Agenda and minutes

            An apology for inability to attend was reported from Councillor McDonough-Brown.

            The minutes of the meeting of 11th October were taken as read and signed as correct.  It was reported that those minutes had been adopted by the Council at its meeting on 1st November.

            No declarations of interest were recorded.

In accordance with the Committee’s decision, of 9^th August, to receive a presentation from representatives of Festivals and Events International (FEI) to provide an overview of the Events and Festivals Strategy.

            The Committee was advised that, in accordance with the Committee’s decision of 9th August, representatives from Festivals and Events International (FEI) were in attendance to provide the Committee with an update on the ongoing review of the Events and Festivals Strategy for the city. 

            The Chairperson introduced Mr. N. Dodds, Managing Director of FEI, and Mrs. D. Close, Lead Consultant, to the Committee and they were admitted to the meeting.

            The Managing Director advised the Committee that he had thirty years’ experience in the events and festivals sector, having been the General Manager of the Edinburgh Festival for 10 years and Chief Executive of the Brighton Festival for 8 years and that, for the past ten years, had been providing advice on the sector to authorities and local governments around the world.  He advised the Committee that Ms. Close had 22 years’ experience of working in the events sector, having formerly been a Head of Service in Brighton and Hove City Council and having worked as an Events Producer.

            The Managing Director provided the Committee with an outline of their brief and methodology, which included a review of the City’s portfolio, consideration of delivery structures, consideration of the decision making criteria, consultation with stakeholders, benchmarking against other cities and impact modelling.  They advised that, eventually, this work would lead to a new Events and Festivals Strategy for Belfast, 2018-2023.

            He highlighted to the Committee that they were keen to hear the Members’ views on the work which had been carried out to date and that this engagement with Members formed an important part of the consultation process.

            The Lead Consultant outlined that they had classified all events into six categories, namely, mega, major, signature, growth, local and neighbourhood events.  She explained that, through their research, they had determined that over 70% of the events which Belfast had hosted were local and neighbourhood events, 25% were growth events, 1% were major events, such as the MTV Awards, and that it had hosted no globally-recognised ‘mega’ events, such as the Olympics.

            The Committee was advised that benchmarking had taken place against similar sized cities, including Galway, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Aarhus and Rotterdam, in terms of investment and practices.  She outlined to the Committee that they had compared the amount which each Council invested in its city events and how many of those events that the Council had produced.

            In response to a Member’s question regarding the engagement which had taken place with those working in the events and festivals sector in Belfast, the Lead Consultant advised the Committee that, while they had been disappointed with the low number of survey responses which they had received so far, they had met with 67 stakeholders face to face.  She advised that this had included engagement with 24 officers from numerous sections across the Council, 8 representatives from the Departments for Communities and the Economy, 5 representatives from business groups within the city, representatives from Visit Belfast, Tourism NI and Tourism Ireland, and around 20  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2a

            The Director of Development reminded the Committee that, at its meeting on 9th August, it had agreed to recommend to the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee that priority be given to the following events and festivals when it was considering in-year re-allocations, totalling £270,000:

·        Gradam Ceoil 2018/19: £50,000

·        Féile an Phobail 2018/19: £180,000; and

·        Other Voices 2018/19: £40,000.

            He outlined that, in the intervening period, a number of other organisations had approached the Council seeking funding for the following initiatives:

·        EastSide Arts Festival: £40,000

·        C.S. Lewis Festival: £40,000;

·        Belfast Tattoo: £25,000;

·        First World War Commemorative Event: £35,000; and

·        Every Day Remembered: £138,840.

            A Member stated that they would be supportive of the five events being added to the priority list but that, in the interest of fairness, both sets of events should receive the same amount of money in total.

            A further Member disagreed and stated that event funding should not be split evenly and allocated on the assumption that certain events were for one section of the community and other events were for another section.

            Moved by Councillor Beattie,

            Seconded by Councillor Hargey,

      That the Committee agrees to recommend that the five requests be added to the priority list for the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee’s consideration of in-year re-allocations and, in order to ensure equality, that the Committee agrees to allocate an additional £8,000 towards Féile an Phobail, so that each set of events receives the same amount, that is, £278,000.

