Agenda, decisions and minutes

At this point, Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interest they may have in the business on this agenda.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda.  No interests were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the Executive meeting held on 5 October 2010.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the Executive meeting held on 5 October 2010 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting, members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or a matter within the Executive’s remit can do so.  The deadline for registering is 5:00 pm on Monday 18 October 2010.

It was reported that there had been two registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme and one request to speak from a Member of Council, all in relation to agenda item 7 (Towards a York Economic Vision).

Philip Crowe expressed concern at the emphasis placed by the Officer report on the economic aspects of the Vision document.  He stressed the importance of ensuring that future development benefited the residents of York and urged Members to endorse the document, rather than just refer it to the LDF Working Group.

Richard Lane presented and read out an open letter in support of the Vision document, signed by 24 individuals representing 16 campaign groups.

Cllr Vassie expressed the view that the proposals needed clear support from the Executive and urged Members to add a ‘front page’ containing a clear commitment to transforming the City for the benefit of current and future residents.

To receive details of those items that are listed on the Forward Plan for the next two Executive meetings.

Members received and noted details of those items listed on the Forward Plan for the next two Executive meetings at the time the agenda was published.

This report provides an update on the progress of the Community Stadium project and invites Members to approve a suggested approach to the provision of community and commercial components and a new governance structure for management of the project.

RESOLVED: (i)         That the progress made on the Community Stadium to date be noted.

                        (ii)        That approval be given to set up a Community Stadium Advisory Group with a political balance of 2:2:1 and that partner organisations be invited to attend.

                        (iii)       That Officers be asked to ensure that any governance arrangements for the proposed City of York Sports Village recognise and address the interests of athletes.

                        (iv)       That it be agreed that the possible community benefits contained in the report are a good starting point, but that Officers be requested to refine the list further, while taking the opportunity to separate those activities which might be expected to make a positive financial contribution towards meeting the revenue costs of running a stadium from those which would be aimed principally at filling in gaps in public and voluntary service provision in the City.  In doing so, Officers are requested to apply the principles used to test the acceptability of community style activities associated with other stadia elsewhere in the country.

                        (v)        That all Council Members be requested to provide Officers with a list of any other community facilities, not listed in the report, which they would wish to see evaluated during the next stage of the project, either at the Monks Cross stadium site or at the participatory sports village site.

REASON:      To enable the project to be taken forward by all partners and achieve the objective stated in the Corporate Strategy 2009-2012 to provide high quality sport recreation and other community focused opportunities.

Members considered a report which provided an update on the progress of the Community Stadium project and sought approval for a suggested approach to the provision of community and commercial components and a new governance structure to manage the project.

On 6 July, the Executive had approved Monks Cross south as the preferred site for the project.  Discussions now had begun with the owner and prospective developer of the Vangarde site, adjacent to Huntington Stadium and Monks Cross Park & Ride, regarding a potential scheme to include a new stadium with associated community and commercial uses.  A schedule of potential community benefits was being developed, together with a commercially sustainable business plan to support the scheme.  A matrix assessing potential community and commercial benefits was presented as figure 1, in paragraph 12 of the report.  Further information on this aspect of the scheme was provided in an additional annex, Annex 2, which had been published on-line with the Executive agenda.

Under existing governance arrangements, all business for the project went through the Executive.  In order to enable wider political input and increase the flexibility of the project board, two alternative options were proposed, as set out in paragraph 17 of the report:

• A multi-party Advisory Group with co-opted partner representation or
• A multi-party Advisory Group with council representation only.

Details of the working arrangements of the proposed Advisory Group were attached at Annex 1 to the report.  Members suggested that the Group include the Executive Members for City Strategy and Leisure, Culture & Social Inclusion and their equivalent spokespersons, and that the minutes of its meetings be presented to the Executive for consideration.

Having noted the comments of the Labour Group Spokespersons on this item, and a letter circulated to Executive Members by the Chairman of York City Knights, it was

RESOLVED: (i)         That the progress made on the Community Stadium to date to noted.

                        (ii)        That approval be given to set up a Community Stadium Advisory Group with a political balance of 2:2:1 and that partner organisations be invited to attend.¹

                        (iii)       That Officers be asked to ensure that any governance arrangements for the proposed City of York Sports Village recognise and address the interests of athletes. ²

                        (iv)       That it be agreed that the possible community benefits contained in the report are a good starting point, but that Officers be requested to refine the list further, while taking the opportunity to separate those activities which might be expected to make a positive financial contribution towards meeting the revenue costs of running a stadium from those which would be aimed principally at filling in gaps in public and voluntary service provision in the City.  In doing so, Officers are requested to apply the principles used to test the acceptability of community style activities associated with other stadia elsewhere in the country. ³

                        (v)        That all Council Members be requested to provide Officers with a list of any other community facilities, not listed in the report, which they would wish to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 91.

