue we discussed was about the timings to make it available to our as many elected members as possible. But overall, a very positive year would be proactive about the things people weren't happy about as well. Okay, before you come in, Don, I don't think there's many questions there. Just a remark about the SSS training. We were told, as Councillor Williams said, which ones and we've done them, I found them quite, they're interactive, which is good. You can drop in and drop out of it, because it's safe, which is also good. So you're going to say, oh, it's a pass five. I'm out. I can't get back at this particular moment. I can do it when I want to do it. And it would be nice if there was some sort of option similar to that. And I'll cost this, I think, in relation to all it in governance, licensing and indeed planning. Because it's training whereby you have to respond to a few things and get them right. You go back again and actually get them wrong once or twice in such a bad idea, because it reinforces it when you're going into the next one. And it's a bit better, I prefer the training as opposed to turning on your zoom, turning your camera off and going to eat your tea. You're actually, well, I feel sure people don't do that. But I feel sure you can go for it. You can do it when you want to do it. And I do like that interactive training. And I think that would be a good way to go for it. That was my thoughts on the matter. We got one recommendation to note. I'm going to move that from the chair. Can I have a second to please? Pair all those in favor. That's unanimous chair. Okay. So we got item 13, which is a livable exit of a place-making charter and pre-application charges. And we've got a series of recommendations, four recommendations there. I'm going to read them out. But we've got Ian Ian's going to talk us to the paper and the recommendations. Thank you, Chair. So the paper in front of you is looking to introduce a new charging regime for pre-application bias on major planning applications. So that's, if it's residential, that's over 10 homes. So it's not dealing with the minor sort of household type applications. And to frame that new service, we're also seeking support for a new charter, place-making charter. So as I think everyone knows, we we could provide a pre-application of bias service, but we don't charge for that. In the past, the Council did want to encourage developers to invest in the city, hence offering that service for free. But by charging for that advice, we think we can provide a more proactive service and equally encouraging for developers. And whilst being consistent with neighbouring authorities as well, who obviously charge for that service. So the report for you tonight summarizes the consultation, which we undertook earlier this year on the draft charter and the pre-app charges, and is seeking recommendations for executive to seek for Council approval for both. The also the recommendations there are seeking some delegations to make some minor editorial changes before publishing the charter on the Council's website. But also really importantly, because the charter is a live document and will be kept regularly under review, it's also seeking further delegations to update it as necessary during its lifetime. So there's a few issues I'd like to highlight in the report. All of the work that is involved in pre-appications and in the charter itself, it's all based on engagement and collaboration. That's to continually improve the service that we offer to people who wish to submit planning applications. But it's also in that sense it's helping to build capacity for officers and members to understand the planning process or that links into the training issue that was discussed previously. It also the elements of the charter also follow best practice and guidance that's out there in the sector. So we're not reinventing the wheel, we're just following that good practice. Work was actually undertaken in terms of the pre-application charging, work was undertaken to benchmark those charges and there was also soft market testing done with some consultants prior to launching the consultation. The fee structure itself is in three broad bands, reflective of the complexity and the need for specialist advice and the income that will be reinvested to improve the quality of the service. So there is a detailed summary of the consultation responses in the report. It's perhaps not that surprising that the level of response was very low and generally unfavorable. The new income stream will be reinvested to enable us to provide a better service for developers and improve some of the outcomes from the planning process in terms of design quality but also speed of decision making. There are various elements of the charter or already being implemented as well and followed as a set industry good practice. So we're just looking there to implement those areas of good practice with the additional resources that the fee generation will bring. There was also as part of the consultation there was some criticism around the limited scope of the consultation. I think what I would say there is that the consultation was very targeted to a specific group of likely users of the service. So the number of applications that we receive that the major category are quite low and of a particular type mainly through developers. So we targeted that group rather than the general population of X which wouldn't be affected by those charges because they don't relate to the smaller scale types of application. That's all I'd like to say really to chat. I'd thank you just to say on the recommendations, the third line of two for after development, can you put stroke the leader please because at the moment I had appointed anybody I'm caretaking it just to case something happens between them and the second of May that you need to do something that you've got the delegation, shorted leaders. Thank you. I welcome this proposal as we were supportive of it at the beginning. Putting it forward, I understand the idea of 10 homes plus that's not an issue, but the only issue I've got with the layout of the structure you might be able to amplify on this, I can see a difference between the developer with 15 homes, what about the one with 300 and 350 plus? Are these flat rate charges or is it the intention that the one with the 12 homes will pay as much for a standard stage one fee as somebody with 350 is a flexibility in the system to charge by the number of units being produced because obviously that would generate more time in regard to that. You talked about benchmarking. When I initially did some research on this, I looked at Plymouth as a prime example of a neighboring city under the control of the same party. So that's a useful one to benchmark. What cities did we benchmark with and are we comparable with them? Thirdly, do we need to build into the recommendation