Venue: Remotely via Microsoft Teams. View directions
Contact: Scrutiny Officer - Email: emily-jayne.davies@swansea.gov.uk
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Disclosure of Personal and Prejudicial Interests. Minutes: No interests were disclosed |
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Prohibition of Whipped Votes and Declaration of Party Whips Minutes: No declarations were made |
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Minutes of previous meeting(s) PDF 343 KB To receive the minutes of the previous meeting(s) and agree as an accurate record. Minutes: The Panel considered minutes from previous meetings and agreed the minutes of the meeting on 12th January 2021 as an accurate record of that meeting. |
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Public Questions Questions must be submitted in writing, no later than noon on the working day prior to the meeting. Questions must relate to items on the agenda. Questions will be dealt with in a 10-minute period. Minutes: No questions were submitted by members of the public. |
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Presentation: The Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) Invited to attend: Stuart Beeby - Group
Operations Director, ATG Claire Dixon - ATG UK Business Manager Minutes: Stuart Beeby, ATG Group Operations Director, and Claire Dixon, ATG UK Business Manager, attended to present on behalf of The Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG). It was heard that:
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Project Update Report PDF 1 MB Invited to attend: Rob Stewart – Cabinet
Member for Economy, Finance and Strategy (Leader) Robert Francis-Davies
– Cabinet Member for Investment Regeneration and Tourism Phil Holmes – Head of
Planning and City Regeneration Huw Mowbray – Property
Development Manager Minutes: Huw Mowbray, Property Development Manager, updated the Panel on the regeneration projects in Swansea. The Cabinet Member for Economy, Finance and Strategy (Leader), and the Cabinet Member for Investment Regeneration and Tourism, also attended for this item. It was heard that: Copr Bay
Swansea Central North
Kingsway
71-72 Kingsway · Clarifications were needed on tender. Being analysed by team. · Potential Cabinet report in due course, in terms of costs aspects of tender. · Panel request a breakdown for all project funding sources. Wind Street
Shaping Swansea · Dialogue sessions – in discussions on delivery and commerciality. · Follow up meetings with other council colleagues; wide council involvement. · Quality of bidders resulting from good PR messages on Arena. We are in competition with many other cities. Swansea’s major projects are key aspects of why we’ve had the high quality bids we have. · The Arena is catalyst for further schemes and will generate further investment. Repurposing Swansea · Difficult economic position across UK. Many retail failures, and more likely to come. · Looking at the core areas of city, what are key interventions to move City Centre forward? · Need to create anchorage in Quadrant. · Masterplan will identify key projects. Still in early stages, BDP appointed as designers (2-3 months before plans released). · Largely funded by Welsh Government. · Officer groups initially to work with the team appointed, leading to strategy in revised masterplan and a new action plan looking to deliver objectives. · Important piece of work to ensure Swansea is moving forward and we can put right interventions in place to help recovery. · Officers will report in more detail when possible. · Panel queried opportunities for member input – would like involvement in this important work. · Workshops likely during this process, although this is time limited and needs to be finished by end of financial year. Palace Theatre · Making good progress, June 2022 completion. · Listed building status application in. Planning approval received. · In discussions with potential tenant. · Contractor appointment and main tender out end of February. Powerhouse · Regular meetings with Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), main funder. · Contractors have requested extensions of time due to Covid issues. Council granted part extension. · Huge amount of archaeology in ground has been an issue to deal with. There are complications here, although now known, team can now plan ahead. · Issues with project bank accounts (PBA), now a council requirement. · No banks are setting up PBAs at the moment, due to pandemic. · Council will work with contractors in absence of PBA to move forward. · Hopeful to build on this with Skyline, to create major leisure destination. · Panel queried PBA issues – Officers explained this is a fairly new process and the Council can deal with this in traditional way to ensure sub-contractors paid on time. Continue to monitor. · Members queried issues on lack of budget to complete scheme – ongoing discussion with HLF. Allowed to release some contingency funding. · 3 listed buildings, 11 in total on the site. Quality of work is excellent. Archaeology work has held things up, but great potential to add to the destination. Acknowledged officers hard work. · Panel queried the Tawe Riverside – ongoing discussions with land owners and possible practical solution to create pathway cantilever walk way is an expensive solution. WG discussion continues as to funding. Schemes outside core city centres are not funded at present. · Members queried update on Pontoons – funding bids have been made, looking to connect City Centre up to Hafod and Stadium beyond Bascule Bridge. Actions:
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Additional documents:
Minutes: Letters received and considered by the Panel. |
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Letter to Cabinet Member - Investment, Regeneration and Tourism PDF 324 KB |
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Letter to Cabinet Member - Economy, Finance & Strategy PDF 337 KB |
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Cabinet Member Response - Economy, Finance & Strategy PDF 309 KB |
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Cabinet Member Response - Economy, Finance & Strategy - Appendix PDF 39 KB |