The Economic Development, Culture & Leisure (EDCL) Scrutiny Panel members are asked to suggest and give consideration to potential review topics for submission to the next meeting of the Scrutiny Management Panel (which is due to meet on 4 July 2014).
Suggestions so far include:
(i) improving sport and physical activity participation in the City (noting that officers are working on a sports development strategy)
(ii) revitalising local high streets and secondary shopping areas in the city
Any other areas of interest members would be interested in looking into that are within the panel's remit are welcomed.
RECOMMENDED that the EDCL Scrutiny Panel makes prioritised suggestions of suitable review topics for consideration by the Scrutiny Management Panel.
Minutes:
The panel was advised that the Scrutiny Management Panel were due to meet on 4 July 2014 to allocate and prioritise review topics for this scrutiny panel. The topics being considered for review had been this panel's second and third proposals from last year. The chair of the panel, Councillor Julie Swan invited Matt Birch, Sports Officer and Andrea Wright to provide background information to the panel on improving sport and physical activity participation in the city. Mr Birch said that currently officers are working on a sports development strategy and this was expected to be completed by autumn 2014. A strategy on physical activity would follow at a later date. He said that a consultation event had already been held by the University of Portsmouth to feed into the strategy.
During discussion the following matters were clarified:
Following further discussion the panel felt that as the sports strategy was not yet available, a review of this topic may be more effective if it were carried out after the sports strategy had been written and this was agreed.
The chair of the panel next invited Mr Barry Walker to provide an overview of the issues involved in revitalising local high streets and secondary shopping areas in the city. Mr Walker said that he acts as a go-between between businesses and the city council. His work primarily is to deal with the larger shopping areas but he would also provide help, when asked for, to local centres. He advised that revitalising local high streets and secondary shopping areas in the city was not city council led and that he would not be writing a strategy on that subject.
Councillor Winnington explained that the reason this topic was put forward was as a result of several applications to convert shops into houses in a number of different shopping centres. He said that should this happen, there was a likelihood that such development would kill local shopping centres. He said that one of the aims of the review would be to encourage local people who wished to retain local shopping centres to set up groups to represent those interested in maintaining local shopping centres. He said that scrutiny panels could make a difference by making recommendations to Cabinet to enable a focus to be given to local groups.
Councillor Simon Bosher said that although Barry Walker had said that the city council would help local shopping centres when asked, the real issue was how to revitalise them. He said that involving neighbourhood forums could perhaps be utilised as a way to promote and retain local shopping centres. He said that seeing empty shops did not create a good impression and tended to blight the surrounding area.
Councillor Dowling agreed that this review would be useful and suggested that this topic should be the panel's priority.
During further discussion, Mr Barry Walker said that it would not be possible to write one strategy for all the various shopping centres but that in his experience if a number of small businesses who were committed to a cause worked together, they were often successful in their aims. He said that from the city council's point of view, there are issues about where to target limited resources. For example if resources were targeted at small local centres, this may be to the detriment of the main shopping centres.
Councillor Simon Bosher said that in his view there was a need for some kind of overarching strategy in relation to secondary shopping areas and that engaging with neighbourhood forums and ward councillors may well prove to be an effective way forward. He said that something was needed to draw in local shopkeepers and communities to local shopping areas in order to ensure their survival. He felt that a scrutiny review on this topic would be useful.
The panel agreed their prioritised suggestions of suitable review topics for consideration by the Scrutiny Management Panel.
RESOLVED that the suggested review topics be put forward to Scrutiny Management Panel for agreement in the following order: