Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Paul Phillipson, Director of Operations.

At this point Members must declare whether they have a disclosable pecuniary interest, or other interest, in any of the items on the agenda, unless it is already entered in the register of members’ interests or is a “pending notification “ that has been disclosed to the Solicitor to the Council.

Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

There were no Declarations of Interest

The minutes of the Strong and Supportive Communities Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 16 January 2013 were approved as an accurate record.

The decision notice for each decision will bear the date on which it is published and will specify that the decision may then be implemented on the expiry of 3 working days after the publication of the decision (not including the date of publication), unless a request for call-in of the decision is received from any two Members of a Scrutiny Committee or Scrutiny Commissions.  If a request for call-in of a decision is received, implementation of the decision remains suspended for consideration by the relevant Scrutiny Committee or Commission.

There were no requests for Call-in to consider

The purpose of this report was to give the Committee an opportunity to hear from and question both officers of the Council and Vivacity’s Chief Executive on how Vivacity had performed to date and the draft business plan for 2013 – 14 since last reporting to the Committee in March 2012.

Since May 2012 Vivacity, which was a charitable trust, had been providing cultural and leisure services on behalf of the Council. Vivacity was one of the Councils key strategic partners.

A presentation was delivered to the Committee and the following was highlighted:

• Performance 
• Customers
• Income
• Profile of spend
• Staff
• Arts in the city
• Heritage of Peterborough
• Libraries and Archives
• Sport
• Business plan
• Delivering more and costing the Council less

The Committee were asked to review and comment on Vivacity’s current performance and the draft business plan for 2013/14.

Observations and questions were raised around the following areas:

·         Members congratulated Vivacity on their work and commented that  there had been a vast improvement in the provision of cultural and leisure services over the past year.

·         Members were concerned about the future of Werrington Library. The Library and Customer Services Manager advised members that Vivacity was looking to work with staff in a flexible way so that staff, along with volunteers could make more hours available to keep the libraries open.

·         Members queried the average age of Vivacity’s volunteers and how many hours they worked for Vivacity on average. The Library and Customer Services Manager advised Members that volunteers were of all age ranges and they worked thousands of hours between them, there were 60 volunteers delivering Library services. Most of them would work during the Great Eastern run as this was one of the busiest times.

·         Members queried whether Vivacity would be supporting the Werrington Anniversary Park. The Chief Executive of Vivacity confirmed that Vivacity would be investing £5,500 in to the Werrington Anniversary Park to support the project and its resources.

·         Members queried how Vivacity could bring Art in to Communities. The Committee was informed that there were two theatre groups that took place in the city. Vivacity had a small team which bid for funding to use for local community groups who did inspiring art and music in schools.

·         Members queried whether issues around the pay as you go gym had been resolved. The Chief Executive of Vivacity informed Members that they had experienced staffing issues however these had been resolved, therefore, the gym was working normally as a pay as you go gym again.

·         Members queried whether Vivacity were aiming to get involved with the Children’s play Services which was being transferred in to the Council’s Neighbourhood Services. Members were informed that if the Council approached Vivacity then they would be happy to discuss this with them

·         Members queried how the volunteers were recruited. The Library and Customer Services Manager advised the Committee that job roles were advertised for particular projects and volunteers would apply for them as they would for a paid job  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The purpose of this report was to present the Draft Homelessness Strategy Review and Draft Homeless Strategy 2013 – 2018 to the Committee.

A presentation was also delivered to the Committee and the following key points were highlighted:

The Homelessness review and Draft Strategy were developed using:

• The Homelessness Act 2002
• A homelessness review
• A Clear profile of homelessness
• Access to Accommodation
• Homelessness Services
• Identification of gaps and duplication
• Information from the development of the Draft Homelessness Strategy

Priorities were decided through:

• An Action Plan
• Aims of the Strategy
• Four Strategic Aims:
  1. Preventing and relieving homelessness
  2. Increasing access to accommodation
  3. Reduce and prevent rough sleeping
  4. Promoting settled lifestyles and sustainable communities

Ways in which the aims were to be achieved:

Strategic Aim 1:

• Risk of homelessness was identified early
• Effective action was put in place to prevent homelessness
• Partnership Working
• Prevent homelessness and reducing levels of homelessness against the main cause for presentations

Strategic Aim 2:

• Increased access to private rented sector accommodation
• Access to supported accommodation
• Promotion of the Empty Homes Partnership
• Maximising the opportunities for the best use of social housing stock

Strategic Aim 3:

• Action Plan
• Aims of the Strategy

Strategic Aim 4:

• People to be empowered to set up and settle in their home
• Ensuring that homeless persons had access to appropriate support

Vision:

To prevent and respond to homelessness by ensuring that a range of effective targeted services that responded to customers needs were provided.

