Agenda item

THE CITY MAYOR'S 100 DAYS PROGRAMME

In light of the City Mayor’s programme of pledges for his first 100 days of office, the Select Committee are asked to consider how the delivery of the pledges will be monitored.

Minutes:

Councillor Palmer, Deputy City Mayor, advised that 58 of the 100 pledges contained in the 100 Days Programme had been completed.  A further 38 should be completed within the 100 days, but some delay had been experienced with three pledges.  Only one was at risk of not being achieved within the time scale, this being a decision about future use of the Council’s offices at New Walk Centre, (pledge 51).

 

The three pledges experiencing delay were numbers 8, 56 and 99.  Number 8 would be discussed at the meeting of the Forum for Older People being held on 9 August and meetings had taken place with interested parties to discuss number 56.  Work was ongoing to set up a meeting with all parties to discuss pledge 99 and, although problems had been encountered in finding a date that was acceptable to all concerned, it was felt that this pledge would be completed on time.

 

The following points were made in discussion:-

 

·           Although pledges covering particular themes were not always grouped together in the programme, there were integrated policies behind them;

 

·           Pledges relating to housing were being reviewed following recent government announcements about house building;

 

·           A small amount of investment in some areas could greatly increase the confidence of businesses in those areas and be a starting point for further regeneration;

 

·           The establishment of the Leicester and Leicestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) had been progressed following the ending of the East Midlands Development Agency (emda).  Prospect Leicestershire, (for which emda had been one of the main partners and funders), also had been discontinued.  A few members of staff remained from Prospect Leicestershire on generous salaries, so had been brought in to the City Council to ensure that value for money was received from these members of staff;

 

·           A number of meetings had been held in relation to the pledges relating to older people and these pledges were included on the agenda for the meeting of the Forum for Older People to be held on 9 August 2011.  It would be useful for this work to be available before the scrutiny review on elderly person’s care, (agreed above), was undertaken, (see minute 4);

 

·           It was recognised that many of the pledges were to start processes.  Assessment of the success of these would be subjective, but a lot had already had an impact on the way that services were delivered; and

 

·           Issues incorporated in the Pledges covered the majority of the issues included in the City Mayor’s election manifesto.

 

During discussion on individual pledges, the following updates were given:-

 

Pledge No.

Information

4

This Council had led the establishment of the Leicester and Leicestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (LLEP). 

A paper would be presented to the Cabinet in the near future explaining the current position.

26

A letter had been sent to high level government officials about the need to have stronger powers similar to those held by the Mayor of London and regular debates were held with relevant parties on this matter.

40

Meetings were being held regarding the establishment of a new Health and Wellbeing Board and more were planned.  Details regarding the Board’s structure would be agreed following these meetings.

44

An announcement on progress on this pledge was likely to be made this week following last week’s discussion with the Youth Council.  The Youth Council was very engaged with this work.

50

This pledge had been included in view of concerns being expressed about the development of student accommodation.  Meetings had been held with representatives from both Leicester University and De Montfort University and summit meeting would be held shortly with representatives of both universities and other stakeholders.  Other Councils with similar student populations would be contacted to see if their experiences could be useful to this Council.

53

An announcement was due to be made later this week about the establishment of a Commission on Child Poverty.  This Commission would publish its report in two years’ time.

65

Discussions had started with a number of stakeholders, although the Deputy City Mayor acknowledged that forthcoming cuts in youth services could make it difficult to achieve the “gold standard” aspired to in the pledges.  Input by the Scrutiny Commission would be welcome in establishing what a “gold standard” should mean in practice

70

Substantial savings had been made in the use of external consultants, which continued the work started earlier in the year.  Figures on this would be published when more detail was known.

72

Various things had been done on this.  For example, the government’s consultation on future investment in a new high speed train line had ended last week. This Council had responded, urging the government not to overlook the electrification of the Midland Mainline.  Stakeholder interviews also had been held, as had a meeting with the Shadow Transport Secretary of State.  It was hoped that a meeting could be held with government officials later this year

78

Discussions had taken place with various tenants groups and a report was being prepared for submission to the City Mayor and Cabinet on tenant engagement.

90

It was recognised that the amount to be spent on City gateways was not great, but the Council hoped to be able to use the process to start working with local traders to regenerate the areas concerned.  This would be done in consultation with the Planning and Development Committee as necessary.

Decisions had not been taken yet on how the money would be allocated, but it was recognised that expenditure could need to be targeted differently in different areas to ensure that maximum impact could be obtained.  For example, some businesses were less established than others, so could have problems finding match-funding.  Work would continue next year, to build on progress made this year.

 

RESOLVED:

1)    that delivery of the pledges contained in the City Mayor’s 100 Days Programme continue to be scrutinised as set out in the report; and

 

2)    that the actions identified above be taken as appropriate.

 

Supporting documents: