Agenda and minutes

            An apology for inability to attend was reported from Councillor Kyle.

            The minutes of the meeting of 14th January were taken as read and signed as correct.  It was reported that those minutes had been adopted by the Council at its meeting on 2nd February.

            The Chairman (Councillor M. Browne) advised the Committee of the recent death of the father of the Committee Administrator, Mr. N. Malcolm.  The Committee agreed that a letter of condolence expressing its sympathies be forwarded to Mr. Malcolm and his family circle.

            The Members were advised that, following the success of the Renewing Communities Initiative, the Council, in partnership with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, had commissioned TTC International to carry out a Belfast Tourism Analysis in order to identify gaps in the provision of and opportunities for community tourism throughout the City.  Accordingly, Elected Representatives had been consulted and had provided input to the Analysis which was now available in draft form.

            The Director reminded the Committee that, at its meeting on 12th November, 2008, it had agreed to receive a presentation from representatives of TTC International in relation to the Belfast Tourism Analysis and it was reported that Messrs. I. Henderson and K. Swail were in attendance and they were admitted to the meeting and welcomed by the Chairman.

            Mr. Henderson referred to the objectives of the Tourism Analysis which included:

(i)      to review tourism in non-traditional tourist areas of the City;

(ii)     to make recommendations for community tourism development;

(iii)    to facilitate the spread of tourism throughout the City; and

(iv)    to learn from those Cities throughout the United Kingdom which had developed non-traditional tourism areas.

            Mr. Henderson referred to current activities in relation to the development of tourism within the City and pointed out that five workshops had been undertaken which had aimed to define the local product.  A strategic approach had been adopted which had identified that major capital projects would need to be provided in order to attract visitors to community-based facilities and to act as linkages to City centre products.  The Analysis had identified also the need for accommodation within fringe areas of the City.  He outlined for the information of the Members the strategic objectives for the North, South, East and West areas of the City, together with the Shankill Road area, and pointed out that the overall strategic objective was to ensure that the basic tourism infrastructure, facilities and services achieved the highest quality standards across all communities.  The Analysis had set out also principles which should be adopted by the Council, the Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau and Partnership Boards.  In addition, it had been identified that the Council and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board should take the project forward and establish close linkages with the Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau.

            After discussion, the Chairman thanked Messrs. Henderson and Swail for their informative presentation and they retired from the meeting.

            After further discussion, the Committee agreed that copies of the Belfast Tourism Development Analysis be circulated to all Members of the Committee and that briefings be offered to the Party Groupings on the Council.  In addition, the Committee agreed that a report in relation to the matter be submitted for its consideration at a future meeting.

            The Committee agreed, under the terms of the Council’s Subvention Policy, that £1,000 be allocated to assist with the costs of the Frank Pantridge’s Legacy Symposium to be held within the City during the period from 10th till 12th June.

            The Director advised the Committee that the Council’s Cultural Tourism Visitor Plan and the Evening Economy Project had been shortlisted in separate categories for the Association of Town Centre Management Awards.  This was the first time that the Council’s tourism projects had been shortlisted for such awards, which provided an excellent opportunity to profile and showcase work which had been undertaken in these areas.

            She reported that the Awards were being held at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel, London on 26th March and she recommended that the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman (or their nominees) and one Officer be authorised to attend the event.  The total cost, including accommodation, subsistence and economy flights, would be approximately £1,140.

            The Committee adopted the recommendation.

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“Relevant Background Information

      Annual Funding for the Arts was established by Council to assist arts and heritage organisations by providing financial support on an annual basis.   Multi-Annual Funding was established by Council to introduce a degree of longer term sustainability to some of the city’s flagship arts organisations.

      This report provides the Development Committee with recommendations on applications made to Annual Funding for Culture and the Arts 2008/9 and Multi-Annual funding for Culture and the Arts 2008/2011. The closing date for applications under both schemes was Friday 19December 2008.

      Multi-Annual Funding for Culture and Arts

      At the Development Committee meeting of 14 November 2007, Members agreed the selection of 14 Multi-Annual Funding clients.  Multi-Annual Funding incorporates a three year funding term, and an anticipated minimum annual funding level of £30,000. At the Development Committee of 14 May 2008 Members agreed that a maximum of two new clients be admitted to the Multi?Annual Funding scheme.

      The two successful clients were then invited to submit an application by the deadline of 12 noon on Friday 19 December 2008.  The total now requested by the 16 Multi-Annual Funding clients for the year 2009/10 is £690,360.

      Annual Funding for Culture and Arts

      The 2009/10 deadline for applications was also 12 noon on 19 December 2008.  A total of 53 applications were received, compared to 64 (excluding those organisations who are now multi annually funded) in 2008/9.

