The City Mayor will be attending the meeting to give an update on the City of Culture Bid.
Minutes:
Sir Peter Soulsby, City Mayor attended the meeting and gave a brief presentation that gave an update on the City’s bid for City of Culture 2017 status.
Sir Peter reported that 11 cities had submitted a bid in the first round and these had been shortlisted to a final 4 cities, of which Leicester was one. Much work had been undertaken by a team of staff, in conjunction with various partners, to ensure that the final bid put in was good. The team included people that had been involved in the previous successful Liverpool bid.
The key features of the first bid were identified as follows: -
· The vision for Leicester 2017
· The artistic vision
· The principles of the Programme
· Build-up opportunities
· The legacy for Leicester
· Step changes
· Phase 2 bid process (Bid to be submitted by 5.00pm on Monday 30th September)
· Objectives for UK City of Culture
· Engagement and Consultation
Sir Peter stated that the hardest part would come after Leicester had been awarded City of Culture 2017 status. At this point engagement with communities across the City would commence to ensure that the ideas put forward were put into action.
In response to a comment from a member of the public regarding quality of some street lighting and levels of public transport within the City Sir Peter stated that the City Council were looking to replace some of the current street lights with Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). Regarding powers to specify the quality, frequency and type of bus services within the City these powers were available to the Mayor of London but not elsewhere.
A member of the public stated that the levels of cross bonding of communities across the City was not currently that successful and there was a desire to see localism promoted, it was important that links within communities were important. Sir Peter stated that a lot of good things were happening in Leicester and work on cohesion/bonding was work in progress. It was intended to use the City of Culture bid to build on some of the City’s achievements.
A member of the public questioned whether there was likely to be any consideration given to support wider communities to gain access to community facilities. Sir Peter stated the City recognised the inconsistencies across City Wards regarding the provision of community facilities and, in order to gain a strategic overview of the current position, a review had been started.
A member of the public questioned the legacy left in Leicester, following the year of the City of Culture, what would be left in the City after 2017 that had not been in place prior to 2017. Sir Peter stated that the City of Culture status would be used to raise the profile of Leicester, create more jobs and create more sustainable facilities in the City, together with better use of existing facilities.
A member of the public questioned how the City of Culture Bid was being funded. Sir Peter stated that the cost was being met by the City and County Councils and underwritten to the tune of £10m, funding that would be sought from external partners. It was apparent that the payback achieved by other cities had been in the region of 6 times their original investment, therefore it was felt that this would be money well spent.
In concluding Sir Peter stated that schools and colleges across the City had responded well to the City of Culture Bid and it was felt to be well worth investing in schools as well as the Culture Bid. An announcement on the awarding of the City of Culture 2017 would be made in November 2013.
Sir Peter was thanked for attending the meeting and he was informed that a petition was being collected locally calling for a Community Centre in Stoneygate for the benefit of the whole community.