Agenda item

            The Committee considered the following report:

“1.0     Purpose of Report/Summary of Main Issues

1.1       The Strategic Policy and Resources Committee, on 21st June, agreed to hold a workshop at 5.00 p.m. on 8th August to focus on the priorities for the Council. Following this, there will be a specific workshop for the City Growth and Regeneration Committee to further consider its priorities and the direction of travel for 2019-20 within the corporate context and ongoing commitments, as agreed on 5thJune 2019.

1.2       In addition, the City Growth and Regeneration Committee also discussed the need for a series of strategic discussions / workshops to allow for more detailed engagement and to support their role in taking informed decisions on issues of strategic importance for the growth and regeneration of the city.

1.3       This report identifies the initial topics for focused strategic workshops for the Committee. These will be programmed over the next 6 months, to support the decision making process.

2.0       Recommendations

2.1       The Committee is requested to:

i.       approve the list of topics that require a focused strategic workshop;

ii.     note that the strategic workshop on City Regeneration and Development, which will include Strategic Site Assessments, will be held on 4th September at 5.00 pm;

iii.    agree, where possible, to use the scheduled dates for the Special City Growth and Regeneration Committee meetings for these workshops; and

iv.    agree to receive a presentation on Belfast Harbour’s Strategy at the Special City Growth and Regeneration Committee meeting on 25th September. The workshop to consider the Committee’s priorities will follow immediately after this item on 25thSeptember.

3.0       Main Report

3.1       Key Issues

The Committee considered a number of detailed reports on key issues for the city at its initial meeting in June 2019, such as City Centre revitalisation and Strategic Site Assessments. Whilst these reports provided an update on ongoing programmes of work, it is important that the new Committee has ownership of these issues and is in a position to make informed decisions about the future direction of travel. As these issues tend to be complex and have long-term impacts for the city and its communities, it was suggested that specific strategic workshops should be held, which would allow the scheduled Committee meetings to continue to deliver its responsibilities while also managing the need for informed discussion.

3.2       A number of issues were highlighted during the course of the meeting that would benefit from more focused strategic workshops to inform the future direction of work. The issues identified include:

-   City Development and Regeneration, including Strategic Site Assessments – consider the emerging proposals and proposed next steps

- Economic research insights - an overview of the opportunities, strengths and challenges for the city, with a focus on topical issues

-   Inclusive growth

-   Employability and skills

-   City centre recovery/revitalisation

-   Transport and car parking

-   Engagement with the city centre communities.

3.3       The Committee will note that additional issues may be identified as the work of the Committee progresses; this will be kept under review and updated as required. As Members have a significant number of commitments, the dates scheduled for the Special Committee meetings will, where possible, be used for the strategic workshops.

Requests to present to Committee

3.4       In November 2017, the Committee agreed that, in order to deal with the volume of requests from external groups and organisations to present to the Committee, that a maximum of one presentation would be heard at the main monthly meeting and that the Special Committee meeting would be used where two or more presentations were scheduled for any month. Presentations are scheduled for the main monthly Committee meeting when it relates to an item on the agenda or if the nature of the presentation is time critical.

3.5       There are a number of presentations that have been agreed in the previous Council term that remain to be scheduled:

-        Nevin Economic Research Institute, Institute of Public Policy Research and Ulster University Economic Policy Centre – to receive economic briefings

-     Tourism NI – to consider collaborative opportunities

-     Queen’s University of Belfast – to outline the role and issues impacting on Higher Education in the city and region

-     Retail NI - to present their policy agenda ‘Regeneration NI, Creating 21stCentury Town and City Centres’

-     NOW Group - to review the work of the social enterprise.

3.6       In addition, the Council received a request on 24th July from Belfast Harbour to present their strategy to this Committee. The Committee will recall that the Council has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Belfast Harbour Commissioners, as agreed at the Council’s Strategic Policy and Resources Committee on 21st June 2019. This outlines how the Council and Belfast Harbour will work together, through a strategic partnership arrangement, to realise their shared ambitions for the strong growth, regeneration and prosperity of the City.

3.7       In order to manage the requests for presentations, the Committee is asked to note that officers will provide a recommendation based on the following options to inform the Committee’s decision on the request to present:

-   to receive the presentation at a main Committee meeting

-   to receive the presentation at a Special Committee meeting

-   to receive the presentation as part of a strategic workshop

-   that the requestor meets with a named Council Officer for further information and a report is brought back to Committee

3.8       It is proposed that the economic briefings are included in one strategic workshop session ‘Economic/Research Insights’ referenced at paragraph 3.2.

Financial and Resource Implications

3.9       There are no direct financial or resource implications attached to this report.

Equality or Good Relations Implications/

Rural Needs Assessment

3.10     There are no direct implications attached to this report. Equality, good relations and rural needs issues will be considered as part of development and delivery of plans, programmes and policies.”

            After discussion, the Committee adopted the recommendations and agreed that productivity be added to the list of topics listed within paragraph 3.2 of the report to be considered within the context of focused strategic workshops.