            On a vote by show of hands, seven Members voted for the proposal and ten against and it was declared lost.

            Accordingly, the Committee agreed the recommendations as outlined in the report, namely, that the Committee:

1.     recommends to the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee that priority be given to the five named events and festivals when considering in-year reallocations, based on the half year financial position; and

2.     notes that the events would be added to the list which had previously been agreed by the Committee.

            (Mrs. R. Rea, Economic Development Unit, attended in connection with this item)

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0     Purpose of Report

1.1        The purpose of this report is to:

-       Update Members on the proposed approach for Council to advance the Employability and Skills workstream through a phased approach, in line with Belfast Agenda commitments and the emerging priorities of the Belfast Region City Deal; 

-       Identify mechanisms for Elected Member engagement in the process of developing the key elements of this workstream

-       Advise Members of the job creation impacts of the work to date (550 new jobs created in the first six months of the year) and the potential to increase the impact of this work, subject to partnership engagement and additional resources.

2.0       Recommendations

2.1       The Committee is asked to:

-       Note and approve the principle of the phased development of the Council’s Employability and Skills workstream;

-       Agree to participate in a process of engagement to inform the content of the future work programme, including a detailed workshop in the new year.

3.0       Main report

            Key Issues

3.1       Employability and Skills development is a core priority of the Belfast Agenda, principally within the ‘Working and Learning’ theme.   Equally, the principal ambition of ‘inclusive growth’ – whilst not exclusively focused upon employability – recognises that, for many individuals, the benefits of economic growth are experienced through accessing a job and moving up the career ladder, and that employment is a key route out of poverty.

3.2       Over the next four years, the Belfast Agenda sets ambitious targets for economic growth focusing upon new job creation and private sector investment alongside targets to improve skills attainment (with a particular focus on lower level skills), and to address social and educational inequalities.  One of the biggest targets to be achieved in the next four years is to reduce the economic inactivity rate in Belfast to 23%. In real terms, this will mean moving 7,500 individuals who are not currently working into employment – many of whom have not worked for a long time.

3.3       The Council has been scaling up its level of investment year-on-year over the last few years. Additional staff resources have also been recruited to deliver on this programme of work.   The following headline targets are expected to be achieved in the financial year 2017/18;

·        More than 1,000 residents are expected to enter employment (550 jobs created to date)

·        4,000 residents will be engaged through employability interventions and early engagement projects

·        Over 1,000 students and young people to be engaged through career events and digital skills programmes and over 290 work experience opportunities to be provided through the Council and key employers across the city.

3.4       While there is widespread support for the Council assuming a more significant strategic and operational role on Employability and Skills issues, it is important to be aware of some of the challenges associated with this.  These include: 

·        The Council does not have statutory responsibility (for education, employability and/or skills  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3b

            (Mr. J. Hanna, Senior Democratic Services Officer, attended in connection with this item)

            The Senior Democratic Services Officer outlined to the Committee that its previous meeting had lasted almost five hours due to the mixture of business on the agenda, which had included three presentations. He explained that a number of Members had complained about the length of the meeting and the fact that some of the important matters which appeared later on the agenda had not been given proper consideration due to the length of time spent on earlier items, particularly the deputations. 

            The Committee was advised that it had already agreed to receive a further five presentations over the next two months. 

            He outlined to the Members that the Committee might wish to consider implementing a time limit for presentations, schedule monthly Special meetings or retain the current position.  He also pointed out that the Members might wish to consider an earlier commencement time for the meetings.

            During discussion, it was felt that introducing a time limit for presentations was impractical due to the nature of the deputations which presented to the Committee, and particularly in relation to the questions afterwards from the Members.

            In relation to the scheduling of monthly Special meetings, the Senior Democratic Services Officer pointed out that the schedule of meetings for 2018 could be amended to include a Special meeting each month, to be held only if required, to receive presentations and would not include any other items of business.