review periods for these? Is this something that should last three, four years and then be reviewed or should it be a longer or shorter period? I think there should be a review built into it to see how successful it's been and whether it needs a lending because a market circumstances at that time. Thank you for taking a look more. Thank you and welcome this implementation of this approach and charging. I'm interested to know, because obviously one of the outcomes we want to see is an enhanced planning team and that's really good and it's very thoughtful in here, but are there any risks to other the delivery of other planning applications in terms of decision-making and time skills and stuff? How will it input the capacity of the team not dealing with large applications? Was there any risk because there's also will be skewed? So that's a question about risk. In some of the feedback, there was an issue around community engagement and it obviously highlights the fact that there's a developers form and obviously I understand you need to have good dialogue and relationships, but how are we going to sort of formalize and improve community engagement? And another point that was picked up was around the issue of how this relates to the democratic process and how this will hopefully enhance decision-making processes. So well, as a matter of routine, the PPA's, the planning agreements and the design review panel reports be published so that Councils and the public can see what has been said and agreed and advised upon. Thank you. Any other members of the executive wish to say something? Councillor Williams. Thank you and I really welcome this document and I think previously, there has been perhaps a misunderstanding by the public as to the sort of pre-application advice that the planning department has given developers and they misinterpreted in terms of thinking that the developers are working hand-in glove with planners and it's not an independent decision then when it comes to planning committees. So I think anything that we can do to help clarify the purpose of this, that it's beneficial for us, for the communities and for the developers to actually working together to try and help developers come up with an acceptable plan. And it also saves time when it comes to planning committee as well, so it has to be welcomed. One of the concerns I have though is that when you have a developer paying for this advice and then the planning application is declined or refused by planning committee that does that sort of put us in a difficult position at all in terms of that planning advice that we have provided that can be challenged then as well we pay down money and we still haven't got it through planning committee. So it's just that sort of clarity that as to the level of that advice. I'm going to take you to Councillor Pankos. Yeah thank you Councillor Williams because that was one of my questions as well and my second question is that it talks about sort of time scales and you know if someone goes for a standard level or scoping level, whatever it's got you know time scales for you to respond as officers and contact within a certain number of days and then meeting within a certain time scale. Is that something that you're already offering for these pre-application meetings or is it going to be like an extra, I guess I'm asking whether this is going to create extra workload for officers and especially in the planning team which I'm aware is under a lot of pressure and stress for lots of other directions. Okay anybody else? Councillor Wright. Thank you. Could you please expand a little bit on how specifically the fees will be reinvested back into the planning and I know you said that they would be but if you can be specific as to how that will then help the planning team and applicants be able to get things through quicker and more efficiently that would be brilliant. Thank you. Okay just a double question. You've got a couple of points there. Ian I would be very surprised that those people you consulted didn't raise that issue about 10 or 15 as opposed to 350 so if you could let us know about that. I'd be very surprised that none of them didn't mention that. The bench in Mark of Cities you can get back to us about that would be interesting to see what a lot of other places and I don't want you to go through them all tonight but if there's a document you could point us to I think that would be quite interesting. As for whether or not we need to put anything in about a review or do we review it when we feel we need to review it? Publishing outcomes and that sort of stuff certainly to Councillors I would have thought, disposed to Councillors they would be entitled to ask for this sort of stuff even if that was in confidence but could it be made public I don't know or whatever and the risks I think Councillor Williams and Park House spoke about the risks what is the impact the risks to others and other work we're doing and the beneficial sort of thing and is it as simple as no win no fee? I don't know well you know is it is it about that? So there's some interesting points that have been raised in the discussion which some you can answer now or certainly before this 23rd of April when we take it to even if that was a email to all Councillors so we would have that information because there's some good interesting points there if you can help us now please help you so I think the issue about I suppose probity and decision making that the report just set out the sort of legal framework for charging for pre-application fees so I won't repeat that but it is covered by sort of process and legislation and it's a very well-established process what effectively what you would be paying for is a quality of service but not a decision the decision process entirely separate so the advice that officers would give us part of the pre-application process is the kind of advice that we already give what this would enable us to do is be more I guess take a more project management approach to that which actually then helps in the resourcing of this. The government guidance does encourage the opportunity to publish things like planning performance agreements and we would do that we would publish them on the website in terms of things like design review panel letters there always be quoted in officer reports we don't normally publish the actual letters but we would we would effectively quote from them when when we come to report those applications either to committee or on the delegations. I think the issue about difference between or diverting resources this service would be very much contained within the major projects team and so it would help that team to focus on the large and more complex applications enable the team to undertake a more sort of project management approach so for example with a PPA type approach if you know we could ask for the applicant to effectively