Agenda item

            The Committee was reminded that, at its meeting on 19th June, it had discussed the importance of increasing the number of events organised by community and voluntary groups which took place within the City Hall.  The Committee had expressed its desire to increase that number so that all of the people of Belfast would have an opportunity to enjoy the City Hall.

            The criteria which had been in use since October, 2003 had provided an effective framework which had allowed the Members to take informed decisions on the use of the City Hall and the granting of hospitality.  The criteria used to determine which events should be granted the use of the City Hall and the provision of hospitality had been based on organisations demonstrating how their event contributed significantly to the achievement of one or more of the Corporate Strategic Objectives.  The updated Corporate Plan, which the Committee had agreed on 19th May, had included the replacement of the Corporate Strategic Objectives with six “key themes”.

            The “key themes” are listed below:

·         City Leadership – strong, fair, together;

·         Better care for Belfast’s environment;

·         Better opportunities for success across the City;

·         Better support for people and communities;

·         Better Services – listening and delivering; and

·         Better Value for Money, that is, a “can-do”, accountable and efficient Council.

            The key themes which had been introduced represented the key priority areas for the Council and it was recommended that the criteria should reflect that by requesting organisations wishing to use the City Hall to demonstrate how their event would contribute substantially to the achievement of one or more of the Council’s “key themes”.

            The Committee, at its meeting on 26th September, 2003, had agreed to approve the revised policy in respect of the criteria for the use of the City Hall and the provision of Civic Hospitality.  The policy included a specific application process for community and voluntary groups wishing to use the City Hall and avail of “Community Hospitality”, with organisations encouraged to apply annually through advertisements in the local print media.

            At its meeting on 18th August, 2006, the Committee had agreed that, because only five applications had been received over the previous two years and to avoid duplication in operating two procedures, a review of the criteria be undertaken to establish whether the current policy could be amended to make provision for Community Hospitality.  That would mean that a separate process would not be required, saving the Council advertising expenses and administration costs, whilst improving the efficiency of the overall process.  The Committee subsequently agreed to amend the criteria so as to facilitate applications from community and voluntary organisations through the procedure applied to all groups but with a specific section being added to the application form to cater for the Community and Voluntary Sector.

            In the past it had become apparent that community and voluntary groups did not always have the capacity to organise large-scale events in the City Hall.  However, it had been the practice in the past to offer encouragement to such groups to organise events which would be within their scope.  In addition, since one of the “key themes” of the current Corporate Plan was “better support for people and communities”, organisations working in the community and voluntary field would be given the opportunity to use the City Hall by demonstrating how it would contribute substantially and specifically to the achievement of that theme.

            The Committee was recommended to agree to the amendment of the criteria for the use of the City Hall and the provision of civic hospitality to reflect the achievement of the Council’s key themes and objectives to determine the events which should be held in the City Hall.

            The Committee expressed itself satisfied with these arrangements, requested the Head of Committee and Members’ Services to make every effort to ensure that hire costs applied to the community and voluntary groups for the use of the City Hall were kept to a minimum and adopted the recommendation.