            After discussion, the Committee agreed that:

1.     the commencement time of the Committee would remain at 5.15pm;

2.     a maximum of one presentation would be added to the agenda for each monthly meeting;

3.     where 2 or more presentations were scheduled for any month, a Special meeting would be held and would not include any other items of business which would normally be considered at the monthly meeting;

4.     a Special meeting to receive presentations would be scheduled each month, except July, and would be cancelled in a timely manner if it was not required; and

5.     a list of Special meetings, from January – December 2018 (excluding July), would be submitted to the next meeting.

Restricted item                     The Committee approved the following schedule of meetings for the City Growth and Regeneration Committee during 2018 and agreed that it would meet at 5.15 p.m. on those dates:

·        Wednesday, 10th January;

·        Wednesday, 7th February;

·        Wednesday, 7th March;

·        Wednesday, 11th April;

·        Wednesday, 9th May;

·        Wednesday, 13th June;

·        (No meeting in July);

·        Wednesday, 8th August;

·        Wednesday, 12th September;

·        Wednesday, 10th October;

·        Wednesday, 7th November; and

·        Wednesday, 5th December.

            The Information contained in the following report is restricted in accordance with Part 1 of Schedule 6 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014

      Resolved – That the Committee agrees to exclude the members of the Press and public from the Committee meeting during discussion of this item as, due to the nature of the item, there would be a disclosure of exempt information as described in Section 42 (4) and Schedule 6 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014.

            The Committee agreed to receive a presentation from BelTel LLP and its appointed design team, at a future meeting, on the development proposal for the former Belfast Telegraph site and the associated branding and engagement for the scheme.

            The Committee was reminded that, at its meeting on 9th August, it had acceded to a request from NI Water to present at a future meeting.  The Committee was advised that Transport NI had recently been in contact to present its Autumn Report to the City Growth and Regeneration Committee.

            The Chief Executive pointed out that the Committee had previously agreed to hold Special City Infrastructure meetings, as and when required, to receive presentations from outside bodies such as Transport NI and NI Water.

            After discussion, the Committee agreed to hold a Special meeting in December, to which all Members would be invited to attend, to receive a presentation from NI Water and to receive the Autumn Report from Transport NI.  The Committee also agreed that the previous item, a presentation from BelTel LLP and its appointed design team, would be added to the agenda of the Special meeting.

(Ms. A. Doherty, Planning and Transport Officer, attended in connection with this item)

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0     Purpose of Report or Summary of Main Issues

1.1       York Street Interchange

            To provide an update on the York Street Interchange (YSI) strategic road improvement scheme, the outcome of the Public Inquiry and the Council’s ongoing involvement in the next stages.

1.2       Operation times of loading bays – Belfast City Centre

            DfI has requested views on a proposal to relax operation times of the loading bay restrictions in the city centre with a view to reducing the existing ‘at any time’ restrictions to allow general parking in the bays in the evening / overnight.

2.0       Recommendations

2.1       The Committee is asked to:

·        Note the YSI update and the ongoing participation of Council officers in the process; and; 

·        Consider the proposed response to the loading bays consultation outlined in Para 3.8- 3.10 and, if appropriate, agree this response for submission to DfI.

3.0       Main report

3.1       The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) is developing the York Street Interchange strategic road improvement scheme to improve links between the Westlink, M2 and M3 routes and remove a bottleneck on the strategic network. The estimated cost of the scheme is between £125 and £165 million. The development of the scheme has been progressing since 2008 and the Council provided formal responses to public consultation processes held in June 2011 and in March 2015.

3.2       DfI also established a Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) in January 2015 to consider and advise on aesthetic aspects of the proposed scheme and Council officers have been represented on this group.  Council officers also made representations on key issues during a Public inquiry held from the 10th to 12th November 2015.

3.3       During the public inquiry Council officers made representations on the following issues:

·        the need for careful design to reduce the visual impact of the interchange and to enhance connectivity for pedestrians and cyclists. It was emphasised that York Street interchange scheme should secure the enhancement of the wider environment to support improved connectivity for adjacent communities and these improvements should be included in the overall project budgets.

