Transcript

for joining today's live public cabinet resources panel meeting. I do need to advise you that today's meeting will be broadcast live via the Council's internet site and that members of the press and public may record and take photographs except where there are confidential items. So item one, are there any apologies for absence? Non-received, Chair. Okay, thank you, Derry. Item two, any declarations of interest? I don't have to do this and you can check this from me, Derry, but in the paper it's mentioned about Gloucester and Thames for under my board member. Page seven. Very clear that's in your role and on behalf of the authority leader and therefore it's not a disposable pecuniary interest, it's absolutely fine. Just checking. Okay, thank you. Right, item three, minutes of the previous meeting. If you turn to your pecs, you will see the minutes of the previous meeting held on the 20th March and then on page five of the agenda pack. I move that the minutes of the previous meeting held on the 20th March be approved as a correct record. Is that seconded? Seconded. Is that agreed? Okay, that's carried. Right, item four, procurement award a contract for works and goods. I call on Councillor Louise Miles to move the report which is on page 11 of your agenda pack. Thank you, Chair. I formally move the report. Is that seconded? I seconded it. Okay, thank you, Councillor Jaspal. Right, is there any Councillor that wishes to speak on any of the items on that agenda item? Councillor Colleishwood. Thank you, Chair. Yeah, just in relation to the part of the report that applies to my particular portfolio, it's the requirements, apply of personal protective equipment and workware, and the contract applies to the waste services department which comprises of the waste collections team, the waste transfer station and the household waste and recycling centre. It's an annual value of 57,500 and total value of 230,000. Thank you, Chair. Okay, thank you, Councillor Colleishwood. Is there any other Councillor that wishes to speak on this item? Okay, the report is before you. All those in favour say aye. All those again say no. Okay, that's carried. Item five, which is the acquisition of the privately owned anti-property, by agreement or compulsory purchase of 11 Brown Street, Wolverhampton. That is myself. I don't intend to read through all the recommendations. You'll see there that there's a number of recommendations under numbers one to five. But broadly speaking, the background is this property has been empty since 2014. Not good for any neighbours of which there are two. And of course, the Council makes every effort to work with anybody who may have a right or ownership or anything similar to the property. I know the officers worked tirelessly to try and make contact with potential. Well, I say owners, potential recipients of the property. Sadly, we haven't been able to make progress. So you'll see under the recommendations that were seeking approval to authorise the Director of Resident Services in negotiation to look at the acquisition of the property of 11 Brown Street. We do hope that this will kickstart somebody to come forward and actually take ownership, do something with the property. If not, we will move to acquire through compulsory purchase order. And within six to 12 months, we intend to bring it back into use, obviously, for sale. And it will be reoccupied. Obviously, we need to understand the scale of works when we get in there. As I say, it's not good if you're a neighbouring property. It will help somebody gain a home in Wolverhampton, which is much needed. I don't say this is contentious. It's everyday business as such, my words, a lot of hard work and background detail and man hours for the team. But it's something we do quite well and something that I'm quite proud that we've done for many years. Is that seconded? Seconded. And can I just say that this is a vital policy of ours that brings empty hoses back into use. There's a national shortage of housing, and this is just one tool that we can use in our armory. It might be that we work with the combined authority to devolve even more powers so as we can bring empty properties back into use, because there's such a need, especially for family arms. And also, this helps to lessen the effect of bloat within our communities. So I wholeheartedly support this. Thank you, Chair. Okay. Is there any other Councillor that wishes to speak? Okay. The item is before you. All those in favour say aye. Aye. Anyone against? Okay. That item's carried. Item 6. City Learning Quarter, Phase 2. Central Library and Adult Education Project. I call on Councillor Stephen Simkins, the leader, to move the report, which is on page 39 of your agenda, Pack. Thank you, Chair. I think this is one of the most key policies that this city has got. The City Learning Quarter is vital for so many different reasons. It really is a key priority for us. It will help people to change their lives, to get into the new technologies and the opportunities that that presents in the economy for us. This is really important and integral for our long-term sustainability of this city. As you can see, that the City Learning Quarter is at Phase 1 and the construction alone is the investment that's coming into this, is I.1 million, and that will be for advanced technology in the automotive centre. That's really pleasing for me as a Billstone Councillor, because that's at the Wellington Roll Campus, which is in Billstone. That's what we need to do. We need to tackle the oddest areas for people to find employment first. That's really pleasing for me. I'm really pleased that we've got our partners, McLachlan and Arvey, have now been working on the sites for four months to bring the works up to a standard. This is just a component of a £61 million city centre development, which is supported by government funding, because we need government to fund that. They see the recognition of what this will mean to our city. That's really important. Also, let's not forget that the local authority, this City Council has invested into this project as well, and it really is important that we offer every opportunity for people within this city who want to change their lives and get a better education, better skills. This will really enhance what we're trying to achieve with a green innovation corridor, which is across the city. That's really important, also working with our partners at the University, but more importantly, put thousands of students right into the city centre and just off Billstone Centre. So, as there's a market that's there when we hit the term time in '24, it's really important. I think we've been savvy in this project moving forward, because not only do we get a learning quarter, we get to upgrade our library within the city centre. That's going to be a real game changer for us, so we can be sustainable moving forward, and also there'll be new entrances and conveniences and landscaping where it's at Tech Place. This will create a modern and reconfigured, accessible, digital enabled library and not expand centrally the adult education provision across the city from post-16 learners and up. That has got to be something that will boost the skills base within our city, so now what happens in the future externally within the world of politics, we will have a resilience