fund that dedicated case officer and that would enable us to backfill so that wouldn't take away from the performance from the rest of the team and it certainly wouldn't affect the the planning team which deals with most of the household or applications because it's self-contained. In terms of the benchmarking we benchmarked mainly the neighbouring authorities if I'm honest we kind of look we'll look at whether cities as well. Plymouth for example we'll look at what they what they do but it was done in a kind of a it was done through a kind of sieving mechanism really so we didn't look at every single authority but we looked at this certainly our nearest neighbours and what they charge. Yeah so with the sort of approach to a flat rate that doesn't vary depending on the number of homes if that if it's a residential scheme what it what it's trying to do say there's there's a basic offer which is a meeting and some advice a more structured approach which would carry the larger fee and that's where you're getting regular conversations providing detailed responses etc and then the final approach would be through that planning performance agreement which would be a more of a bespoke arrangement based on that application so it's it's trying to reflect the what we actually provide whether it's a 10 unit scheme or a 200 unit scheme it's the level of service that you're that you're that the applicant will be seeking and it's and it's reflective of that. Thank you in just just just to confirm I don't think it happens so much nowadays but I'm going back several years when I was on the planning committee before we had iPads and everything else could come in here and see the planning officer and see this application so that design report which you said would be referenced I could come in and say look you've referenced that in that any chance of me seeing the file and they used to dump a big thing they say get your life and gear in there and they would say so there so there is an opportunity I don't I don't cancel this in particular to think because they are entitled to information which isn't always necessarily I want counselors to feel that they will be over access to whatever information they feel particularly if they're on the planning committee and if they're not they still may like to know it will see it but I still want to I would imagine if you just need to say yes that they could still come in ask for that and that will be so I want to assure people that that information is there and regularly available to counselors to help them make their decisions so with that in mind two four nine three after the agreement I'm going to and move as amended slash the leader so with that three is it in there yeah and in there as well please well done Mark I knew you were here for a reason thank you I hope I'm about to ask can I have a seconder for the amendment please yes oh there we are we've got one um so I'm going to move the recommendations as amended all those in favor of the recommendations as amended please show recommendations to have you carried as amended thank you very much we'll move on now to item 14 which is the ESSA plan full draft consultation reporting and we've got a recommendation here that we note the content and I did make reference to the issue about the climate change and I think from that that is cold for flooding if you could let us know something about that and how it will inform any plan we go forward or if it needs to or if it's already there leave you to come into that so Ian please so I'll start chair and then I'll I'll let George explain some more of the detail about about the consultation and I'll try and answer that question about about the climate strategy as well so the executive is recommended to note the report which is a very detailed report about the consultation just one or two things I'd like you to sort of focus on for a hand over to George um first thing to say is that this is the third major consultation we've done on the plan during its lifetime this is also the first full draft of the extra plan that we've consulted on so it has all the policies proposals map and site locations that you'd expect to see in the final version of the plan that final version by the way we'll be preparing that ready for a further fourth consultation later this year before we submit it to the planning inspector for full examination the the consultations that we we've undertaken this time also follow the work that was done on the first outline draft of the plan last year and that that included the 12-week online consultation with exhibitions within person events like to think as well we did a little bit more we even ran coffee mornings for this for this consultation and we were also really assisted really well by the community builders as well so all of that work was done as part of that I'll hand over to George in a moment just to explain more about that and also some of the highlights that came out of the responses to the consultation I think in terms of the the the the climate emergency strategy that is a really important document it'll be part of the evidence base that underpins the extra plan it's also I think worth saying that a lot of aspects of that document do relate to the the extra planning and land use sense so things like sort of transport infrastructure health jobs all of those things are relevant in terms of what the what the extra plan will do so that in a sense it does look to implement some of those strategy recommendations where it impacts on land use planning okay George George and you try to at this stage thanks Ian thanks Chair just a little bit a little bit more Ian said some of the or gone over some of the consultation activities that that we went through this for this consultation we we did add to and slightly very some of our consultation engagement methods this time we used slightly different venues we did some coffee mornings to try and engage with a variety of people as Ian said we used a large number of quick questions try and give people a quick way of informing us on their views on some key items we use social media a lot more particularly instagram towards the end of the consultation and for the first time we had a full audio version of the documentation online so we're trying to push the activities that we do to widen that engagement as best as best we can I will summarize because the information is in the report with just a few few summary points in terms of the consultation in numbers the total number of responses we received to this consultation was nearly 2,900 from around 1100 respondents so people can obviously respond on various parts of the plan leaving more than one comment we spoke to more than 500 people at the exhibitions and another 100 at the coffee mornings the five coffee mornings that we that we linked up with and the website received more than 11,000 hits during the 12 weeks I