Agenda and minutes

            Apologies for inability to attend were reported from Alderman Browne and Councillors Hanna and McVeigh

            The minutes of the meetings of 8th and 22nd June were taken as read and signed as correct.  It was reported that those minutes had been adopted by the Council at its meeting on 2nd July.

            No declarations of interest were reported.

            The Committee was advised that the Local Authorities Members’ Association was holding its Autumn seminar in Letterkenny, County Donegall from 28th to 29th September.  The theme of the seminar was “The Challenge for Local Authorities – Can We Do More With Less?”  Keynote Speakers would include Senators Brian O Domhnaill, Imelda Henry and Jimmy Harte, as well as the Mayor of Letterkenny, Councillor Dessie Larkin.  The total cost of attendance per delegate would be approximate £470.

            The Committee authorised the attendance at the Local Authorities Members’ Association Autumn Seminar of the Chairman, the Deputy Chairman, the Council’s representatives on the National Association of Councillors, Northern Ireland Region, the Democratic Services Manager (or their nominees) and a representative of each of the Parties on the Council not represented by the aforementioned Members.

            The Democratic Services Manager informed the Committee that the Northern Ireland Local Government Association, in partnership with Climate Northern Ireland, was organising a morning seminar to discuss recent weather-related events and address how Northern Ireland Councils could prepare and respond to similar events should they occur in the future.  The seminar would take place on 4th September in the Craigavon Civic Centre and attendance would be free of charge.

            The Committee authorised the attendance at the seminar of any Member who so wished.

            The Committee was advised that the National Association of Councillors (Northern Ireland Region) was holding its Annual General Meeting on Friday, 21st September at the Clandeboye Lodge Hotel, Bangor.  The Annual General Meeting, at which new office bearers would be elected by the membership, was being addressed by Mr. Alex Attwood, Minister for the Department of the Environment.  It was intended that the Minister, in his address, would advise Members on the progress of Local Government Reorganisation and the next steps.  Approximate cost per attendance of each delegate would be £46.

            Accordingly, the Committee authorised the attendance at the National Association of Councillors (Northern Ireland Region) Annual General Meeting of the Chairman, the Deputy Chairman, the Council’s representatives on the National Association of Councillors (Northern Ireland Region) and a representative of each of the Parties on the Council not represented by the aforementioned Members.

            The Committee was reminded that the Council, at its meeting on 2nd July, had requested that a report in respect of recent ethical issues at Barclays Bank should be submitted to a future meeting of the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee.

            Accordingly, the Head of Finance and Performance submitted a report in this regard.

Noted.

            The Committee granted authority for the commencement of tendering exercises and delegated authority to the Director of Property and Projects, in accordance with the Scheme of Delegation, to accept the most advantageous tenders received in respect of the following:

            2012/13 Planned Maintenance Programme 

            Community Facilities and Assets

            Supply and Delivery of Annual Supplies

            (Mrs. J. Minne, Head of Human Resources, attended in connection with these items.)

            The Committee was reminded that, at its meeting on 18th March, 2011, as part of the Local Government Improvement Collaboration and Efficiency Programme (ICE), it had agreed that the Council would co-ordinate and manage job advertisements for all local councils in the three main Northern Ireland regional papers on a pilot basis for an agreed charge.

            The Head of Human Resources indicated that the pilot had gone ‘live’ in May, 2011 and, given the success of that collaborative Council project, the Council had been requested to continue providing that sector service for a further two years, until July, 2014, subject to review.  During the pilot project, the Council had placed twenty?nine local government shared job advertisements in the Northern Ireland Regional Papers, advertising a total of 279 local government jobs.  Twenty-one local councils (including arc21) had participated in the project by including their jobs in those advertisements.  The pilot project had saved the Council approximately £31,000 in advertising costs and had generated additional income of approximately £30,000.  It had also resulted in estimated local government savings of £410,000 per annum.

