Agenda and draft minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

There were no disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interests.

None.

To receive the minutes of the previous meeting(s) and agree as an accurate record.

Minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.

Questions can be submitted in writing to Scrutiny scrutiny@swansea.gov.uk up until noon on the working day prior to the meeting. Written questions take precedence. Public may attend and ask questions in person if time allows. Questions must relate to items on the open part of the agenda and will be dealt with in a 10 minute period.

There were no public questions received.

Cllr David Hopkins- Cabinet Member for Corporate Services & Performance

Carol Morgan – Head of Housing and Public Health

This item was deferred until the Panels next meeting on 9 April.

Cllr Robert Francis-Davies – Cabinet Member for Investment, Regeneration, Events & Tourism                                                         

Paul Relf – Economic Development and External Funding Manager

Katy Evans – Team Leader, Planning and City Regeneration

Cllr Robert Francis-Davies and Paul Relf talked through the report which summarised the work areas and the achievements within planning and city regeneration departments.

·       Work on the Regional Economic Delivery Plan is ongoing with funding support provided through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Levelling Up.

·       Several strategic grants are available to enable stability to the private sector and third sector with the city centre benefitting from town centre loans, placemaking and strategic grants.

·       A new hotel is in discussion and would be situated between the Arena and the LC, this is likely to be 4 star / higher end Hotel.

·       Seven districts outside the city centre have a placemaking plan in development. These will be progressed as quickly as possible using available funding and with limitations to design and contactor capacity.

·       Job creation is growing through start up and business development/improvement grants and UK Shared prosperity funding. Job retention of funded posts and attracting new companies to the area was also discussed.

·       The Panel asked questions and development updates on the former Debenhams site, Castle Square, the Dragon Hotel, the Dolphin Hotel, the Civic Centre and Copr Bay.

Cllr Robert Francis-Davies – Cabinet Member for Investment, Regeneration, Events & Tourism  

Paul Relf – Economic Development and External Funding Manager

Katy Evans – Team Leader, Planning and City Regeneration

Cllr Robert Francis-Davies and Katy Evans presented the report. It was noted that:

• Practical completion of the site has been delayed a few weeks from its original target of end of March.

·       Discussions with potential tenants continue and it is anticipated that the building will be fully let within a reasonable time scale but not on practical completion.

• The development has benefitted from 13.7m of City Deal funding.
• The Panel asked questions about Picton Arcade, bike storage, the demand for office space, marketing and City Deal funding.

The work plan was noted with mention of the changes to next month’s agenda.

The public were excluded from the meeting on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as set out in Paragraph 14 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007.