Agenda, decisions and minutes

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

The Executive Member was invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal or prejudicial interests he might have in the business on the agenda. He confirmed he had none.

It was reported that there had been 7 registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme in respect of agenda item 4 (Revenue Budge Estimates 2010-11 – Leisure, Culture and Social Inclusion).

6 of the registered speakers those spoke in relation to the savings proposals, listed in Annex 3, with regard to reductions in the Arts Service Level Agreements and the proposal to cease funding in the Community Arts Service.

The Artistic Director of the Pilot Theatre, a national touring theatre based at the Theatre Royal, spoke against the proposed savings. He explained that the Pilot Theatre provides jobs for 47 paid staff and training placements for others. They had given 260 public performances in the past year, with their main target audience being young people. They had developed relationships and forged partnerships across the world through a range of international projects and were hosting the 3^rd International “Shift Happens” conference in July this year. At home, the theatre had set up links with schools, currently Manor and Joseph Rowntrees, and was involved in cultural exchanges. He advised Members that he was grateful for the support the Council gave the theatre and that they were a RFO (Regularly Funded Organisation), funded by the Arts Council with support from the local authority and stressed that loss of this support would be catastrophic to the organisation.

An Early Years Educator, Community Inclusion Facilitator and Singer stressed the benefits on the Community Arts Service in many of her projects. She suggested that if the money was not available to continue funding the service, it was important to seek creative alternative solutions, perhaps by establishing an independent not for profit agency which would allow them to retain skills and maintain part of current activity and draw down the funding they currently attract. She stressed the importance on not losing the existing team and associated infrastructure.

A former secondary school teacher explained that the Community Arts Service works with diverse groups, including families, and children at risk, as well as older people including those living alone and in care homes who have been stimulated to participate in activities by the Community Arts Service. She advised that the limited period of consultation was meaningless to these groups of people who often fear speaking out. She stressed that the Community Arts Service was made up of a small team of dedicated professionals and they offered paid work to freelance artists and encouraged volunteers and all the expertise would be wasted if the service was disbanded.

The General Manager of Accessible Arts and Media stated that she had been involved with Community Arts for over 25 years and had seen many changes though none as catastrophic as this would be. She explained that they had benefited through their relationship with the Council. She noted that the intention was to retain officer support within the service for the purpose of fundraising activities, but stressed that when fundraising it is important to be able  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

This report asks the Executive Member to agree to allocate the remaining £175k of the £200k Community Facilities fund to take forward a revised scheme to refurbish the Melbourne Centre for community use.

RESOLVED:

(i)         That £175 be allocated to fund works on the Melbourne Centre subject to fulfilment of the conditions set out in paragraph 3 of the report.

(i)         That the Executive be recommended to agree the required prudential borrowing.

REASON:

To provide excellent community facilities in the vicinity of the Barbican in line with the Council’s approved Leisure Facilities Strategy.

The Executive Member considered a report which asked him to agree to allocate the remaining £175 of the £200k Community Facilities fund to take forward a revised scheme to refurbish the Melbourne Centre for community use.

Officers reminded the Executive Member that a decision on this item had been deferred at the last meeting in order to allow further discussions to take place with Blueberry Academy in order to seek clarification regarding the core activities that they proposed and their business plan.

They advised the Executive Member that they had met again with Blue Academy, accompanied by officers from Property Services, and had been happy that the business plan was realistic and prudent and that there was a demand for facilities in the area and across the city.

RESOLVED:

(i)         That £175 be allocated to fund works on the Melbourne Centre subject to fulfilment of the conditions set out in paragraph 3 of the report.

(i)         That the Executive be recommended to agree the required prudential borrowing. ¹

REASON:

To provide excellent community facilities in the vicinity of the Barbican in line with the Council’s approved Leisure Facilities Strategy.

This report presents the 2010/11 budget proposals for Leisure and Culture.

RESOLVED:

(i)         That it be confirmed that the budget proposals are in line with the Council’s priorities.

(ii)        That the report be referred to the Executive for consideration

(iii)       That the written and verbal representations made to the Executive Member be taken into consideration when the Executive considers the final budget proposals.

(iv)       That officers consider alternate ways to support community arts provision in the city, in consultation with staff and other interested parties, in the event that this saving proposal needs to be taken.

REASON:

As part of the consultation on the Leisure and Culture budget for 2010-11.

The Executive Member considered a report which presented the 2010-11 budget proposals for Leisure and Culture including:

• The revenue budget for 2009-10 to show the original budgets;
• The base budget for 2010-11 including the 2009-10 budget rolled forward and adjusted;
• The cost of pay and price increases, increments and settlement of pay and grading appeals for the portfolio;
• Budget service pressure costs and savings proposals for the portfolio area; and
• Fees and Charges proposals.

The Director of Learning, Culture and Children’s Services thanked everybody for their verbal and written representations and advised that these would be taken into consideration. He explained that, due to the current economic situation, levels of funding to the authority had reduced and, due to huge statutory pressures within the directorate, it was necessary to make a distinction between statutory and non statutory services. In response to comments made by the Unison representative about a lack of consultation, he advised that they were still at the consultation stage.

In respect of the savings proposals listed in annex 3 to the report, the  Assistant Director (Lifelong Learning and Culture) stated that, wherever possible, cuts had been avoided and significant targets for generating additional income had been included, however they had to look at solutions that did not impact on service delivery and frontline staffing. He confirmed that now they had the opportunity to talk to users and staff affected. In respect of bowling green maintenance he advised that he would talk to the groups affected about taking on the maintenance themselves including looking at what the cost would be to them for the Council to provide the services.

The Finance Manager advised that this was a challenging year in which to produce a balanced budget and confirmed that pay increases and general inflation had been kept to a bare minimum. He advised that, other than the teachers pay award which had been set by Central Government and a few budgets with known contractual agreements, most budgets have been frozen or would reduce by 5%.

The Executive Member reiterated that officers were faced with the consequences of a worldwide recession with both national and local government facing touch decisions in prioritising funding and explained that it was essential that the Council concentrated its available resources on its core functions, statutory services and front line delivery. He explained that, even with an extra investment of a further £1.5m into the Children’s Social Care Budget which was required to manage the significant challenges around safety of children and the increase in numbers of children coming into care, in order to maintain cores standards, savings must be made across the department. 

The Executive Member drew attention to the positive aspects within the budget proposals including the continued funding of the Park Ranger services, funding for the archive manager post from within the core revenue budget and additional funding to continue the community sports coach programme. He added that  the proposed budget would see almost £800,000 invested in arts and culture within  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.