            The Committee agreed that the Council continue to manage a shared local government job advertising service for the sector for a further two years, till July, 2014, subject to a review.

            It was reported that, in accordance with Standing Order 55 and the authority delegated to him, the Director of Finance and Resources had authorised the appointment of a number of individuals who were related to existing officers of the Council.

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1         Relevant Background Information

1.1       A request has been received via InvestNI to permit the filming of a number of sequences of a ‘Bollywood’ movie in the City Hall during September 2012.

1.2       Members may be aware that India is the largest film producing country in the world, making over 1100 films every year (Hollywood averages 700). The industry’s value is estimated at $4 billion as compared with Hollywood’s $10 billion. The song-dance sequence ­ shot in picturesque international locales - is recognized as the crux of Indian commercial cinema, and the revenue that it generates has resulted in a wide range of international destinations supporting the industry, most recently Venice, the Seychelles, Amsterdam, Macau, London, Havana, Berlin and Geneva.

1.3       The movie project is entitled ‘David’ and the team intend to be filming some of the UK scenes in Belfast for a period of 9 days between 5th–14th September 2012.  They will be shooting in a number of locations around the city, and have requested the use of the City Hall for at least one full day’s filming in the Great Hall and the main staircase area.

1.4       There are a number of potential economic benefits to the city, most notably that a crew of 45 people are travelling to NI for the duration of the shot, that local talent will be recruited to assist the crew, that around 500 extras will be needed and that some equipment will be hired locally for the shoot.

1.5       In terms of the movie itself the production company has provided the following précis:

            ‘30-year-old David has served the Ghani family for almost a decade. Ghani, a devout Muslim is a local Gang Lord and is extremely possessive of his community. The nature of Ghani's work became quite clear to David very early in his life, when his father who was an accountant to the family died in a shootout saving Ghani’s life. David looks up to Ghani as a father figure and will happily give up his life to save his. Due to Ghani’s involvement in the funding of terrorist activities, the Indian government authorizes a covert operation to execute Ghani. A team is sent to UK to assassinate him. The team find themselves working with one of Ghani's strong rivals. David, who is fiercely loyal to Ghani, decides to join them after discovering a terrible secret from Ghani’s past.

            Will David let Ghani - his mentor and father figure - get killed?’

1.6       This movie project is partly the result of work done by InvestNI both locally and from their office in Bangalore, India, and a local company, Northern Ireland Screen, are assisting in the NI production and filming.

1.7       Members will also be aware that the Economic Initiatives unit of the Development Department is actively seeking to support the creative sector in order to assist in sector growth and overall economic development and regeneration activities within the City. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6c

            (Mrs. S. Wylie, Director of Health and Environmental Services, attended in connection with these items.)

            The Director of Health and Environmental Services submitted for the Committee’s consideration the undernoted report:

“1    Relevant Background Information

1.1Members will be aware of the heavy rain on the night of Wednesday 27 June 2012 which caused severe flooding across the city. Officers first became aware of the situation when they started to take calls of flooding in west and east Belfast at 7.30pm. The Emergency Coordination Officer opened the emergency room in the city hall and the Council’s emergency plan was activated at 8.10pm.  This was used as the coordination centre for planning how agencies should respond to the problems throughout the city.

1.2Agencies worked well together in the emergency room and on the conference calls held throughout the event.

1.3Detailed advice and information was placed on the Council website on the Wednesday night and further information was provided via press releases which were issued throughout the night and into the following week.

1.4A Council emergency call centre with a freephone number was opened at 9.00am on Thursday 28 June. Any vulnerable people identified via the call centre were referred to Red Cross and to Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.

1.5As a result of the flooding incident, the Council received 1,463 requests for service and made payments under the Department of the Environment (DOE) financial assistance scheme to over 720 households.