      The applications received requested a total of £733,489.  In 2007/8, the total requested by organisations (excluding those organisations who are now multi-annually funded), was £1,124,300.53.

      Criteria for Multi-Annual and Annual Funding

      for Culture and Arts 2009/10

      The Culture and Arts Eligibility Criteria approved by Members at the Development (Arts) Sub-Committee of 20 September 2004, were devised in order to assist the Council to work in partnership with arts and heritage organisations in achieving its objectives.  They reflect the themes of the Development Department and the Integrated Cultural Strategy.

      Level of Applications

      Requests for grants this year has far outstripped available resources.  Taken together, the total request for multi annual and annual grants for the coming year equates to £1,423,849.00.  This is the equivalent to 144% of the total projected budget of £989,000.

      With few exceptions, the level of applications has been strong and Annual Funding applicants have put considerable effort into demonstrating how they meet the criteria.

      As expected and without exception, the multi-annually funded organisations submitted excellent applications each with dynamic plans for the next two years.

      Members are requested to note that income and expenditure is presented in this report as a summary of the information submitted.  As agreed previously by the Development (Arts) Sub?Committee, officers have not returned to applicants to request any additional details in relation to their applications.  This includes clarification of budgets in some cases the budgets presented contain minor discrepancies.

      Principles of the Reporting Process

      Organisations submit a lengthy application including supporting documentation such as strategic and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“Relevant Background Information

      Members will be aware that the EU Unit brings regular progress reports to Members.  The purpose of this report is to advise members of progress with respect to:

1.   Interreg IVA funding

2.   Eurocities membership

3.   EU consultation by OFMDFM

4.   Porto Youth Paper

Key Issues

      1.  Interreg IVA funding

      Members will recall the report at the Development Committee meeting of 14 January 2009 highlighting seven projects successfully securing 100% funding for the Comet area through Interreg IVA funding. 

      Members were presented with a list of the seven projects, however the list had a wrongly named project funded through the tourism strand of Interreg.  The successful project was not in fact ‘Cultural Connections’ as stated in the appendix but actually is the ‘Cultural Tourism Network’ led by An Droichead along with partners including;

Oideas Gael

ForbairtFeirste

Ulster Scots Agency

KillybegsTourism College

SabhalMor Ostaig

Canan (Isle of Skye)

      The project is currently under economic appraisal but is expected to receive £601,190 over three years.

      Recommendation

      Members are asked to note the amended Interreg IVA funded projects for the Comet region.

      2.  Eurocities Membership

      Members will be aware that Belfast City Council has been an active member of the Eurocities network since the late 1990s.  The Council through the European Unit is increasingly active in the network and involved in a range of activities as follows:

      Economic Development Forum

-     Member of the working group on Creative Clusters and partner in Lyon led research into successful clustering

-     Member of the working group on EU Day of the Entrepreneur and held Belfast EU Day of the Entrepreneur on 19 November 2008 attended by 103 Belfast businesses.

-     Member of the Eurocities Migrant working group feeding in the findings of the Open Cities project led by Belfast

      Social Affairs Forum

-     Member of the Social Inclusion working group and participating in forthcoming bid for activity for the 2010 EU Year of Anti Poverty and Social Inclusion

-     Participating in the EU Commission policy work on how member states liaise with cities in the development of their national action plans on social inclusion and anti poverty.

-     Project participation in the INTI – Cities project through the Good Relations unit looked at benchmarking good governance in relation to the integration of migrants.

-     Participates in the Working Groups: Health and Well Being, Urban Security and Social Inclusion

      Environment Forum

-     Chair of the Clean Cities working group

-     Hosted the waste management working group in 2008

-     Member of the Noise Pollution, Air Quality, Climate Change, Environment, Green Areas and Health working groups

-     Signatory to the Eurocities declaration on Climate Change

      Culture Forum

-     Participates in a transnational project with 22 other cities to celebrate 2008 as European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.  The Belfast report on the visit to Berlin was deemed by the European Commission as best practice. The project’s final conference is being held next  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

            (Councillors Crozier and Stoker declared an interest in this item in that they were affiliated to organisations which were being recommended for funding and they took no part in the discussions.)

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“Relevant Background Information

      Community Services offer a range of grants as set out in the policy ‘A Guide to Grant Aid for Community Organisations’, which was agreed by Council in January 2004. The grant categories within this Policy are:

-     Revenue Grant

-     Capacity Building Grant

-     Advice Services

-     Community Development Project Grant

-     Summer Play Schemes

-     Community Chest.

