Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 4 December, 2019 were agreed and signed as a true record.

Further to Minute 34 relating to “Coventry Community Safety Plan” the Committee noted that the Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities had accepted Recommendations 2b) and 2c), but had not accepted the Committee’s Recommendation 2a) relating to the request that the Chair of the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee (or their nominee) be included in the membership of the Coventry Police and Crime Board.

RESOLVED that clarification be sought from the Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities regarding his reasons for not accepting Recommendation 2a) as detailed above, reiterating the Committee’s reasons for the request.

Briefing Note of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

Councillors J O’Boyle and D Welsh, Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration, have been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item

The Committee considered a Briefing Note which provided an update on progress with the Friargate business district development scheme.

In January 2018, Cabinet and Council approved the receipt of £51.2m of grant funding from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to support the delivery of the first phase of development within the Friargate business district masterplan area. Cabinet and Council also approved the creation of a joint venture (JV) company between the City Council and Friargate LLP to oversee and accelerate the delivery of buildings within the Friargate development. The JV was legally established in February 2019 as “Friargate JV Project Limited” and the Council is now the joint freeholder of the majority of the land within the Friargate area.

Since the JV company was established, significant progress has been made in taking forward the necessary design development stages and legal agreements to deliver the next two buildings within the first phase of development (a hotel and a commercial office building). The delivery of high quality hotel developments in the city has been a long held ambition for the Council and is a key priority for the Council due to the expected influx of visitors during City of Culture 2021 and Commonwealth Games 2022, the role they play in boosting the city’s image and inward investment potential, the need to provide suitable accommodation to service the city’s growing economy and the lack of ‘upmarket’ hotels currently operating within the city centre.

On the 27^th August 2019, Cabinet approved the necessary terms and expenditure to bring forward a high quality, boutique “Hotel Indigo” that will set a new standard for hotel accommodation in the city. The 100 room hotel will also provide a restaurant and bar open to the public, gym facilities for guests and will create over 40 new jobs in the city. The hotel scheme received planning permission on the 19^th December 2019 and work is due to start on site in early 2020 with a completion date of the first quarter 2021.

The Friargate business district will include a range of Grade A commercial office buildings which will provide the platform for significant inward investment into the city, the creation of thousands of new jobs and the realisation of millions of pounds of additional business rates for the Council. “Two Friargate” (which has the benefit of a full reserved matters planning consent) will deliver 184,000 sqft of office space (135,000 sqft lettable space) that will set a new benchmark for commercial office space in the city and will be able to compete with the best the wider region has to offer. The building will be one storey taller than the “One Friargate” Council offices and include 12 storeys of commercial office space and a ground floor suitable for a high quality restaurant, café or retail use. It will be targeting a BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) “Excellent” rating, signifying a very high level of sustainability credentials, and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (People)

Councillors A S Khan and P Akhtar, Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities, and Councillor J Mutton, Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources have been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item

The Committee considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (People) which, in line with the Council’s statutory duty, proposed a set of five new equality objectives, which were recently the subject of a consultation exercise. The Committee noted that the report would also be considered by the Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities at his meeting on 30 January, 2020.

The Public Sector Equality Duty requires the Council, as a listed public authority, to publish equality objectives that it thinks it needs to achieve to further any of the aims of the general equality duty. The existing set of 15 equality objectives were set in 2016 for a period of four years and will therefore expire at the end of March 2020. Progress against these objectives are reported annually to the Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities.

The report detailed the following factors that have influenced the review of the Council’s equality objectives:-

·  The need to create a more concise, focused, measurable set of equality objectives through which the Council can demonstrate improved outcomes for protected groups

·  The Council’s One Coventry programme provides an opportunity to refresh the equality objectives in a way that would align them to the One Coventry Plan vision, priorities and values

The report also provided details of the questions that were considered as part of the development of the proposed new equality objectives, together with some of the sources of evidence that were used as part of the research into identifying appropriate equality objectives.

The following 5 equality objectives for 2020-22 are proposed:-

Equality Objective 1

Create a foundation to drive improved access to services through better use of equalities data

This objective relates to improving the Council’s’ understanding about its customers and using this intelligence to help shape the way in which we can deliver the best services for those groups of customers in most need

Equality Objective 2:

Develop and deliver in partnership a whole-city approach to ‘Building a Coventry that works for all’

This objective relates to establishing city-wide commitment to action as well as bringing together community, voluntary and public sector leaders to listen and mobilise on things of shared interest.

Equality Objective 3:

Increase the diversity of our workforce at all levels so that we are more representative of the communities we serve and better able to meet their diverse needs

The Council is committed to improving the recruitment and progression at all grades of people from under-represented groups to better reflect the diversity of the city.

Equality Objective 4:

Increase the number of 18-24 year olds getting into employment

Data is showing us that this group of young people experience more unemployment than other age groups in the city.

Equality Objective 5:

Increase the number of disabled residents taking part in sporting and cultural activities in the city

Disabled residents are less likely to both take part in and attend sporting and cultural events in the city; this equality objective will try and improve this and work with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

Report of the Director of Finance and Corporate Services

The Committee received and noted their Work Programme for 2019/20 and provided guidance in relation to preparations for the meetings to be held on 5 and 19 February, 2020.

Any other items of public business which the Chair decides to take as a matter of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

There were no other items of urgent public business.