mentioned the quick questions so these were a way of teasing out some of the high level issues that are part of our strategy within the plan and understanding people's views on those and we received positive support for all of the approaches that we set out in our in our quick questions particularly in relation to energy efficiency renewables high tech business and training and increasing a variety of uses in our city centre we also received firm support for our brownfield approach including an understanding of potential higher density where appropriate and we also delved into building heights a little bit more so they're quite high profile matters and issues currently and but we received firm support for that element of the strategy as articulated through our quick questions and if we please now not going to go through 61 policies and how well or otherwise they receive but 41 of the 61 topic based policies were well received that is at least 50% of the responses identifying support for them and that included the spatial strategy which is our overarching policy which drives the wider content of the plan and how we will meet our development requirements that's a that's a positive endorsement of of that approach and then briefly in terms of the sites and members will remember that we had a variety of sites within the draft plan so six strategic mixed use sites 18 predominantly residential sites and four employment sites the sites with the largest number of sponsors tended to be our liveable extra sites or our larger brownfield sites in addition to a proposal at Exbridge's retail park and so those large-scale brownfield sites were generally generating and yielding the largest interest and four of the sites received 50% or more of general support all of these were brownfield development sites four of the five sites which see which received the least level of support with Greenfield the other being the Exbridge's retail park site as as I've already said so again that that demonstrates interest in a particular site but it also suggests an overarching support for a brownfield series of site as opposed to Greenfield which is key to our development strategy the report sets out a little bit of of information comparing the level of responses to the full draft so this consultation with that which we ran previously there was a slight reduction in level of engagement and as I said when we reported to scrutiny strategic scrutiny back in March it seems quite difficult to know exactly why that is but it's probably as a result of the consultation taking place later in the year in the poor weather particularly that there are very storms running on the same day as some of our exhibition of intuition help there's probably an element of people feelings that they've seen a lot of this content previously although there was a lot of new content a lot the site material was quite similar and there's also a number of other high profile consultations that this council but others have run at similar timings and I guess that plays into potential consultation fatigue as well we were monitoring our level of engagement throughout the process and that enabled us to up our efforts particularly in terms of social media towards the end which kept our response rate relatively high which was positive. In terms of next steps Ian's already covered this but we will use the responses and the analysis that we've included in the appendix that we're seeking to note this evening to inform the next stage of the plan which should be our final draft that will go alongside our evidence preparation efforts and we're currently undertaking and also alongside continued discussions with members through scrutiny committee and planning member working group as we're already doing. Thank you George leaders sorry no no I was going to follow. No no no I wish to say something but I was deferring to my colleague first. Thank you thank you this this is I don't want to thank you because this is a huge amount of work and I really recognise that and appreciate that and it affirms the overall approach which is good but it does highlight that there are a number of issues that not necessarily compatible with one another which do need some robust discussion and decision within the council before that next draft. Now in discussion with you leader we agree there's going to be a workshop and you've talked about some discussions that the planning member working group but that doesn't have any sort of formal policy influencing status. I am very concerned that it's supposed to go to one scrutiny meeting only as one item on a number with a number of others in one meeting so I know leader that you also you don't get involved in scrutiny but I do feel that in the new electoral year we do need to have an agreed process for members to be able to form and shape the dress some of these strategic issues that are highlighted for example about the protection of nature the nature of the density and the heights the issues that have been highlighted about how we house our students within the city and some of these other issues that you know that have come up because the consultation is not a referendum it's set out the approach as a firm didn't approach with the community but we actually then need to take decisions and directions based upon that before it gets presented again fact community thank you. Okay so Mitchell just add on for what council Moore said I almost feel this is like one of those football matches we're going to for our program for a 90 minute actual main event that we've spent a lot of time leading up to this we'll consultation this draft second drafts and whatever and I'm looking forward to the main event when I can get my actual as an elected member have a full discussion on the final draft that we see because I think as with everything else that there's so much that there's good about it and normally would not it there is not controversial in any sense of people would assume this is a natural way of thinking in a way a local authority should progress but I think it's only as council Moore said when I could jigsaw puzzles I think we'd put all the component parts together do you see whether it's a friction of conflict that needs resolving I look forward to that stage when we get a briefing by members and then at a full council can debate whether the draft is as we would wish to carry carry forward and I do thank George being a member of planning working group on the chapter by chapter and count that we had and council Williams was there today when we talked to an employment city city centre, neighbourhood areas etc and that was helpful and that but in a way that was the right platform for that sort of discussion because it doesn't take place in scrutiny in that form at all at a full council meeting in that format so I do push with my fellow co-leader here that we do need some forum where members can