      Grants might be sub-divided into 2 primary categories:

1.   Small Grant:  This includes Project Grants, Summer Play Schemes and Community Chest awards.  These grant schemes are subject to application and are allocated competitively against agreed criterion. The grant programme for 2009/2010 will operate within current procedures in advance of any agreed changes proposed by the Development Department Grant Aid Review.

2.   Large Grant:  This includes Revenue, CapacityBuilding and Advice Services grants.   Pending the outcome of the Departmental Grant Aid Review, in 2007 Committee agreed to extend current funding contracts by one year to 31 March 2009 to all groups currently in receipt of Revenue, Capacity Building and Advice Services grant.  In reaching this decision, Committee was mindful of the pressures this may have on community groups currently not funded under these grant programmes, particularly new groups.  Committee instructed staff to monitor and respond proactively where possible, for example, via signposting to other grant resources both internal and external and associated application support.  This support has been ongoing.

      Furthermore, the Committee agreed to allocate an additional £50,000 to the Revenue Grant budget in order to facilitate a call for applications which would be restricted to newly constituted groups with premises or to groups who had extended their premises since the original grant decision in 2004.

      Committee also agreed to extend the current contract for the Play Resource Centre in line with other grant recipients.

      As part of the Change Management Plan a review was initiated into the increased number of grant streams now managed by the Department.

      This review sought to:

-     align grant programmes with the revised Departmental Strategy and impact towards targeted outcomes

-     recommend any necessary changes to systems and processes to ensure good corporate governance and consistency across the Department

-     maximise ease of access for recipient groups.

      The Department hopes to finalise the Departmental Grant Aid Review, and the subsequent consideration of recommendations by Committee, in time to affect all grant support from April 2010.  This will include procedural changes and marketing of the programme in the period up to September 2009.

Key Issues

      Community Services Large Grants

      Given these awards include support for core costs, groups are nervous around their advance planning for overheads, including staff salaries.  We do not now have sufficient time to advertise and assess applications for any of the 3 large grant types to allow for Committee decisions in line with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“Relevant Background Information

      The Community Service Section manages 28 Community and Play Centres across the City the operations of which support the development of a Community & Play Centre Committee (CPCC) at each facility. The Constitution of these Committees was agreed by the Community & Leisure Services Sub Committee February 1999. The Constitution allows for appointees of the Council ‘from time to time, as it considers appropriate. At least one of these will be a member of the Community & Leisure Services Sub Committee’ [Section (4)(c) (i)]. Currently 24 Centres operate a Centre Committee.

      Appointments to the CCPCs were agreed by the Community & Leisure Services Sub Committee September 2005 and ensured membership of at least one Member of that Committee. However in April 2007 under the Council’s new governance arrangements responsibility for Community Services moved to the Development Committee.  Current appointments on a number of CCPCs does not reflect this change in governance and a number of CCPCs are without Development Committee representation i.e. Ardoyne, Divis, Hammer and Highfield.

      The Development Committee on 15 October 2008 agreed that, whilst current Councillor representation on CCPCs continue to apply, Development Committee Members be afforded an opportunity to seek nomination to additional CCPCs. This process should ensure that a least one Development Committee Member is nominated to the 4 CCPCs without Development representation.  Subsequently, Officers issued correspondence to Development Committee Members with a closing date of 9 January 2009 seeking nominations on this basis.

Key Issues

      Expressions of interest have been received from Members as follows:-

-     Cllr D. Dodds – Duncairn

-     Cllr C. Maskey – North Queen Street

      In addition, a number of Members also responded to indicate that they wish to maintain their current membership of CCPCs.

      Members should note that no nominations have been received to date in relation to Ardoyne, Divis and Highfield which are without Development Committee representation and Hammer, which is without any Councillor representation.  The constitution of the CCPCs requires that if Councillor representation occurs then at least one representative be a Member of the Development Committee.

Resource Implications

      Expenditure in relation to appointments will be met within approved budgets

Recommendation

      It is recommended that:-

1.   Members approve the nomination of Cllr D. Dodds to Duncairn and Cllr C. Maskey to North Queen StreetCCPCs.

2.   Members nominate appointments to Ardoyne, Divis and Highfield as required by the CCPCs constitution.

3.   In respect of Hammer CCPC that Members either:

-     Make an appointment to the Hammer CCPC

-     Agree that the option of a Council appointment to Hammer CCPC is not enacted

Abbreviations

      CPPC     Community and Play Centre Committee”

            After discussion, the Committee:

(i)     approved the nomination of Councillor D. Dodds to Duncairn and Councillor C. Maskey to the North Queen Street Community Centre Committees;

(ii)    approved the nomination of Councillor Lavery to the Ardoyne Community Centre Committee;

(iii)   approved the nomination of Councillor Kyle to Dee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

            The Committee agreed to defer consideration of this matter in order to enable further information to be obtained.

