Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests 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.

The following personal non-prejudicial interests were declared at the meeting:

Cllr Holvey is employed by Leeds City Council.

Cllr Morley is a member of the York Tourism Bureau.

Cllr D’Agorne is employed by York College.

Cllr Merrett is employed in the Rail Industry by Corus Infrastructure Services.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 20 June 2006.

Minute 4 - Cllr Fraser commented that the fifth bullet point, regarding the disappearance of the semi skilled sector in the labour market, was important considering the recent job losses in York. These were important jobs to the economy of York and it should be a priority to find a way to replace them. Cllr Fraser requested that his comments be noted in the minutes.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Panel’s remit can do so. Anyone who wishes to register or requires further information is requested to contact the Democracy Officer on the contact details listed at the foot of this agenda. The deadline for registering is Wednesday 25 September at 6pm.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak under the Council’s Public Participation scheme.

To consider the first draft of York’s Local Area Agreement and endorse both the Economic Development and Enterprise Block text and outcomes framework.

Members considered a report on the first draft of York’s Local Area Agreement (LAA) and which sought endorsement of both the Economic Development and Enterprise (EDE) Block text and outcomes framework.

The report advised that the LAA was a 3-year agreement (refreshed annually) made up of outcomes, indicators and targets, and was effectively a medium-term delivery plan for an area’s community strategy. The outcomes framework was structured around four blocks:

·        Children and Young People

·        Safer & Stronger Communities

·        Healthier Communities & Older People

·        Economic Development & Enterprise

The first draft of the Economic Development & Enterprise Block of York’s LAA was attached at Annexes A and B. Annex A provided an overview of the key issues facing York in relation to economic development, transport and environmental sustainability. Annex B contained the outcomes framework for the Economic Development & Enterprise block. This matrix detailed outcomes to be achieved during the period 2007-2010, and associated performance indicators, targets, lead partners, and potential sources of funding. The full outcomes framework (covering all four LAA blocks) currently contained 52 outcomes with an average of 4 indicators per outcome (totalling 212 indicators). This met Government Office’s expectation that the full LAA would contain 40-60 outcomes.

The full first draft of York’s LAA would be agreed at the meeting of the LSP on 28 September and submitted to the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber (GOYH) in early October.

An updated version of the LAA was circulated at the meeting. Officers informed members that the Press article regarding the Skills and Inclusion section of the LAA had misunderstood the figures in this section. Officers reported that the article claimed that the percentage of people in York with NVQ level 2 was lower than the regional average. However the figure was lower because there were more people at levels 3, 4 and 5, and therefore were  better qualified.

The following points were made:

·        Concern was raised about how well cross cutting issues joined up across the four blocks and that some issues were not as well coordinated as they could be.

·        EDE2 lacked some definition and needed more refinement. It was suggested that ‘maximised’ be replaced by ‘optimised’.

·        EDE5.9 or EDE8 should contain an indicator relating to the five areas in the city where residential properties were experiencing high air pollution to show progress made on improving air quality in the areas. It was agreed that this would be picked up in the final draft.

·        The wording for EDE6.1 should be altered to show that the quality of events rather than quantity was a concern.

·        EDE6.3 could be amended to become a more broader measure consisting of figures from all attractions regarding number of visits.

·        It was queried whether new European funds had been taken into consideration or if there was any government funding available. Officers reported that the new European funds probably hadn’t been taken into account and at the moment there was no government funding proposed for a successful LAA although there could be future funding streams available.

RESOLVED:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

Members will consider a report which identifies any matters arising from the last meeting of the Board and briefs Board members on issues/progress in other areas of economic development activity.

(Annex 3 of this report is to follow)

Members considered a report which identified any matters arising from the last meeting of the Board and briefed Board members on issues/progress in other areas of economic development activity.

The report advised that Jez Willard from the Japanese Shop would replace Brian Littlejohn from Marks and Spencer as the retail sector representative on the Board, once this had been approved by full Council.

Annex 3 of this report, marked as to follow on the agenda, was tabled at the meeting. The Annex provided a summary of the state of the economy in York and highlighted that employment had been growing with over 1500 jobs each year and unemployment was lower than the regional and national average.

The following points were made:

·        The job losses recently announced were disappointing but the response had been immediate, with a redundancy support group being provided and a strategic review was being set up.

·        It was important to understand the trends in York’s economy so that the skills gaps could be addressed.

·        The job losses would impact on people’s standards of living as there would be a loss of income and lower income jobs would be available in the job centres.

·        The robustness of York’s economy should be given greater publicity.

·        It was agreed that a more detailed view of the figures was needed to understand what jobs were being created and where and how these relate to the job losses.

·        There were potential opportunities to investigate, such as green technologies and new sites, which could generate new jobs and allow larger companies that wanted to expand to move into.

Minute 14 contained the Part B Minute (Matters referred to Council) relating to this report.

RESOLVED:             (i)             That the report be noted and endorsed.

REASON:                  To help shape the effectiveness of future action.

Representatives of the key stakeholders in Science City York (SCY), the City Council, the University of York, and Yorkshire Forward, have met to discuss the longer-term future of the partnership.  A proposal has emerged from these discussions to expand the range of activities encompassed by the initiative; to establish it as a company limited by guarantee owned by the stakeholders; and to appoint a chief executive. The Executive Leader endorsed these proposals on behalf of the City Council on the 11^th September.  This report informs the EDPB of the proposals.

Representatives of the key stakeholders in Science City York (SCY), the City Council, the University of York, and Yorkshire Forward, had met to discuss the longer-term future of the partnership.  A proposal had emerged from these discussions to expand the range of activities encompassed by the initiative; to establish it as a company limited by guarantee owned by the stakeholders; and to appoint a chief executive. The Executive Leader endorsed these proposals on behalf of the City Council on the 11^th September. This report informed the EDPB of the proposals.

It was reported that a lot of the team had already been recruited, pending the arrival of the new chief executive next year. It was noted that there needed to be more discussions regarding changes to the worldwide economy and how York could find and keep an edge on these developments.

RESOLVED:             That the report and the Board’s comments be noted.

REASON:                  In order to gain the views of the EDPB on the proposal to expand the range of activities encompassed by the initiative; to establish it as a company limited by guarantee owned by the stakeholders; and to appoint a chief executive as described in the report.

Members considered a report which identified any matters arising from the last meeting of the Board and briefed Board members on issues/progress in other areas of economic development activity.

The report advised that Jez Willard from the Japanese Shop would replace Brian Littlejohn from Marks and Spencer as the retail sector representative on the Board, once this had been approved by full Council.

Minute 12 contained the Part A Minute (Matters dealt with under delegated powers) relating to this report.

REASON:                              To help shape the effectiveness of future action.