look in some depth at this not in an adversarial way but to actually go through improve their own self-knowledge of the local plan but also then when we come to make the decision in full council it becomes a corporate decision across parties and doesn't become in any sense a political issue thank you okay any other leaders which want to come in council Williams but I just think this is a fantastic summary it's very readable it takes a very long time it's very well presented and I just shudder at the thought of having to process thousands of responses from various groups in the public so very very well done and congratulations to the team I'm somewhat alarmed by the comments that have been made in terms of having a debate you know a council about this because really we should have sorted out any sort of input from members well before then given all these different stages in the consultation and the consultations are there not just for the public but for the for members as well so yeah so yeah so I just think that when moving towards this for me I'm not concerned that the level of feedback and comments in the second consultation is lower because I think you probably just did a very very good job first time around you know I mean really hitting all the buttons doing all these different thousand consultation going to different venues just a huge effort and thank you so much for doing that because it was a considerable amount of time for the team to be doing that to make sure it was done properly that I just got one suggestion though that when you have these sorts of consultations and you've got the next draft the next restoration it is really helpful if you can just pick out where the key changes or differences are because it then it might just help people engage a second or third or fourth time if they know that they might have been there was something specific that they were interested in it's just helpful to be able to focus you know and help individuals to get and look at it again so that's my comment thank you. Thank you leader. Again I'd like to thank the staff all the hard work that's gone into the consultation and can I say it's a good consultation perhaps democratic council could learn how to do a consultation because this is really good okay but what I would like to say is it's the thing that has come out of this report or the consultation for me is that it's been the residents that have really taken part in this and they've actually landscaped this consultation okay and they've been taken notice of which is really really important so I'd like to applaud them so far for doing this because it's really important and I know that the residents are going to fail so they've been listened to in this report and you know I just think that that should be mentioned thank you thank you any other member well just to sound a couple of points here this is important and when we talk about the next steps this is on page through to the papers which it says that it is to inform the next stage of the plan making process I agree councillors have a role in all of this they are elected by their communities they are entitled to speak on behalf of the communities however we are at this process listening to the public not not directing them listening to them in some of it now the planning member working group or in these chapters put to them which are informative sorry I wasn't there today but I'm assuming they are open to all members to attend should they wish to attend it will go to scrutiny and so what I'll be asking in my role of care taking this up until me anyway in relation to I want a complete process identified to councillors as to how we will be taking this forward and how councillors will be involved in all this whether it's through scrutiny but remember working group a separate brief or whatever how we will be listening to councillors on to have their input because they will be representing their communities they are elected to that not that they have some special status above a residence nor that but they are representative and they need to speak in that way so we will try to do that to fit in with what we are required to do as well in the process but even then if not as a councillor as a member of the public you can get involved and I think I did do a couple of those quick ones of that because that sued me and but to do it quickly but so that's what we will do and I will try to get that out to members within the next whether or not I'll have it for the 23rd to be able to say a council I think we need to resolve that but I'm trying to give that assurance that we will be involving councillors at the appropriate time when they've got it all in front of them and not at the time when it's too late either so with that those are the recommendations can I have a seconder for the recommendations please all those in favour as you know that Miss Chair that has been carried okay and now we move on to item 15 and thank you JP and James for enduring the meeting thus far and we'll come on to the Oneford community well being the hub and there's two important recommendations here and it's not quite frightening either you make the money that's quoted in the second recommendation but you'll explain all of that to us JP thank you Chair really appreciated and we've got a couple of slides to go through some of the key points as you imagine with a project this slide I just wanted to make a quick clarification because it's really early on so 1.1 it says in February 2002 it was 2022 it's taken a while but not the not not the extra 20 years so just want to flag that before we start it thank you. Just wanted to take the opportunity to go back a few years with the kind of high level response from the community about what they wanted to see in terms of the vision for health and well-being one for them particularly at the centre our previous engagement which had over 600 responses from the local community told us that they wanted to develop and that brought the community together to improve health and well-being of local residents look really important they came through loud and clear was the connection to that open space so how those buildings at the moment necessarily lend themselves to people walking through and accessing their beautiful countryside at La Boie Valley and the the pain pitches in the green circle and finally really importantly having a voice to develop the facility for themselves so that it was felt that the one-third community well-being helped us fall in residence rather than a sports centre which at the moment largely feeds people from outside of the local area. Since February 2022 we have been busy through the living move team and colleagues next to leisure and the community centre trustees to deliver a program of work to get us to this stage ahead of formal planning facilitated a community-led vision and there's a website link there which is