The committee was asked to:

(i)                  Scrutinise the findings of the Homelessness Review

(ii)                Scrutinise and agree the strategic objectives set out in the Homelessness Strategy 2013 – 2018

(iii)               Approve the Draft Homelessness Strategy and recommend it for approval by Cabinet ahead of it being presented to full Council

Observations and questions were raised around the following areas:

·         Members were concerned with what would happen to their constituents once the new Bedroom Standards Policy was implemented as there were not enough one and two bedroom houses available for families to move in to. The Housing Needs Manager agreed that this would bring difficulty to the city, however, if people were unable to meet the shortfall then priority would be given to them in finding a smaller property. There was also the Rent Deposit Scheme Available to them or a discretionary housing payment pot.

·         Members queried whether there were many changes made since the last draft of the Homelessness Strategy. The Housing Needs Manager advised Members that the current draft was a complete rewrite reflecting the pressures of the Welfare Reform.

·         Members requested information on the Jam Jar Scheme which was included within Strategic Aim 1 on page 85 of the report. The Assistant Housing Needs Manager informed the Committee that the Scheme was set up working with Rainbow Credit Union helping people to save money for their bills, there would also be support available for them to help manage their money.

·         Members queried how many people were currently being re-housed each year. The Housing Needs Manager informed the Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The purpose of this report was to provide the Committee with an overview of Commercial Operations and forthcoming plans for the City Centre.

Commercial Operations provided a framework for the day to day operations of the city and focused on the strategic efforts to enhance the city in the long term. The department’s vision was to provide a high quality, safe and easily accessible environment that underpinned commercial and social success. The following areas of business made up Commercial Operations:

·         The Enterprise Centre

·         Parking Services

·         CCTV

·         General Market

·         City Centre Management and Tourism

·         Events

Key strategic objectives were as follows:

Objective 1 – Promoting the city

• Broadening the visitor offer of the city by extending the events diary and marketing existing attractions more extensively

Objective 2 – Managing the city

• To communicate and co-ordinate the work of all city stakeholders and monitor outputs
• To communicate and engage effectively with businesses

Objective 3 – Improving the Environment and the public spaces

• To encourage and facilitate improvements to the environment and public spaces that were inviting, clean and a safe environment to be enjoyed

Objective 4 – A prosperous city

• Diversifying and strengthening the economic base. The city should be the catalyst for encouraging the growth of both new and existing businesses within the city

An additional presentation to supplement the information in the report was delivered to the Committee.

The Committee was recommended to note and comment on the work of Commercial Operations and propose further scrutiny in relation to its business fields.

Observations and questions were raised around the following areas:

·                  Members commented that the work of Commercial Operations was outstanding, they had always tried their best to make the city fully accessible to disabled people and had always supported the Disability Forum.

·         Members commented that one of the best events in the city was held by the Womens Centre which involved food being cooked and distributed in the city centre and queried whether this event would take place again in future. The Head of Commercial Operations advised the Committee that the event would be coming back in the future and would like it to be community led. The Head of Commercial Operations  would be happy to work with different community groups on this.

·         Members praised the work of  the street cleaners.  Members commented that   overnight the city centre became a disgrace and urged money to be invested in Omni directional CCTV cameras to prevent this happening in future. The Head of Commercial Operations acknowledged that there were too many CCTV cameras in the city that were not being used.

·         Members queried whether the Council would be funding the Italian Festival this year. Members were informed that the Council contributed towards the festival however the Italian Community Association also contributed a lot of money towards it.

·         Members were disappointed that Craig Street Car Park was going to be sold as they did not want to see more car parking taken away from the city. The Head of Commercial Operations agreed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Committee received the latest version of the Council’s Notice of Intention to take Key Decisions, containing key decisions that the Leader of the Council anticipated the Cabinet or individual Cabinet Members would make during the course of the following four months.  Members were invited to comment on the Plan and, where appropriate, identify any relevant areas for inclusion in the Committee’s work programme.

ACTION AGREED

The Committee noted the Notice of Intention to take Key Decisions and agreed that there were no items for further consideration.