Agenda item

            The Committee considered the following report:

“1.0     Purpose of Report or Summary of main Issues

1.1       Members will recall that the Committee, at its meeting in December 2020, considered a report from officers on Alley-gating, Alleyway Transformation and Un-adopted alleyways.

1.2       This report provides the committee with an update on progress to date, in particular, the ongoing discussions with officials from the Department for Infrastructure (DFI) on accessing funding available to support Alleyway Transformation projects.

2.0       Recommendation

2.1       The Committee is asked to note the update on alleyway transformation and un-adopted alleyways and to agree the delivery of a number of pilot alleyway transformation schemes throughout the city.

3.0       Key Issues

3.1       Members are reminded that the December 2020 report provide an update on work officers have been carrying out in respect of un-adopted alleyways, alley transformation and sourcing financial support for alleyway transformation schemes.

3.2       The report identified the top 20 problematic un-adopted alleyways in the city and beginning with the top 4 (one from each area of the city) a cross departmental group was set up to identify ownership and engage the relevant statutory authorities to deal with the problems found.  The work of this group was paused as a result of the pandemic but will recommence once resources are in place to proceed.

3.3       In December 2020, the DFI Minister wrote to all Councils in Northern Ireland offering monies via the Blue/Green Infrastructure fund to deliver alleyway transformation initiatives across Northern Ireland.  Due to the Pandemic Officers were not in a position to engage at that time but have been in discussions with officials from the Department since early summer with regard to how much funding was available to the Council, how the Council could access this money and to understand the scope of the fund.  Discussions also explored the possibility utilising this funding to support bringing un-adopted alleyways up to an adoptable standard.

3.4       DFI confirmed that £1-2 million is available to all 11 Councils in Northern Ireland but as yet no set criterion has been developed as to how it can be accessed and what it can be utilised for.  

3.5       Initial engineering survey work has identified that the cost for upgrading unadopted alleyways, to meet an adoption standard would consume most of the proposed DfI budget, which is to be allocated across all the councils in Northern Ireland. As a result, it was felt that given the limited pot of money available it would be better to focus on transformation schemes that could be delivered at a lesser cost.

3.6       This would enable the monies to be spent on the transformation of alleyways, through cleaning and greening interventions.  This would not prohibit un-adopted alleyways from taking part in the scheme, but this would be dependant on their condition.

3.7       DFI have agreed that in order to test the processes required to deliver an alleyway transformation scheme, a number of pilot projects be initiated, to develop a framework which will be used for a larger programme, and be a path-finding exercise, for other councils as a recognised method to access the DfI monies. 

3.8       Pilots projects will involve the community receiving a `Starter Pack` of materials and information to support the regeneration of alleyways and deliver a transformation project.

            The pack would / should include: -

a.     Plants, planters, soil / compost, seats etc.  

b.     Planting / growing / basic wooden planter and willow plant support (trellis) workshops to develop community capacity for the longevity of the project.

c.     Signposting communities to other departments and agencies for issues not within the remit or responsibility of BCC.

d.     Signposting communities to funding opportunities they could avail of to further develop and maintain the area after BCC / DFI funding has been utilised.

e.     Legal information / liabilities and ownership of alleyways.

3.9       It is anticipated that the cost for delivering a starter pack could be up to £7500.  DFI will fund the purchasing of all equipment, plants, baskets, street furniture however as there is no revenue budget within this programme, the capacity building element of the pilot will have to be provided by Council from within existing budgets.

3.10     To enable the pilot to be progressed at pace, Officers are suggesting that through our Outreach teams we identify up to 5 potential alleyway sites across each of the 4 quadrants of the city, based on officer knowledge, community infrastructure and delivery of improved outcomes.  The long list of five will be circulated to Members on a North, South, East & West basis for consideration and prioritisation of the long list. Following receipt of the prioritisation exercise, Officers will move forward to deliver the pilot alleyway transformation projects in 2 locations per quadrant.

            Longer term alleyway transformation schemes

3.11     At the May SP&R committee members considered a paper on alleygating and the process for Members to input into the identification of gate locations, through pro-forma, which is due to be issued imminently.  As part of this pro-forma members will be asked to identify potential gating locations as well as locations suitable for alley transformation, for further consideration at SP&R committee and Area Working Groups over the autumn.

3.12     On receipt of this information officers will be in a better position to understand the demand for transformation schemes across the city, collate the learnings from the pilot projects and  bid into £1-2 million fund for monies to support a future alleyway transformation programmes in the City.

            Financial & Resource Implications

3.13     Capital expenditure associated with the alleyway transformation programme will be accessed via the DFI alleyway transformation scheme with outreach and capacity building support supported via existing Council resources.

            Equality or Good Relations Implications/Rural Needs Assessment

3.14     None associated with this report.”

            A Member welcomed the report but made reference to the number of unadopted alleyways that remained throughout the city and she sought an assurance that the cross departmental team currently working on this would continue this valuable work and that the Committee would be kept apprised of the progress.

            Several Members concurred and stated that, whilst they welcomed the funding, they were disappointed that it was likely to only cover the transformation of a small number of existing alleyways, through cleaning and greening interventions, which in no way helped to address the huge desire from communities across the city to bring un-adopted and unsafe alleyways to an adoptable standard. 

            The Director of Neighbourhood Services confirmed that this workstream was iterative and that unadopted alleyways would be considered as part of the longer-term scheme.

            A further Member referred to the fact that in certain areas, particularly in the south and east of the city, landlords were disposing of rubbish in the alleyways during house clearances which was subsequently getting lifted free of charge by the Council, he stated that this was an unacceptable regular occurrence which needed to be addressed.

             A Member referred to the pilot and the proposal for officers to identify 5 potential alleyway sites per area for Members prioritisation to identify the top 2 for each of the 4 quadrants of the city. The Member suggested that the potential sites should be referred to the relevant Area Working Group (AWGs) for its consideration, with the aim of each AWG eventually selecting the final areas to proceed. He stated that he would like to see more flexibility in terms of how the final funding awarded to each of the 4 areas was actually utilised.  Therefore, should the AWG feel that it had the capacity to deliver all 5 schemes in their area (albeit, potentially much smaller schemes), that authority should be delegated to the AWG to agree the final number for selection.

            After discussion, it was

            Moved by Councillor Baker,

            Seconded by Councillor Magee,

      That the Committee agrees to the delivery of a number of pilot alleyway transformation schemes throughout the city and further agrees that the final area selection, number of pilots and the detail of intervention be delegated to the Area Working Groups who would be asked to adopt a flexible approach as to how the funding was allocated.

            On a vote, twelve Members voted for the proposal and five against and it was declared carried.