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.

Councillor Taylor declared a personal non prejudicial interest in item 3(Newgate Market Review Report) as an employee of City Screen.

Councillor Pierce also declared a personal non prejudicial interest in item 3 as a Council appointed governor of York St John University.

It is at this point in the meeting that members of the public who have registered their wish to speak can do so. The deadline for registering is by 5pm on Tuesday 23 March 2010. Members of the public can speak on specific planning applications or on other agenda items or matters within the remit of the committee.

To register please contact the Democracy Officer for the meeting, on the details at the foot of this agenda.

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

This report presents Members with information in relation to the review they are undertaking on Newgate Market.

The committee received a report which presented further information relating to the review that they were undertaking on Newgate Market. This report followed on from a scoping report which was presented to the Committee on 8 December 2009.

In light of the current progress of the review and to inform Members, two site visits to the Market had been conducted. These took place in daytime hours before and in the evening directly after the meeting at the Guildhall and were led by the City Centre Manager.

Members received two presentations during their meeting at the Guildhall in relation to Newgate Market. Copies of slides from both presentations were circulated at the meeting.

• The first presentation was from Andy Ward, a member of the National Association of British Markets Authorities(NABMA), on what made a good market and which examples of good practice from examples of markets in other areas, should be followed. His presentation concentrated on who markets were for; with the three key stakeholders being the Council, the Public and Traders. During their discussion on the presentation Members made the following comments;

• Specialist markets in York usually take place in Parliament Street, which is easier to find than Newgate.

• That York was not a member of NABMA.

• Whether the market is in the right location.

• If the Council are making the best use of the current space.

• Whether the canopies currently used let in enough light and whether they  intensified the feeling of the area being claustrophobic.

• That lighting needs to be improved.

• That market traders do not tend to stay outside of footstreet hours.

• The current operating hours, for instance if the market was to be opened on fewer days of the week there would be more opportunity to clean and maintain the area.

The second presentation was given by a City Development Officer, who outlined the current views expressed on Newgate Market which included the responses and ideas obtained from the City Centre Area Action Plan(CCAAP) Issues and Options Document consultation and more recent ideas from the Renaissance Panel's charrette[1] weekend which discussed possible options for Newgate Market.

Officers circulated further information at the meeting on the preferred option of the Area Action Plan in relation to Newgate Market.

During their discussion on the second presentation Members made the following comments;

• Although the recent CCAAP consultation had included some specific questions on Newgate Market which had indicated that there were some negative aspects to the site, the respondents did not want the location of the current market to change.

Annex B to the report, detailed the ‘actual’ income of Newgate Market over previous years from 2005/06 to the present. This information had been requested by Members at the meeting of the Economic and City Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 8 December 2009.

Officers at the meeting added that;

• The market was still making a profit, although this is not as significant as in previous years.

• The annual cost of running the market was approximately £300,000  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.