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Agenda and draft minutes

Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Conference Room A - Civic Offices. View directions

Contact: Joanne Wildsmith CCDS Tel: 9283 4057  Email: joanne.wildsmith@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

All members of the panel were present.

2.

Declarations of Members' Interests

Minutes:

There were no declarations of members' interests.

3.

Minutes of Previous Meeting - 9 January 2017 pdf icon PDF 83 KB

RECOMMENDED that the minutes of the EDCL Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 9 January 2017 be approved as a correct record.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 9 January 2017 were agreed as a correct record.

4.

Smarter Cities Review

The panel will continue the review of Smarter and Sustainable Cities by considering evidence from:

 

(i)            Professor Steffen Lehmann, University of Portsmouth, Professor of Sustainable Architecture and Director, Cluster for Sustainable Cities. Professor Lehmann's presentation entitled 'Regenerating Cities' will look at how to unleash the hidden potential of the Island City of Portsmouth, including increased collaboration between industry, local government and the University of Portsmouth. Urban development has never been more important than today, nor has the competition between cities been more intense. What are the visionary but grounded strategies for the future of the City of Portsmouth and what could be done to transform and upgrade its public space network to meet the challenges of the 21st century?

 

Further information can be found at the website:

www.city-futures.org.uk 

 

(ii)    Some written information will be provided by Public Health for circulation at this meeting or for the next meeting.

Minutes:

Professor Steffen Lehmann, Professor of Sustainable Architecture at the University of Portsmouth and Director, Cluster for Sustainable Cities gave a presentation to the panel and members of the public entitled 'Regenerated Cities are Sustainable Cities'.

 

Introduction

Professor Lehmann thanked the panel for the opportunity to address them to look at the challenges in the city and give ideas for urban solutions and strategies for the way forward; he gave a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation (75 slides). He mentioned that one of the main problems in Portsmouth was the level of traffic and he asked where were the cycle ways and safe routes for cyclists?  He also observed that the waterfront had huge potential for improvement and upgrading of public spaces both big and small; the waterfront was also relevant to students as the University of Portsmouth (UoP)'s campus idea was expanding.  With regard to housing and land use, he suggested that it is smarter to build upwards with three to four storeys infill expansion and densification and in selected areas in the city centre up to ten storeys around public transport nodes.  His presentation then went on to look at urban systems, water, energy, transport and waste management interaction of networks.  The UoP is involved in an application for the ‘Urban Nexus’ project that uses ICT technology to interconnect urban systems to provide efficiencies and an assessment tool for cities to guide decision making on future urban development.

 

Partnership working

The potential of working jointly with Southampton meant that collaboratively the cities became the urban size of the fifth largest city in the UK.  He also reported that the University of Portsmouth was now 25 years old and ranked in the top 2% in world rankings according to the recent THE rankings of young universities. The economic benefit to the local community was £300m per annum (recent report by Deloitte) that the University contributes to the City of Portsmouth, eg. students brought to the city; and the student numbers were projected to increase from 24,000 to 29,000 by 2020.  UoP is also the owner of 35 buildings in the city centre.  Professor Lehmann felt that it was therefore important for the City Council and University to be involved in discussions to share strategies especially with the expanding University Quarter that needed an urban heart. One of the ideas being put forward by the university was the future pedestrianisation of Hampshire Terrace to create a new mixed-use high-quality public space.

 

Urban Regeneration

Professor Lehmann gave examples from other cities showing strategies of their "rebirth" in Bristol and Manchester. Internationally, Seville had created public meeting places on the site of a former car park, and in New York the High-line provides a new linear park which had resulted the property values doubling in these areas.  At Detroit, a shrinking city that struggled with empty properties and people leaving, there were now community garden schemes in place to improve the neighbourhood.  His view was that Portsmouth had disconnect between its parts  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Date of Next Meeting

To discuss the date of a future meeting or the need to visit another city, pending attendance at the Ascent Events Smart Cities 2017 conference on 1st & 2nd February in London by Cllrs Hannah Hockaday and Matthew Winnington.

Minutes:

The date of the next meeting was agreed as Monday 20th February at 5pm, to hear from Dr Horsley the new Joint Director of Public Health.  This would also be an opportunity to hear feedback from members and officers attending a Smart Cities conference in London on 1st & 2nd February.