Agenda item

Directors will give a presentation providing an overview of the Culture and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Commission.

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services gave a presentation using the slides attached with the agenda pack.  Additional points included:

• It was likely that the City Centre Director would provide information on city centre performance at some point.
• The Festivals and Events team celebrated the city well and had a 28% increase in engagement, which was good in a post-Covid society.
• The divisions of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services and Tourism, Culture and Economy worked closely together.
• The Record Office was run jointly with Leicestershire County Council and Rutland Council.
• There were close links with place marketing and good work had been done with digital content.
• The Culture and Creative Industries Strategy had been recently developed and the Museum Service Vision was a part of this.  It showed ambition for capital investment and work with communities as well as working with children, young people and schools.
• Leicester Museum and Art Gallery (LMAG) was being developed in terms of its climate change and social history galleries, and Jewry Wall Museum would open shortly.
• The capital investment in LMAG and Jewry Wall was aimed at creating memorable visits and providing an excellent visitor experience.
• Arts Council England had provided regular National Portfolio Organisation funding of £1.2m in regular funding of £400k per year, from 2023 – 31^st March 2026 this was for fixed term posts in the service and a wide range of activities making collections more accessible, taking objects into the community, learning, volunteering and access initiatives.   Another year of funding had just been confirmed (2026-27), and the level of this funding was to be confirmed by the funder.
• The Division of Neighbourhoods and Environment had a £45m budget over seven areas and the work of the division touched on all parts of the city. 50% of this budget went on waste services, this was a statutory service.
• The division was representative of the city in terms of ethnicity, age profile and gender split.

The Committee were invited to ask questions and make comments. Key points

included:

• In response to a query on whether the contract with Biffa would be renewed, it was explained that the Council were coming to the end of their contract with them and beginning an open-market procurement exercise.  There was still a Private Finance Initiative PFI agreement with Biffa.  A site visit to Biffa could be arranged.
• The majority of the Divisional budget for waste was spent on the contract with Biffa.  The cost of the contract had only grown by inflationary amounts.
• In response to a query on the enquiry system and whether there would be a named individual in each department to take on directing queries, it was explained that it was being looked to move away from current arrangements and a decision would be arrived at on what the future could look like, and this would be communicated to Councillors.  This may mean that there could be named individuals to direct enquiries, arrangements would be considered over the coming weeks.
• It was suggested that officers could aim for a turnaround time of five days to respond to queries.

AGREED:

1) That the presentation be noted.

2) That comments made by members of this commission to be taken into  account by the lead officers.

3) That a site visit to Biffa be arranged.