called the information of the engagement that we've done over the last two years you'll see through appendix A the full business case we've done in-depth community engagement and design with the trustees we have a completely new set off trustees at the centre which are helping us guide through the the co-design work and also working through the options of what a future management model and governance arrangements might look like for the facility. There's been a full suite of technical investigations and surveys as you would expect we've completed Reba Stage 2 and we're currently progressing alongside our stakeholders and planning colleagues and Reba Stage 3 design we will circulate if you haven't seen already a link with the fly through video that our architects have prepared and we've also very very recently in the last three weeks delivered further pre-planning engagement sessions with the local community you've got the chance to see those videos and the designs that I'm just about to walk through. This is the current building with the leisure centre on the left in red the community centre on the right in yellow the smaller blue square in the middle is the youth centre and the larger blue rectangle at the top is the existing gym and around the blue dotted line is the current large area of disused change rooms and on the left the white block there is the multi-use games area. We're proposing through these designs to retain the community centre and the leisure centre buildings with them being redeveloped throughout the long yellow building through the middle is the redevelopment that brings the whole site together with one entrance one reception and a cafe that opens out onto the green circle and the lovewell valley just got a few visuals to walk you through here this is the view from the lovewell valley in the green circle with the multi-use games area there on the left and the community hub there in the centre very different to the vista that you get at the moment and that's the current front of the building you can see the joint reception there from the left hand side as you enter into the area and then on the right hand side you move around towards the car park and the white structure on the right is the would be the new the new gym rather like this visual I guess this is what we're trying to deliver in the local community that central space where people come together to connect to meet each other to get access to services and to be guided into the area the building that they might want to access be it leisure be it youth or be it community that is a current proposed design we're going through a technical consultation with sport England and other stakeholders as we speak but that's the floor plan that you'll be able to see once the in more details the slides are circulated I've lifted some high level information from the report around the finances which highlights the capital cost of seven million pounds based on current forecasts and then in terms of the revenue forecast that's highlighted in the table at the base which identifies a identified year business case which demonstrates a revenue of 51k by year five finally in terms of next steps but proposing to continue with design development sport England not planning colleagues ahead of formally submitting the planning application likely to be in june we've got ongoing conversations with funding partners including sport England we will continue to work with it in our co-design approach with the trustees and leisure colleagues on a monthly working design group and there'll be ongoing community engagement through the trustees and also our local community cox group which is led by oneford residents so thank you chair thank you JP is there anything you want to add at this stage or a thank you chair no okay uh leaders thank you very much for this and it's like an elegance good solution putting something to the middle without having to knock everything down so so that's that's very good and just had a look at your business case um i'm just um in in the report it had a number of different options in terms of the approach to governance arrangements and the options for legal structures and so i just would like to know how that issue is going to be resolved you know who's going to make the choice about the option and how would the community be involved in that and once that is resolved the organization responsible for taking forward this project because we've seen in year one is going to need a substantial amount of working capital in order to cash flow that deficit during the first year so in terms of your next steps taught extent will um looking for that working capital um be part of that because we don't want to set up a new community organization um for them to struggle during that year with what becomes profitable and all then have a problem with the council having to bail them out and that isn't a helpful way to go but otherwise thank you very much for your work so far good thank you. Councilor Mitchell just questioned on relation to capital funding for this project um what percentage of the capital requirements do you think will be met through ground funding and will it be a shortfall okay thank you any other members want to say something Councillor Dunning thank you yeah I just welcome this mainly because I haven't lived in um the area for um well since 1975 I've moved into I've been for growth can I say and I was one of the first part we used to use the One Food Hub back all those years ago and it was groundbreaking and it made a lot of difference to the area um I think the One Food area is one of the most deprived areas that we have in our city it deserves this new hub I have family who live in the area and are quite excited about it and all I can say is we really need to support it and I do know that you know we're looking at the figures it's a lot of money but it is very achievable and I know that the people of One Food and Saint Lloyd along with a grown burnt host land and all the areas off of it are quite excited about this and um well I can say is you know good luck and I hope that this venture really really um goes forward thank you any other member wish it can support us yeah I'm obviously got a bit of a history with this one and having this portfolio last year so it's really great to see this all come through um and especially just echoing what Council Dunning has said about um the value to the residents I think this is going to be a tremendous social value to residents living in the area it's not necessarily a massive profit that we're going to get from this centre but um you know it's it's more the community benefit and it's the social benefit the benefit to people's physical activity the benefit to getting more people into the green space into the green circle and accessing those spaces and making that um the centre a bit more open as well in terms of tackling that tricky and social behaviour and the area and things like that so I think um yeah just really great work and um yeah it would be great to see this come through fruition and um because it's such a fantastic project thank you in reality no well just to say on the point two because I don't want to get too much into here and now about business cases and everything else like that uh two two make talks about the potential funding options and so what I would intend to do is to it's disappointing for Councillor Wood because I think he would have loved to have been here um this is part of his baby and started I know back when I did sport in the communities it was important then to bring forward and to engage that community to feel that they're part of something as opposed to have something being done to them if you know what I mean and not thinking that that was the place that they should go but no they can hopefully with this so we need to interrogate that business case because business cases are you know 51k um after five years sounds good you know so as we all know a lot of business is grant funding if that can come in and all that sort of stuff but sometimes you do borrow against any potential income but I wouldn't want to be doing that unless that income was going to be there if you see what I mean that would do all part of the business case so we need to interrogate that and we've got time to do that then by April 25 or something before and I'm just hoping that there will be uh between now in April 25 well it will be um a new government even if it's the same rules if you understand what I mean um a new government and they may have a new emphasis towards some of these things we can bring forward a structured business case so we need to interrogate those figures and to look at all that and that's what I would want to do with the portfolio order and then go back to scrutiny to say this is it this is what it looks like to give the council has an opportunity to make sure that we're still engaging the local community and everything else like that because they will be saying there was some one or six money set aside a good time ago for some improvements where is that money gone what's happened to it and they were saying that to me several years ago and we need to and we will make sure so what I'm trying to say is that this is going to be a well thought through uh project it's not going to be something we're just going to rush and say oh that looks good and let's go out there and tell Dave up there to go and borrow the money and everything else not the 8% though and all that sort of stuff and all that sort of stuff and because we have to worry about the money and that's what Dave has done to us he has got us to worry about the money and that's all I do is worry about the money because if you don't worry about the money none of us are going to be here to be able to do any projects like this so I hope that gives the other leaders some confidence that how we're going to do it how we're going to bring it back because it really needs to be examined properly it's what we want to do it is a high priority we got a number of them at the moment but you know with something else like the Murrif I'm not saying that we've got a spare 7 million line around at this particular moment in time but we found it we've got it and we've got to be able to do that so we will take it in that way and we'll be transparent in how we're doing it interrogating it so with that in mind the two recommendations at JP did you want to come back on anything? Dave you worried me when you walked back there is it something about money I'm worried about have I said something you know totally I shouldn't have said apart from we need to look at this properly I think you would agree with that Dave do you want to frightfully so David you've done that to us all in a nice way and so there's two recommendations there I'm going to move them from the check and I have a second to please all those in favor that's unanimous Jeff has been carried thank you and now we've got item 16 which is live and move sport England place partner 25 to 28 so I think this is JP and James again so there's a couple of recommendations here JP if you can talk us through the recommendations and the paper please thank you chair and again would you hand this one if this is okay but this works in hand in glove with some of the work that we've been doing in one foot and our long-term relationship with sporting land and hopefully the mocha chaps are true please thank you so just to recap at high level the living move program which is our brand for the physical activity work through the council and our stakeholders in partnership with sport England was launched in 2017 we've received over 7 million pounds of investments of about a million pounds a year on years since 2017 and an extensive partnership with sporting with during that period the current funding and existing program comes to end on the 31st of March 2025 so this report seeks approval to bid to sport and then to become a longer-term place partner to 2028 alongside the other 11 local delivery pilots that started on this journey several years ago um it seeks to member approval to continue our work with Exeter City Council playing a lead role in the place partner program and a deeply work of the living move based on the impact the learning and the insight that we've gathered today hopefully members can see it's intrinsically linked to the city councils with the extra vision and also our council strategic priorities of building great neighborhoods promoting active and healthy lifestyles and elements of the program particularly around walking and cycling that promote net zero there's potential as we've seen through the one-third report to unlock other investment opportunities through being in place partner through the strategic capital investment that sport England had more facilities important to note that sport England have invested nearly two million pounds into world we in Exeter program over the last five years and is a really important part of our proposal going forward um we presented to scrutiny at the tail end of last year in terms of the information that came to our local active lives survey in detail this is a summary of the presentation that went to scrutiny at the tenon last year which um highlights our impact um really importantly we're seeing a year-on-year trend of the people doing nothing um so those people who register is doing um zero minutes or physical activity per week and they're obviously those residents that we want to help and support the most because that would be the greatest health benefit to the city um and inactivity rates across area across the extra priority areas are down to 13 percent which one of the lowest figures in in the country when you look at areas of deprivation within cities we've seen a really strong bounce back in terms