·        Air quality - the York Street Interchange scheme has been identified as one of the principal measures to include in the new Belfast plan to improve air quality in that area. The Council agreed to carry out further monitoring in the adjoining residential areas. 

·        Noise and vibration - the need for the detailed construction programme including proposals for the chosen piling methods and hours of proposed works to be communicated and agreed with the Council well in advance of works commencing.

·        Contaminated land - the Council is broadly satisfied with the Transport NI’s management strategy towards ground contamination and towards the mitigation of risk posed by contaminated land.

3.4       Following the completion of the public inquiry, the Inspector’s report was published and the inspector made the following recommendations relating to Council representations:

·        DfI Roads to liaise with the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6a

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0     Purpose of Report or Summary of Main Issues

1.1       The purpose of the report is to update Members on a request for sponsorship for the 2018 Northern Ireland Science Festival based on the success of the 2017 event. The festival will take place from 15 to 25 February 2018 in venues across the city and throughout Northern Ireland.

2.0       Recommendations

2.1       The Committee is asked to:

-       Note the contents of this report and

-       Agree to allocate £35,000 from existing budgets for festivals of this nature, to the Northern Ireland Science Festival 2018 as per the agreement in October 2016.

3.0       Main Report

3.1       Background

            The Northern Ireland Science Festival has been taking place annually since 2015.  The 2017 event took place over 11 days in February 2017.  It offered over 180 events across a wide range of venues, presenting local and international work that focused on a wide range of themes including science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  The daytime programme targeted children and young people with workshops, talks and interactive activities while, in the evening, the Festival presented an eclectic mix of science debates, talks, theatre, comedy and music to engage youth groups as well as adults and families.

3.2       The event was organised by Science Festivals NI, a unique collaboration of major STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) outreach organisations in Northern Ireland.  Belfast’s exceptional higher level skills talent pool is the primary reason why investors choose the city. Events such as the NI Science Festival help grow collaborations between such organisations and individuals, showcasing Belfast in a positive light.  Funding for the event was provided by a number of organisations including the then Department for Employment and Learning, the British Council, Queen’s University and the Ulster University and Belfast City Council.

3.3       Science Festivals are a relatively new type of event that is growing in popularity worldwide, with cities such as New York, Edinburgh, San Francisco and Dubai hosting large scale events as part of their wider cultural frameworks.  In 2015, the inaugural NI Science Festival joined this international group by becoming the largest festival of its kind on the island of Ireland and one of the largest in Europe.  Since the first Festival in 2015, the event has continued to go from strength to strength.

3.4       Since it was established in 2015, the festival has continued to exceed agreed targets, and successfully competing with other established science festivals. 

3.5       Evaluation of the 2017 achieved the following :

-       Audience numbers of 63,000 exceeded the 2017 target of 60,000 set out in the funding agreement;

-       182 events took place across a range of venues, with approximately 85% of audiences coming to events taking place in Belfast;

-       94% of attendees indicated that they would visit the Festival again, with 71% of survey respondents indicating that they were more likely to pursue or encourage others to pursue a career in STEM following the Festival;

-       The Festival's wide  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7a

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0     Purpose of Report or Summary of Main Issues

1.1       The purpose of this report is to provide a 6-month progress report on the key actions contained in the City Growth & Regeneration Committee Plan, as agreed by Committee in June 2017.  In particular, it will highlight the impact of the work undertaken in terms of jobs growth, skills development, cultural investment and physical regeneration.  The headline figure is that almost 800 jobs were created as a direct result of the Council’s investment over this period. 

1.2       The Plan draws together several annual delivery plans; such as city centre development, support for businesses, Employability & Skills, tourism and the cultural framework.  It sets out the main priorities and programmes of work that the Committee will oversee during 2017-18 to maximise the Council’s contribution to delivering the Belfast Agenda that, at its core, has a commitment to inclusive growth.