            The Director reported that, following public advertisement, the tender for the mechanical and electrical maintenance services to the Waterfront Hall had been awarded in January, 2004 for a three-year period, with an option to extend for a further two years, to G. S. Hall.  She pointed out that the contract provided for a planned and preventative maintenance service which was supported by reactive call?out maintenance at an additional charge.  Accordingly, the five-year contract term was due to expire during March, 2009.

            The Director advised the Committee that the Ulster Hall was scheduled to reopen during March 2009 and that consultation had been ongoing with the Council’s Facilities Management Section to establish first year service agreements with individual system suppliers and it had been proposed that the longer-term mechanical and electrical maintenance to the Ulster Hall be included within a joint Waterfront and Ulster Halls contract, which would allow for consistency of services in terms of management and standards across the two buildings.  She reported that, in conjunction with the Facilities Management Section, work was being undertaken currently to amend the contract specification in order to align the service requirements of the two venues.  However, due to the estimated value of the contract at approximately £220,000, procurement guidelines would require any such contract to be advertised through the European Journal.  This would take approximately six months to complete and, following advice from the Council’s Procurement Manager, it was recommended that the current mechanical and electrical maintenance contract with G. S. Hall be extended for an initial period of six months, with the potential to further extend on a monthly basis thereafter for a maximum period of one year.

            Accordingly, the Committee agreed that the mechanical and electrical maintenance of the Ulster Hall be considered jointly as part of a Belfast Waterfront and Ulster Hall service agreement and that the current contract for the Waterfront Hall be extended from 1st April, 2009 for an initial period of six months, with the option to extend on a monthly basis thereafter for a maximum period of one year.

            The Committee noted the contents of a report in relation to the Markets Footfall and Economic Impact Figures 2008, which had been conducted on behalf of the Development Department’s Markets Unit at the 2008 Christmas Continental Market and St. George’s and Smithfield Markets by Millward Brown Ulster.

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“Relevant Background Information

      Atkins Consultants were appointed in August 2008 to review and update the current Belfast City Council Transport Policy. The requirement for the Council to have an up to date and valid Transport Policy arises from a number of operational and strategic considerations. There is an increasing need to be fully informed of current best practice in transport policy in order to both consistently participate in proposed consultations such as the Regional Transportation Strategy review and to influence strategic transport initiatives planned for the City.  There is also increasing recognition that the Council must continue to address and manage the transportation implications of existing operational activity across the organisation.

      The first phase of the review was completed in December 2008 and a report of the findings submitted to Committee in December. The Consultants concluded from their initial work that the current vision and objectives of the Transport Policy remained broadly valid but would benefit from being updated and more effectively aligned with the Council’s emerging approach and objectives within the Corporate Plan.

Key Issues

      Following the first phase of the review of the strategic transportation aspects of the Policy, the following vision has been proposed for the revised Policy.

      Vision:

      ‘To support and promote the development of a modern, safe, accessible and integrated transportation system to enhance the connectivity for Belfast and its wider regions, which benefits the environment; supports sustainable development; and enhances the quality of life of all those who live, work, visit and do business in the City’

      This vision provides the basis for the new more refined strategic objectives which have been drafted which take into consideration the changed context for the Policy; the existing corporate objectives and the aspirations for the future development of transportation within the City. The proposed new strategic objectives are outlined below alongside their associated corporate themes. It should be noted that for the purposes of the transportation policy the additional theme in relation to the City centre has been added in recognition of the pivotal role the centre has for transportation infrastructure, services and interchange.

Key Themes: City Leadership

Proposed Strategic Objective 1 includes:

      ‘To provide a strong civic leadership role for the promotion of a modern, safe, accessible and integrated transportation system for the City of Belfast and its wider regions’

Key Theme: Regeneration Growth and Prosperity

Proposed Strategic Objective 2 includes

      ‘To support the sustainable economic development of Belfast to ensure the future prosperity of Belfast City and its wider regions and to facilitate the continued development of its economic and physical regeneration through achievement of economic, tourism, leisure, good relations, environmental, educational and health objectives for the City’

Key theme: Environmental Responsibility

Proposed Strategic Objective 3 includes:

      ‘To secure the long term viability of Belfast City and its environment by seeking to ensure that all transportation arising from the wider proposals take into account, and mitigate against, their adverse impact on the environmental and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.