Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from Members.

Apologies were received from Cllr C Rigby

To receive information on any changes in the membership of the Committee.

Note – When a member of a Committee is unable to attend a meeting of a Committee or Sub-Committee, the relevant Political Group Leader (or their nominated representative) may, by notice to the Monitoring Officer (or their nominated representative) prior to the meeting, appoint a substitute member from within the same Political Group. The contact details on the front of this agenda should be used for notifications. 

Cllr K Wilson for Cllr C Rigby

Councillors are requested to declare any interests on items included in this agenda. Please refer to the workflow on the preceding page for guidance.

Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

A number of Members declared an interest in respect of Agenda Item 8 – Management and Development of Sports and Leisure Centres:

Cllr S Bartlett declared a local interest as he was a director of BH Live and BH Enterprises Ltd.

Cllr V Slade declared a local interest as she was a member of Poole Sports Council and her spouse worked at St Aldhelm’s Academy.

Cllr J Edwards declared a local interest as she was a director of BH Live Enterprises Ltd

Cllr M Earl declared a personal interest as she was member of Rossmore Leisure Centre.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meetings held on 1 March 2021.

The minutes of the previous meetings held on 1 March 2021 were confirmed as a correct record to be signed.

To note and comment on the attached action sheet which tracks decisions, actions and recommendations from previous meetings.

The Board noted the action sheet

To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution, which is available to view at the following link:

https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeID=151&Info=1&bcr=1

The deadline for the submission of a public question is 4 clear working days before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday the working day before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a petition is 10 working days before the meeting.

None registered

To consider the following Planning related reports scheduled for Cabinet consideration on 14 April 2021:

·       Future of Planning in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

The O&S Board is asked to scrutinise the reports and make recommendations to Cabinet as appropriate.

Cabinet member invited to attend for this item: Councillor Philip Broadhead, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Economy and Strategic Planning.

The Cabinet report for this item is included with the agenda for consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

The Future of Planning in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

The Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Economy and Strategic Planning presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Portfolio Holder outlined the key issues within the report. The Portfolio Holder and Head of Planning responded to comments and requests for clarification, details included:

• Significant work had been undertaken to make changes to processes within the planning department and, in particular, the implementation of one IT system would make a huge difference to the team as a whole. This would then avoid the unintentional siloing of the team and build resiliency which was not currently possible with three different IT systems.
• Significant time and effort was going into ensuring the provision of real-time data that would measure the performance of the planning team, and this would be made readily available when it could be presented most effectively.
• A priority service for major applications was being explored, however, there would most likely be restrictions and it was imperative that the core service was robust before introducing a fast-tracking system.
• There were ambitions to improve the pre-applications process through a major projects forum.
• In terms of recruitment to the panning service, there was a national shortage of planners so it was therefore important to ensure that salaries were competitive in order to attract the best.
• The Planning department were going to be one of the first areas of the Council to undertake the ‘Smarter Structures’ programme which would review how each department, (in this case including development management, planning policy and enforcement etc.), worked as a whole.
• The council was currently undertaking its local plan process, which would bring together the existing planning policies into one updated document that would be utilised across the conurbation, including issues such as affordable housing, height and scale of developments etc – a large piece of work was being undertaken by the local plan working group to look at the emerging issues and being fed back into the plan’s development. It was important to look at what other local authorities were doing as there were already some innovative ideas being used that BCP Council could adopt or adapt.
• The definitions of the different types of applications were set out:
  • Major Applications were any development of 10 units or above in terms of residential use, 1000sq meters of commercial space/non-residential floor space or a site over 1 hectare;
  • Minor Applications were small scale developments (under 10 units;
  • Other Applications were householder extensions or advertisements.
• Obtaining planning permission could be a complicated procedure, particularly in the case of large scale applications where a great deal of consultation was required, and this would often mean that delays were inevitable, which the required the use of time extensions to be agreed.
• The council often challenged figures provided by the District Valuer on large scale developments and this could sometimes this can  ...  view the full minutes text for item 178.

To consider the following Community Safety related reports scheduled for Cabinet consideration on 14 April 2021:

·       Harmonisation of Regulatory Services and Licensing Enforcement Policy

The O&S Board is asked to scrutinise the reports and make recommendations to Cabinet as appropriate.

Cabinet member invited to attend for this item: Councillor May Haines, Portfolio Holder for Community Safety.

The Cabinet report for this item is included with the agenda for consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

Harmonisation of Regulatory Services and Licensing Enforcement Policy

The Portfolio Holder for Community Safety presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Portfolio Holder outlined the key issues within the report. The Portfolio Holder and Head of Safer Communities responded to comments and requests for clarification, details included:

• The purpose of this item was to harmonise policies of an operational nature and, as such, had not been presented to the Licensing Committee for consideration.
• This document had not significantly changed from what was included in the policies of the documents from the three predecessor councils, as all councils had to remain in line with a regulatory code anyway, meaning that all three policies had already been virtually identical in terms of what would be done in terms of enforcement and how, this merely consolidated it all into one document for BCP council.
• A separate piece of work was about to commence that would look at other areas of enforcement, including the issue of dog fouling.

The Chairman welcomed the new document and indeed the work to be undertaken in relation to other enforceable activities.

To consider the following Tourism, Leisure and Culture related reports scheduled for Cabinet consideration on 14 April:

·       Our Museum: Poole Museum Redevelopment

·       Management & Development of Leisure Centres

The O&S Board is asked to scrutinise the reports and make recommendations to Cabinet as appropriate.

Cabinet member invited to attend for this item: Councillor Mohan Iyengar, Portfolio Holder for Tourism, Leisure and Culture

The Cabinet report for this item is included with the agenda for consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

Please note: A number of appendices for the Management and Development of Leisure Centres item contain exempt information under paragraph 3, Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information, of schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.  If the Board wishes to discuss information contained within the appendices the Board may need to resolve to Exclude the Press and Public from the meeting during this consideration.

Our Museum: Poole Museum Redevelopment

The Portfolio Holder for Tourism, Leisure and Culture presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'C' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Portfolio Holder outlined the key issues within the report. The Portfolio Holder and the Poole Museum Manager responded to comments and requests for clarification, details included:

• Part of the cultural compact was to get a board/wider forum in place to ensure that there was a fluid and diverse mechanism to uplift the cultural scene across the conurbation.
• A series of public engagement sessions had recently concluded and the national lottery heritage fund had congratulated the council on the inclusiveness of these sessions.
• Traditionally, Scaplen’s Court had been an immersive schools experience for many years and the same advantage had not been taken with the museum to date, which would be addressed as part of these proposals to bring a ‘wow factor’ to the museum and there were plans for immersive digital interaction and opportunities for play activities as part of this project.
• The history centre would be moved out of the Town Cellars and relocated to the museum to allow this historic building to be shown off to members of the public.
• Officers were confident that moving the café from the main museum to the Scaplen’s Court building would not cause any harm and would in fact bring the space that it currently occupies into community use, whilst creating more ‘covers’ for the café in its new location.
• There was no intention to charge for entry into the museum, although it was acknowledged that there would need to be a review of the museum operation policies across the conurbation and possibly harmonise them in the future, although it was highlighted that the various museums have different offerings, so this would need to be addressed carefully.
• It was an ambition for hireable community spaces to remain as inexpensive as possible to ensure that local groups were not outpriced of being able to use the facility.
• One of the main opportunities that these proposals provided was to increase the dwell time of visitors and therefore increase revenue raised by, catering, donations and retail etc. As the proposals were not actually increasing the footprint of the existing buildings it was projected that the revenue created from increased visitor numbers would offset the additional costs of the operation.

Management & Development of Leisure Centres

The Portfolio Holder for Tourism, Leisure and Culture presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'D' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Portfolio Holder outlined the key issues within the report. The Portfolio Holder and the Head of Leisure responded to comments and requests for clarification, details included:

• The project to review the management of leisure centres was due to commence imminently (within the next few months) and whilst it would have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 180.

To consider an update from the Chairman of the O&S Board from the Local Plan Working Group which provides information to the Board on the work of the Group, including any recommendations and action points which the Working Group have proposed.

The chairman provided the board with an update on behalf of the Local Plan Working Group and explained that it had recently met again to discuss the issue of housing targets and had identified that there was a shortage in available sites based on current planning policies. To counter-act this, the Working Group had looked at the possibility of increasing the height of developments in certain areas to overcome the identified shortfall. The group had concluded that a moderate increase in height would reduce the expected overall shortfall, but this would still remain at 4300 and it would therefore be necessary to review other available options.

The Chairman and Head of planning responded to comments and request for clarification, details included:

• CIL structures had not yet been discussed.
• Tall buildings were defined as 6 storeys high and there was a need to establish where it might be acceptable utilise tall buildings, if some areas could accommodate buildings taller than 6 storeys and if so, how tall.
• It was hoped that the council would be able to launch a consultation exercise during the summer.

The Working group was not providing recommendations to officers at this point, as it was a consultative body that reported back to O&S.