of physical activity levels on the back of covid which is also um it bucks the trend nationally um we can be proud in the city we have a really narrow gender in a quality gap in terms of physical activity so physical activity rates of men and women are really similar in the city which also bucks a national trend um we've seen a significant recovery physical activity levels for our diverse communities and i would hope that members have seen some of the fantastic work that one of our local partners inclusive Exeter have been doing for a number of their community diverse communities across the city and particularly also in one foot while they posted some excellent festivals recently we're seeing a significant positive link between the use of GP referrals both through Exeter leisure program and also well-being Exeter which is demonstrating increased well-being for those people that access those programs across the city um and we're seeing the scale and the impact of the well-being Exeter program which we also took to a full member briefing earlier on the year with the range of evaluation that we're delivering alongside that that program some of the interesting things that have come out of that evaluation is that we're seeing and we've seen an 11 percent real increase in the proportion of families taking part in regular physical activity together and it's those habits that make a really really significant impact in the long term and also just to focus on those 12 areas that are in partnership with sport England um they are demonstrating that inactivity levels are reducing two and a half times faster in the 12 areas that they've invested in than the national population is a whole kind of demonstrated in the place based approach in the investment in those areas which is reflecting in their new strategy um it's also shown some real tangible impact in terms of social return on investment and that's a significant figure there of 80 million pounds across those 12 areas apologies for the small text in this diagram you'll be able to see this through the both through the report and the slides um this is our high level program structure that will be proposing to sport England for the next three years beyond April 2025 which maintains while we extre one-third our partnership with Cranbrook amongst a number of other program strands on the right hand slide um will be clearly articulating how those programs of work both impact on council priorities and vision and also the sport England for big outcomes around tackling the qualities decreasing physical activity increasing activity and creating positive experiences for children young people and our bid will very much center on that um and we'll be looking to submit that bid to sport England um within the next four or five weeks in the middle of May which will be presented to sport England board in June and we'll report back to council um following that process thank you good thank you James as priorities and outcomes are very very very important and some of those figures on activity have been improved courtesy of the lift not working here in the civic center and also stagecoach for me having to walk in from expert more often than not so on that point leaders just a brief point on on the process um we're going to sport England say go to them in May you expect to give us some feedback in June is there a definite time when we've got an answer to our bid and if the bid is is not successful at this level do we still continue to revert to the lower level style of status so that funding still continues as other projects grind into a whole very quickly in May 2035 councillor Moore thank you thank you for your hard work on this and um the activity has been very obvious and welcomed in the community and um i'm intrigued um about the sport England um framework on 8.12 and um quite a number of these points do relate to the design of the physical environment planning again and the last one is particularly around how disadvantaged communities play leading role in planning and design a large-scale long-term investment in your generation of renewal programs so that obviously is very significant and relates um it's very pertinent to what's happening in St David's Ward and the city centre ward because of all the liberal extra programs that are happening there and the previous report we saw for example um um indications that the idea of developing red cow isn't a popular one in that area so obviously next to the transport hub so i'm really interested in how we can relate these things together make them work well together because if we are looking at systemic change and obviously your chart shows the policies that the strategies that it relates to it also needs to relate back to the planning system in terms of connecting up what's there with what what can change and also then it talks about how these disadvantaged communities play a leading role in a leading role so how are these groups going to be involved in working with the liberal extra place rules which is having a role in the governance of this um i don't see those groups represented in that form so how will that happen so if they have a meaningful say at all levels in terms of what's happening in terms of the delivery of this program so i wish you success in the big thank you okay any other members wishing to add something as i said i know uh cancel would would also want to so if you just quickly tell us about the the funding as regard to uh the place board and all of that this is a this is a request about the funding opportunities for that which will be told about uh how we deal with it now we we will deal with that in due course i would say so about the the funding is it a cliff edge yeah it's a cliff edge chair so it's uh and we wanted to be first out the bat so we're we're we're being bold and brave and we're trying to go to the first board first board to England and the project is 100% sporting them funded so without that that funding there's no other alternatives than that so all the other points become almost irrelevant that's why we got to get this funding in and uh well i do know that you know when we first put that bid in i can remember going up to taunton that time to try to be one of the 12 and i think we were lucky in course you know when you talk about five six years ed it's that's forever in it you know it's never going to come isn't it and here it is but i feel sure from what we've seen uh are working with sport england i i think yeah you'll do a good job in putting it forward and congratulations to the team so we've got uh those three recommendations there which i'm going to put to the meeting now can i have a second of please all those in favor that's unanimous chat that has been carried okay thank you very much uh good evening everybody it's been a nice meeting and see you on the on the end it is everybody on the 4th of june one leg each other