that's been built into our city centre and opportunities in that resilience for our residents to change their lives and also to bring this city where it needs to be. It's an immense project that we're undertaking, and I'm so proud of it, you can probably tell. There really is a key opportunity for us all, so it's all these things I've planned, so as it does, it'll just happen overnight. They're more connected up, Billston gets a boost to its economy because we've got new students, they'll be arriving there and apprenticeships. It is a game changer, I think, for the whole of the city and also I think it'll put us on a regional scale across the West Midlands, so it's really important that we do recognise that the combined authority have had some input in this, but this is a Wolverhampton City Council-led project and I'm so proud of everybody that's working on this and we'll see it delivered on time. Thanks, Layda. Is that seconded? Councillor Burt? That seconded, and I think what Lead has just said there is really, really via to what we can consider here is there is nowhere in our region and wider region where they have a world-class college, a central library, an adult education brought together in one single block of a city, but it's not just that attached directly to the tram infrastructure, bush infrastructure and rail infrastructure as well. This is a real revolution for Wolverhampton, this isn't just us that's going to benefit from this. This is not just our generation, it's going to benefit from this, this is a real generational investment in our people and I think on the key bits there is actually what you just, what you do just stay on there is we're taking our heritage building and we're promoting lifelong learning throughout our city. These people, these libraries have a sense of place, we're going to restore the facade, we're going to restore the roof and we're going to bring disabled accessibility to a building which actually suffers from a lack of it at the moment and we're going to promote lifelong learning right in the middle of Wolverhampton City Centre, whether that's you're going to college or whether that's you're using the adult education or whether that's you just pop into the library and using the new digital resources, this is a real real game changer and actually this is what our schools want to see, when they talk about the college, this is what adult education want to see and actually it's what we all want to see with, I'm sure many people speak about this and my colleague in particular, the thousands of people, this is going to bring into Wolverhampton, not just from Wolverhampton, the amount of people now that are just one bus away from this national standard institution is amazing and I'll tell you all thank you for this as well, the residents of Padgett Road at the moment who now will have a much easier life and everyone else in the city will have a much better access to world class education, I don't think much more can be said than that. Thank you Councillor Burden, Councillor Gaka. Thank you Chair, yeah I fully support this paper and I'll tell you why I fully support this paper because it's a fantastic paper I just want to talk very briefly about the central library as well, myself and my colleague Councillor Jasper, we were invited to central library not so long ago, wow that building is full of history, that building is full of history that we didn't even realise, if I'm going to be honest I didn't realise, it steeps in history, they've got so much in that library that when you walk around there the stories you hear from people and the people and our officers who run that it's amazing anything, wow what a building right on our doorstep but it needs some improvement and here we are the improvements here so fully support this but let me just come back to the city learning quarter, again I fully support this, it's an excellent paper and I think you're all going to know what I'm going to come on, this is going to bring thousands of people in the city, thousands of people, we're not talking just from Wolverhampton, as my colleague Councillor Burden just said, this is from much wider region from the black country, from Birmingham, people are going to come into this city to learn, football, what do you need to have a vibrant city, you need people in the city and this is what this paper is going to deliver, it's an excellent paper, increasing to the city centre, thousands of students coming into the city, spending them on a walk in the streets, going into the pubs and clubs, boosting the local economy, wow this is a fall thinking council and fully support this paper, thank you Chair. Thank you Councillor Geffel, Councillor Colleosewood. Thank you Chair and isn't it wonderful to hear my cabinet colleagues speak so passionately about the wonderful work that this Labor Run Local Authority has done, not just this year, consistently year on year, we think about the economy being boosted, we think about further educational opportunities, we think about the improvements that we make into the city centre, the residents of the city should be proud of our city and proud of what we're doing going forward. It's a good report, I've looked at the risk register on there, it's encouraging for me to see that all of the risks are rated either amber or green, going forward, very pleased with it and it's an exciting time to be in Wolverhampton, thank you Chair. Thank you for your comments, is there any other Councillor that wishes to comment? Okay, can I just very quickly add that somebody who comes from manufacturing are very passionate about the car industry, the West Midlands is the capital of manufacturing and the car industry and has been for many decades and it's pleasing to see the improvements that include the advanced technology for the automobile centre and of course we do have a blue chip company not very far away from here that will actually not just produce engines as they do now, it's actually been renamed as the EPMC, so it's gone from the engine manufacturing centre to propulsion has been added, that is because the drives and the power trains that will move us into the next stage of all electric vehicles will be done right on our doorstep. You know they've invested heavily into Wolverhampton and I'm pleased to see that the City Council is matching it by doing their bit and pushing forward the advanced technology for the automobile centre and long may continue that all the decades we've seen previous with manufacturing jobs and engineering, we'll see that going into the future because the good quality jobs and without doubt the West Midlands if not Wolverhampton itself and the Black Country has been pivotal to that success and we'll be going into the future so super right the reports before you all those in favour say aye anyone against okay that's carried that takes us on to item 7 where I moved the in accordance with section 100A subsection 4 of the local government at 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the remaining items of business as they involve the lightly disclosure of exempt information on the grounds indicated on the agenda is that seconded okay is that agreed okay that's carried so just before we go off air can I thank everyone for your participation that brings the public meeting to a close thank you very much [BLANK_AUDIO]