Agenda and minutes

Councillor Ridley declared a disclosable pecuniary interest in the matter contained in Minute xx below relating to “Amendment of the City Centre Public Spaces Promotion Order (PSPO) “.

Whilst not a voting member of Cabinet, Councillor Ridley left the meeting for consideration of this item

a)  To agree the minutes from the meeting of Cabinet on 17^th October 2023

(b)  Matters arising

The Minutes of the meeting held on 17 October, 2023 were agreed and signed as a true record.

There were no matters arising.

Report of the Director of Business, Investment and Culture

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Business, Investment and Culture seeking approval to the Playing Pitch & Outdoor Sport Strategy (PPOSS) for Coventry, a copy of which was appended to the report, and which is an evidence-based technical document that outlines the City's approach to promoting and enhancing playing pitch and outdoor sports facilities. The Strategy's primary objective is to ensure the provision of high-quality, accessible, and sustainable playing pitches for various sports throughout the City.

Coventry last adopted the PPOSS in October 2014 as part of the first city wide Sports Strategy in over a decade. As part of national guidance, the PPOSS is recommended to be refreshed by local authorities and is an essential document to help understand the demand for playing pitches and outdoor sports across the local authority boundary. The previous PPOSS has been a useful document to help the Council, and its partners such as local community clubs, and education establishments. It has also helped to address the deficit of 3G artificial pitches in the North East of the City with new facilities being installed as part of the Strategy. In addition, the impact on Cricket locally has seen investment in artificial wickets across the city and in cricket nets in Edgwick Park. The drive towards increasing physical activity across the City has also helped with securing investment in fitness equipment and accessible walking/running routes, alongside sporting provision, within local parks.

The Strategy has also helped to secure Section 106 contributions linked to housing developments, to protect against the loss of playing fields, and has helped to guide the investment from national funders such as the Football Association, Football Foundation and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

The new PPOSS for Coventry has been developed with specialist sports consultants Knight, Kavanagh & Page (KKP) after extensive research and consultation with relevant local, regional, and national stakeholders. This comprehensive Strategy aims to address the current and future needs of playing pitches and outdoor sports facilities across Coventry.

The PPOSS assesses the existing supply and demand for different types of pitches, such as football, rugby, cricket, and hockey. The assessment identifies any deficiencies or areas of quality improvement required to enhance, secure, and develop the pitches and ancillary facilities. The Strategy outlines the key objectives and priorities for the development, maintenance, and management of playing pitches in Coventry. It includes recommendations for facility upgrades, construction of new pitches, maintenance standards, and partnerships with sports clubs and organisations to enable this to be delivered.

The Strategy is delivered in accordance with Sport England’s National Playing Pitch Strategy (PPS) Guidance (for playing pitch sports) and Sport England’s Assessing Needs and Opportunities Guide (for “non-pitch” sports). The study area comprises the whole of the Coventry City Council administrative area.

The new, proposed PPOSS will work towards delivering strategic objectives for the City including:

  A vision for the future protection, improvement and development of provision

  A series of sport-by-sport recommendations and scenarios

  A series of strategic recommendations

  A prioritised area-by-area  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

Report of the Chief Legal Officer

The Cabinet considered a report of the Chief Legal Officer which indicated that here has been a visible increase in the number of e-bikes, cycles and e-scooters using pedestrian areas of the city centre, namely, Broadgate, Upper Precinct, Market Way, Smithford Way, Shelton Square, Hertford Street and Bull Yard. This has led to concerns being raised by people feeling unsafe.

The level of concern has been raised particularly due to the volume of e-bikes and motorcycles that look like bikes being used by delivery teams. Some people have also been observed to be riding recklessly and in a dangerous manner and the speed of some of e-bikes, e-scooters and cycles makes some pedestrians feel unsafe.

The report indicated that the Council wants to ensure that people feel safe when visiting the city centre and to mitigate against any potential accidents whilst also recognising the importance of enabling cyclists to travel around the city.

One option which could potentially help to manage this emerging issue is an amendment to the current City Centre Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) requiring people on bikes to dismount in defined pedestrian areas of the city centre. To understand what city centre users felt about this proposal a comprehensive consultation was undertaken into the stopping of e-bikes, e-scooters and push cycles being ridden in the pedestrianised area of the city centre.  The report outlined the outcome of that consultation, details of which were contained in appendices and which support a proposal to amend the current PSPO to require e-bike and scooter riders to dismount when entering the designated area within the pedestrian area.

The report indicated that enforcement will be a key element of the proposed amended City Centre PSPO and as such ensuring the right controls is essential. Feedback as part of the proposal to consider amending the City Centre PSPO has raised concerns about the effectiveness of enforcement to date.  Therefore, a multi-agency engagement, intervention and enforcement approach to support the amended PSPO, if approved, has been agreed with partners, details of which were contained in the report. If the proposed Order is made, during the first three weeks of its operation, it is intended to focus on engagement and raising awareness of the controls, following which enforcement will begin.

It is proposed to have a communications plan in place to reinforce the message to cyclists, pedestrians and local businesses. Public signage will be updated one week prior to the go live date and the Order will be publicised in accordance with the Act and the Regulations.  Communication will be sent to delivery platform operators and businesses who use their delivery services so that they can make their employees aware of the restriction operating in the city centre and a City Centre Cycle Map that they can use to navigate around the city centre. Officers will be also speaking to delivery cyclists congregating outside businesses. 

Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee had considered the report at their meeting on 6 November, 2023 and a Briefing Note detailing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

There were no other items of urgent public business.