Agenda item

Members are asked to consider the Committee’s workplan for the 2014-15 municipal year, receive a verbal update on ongoing reviews and consider a new topic submission.

Members considered a feasibility report on a scrutiny topic submitted by Councillor Cuthbertson which proposed a review of the planning, promotion and delivery of the Council’s programme of activities which accompanied the Tour de France. Councillor Cuthbertson presented his topic submission and stressed the need to deal with this issue urgently in order to allay public fears regarding the financial loss of the event and to ensure that lessons were learnt so that any future events were properly planned and managed within budget, particularly as the council was beginning to plan the Tour of Yorkshire. In addition to the financial losses from the event, he also expressed the need to investigate the health and safety aspects of the Grand Departy in response to press headlines that the event had incurred risks to public safety.

The Director of Communities and Neighbourhoods advised Members of a Cabinet report expected in January 2015 which would set out against each workstream which aspects had gone well and which had not . The full economic data for that report would not be until mid December after which the report would be finalised. She confirmed that the Grand Departy was not an unsafe event and the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) had not raised any concerns in this respect.

Members were advised that the Grand Departy was not part of the commercial programme but added as a supplement to the weekend programme of events organised to encourage families  into York a day early. Members were briefed on the challenges of the organisation of the concert which they were advised would be detailed in full in the Cabinet report.

Members were asked to bear in mind a number of issues when considering whether or not to carry out this review including the fact that all reviews would have to be completed by the start of the forthcoming Purdah period. The committee already had two ongoing reviews and had already agreed another new review which raised a resource issue. Some Members felt it would be better to wait until the Cabinet report had been published before making a decision on the review but others felt that it was important not to delay the decision on whether or not to conduct the review to ensure that it could be completed within the current municipal year.

It was agreed that the review be undertaken before the end of the municipal year by a task group comprising Councillors Taylor, Wiseman and Fitzpatrick (or an alternative Labour member). Councillor Cuthbertson confirmed that he was happy to be called as a witness in the review rather than be co-opted onto the task group. It was agreed that scrutiny officer would email a suggested wording of the remit of the review to the committee.

Members considered the committee’s work plan for the 2014-15 municipal year and received a verbal update on the two ongoing reviews. They were informed that the Entrepreneurship in York Schools Task Group had recently had a useful and informative meeting with representatives from North Yorkshire Business Education Partnership (NYBEP), York Children’s University, York’s Federation of Small Businesses, Aviva and Natwest as well as two primary schools. With regard to the work of the Disabled Access Scrutiny Task Group, the Committee was advised that the task group had met with representatives of Visit York in November and would meet again on 2 December to consider an interim report which would present the large amount of information gathered to date so that the Task Group could agree an appropriate way forward.

Resolved:      (i)         That a review of the Tour de France be carried out by a task group during the current municipal year.

(ii)        That the work plan be agreed.

                        (iii)       That the updates on the ongoing scrutiny reviews be noted.

Reason:         To keep the committee’s work plan updated.