1.6Inspections of flooded properties began on the Thursday morning and involved providing information packs, assessing houses for financial assistance, organising cleanup, electrical checks and the provision of dehumidifiers. Cleansing Services began cleaning debris from flooded streets from early morning, bulky waste collections started and sandbag deliveries continued. The Council delivered 7,000 sandbags in total. The first cheques issued under the DOE scheme of financial assistance were available for collection on 29 June.

1.7A major flooding incident of this type causes widespread devastation and distress to residents and businesses in the city; it is important therefore to ensure that everything that can be done is being done to prevent properties flooding in the future. It was in this context that the Lord Mayor, party group leaders and the Chief Executive held a meeting with the agencies involved in the response on 4 July to discuss a number of key learning points relating to communication, coordination, sandbag distribution and flood alleviation measures; and to agree actions in moving forward.

1.8This is an interim report, pending a full review/debriefs which will include Councillors, staff and other agencies.

1.9It should be noted that the NI Executive have requested the Performance and Efficiency Unit of DFP to review the performance of the responding agencies to this flooding, with a report due by the end of August.

2    Key Issues

2.1Coordination and Communication

      The Council activated its plan quickly and assumed an initial coordinating role. Agencies were invited into the emergency coordination centre at an early stage and those that attended on the night of 27 June included the Police, Ambulance and Fire  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7a

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0Relevant Background Information

1.1Members will be aware that the previous Community Safety Partnership and District Policing Partnership were dissolved in March 2012 and in their place a new Policing and Community Safety Partnership established.

1.2In Belfast there is an over-arching Policing and Community Safety Partnership, and four District Policing and Community Safety Partnerships; one in each of the north, south, east and west of the city.  Their membership is made up of:

·       Elected members - from each of the parties in Council

·       Independent members - who are appointed through a public appointments process and are representative of the wider community

·       Designated organisations:

o   Formal - these are statutory organisations required by statute to sit on PCSPs across NI.   The DOJ is currently undertaking consultation to this effect and it is proposed that 7 statutory organisations will be formally designated i.e. compelled to participate.   These organisations are PSNI, NIHE, PBNI, YJA, NIFRS, ELBs and the health family.

o   Local - The PCSP and DPCSPs also have the opportunity to locally designate additional organisations. 

1.3The political and independent members who sit on the (D)PCSP also form a ‘Policing Committee’, which carries out a distinct role in relation to monitoring police performance and obtaining the cooperation of the public with the police. 

1.4The role of the PCSP is to:

§  obtain the views of the public about matters concerning policing;

§  act as a general forum for discussion and consultation on matters affecting policing and enhancing community safety;

§  prepare plans for reducing crime and enhancing community safety;

§  identify and measure performance against targets;

§  provide financial or other support to  ventures designed to reduce crime or enhance community safety

§  Provide views to the District Commander and vice versa

§  Inform local policing plans

§  Encourage cooperation with police

1.5       Importantly, it is hoped that the new structure will harness the best characteristics of the previous DPP and CSP, such as responsiveness, innovation, political and public engagement, whilst improving on previous flaws such as burdensome administration.  An annual funding package has been provided from the DOJ/NIPB to support the work of the PCSP this is being directed towards local service delivery as much as possible.  To that extent DPCSPs have been allocated a combined total of £500,000 (£125,000 each) for 12/13 and it is anticipated that, as was the case in the CSP, the partnership will leverage considerable additional funding.

1.6The Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the partnerships for the first 12 months are as follows:

§  PCSP - Cllr Jim McVeigh (Chair), John MacVicar (Vice-Chair)

§  North - Cllr Gareth McKee (Chair), Bronach Graham (Vice-Chair)

§  South – Cllr Tom Ekin (Chair), Nuala Toman

Vice-Chair)

§  East – Cllr Claire Hanna (Chair), Mark Houston

(Vice-Chair)

§  West – Cllr Matt Garrett (Chair), Harry Connolly

(Vice-Chair)

1.7The organisations that will be invited to attend, as discussed by the (D)PCSPs to date, are also listed in Appendix 1.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7b