This report outlines the results of the city-wide consultation on the draft Climate Change Framework and Climate Change Action Plan for York. It highlights proposed amendments to the drafts and seeks permission to finalise and adopt the CCFAP for York by the end of 2010.

RESOLVED: (i)         That the proposed amendments to the draft Climate Change Framework and Climate Change Action Plan (CCFAP) be approved.

REASON:      To enable the CCFAP to progress and to be approved and adopted.

                        (ii)        That the risks of delivering the finalised CCFAP, the scale of the challenge ahead, and the difficulty of delivering city-wide targets that rely on partnership working to achieve them, be noted.

REASON:      To highlight the ambition and challenge ahead of meeting the CCFAP, whilst noting the finite capacity of co-ordinating and delivering the targets through the existing City of York Council Sustainability Officer.

Members considered a report which outlined the results of a city-wide consultation on the draft Climate Change Framework and Climate Change Action Plan (CCFAP) for York, and sought permission to finalise and adopt the CCFAP by the end of 2010.

Public consultation had been carried out between 29 June and 21 September 2010, following Executive approval of the CCFAP consultation drafts on 8 June, and in accordance with the communication plan attached at Annex 1.  It included an on-line questionnaire (attached at Annex 2), 100 copies of which had been completed.  The headline results were summarised in Annex 3.  In the light of these results, specifically the answers to questions 3, 5, 6 and 8, a number of changes were proposed to the draft CCFAP, as summarised in paragraph 9 of the report.

Details of potential risks arising from the CCFAP, in particular the possibility of the Council and its Without Walls partners failing to deliver the actions set out in the Plan, were set out in paragraphs 28 to 30 of the report.  Processes in place to manage these risks were detailed in paragraph 31.

Having noted the comments of the Labour Group Spokespersons on this item, it was

RESOLVED: (i)         That the proposed amendments to the draft Climate Change Framework and Climate Change Action Plan (CCFAP) be approved. ¹

REASON:      To enable the CCFAP to progress and to be approved and adopted.

                        (ii)        That the risks of delivering the finalised CCFAP, the scale of the challenge ahead, and the difficulty of delivering city-wide targets that rely on partnership working to achieve them, be noted.

REASON:      To highlight the ambition and challenge ahead of meeting the CCFAP, whilst noting the finite capacity of co-ordinating and delivering the targets through the existing City of York Council Sustainability Officer.

This report notes the publication of the York Economic Vision and invites Members to forward it to the Local Development Framework Working Group for further consideration.

Note:

Annex 2 to the above report (the full York Economic Vision document) has not been included in the printed agenda pack and is available to view on-line only. 

RESOLVED: That the report be referred to the Local Development Framework Working Group for further consideration.

REASON:      To support future investment in the City and encourage high standards of design.

Members received a report which noted the publication of the York Economic Vision and invited Members to forward it to the Local Development Framework Working Group for further consideration.

The York Economic Vision document had been prepared by Professor Alan Simpson and his team, following public engagement in the City, including numerous meetings with key stakeholders.  It had been funded by Yorkshire Forward and English Heritage as part of a set of York Renaissance proposals reported to Executive in November 2009.  The full document had been made available on-line as Annex 2 to the report; an executive summary of the main proposals was attached as Annex 1.

The Economic Vision examined the economic potential of the City and considered how various major projects could be pulled together into a coherent strategy to provide greater certainty for future investment.  It acknowledged that York was an attractive place in which to live, work and study, but drew attention to problems with transport infrastructure, lack of green spaces and fractured connections between key city assets, and made a strong economic and cultural case to address these issues.

With reference to the comments made on this item under Public Participation / Other Speakers, Members emphasised the independent nature of the Vision document, which was intended to provoke debate and discussion.  Referring it to an all-party working group was a way of ensuring broad agreement to any ideas that were subsequently fed into long term plans for the City. Having noted the comments of the Labour Group Spokespersons on this item, it was

RESOLVED: That the report be referred to the Local Development Framework Working Group for further consideration. ¹

REASON:      To support future investment in the City and encourage high standards of design.