Agenda and minutes

Apologies were reported on behalf of Councillors Garrett, Groves, and Sandford.

            The minutes of the meetings of 9th and 29th January were taken as read and signed as correct. It was reported that those minutes had been adopted by the Shadow Council at its meeting of 9th February.

No declarations of interest were reported.

            (Mrs. L. Toland, Head of Economic Initiatives and International Development, attended in connection with this item.)

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1        Relevant Background Information

1.1      Under Local Government Reform (LGR), a number of economic development functions will transfer from DETI/Invest NI to councils. The functions transferring are a means to accelerate local economic growth, focusing on supporting business start-up and growth of micro and small businesses. These functions are currently delivered through a range of regional initiatives including the regional start initiative (RSI) or Go for It programme which supports start-ups and the social entrepreneurship programme which supports social enterprise start-up and growth.  The overall regional budget for current activity across these areas is £3.55million.  This budget will transfer to councils on 1 April 2015. 

1.2       While responsibility for the function is transferring to councils, this does not necessarily mean that the programmes and projects currently delivered by Invest NI will remain the same. However, in order to ensure continuity of provision, all 11 councils have signalled their agreement to continue with the regional start initiative and social entrepreneurship contracts until their expiry date. Invest NI will remain the contract holder for the rest of the term of the contracts (4 July 2015 for Social Entrepreneurship Programme (SEP) and 22 October 2015 for Regional Start Initiative (RSI)). Councils will repay an agreed sum to Invest NI, based on a target number of participants/start-ups.  Separate service level agreements have been prepared by Invest NI for each of the 11 councils covering these periods. The costs and targets detailed within the Belfast City Council SLA are:

-       Regional Start Initiative (Go for It Programme): Delivery of 335 business plans at a total cost of £119,186; and Social Entrepreneurship Programme: £66,084 (specific targets around this allocation are currently being clarified).

1.3       Members are reminded that no staff will transfer to Belfast City Council from LGR-affected councils or Invest NI. The draft Local Government (Performance Indicators and Standards) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015 contains a modest year 1 business start up activity target of 325 jobs to be created.    

2          Key Issues

2.1       The current contract for RSI is delivered by Enterprise NI – the network of local enterprise agencies. There are five delivery agents in Belfast, namely:

-       East Belfast Enterprise

-       North City Business Centre

-       Ormeau Business Park

-       Ortus

-       WorkWest

2.2       At present, the offer is limited to the production of a business plan and the enterprise agency is only able to provide very limited support to the start-up.  The metric used to measure participation in the programme is ‘business plan outputs’.  Currently, there are around 600 business plans generated in Belfast each year through the enterprise agencies.  Invest NI assumes that, of all those receiving a business plan, around 60% will go on to set up a business.  They also consider that, given the predominantly local focus of the new businesses, each business will employ just slightly more than one person (on average), i.e. they will  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

(Mr. A. Hassard, Director of Parks and Leisure, attended in connection with this item.)

            The Committee considered the following report:

“1     Background

1.1    On 29 January 2015, a report had been submitted to the Transition Committee setting out proposals as to how the Council may wish to manage the converging of prices for comparable services currently provided by Lisburn City Council (LCC), Castlereagh Borough Council (CBC) and North Down (ND) in those areas transferring to Belfast.

1.2    To inform this report, a detailed analysis and comparison was undertaken of the scope of services, and associated scale of charges (prices) applied across the councils.  The findings of this work indicated that the Belfast level of charge is generally lower than that of the other Councils.

         The analysis identified that for street trading licences the Belfast service charge is significantly higher than that applied by LCC/CBC in the transferring area. Significant had been defined as being a sudden and adverse increase in price for recurring services, as a direct result of the boundary extension, when converging the transferring area price to the Belfast price.

2       Key Issues  

2.1    Following discussion, the Transition Committee agreed:

(i)     a general principle that Belfast prices would be applied to services delivered in the transferring areas which will mean that in the majority of cases transferring users and residents will experience a reduction in service prices.

(ii)   in relation to Street Trading Licenses, whereby a significant price difference would be experienced, that a phased approach (i.e. incremental levelling of prices over a 4 year period) would be applied.

(iii)further consideration be  given to the differential in prices for outdoor leisure provision, specifically 3G Pitch usage, in assets transferring from LCC and that a separate report be brought back to Committee for consideration.

2.2    The purpose of this report is to outline the position in regards to any potential differential between the charges applied by BCC for outdoor leisure: 3G Synthetic Pitch provision as compared to LCC as well as some of the key considerations which Members may need to take into consideration.

         3G Synthetic Pitch

2.3    Members will note that there is only 1 asset transferring from LCC which is affected (i.e. Brooke Activity Centre). The table below sets out the current differences in charges between BCC and LCC. The greater increase in prices relates to hiring pitch (both full and half pitch) at full cost. There is insignificant increase for concession usage; however, Lisburns peak/off-peak times differ from BCC’s.

         In liaison with colleagues from LCC, a summary of the usage of this facility is set out below:

·        Primarily School bookings during the day at the facility (concession rate)- usage of  half pitch;

·        There are 18 weekly bookings at other times (after 5  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.