1.3       The Belfast Agenda sets out an ambition for growth and opportunity that includes four headline goals to focus on the economic and social growth of Belfast so that by 2035:

·        Our city is home to an additional 66,000 new residents

·        Our urban economy supports 46,000 more jobs

·        There will be a 33% reduction in the life expectancy gap between the most and least deprived neighbourhoods

·        Every young person leaving school has a destination that fulfils their potential.

1.4       This report sets out the progress against the programmes and projects aligned to the delivery of the 4 key work streams in the Belfast Agenda: Growing the Economy, City Development, Working & Learning and Living Here.  Appendix 1 (available on modern.gov) provides an overview of the main commitments under each priority workstream.

1.5       In addition, there are a number of stretch goals which together with city partners, this Committee will make a significant contribution to deliver on by 2021:

·        Create 15,000 new jobs

·        Attract over £1bn in private sector investment, including FDI

·        Create 4,000 business start-ups;

·        Increase the value of out of state tourism to £500million and welcome 1.9m overnight tourist stays per year

·        Grow the city’s rate base by 5% through increased number of residential and commercial developments

·        Create 1.5 million sq. feet Grade A office space and 3,000 new hotel bed spaces

·        Reduce working age economic inactivity to less than 23%

·        Reduce the proportion of working population with no qualification to less than 10%

·        Increase the proportion of the working age population with Level 2 qualification and above to more than 82% and those with Level 4 qualifications and above to 38%

·        98% of school leavers in employment, education or training.

2.0       Recommendations

            The Committee is asked to:

·        Note the progress to date against the agreed actions within the Committee Plan, including the creation of almost 800 jobs and progress towards the commitment of the City Centre Regeneration Fund

·        Agree that Officers continue to progress with the rest of the actions in the plan over the course of the financial year.

3.0       Main Report

3.1       Key  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8a

            The Committee considered the undernoted report with accompanying infographic style materials:

“1.0     Purpose of Report or Summary of main Issues

1.1       The Belfast Agenda sets a challenging ambition for the city to be home to an additional 66,000 new residents and an economy that supports 46,000 more jobs by 2035. Growing the economy and driving inclusive growth to ensure that all people benefit from economic success is at the core of this ambition. 

1.2       To deliver on this, the Council has agreed to a significant step change in the provision of Council support to accelerate new businesses to start up and support existing businesses to grow and export as well as driving the delivery of the Employability & Skills Framework. This is central to ensuring that all communities benefit from economic growth as well as positioning Belfast to attract international investment from developers, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and institutional investment. 

1.3       Delivering on these ambitions will involve a range of interventions. This can mean that it is difficult to see, at a glance, how these activities are contributing to the overall Belfast Agenda targets. There has been increasing emphasis on producing accessible and user-friendly infographic style materials to assist in communicating information about Council programmes and services.  A detailed update on progress delivering the Committee Plan 2017-18 is a separate item on the agenda. However, this paper presents an overview of the key achievements to date relating to the Council’s efforts to deliver on the Belfast Agenda ambitions to Grow the Belfast Economy, illustrated by the use of infographics.

1.0        Recommendations

2.1       The Committee is asked to:

·        Note the overview of the Council’s performance and contribution to delivering against Belfast Agenda ambitions to grow the Belfast economy, focusing on the current support for Business Start-up and Growth as well as Employability and Skills.

3.0       Main report

            Key Issues

3.1       The Committee receives regular updates on the performance and contribution of the Council to delivering the City targets outlined in the Belfast Agenda.  This information is included in various reports presented to Committee; including the six month progress report on the Committee Plan 2017-18 which is included as a separate item on the Committee agenda. 

3.2       Given the volume of activity and breadth of programmes relating to the key priority to ‘Grow the Belfast Economy’, Members have previously advised that infographic style materials would provide an easily accessible, consistent and concise visual overview of the Council’s progress against key performance targets. These can also provide Members with a source of assurance that Council investment is continuing to make an impact. For this Committee, some of the key targets that Members want to support include the number of jobs created and the number of jobs supported as well as investment levered.

3.2       As a starting point, officers have begun the process of creating infographics for the Business Start-up and Growth as well as some of the Employability and Skills metrics. Infographics outlining progress for the first six months of the financial year  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8b