Agenda and minutes

            Apologies were reported on behalf of the Chairperson, Councillor Bower, Alderman Copeland, and Councillors Canavan, Cobain, and McAteer. 

            The minutes of the meeting of 22nd January, 2024, were taken as read and signed as correct.  It was reported that those minutes had been adopted by the Council at its meeting on 1st February.

            No Declarations of Interest were reported.

            The information contained in the reports associated with the following two items are restricted in accordance with Part 1 of Schedule 6 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014.

      Resolved – That the Committee agrees to exclude the members of the Press and public from the meeting during discussion of the items as, due to the nature of the items, there would be a disclosure of exempt information as described in Section 42(4) and Section 6 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014.

            The Members were also reminded that the content of ‘restricted’ reports and any discussion which took place during closed session must be treated as ‘confidential information’ and that no such information should be disclosed to the public as per Paragraph 4.15 of the Code of Conduct.  

            The Chief Executive, ICC Belfast (BWUH Ltd), provided the Committee with an overview of the Company’s performance during Quarter 3 Year to Date of the financial year 2023/2024, 1st October to 31st December 2023, and an analysis of actual performance against the budget.

            The Committee was reminded that it was the eighth year of operation for the company. She outlined that the third quarter of 2023/24 had been very busy as expected with a large number of events spanning conferences, meetings, entertainment and pantomime. She highlighted that, during this quarter, the ICC had hosted the UK Space Conference, British Ecological Society and the British Society for Immunology.

            The Members were advised that Customer Satisfaction in post-event surveys had been extremely high, at 96% for entertainment and 98% for conferences.

            Ms. Corkey provided a summary of the apprenticeships and placements and highlighted that one of the ICC’s valued apprentices, Mr. D. Warke, had received a nomination for the Apprentice of the Year award. She also pointed out that the Team had welcomed a student from Mitchell House Special School for a one-week placement and had hosted another secondary school placement in the technical team.

            She reported that the Green Team had met in August, October and December to review the Sustainability Action Register and support sustainability initiatives throughout the business. This had led to achieving the world-class Gold Award from Green Tourism in October.

            During discussion, the representatives answered a range of questions in relation to expenditure, the recruitment of casual posts, targets agreed by the Board and the roll out of hydration stations.

            After discussion, the Committee noted the contents of this report.

            The Committee noted the update in relation to ongoing capital and maintenance works at the ICC Waterfront and Ulster Hall which included information on the replacement of smoke curtains and chiller units, and an update on the escalator replacement project.