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 asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

Cllr Waller declared a personal interest in Agenda Item 3 – Open Space, Sport and Recreation Study – Full Report (minute 33 refers) as an allotment holder.

Cllr Simpson-Laing declared a personal interest in the same agenda item as she had been involved in the Back Park Leeman Road group.

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 remit of the Working Group, may do so.  The deadline for registering is 5.00 pm on Monday 7 January 2008.

There were no registrations to speak under the council’s public participation scheme.

The purpose of this report is to seek Member’s approval to publish the full ‘Open Space, Sport and Recreation Study’ (attached at Annex A) – the Appendices to the Study are in the Members Library. This full study will form the open space, sport and recreation part of the evidence base for the Local Development Framework. Prior to the meeting, the plans contained within the document will be available to members in a larger scale.

Members considered a report which sought their approval to publish the full “Open Space, Sport and Recreation Study”. This study would form the open space, sport and recreation part of the evidence base for the Local Development Framework.

Members received a presentation covering the following issues :

• Introduction and background – types of open space, sport and recreation provision
• Methodology – 5 step process – identifying local needs, auditing existing provision, local provision standards. 
• Key findings by typology – including parks and gardens, natural and semi-natural open space, amenity green space, provision for children and young people, outdoor sports facilities, allotments
• Key findings by geographical area – City Centre, Urban East, Urban West, York South, York North
• Other emerging issues

Members made the following comments :

• Issues relating to the accessibility of private leisure facilities in terms of costs
• Need to clarify some of the linkages between the methodology applied and conclusions made
• Clarification needed on the geographical boundaries used in the study
• Analysis should be carried out by Ward to make the analysis clearer
• Some errors in the names of the open spaces recorded – Members to pass any corrections to Officers
• The recommended standard versus the current level of provision
• That the maps be reviewed to check accuracy, and in line with the comments regarding the need for the geographical areas to be reviewed
• Ensure that the report clearly states deficiencies in provision, both currently and predicted for 2029 

RESOLVED :

(i)                 That this document be brought back to this Working Group having been amended taking into account Members comments¹;

(ii)               That any further comments on the document be passed to the report author²;

(iii)             That Members be provided with copies of maps and that comments on these maps be passed to the report author³.    

REASON :

To progress the approval of the Study.