Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: virtual meeting - Zoom

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Appointment of Chair

Minutes:

RESOLVED that Councillor Hamilton be appointed as Chair of the Committee for the 2021/22 Council year.

2.

Appointment of Vice Chair

Minutes:

RESOLVED that Councillor Bolton be appointed as Vice-chair of the Committee for the 2021/22 Council year.

3.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillor Morgan.

4.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 206 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 16th December 2020.

Minutes:

Councillor Parton referred to resolutions in minute reference 7 2020/21:

 

Resolution 2:

 

 that Cabinet be recommended to remove £6500 of Community Hub funding for Thorpe Acre Community Centre, and £7000 of the planned increase in the budget for Festive Decorations and Illuminations from the draft budget, whilst also taking looking into any underspends in the funds allocated to Parks and Sports Grounds.”

 

Resolution 4:

 

that Cabinet be recommended to ask officers to investigate and report to the Loughborough Area Committee on future options for the financing of additional bus shelters within the Loughborough Special Expense Area.”

 

He stated that the information requested had not been received. It was noted that this information would be circulated once available.

 

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 16 December 2020 were then confirmed as a correct record and signed.

5.

Disclosures of Pecuniary and Personal Interests

Minutes:

No disclosures were made.

6.

Questions under Committee Procedure 12.8

No questions were submitted

Minutes:

No questions were submitted.

7.

Loughborough Annual Update Report 2021 pdf icon PDF 559 KB

A report of the Heads of Planning and Regeneration, Financial Services, Neighbourhood Services and Cleansing and Open Spaces providing information and updates on significant matters relating to the town of Loughborough.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

A report of the Heads of Financial Services, Cleansing and Open Spaces, Planning Regeneration and Neighbourhood Services to provide information and updates on significant matters relating to the town of Loughborough. (item 7 on the agenda filed with these minutes).

 

The Heads of Financial Services, Cleansing and Open Spaces, Planning Regeneration, Neighbourhood Services and Leisure and Culture attended the meeting to provide assistance in consideration of this item. The following summarises the discussion:

 

      i.        Many of the projects in the Loughborough Town Centre Masterplan had been completed or were expected to be incorporated into the Loughborough Town Deal project. The Council had recently been awarded funding for the Loughborough Town Deal and more information on the development of individual projects would be made available in due course.

 

    ii.        The Covid-19 Pandemic had impacted upon the work of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) with regards to the People Zones. Meetings had been conducted virtually during this period but less often and multi-agency meetings had now resumed to reinvigorate the previous work undertaken. It was expected that this would improve engagement and the productivity of the stake-holder meetings as a wide variety of attendees for different organisations had been present.

 

   iii.        The analysis of KPIs and metrics of the People Zones project had been delayed due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Initial baseline statistics were produced at the start of the project by the OPCC and it was understood that this would be updated following discussions between the OPCC and Loughborough University.

 

   iv.        ‘Community resilience’ referred to the delivery of what was required to maintain sustainable communities. This included the upskilling of members of the community to enable leadership of aspects within the delivery plan.

 

    v.        A decision had been made through discussion with those involved that the Thorpe-Acre Community Hub would not progress. Local ward members had been involved and informed of the decision. This was due to a limit in organisational capacity and the impact of Covid-19.

 

   vi.        ‘Support services’ referred to aspects involved in preparation work for events such as Loughborough Fair and the festive light switch on. It was difficult to predict the total time spent by officers in preparing for events as much of the work was reactive and dependent upon circumstances. In 2020, a significant amount of officer time was used to ensure events had been Covid-secure as much as possible. 

 

  vii.        Charnwood Campus Limited had been awarded a grant in order to repurpose a redundant building as a Medicinal and Synthetic Chemical Research Centre, although the origin and the scale of this grant was unclear. It was requested that this information be provided to members following the meeting.

 

 viii.        Accrued business rates at a sum of £313k had been allocated to support a growth accelerator programme as part of the Science and Innovation Enterprise Zone. Business rates used for this allocation had been from the LLEP and retained by the Council specifically for this purpose. It was stated that the funding  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.