Agenda and minutes

            Members and Officers are reminded to make any declarations of pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests that they may have in relation to items on this agenda and are reminded that they should re-declare their interest before consideration of the item or as soon as the interest becomes apparent.

            Members and officer should make their declaration by stating :

a) the application they have the interest in

b) whether it is a pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial

c) the nature of the interest

d) if it is a prejudicial or pecuniary interest, whether they will be exercising their right to speak to the application

Councillor Brooks declared a Personal Interest in item 7 on the agenda in so far as he wanted to add an item relating to Cemeteries and he personally knew one of the Cemetery Manager’s. 

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Environment & Leisure Working Group held on 22 January 2019.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 22 January 2019 were approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

To agree the start times of meetings for the remainder of 2019/20.

The Committee

RESOLVED

That its start times for meetings during 2019/2020 be 6.00 pm.

This report provides an update on the current progress of the Leisure Centre project.

The Working Group received a report and a presentation from the Principle Landscape and Group Head of Community Wellbeing. This set out the completion of work to the Littlehampton Wave Leisure Centre.

A summary of the updates is set out below;

§  The Littlehampton Wave Leisure Centre was opened on 29 March 2019

§  Littlehampton Sports and Swimming Centre (LSSC) had been previously built in 1982 and a life span of 30 years, so the upgrade was 7 years overdue.

§  The Sports Dome had been built as a temporary structure

§  In 2013 the Leisure Strategy was adopted, and a detailed feasibility study was undertaken in 2015

§  Willmott Dixon Construction was appointed under the Southern Construction Framework

§  The location of the new Centre is in Mewsbrook Park 

§  The original concept of design was maintained

§  The Sports Dome demolition took place in July 2017

§  The old LSSC structure will be demolished within 6 months of the new building being finished as stated in the Planning conditions

§   Materials from the old building are being recycled and used on site

§  Children and young people had been given opportunities for work experience and apprenticeships. STEM Sussex had also been involved and offered children and young people a range of educational experiences.  The Arun Youth Aqua Centre also benefited from a relocated and enhanced compound.

§  Added benefits from the new building will see it generating an income for the Council. Early visitor numbers suggest that there is already more active community enjoying the activities the new building has to offer.

§  The new centre will enhance Mewsbrook Park which has already achieved a green flag park status and the reinstatement work will further raise the profile of the park.

The following questions/comments by the Working Group were made: -

§  Councillor Chapman offered his congratulations to the whole team on completion of this project. He then asked if there were figures in relation to energy saving costs from the new building in comparison to the old building. The Group Head of Community Wellbeing explained that the performance data was not available at present, however Freedom Leisure have confirmed that it was performing better than the old building which was a much smaller facility. Councillor Chapman then asked for assurance that there would be no threat to the walkway in response to any further alterations to the car park. It was confirmed that the location of the central walkway would remain as indicated on the master plan.

§  In respect to customer numbers, it was confirmed that the number of people going through the tills had increased by 37%, equivalent to 12,000 people a month.

§  Councillor Mrs Worne was full of praise for the new building, explaining to the Committee that it housed special waterproof wheelchairs so that wheelchair users could be lowered into the pool and that the changing rooms allowed her to be completely independent as a wheelchair user. 

§  It was stated that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

This report provides an overview of Arun District Councils public off street car parks and future proposed developments related to those car parks. It provides an update on the information previously reported to this Working Group in January 2019.

The Working Group received a report from the Group Head of Neighbourhood Services’ who provided an update on the information previously reported at the meeting of the Working Group on 22 January 2019.

The key points highlighted;

§  The Council own 28 Car Parks and the income generated for 2018/19 was £1.6 million. Any income generated by Car Parks is ringfenced to Car Park improvements.

§  RingGo mobile phone-based parking service had been very successful in 2018/19. The benefits are identified in the report and include the reduction of the need to count cash.

§  The Parking team are currently working with Cobalt Telephone Technologies Ltd the providers of RingGo to produce a virtual permit for the public and a corporate permit for staff and members.

§  A separate programme of refurbishment for Fitzfleet car park is set to start this year.

§  In January 2019 the Parking Services Manager put forward 26 car parks for a Parkmark award, after an assessment all 26 car parks were awarded a Parkmark award.

§  Work with the Environmental Health Team is ongoing to explore funding opportunities from Government grants for introducing further electric charge points to car parks.

The following comments were made: -

§  After some discussion regarding Sunken Gardens Hothamton Car Park it was confirmed that a review of the lower levels of this car park would be completed. The upper levels had resurfacing work completed earlier in 2019, however the lower levels were ‘patched’ due to the expectation of the Pavilion Park work instructed under the last administration in this area of the car park.

§  It was suggested by Councillor Chapman that could there be opportunity to speak with the Parking Services Manager regarding Electric Scooters and linking up with shop mobility to provide a ‘scooter on arrival’ service for scooter users in Littlehampton.

§  Councillor Dixon stated that it was encouraging to see so much work planned over the next year, he was specifically interested in ‘Free parking’ and how it may contribute to Town Centre regeneration. It was confirmed that as part of the Parking charges review regeneration would be an important part of the review and at present we don’t have any analysis.

§  Councillor Brooks made a request that at Fitzfleet car park when work is completed regarding signage could it be ensured that the signage in the lift also be completed.

The Chairman thanked the Group Head of Neighbourhood Services’ for his update and the Working Group noted the report.

To review and agree the work programme for 2019 – 2020.

The Group Head of Neighbourhood Services and the Group Head of Community Wellbeing presented the Work Programme to the Working Group.

Key Points highlighted below: -

§  Climate Change – we expect to see some prioritising work load on this item

§  Visibility of our work with the Arun biodiversity forum

Comments made by the Working Group summarised below: -

§  Councillor Ms Thurston asked if the Working Group would be given the opportunity to feed in to the work on Climate Change It was confirmed a report with a number of options would be produced and Members would then be able to debate these at a meeting.

§  Councillor Brooks wanted it raised that a previous report regarding British Standards for headstones was rejected by Cabinet last year and he still felt that it needed to be looked at by the Working Group and suggested that the meeting in February 2020 would be suitable timeframe for a report to be prepared.

There were a number of items proposed by members that were already scheduled either for the Overview Select Committee or Housing and Customer Services Working Group. To ensure that this group was focused on areas where they were able to make a difference the Chairman suggested a separate informal meeting be set up, so that the group could review the Overview Select Committee and Housing and Customer Services Work Programmes to ensure no overlap in its work. The Working group agreed this was a good idea.

The Committee then,

RECOMMEND

To Full Council for approval