Agenda and minutes

There were no Declarations of Interest made at this meeting.

There were no questions from members of the public or the press.

There were no communications to report.

Resolved:- That the minutes of the previous meeting of the Improving Places Select Commission, held on 26th November, 2014, be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.

Further to the minutes of the Council seminar, which had been held on Tuesday, 6th January, 2015, the Select Commission undertook further discussion about the Council’s response to the severe winter weather conditions (snow, very low temperatures and ice) during the ten days’ period beginning on Boxing Day, Friday 26th December, 2014.

The Chairman welcomed David Burton (Director of Streetpride) and Councillor Mahroof Hussain, Cabinet Member for Environment, to give an update about the Council’s response.

In moving forward, a number of different worksteams had been identified, each with different aspects and individual responses to the recent snow.

The Cabinet Member had asked appropriate officers to look at the individual worksteams and review which areas in the future should be identified as specific issues.

A ‘lessons-learned’ approach had identified to look further at operational responses and communications and to make any changes should the events of the festive period occur again.

Procedure dictated that the weather forecast would be checked over a five days’ period, to look at the probability of bad weather and the need for precautionary gritting.  On this occasion, from the five days’ weather forecast, there had been no prediction of snow.

The managed response over the festive period involving skeleton staff working as it should have done, the problem being the snow that arrived had caused more problems than expected.

Rotherham’s gritters were out working around the clock to keep the network clear and no strategic routes were lost.  Sheffield City Council had closed the Parkway for a period of time and the Highways Agency was forced to close parts of the M1 motorway.

In terms of waste collection, this proved to be more a logistical challenge to recover, as there was a 25% increase in waste to collect during the festive period than the normal amounts collected at other times of the year.  In consultation with the Leader and Cabinet Member information was released about when deliveries would be caught up.

Waste was seen by the vast majority of people as being the most important service provided by the Council and the level of disruption was under-estimated.  The Council’s contact centre had ten times the number of calls it normally experienced and with hindsight it would have been beneficial to include in the Frequently Asked Questions Section about the recovery plan when routine waste schedules were disrupted. An improvement team was looking at how the process could be improved to ensure a quicker response in the future.

The Council’s website emergency banner about waste collections may not have had the desired affect for informing the general public and a speedier update to get the messages across was required.

The social media feeds for the Council, normally handled by the Communications Team, were inundated with messages, and these had then to be directed to the Operational Manager.   Managing public expectations was an area operational management were dealing with, to prevent confusing messages being relayed in the future.

Messages and Elected Member briefings were normally channelled  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

Further to Minute No. 35 of the meeting of the Cabinet Member and Advisers for Business Growth and Regeneration held on 12th January, 2015, consideration was given to a report and presentation from the Economic Development Manager, concerning the draft Rotherham Growth Plan, for which there is currently a consultation process including relevant stakeholders and interested parties. The consultation period ends on Friday 30th January, 2015. The report described the ambitions of the Rotherham Growth Plan, which are:-

: stimulating the local economy and helping people into work;

: protecting the Borough’s most vulnerable people and families, enabling them to maximise their independence;

: ensuring all areas of Rotherham are safe, clean and well maintained;  and

: helping people to improve their health and well-being and reducing inequalities within the Borough.

In addition, Members noted the principal themes of the Rotherham Growth Plan, which are similar to those of the Sheffield City Region Strategic Economic Plan:-

- Growing existing and developing new businesses.

- Skills for employment.

- Social inclusion and combating poverty.

- Employment Land and Housing.

- the Rotherham town centre.

- Transport.

The presentation included the following salient details:-

: the restructuring of the local economy so that it will be more resilient and building a strong private sector;

: the creation of more jobs which are accessible to Rotherham residents;

: development of high-level skills; raising productivity and wages; attracting new businesses to the Borough area, which have growth potential;

: the Advanced Manufacturing Park (Waverley) and the Dearne Eco Vision are important areas and unique developments within the Borough; all parts of the Borough area should benefit from economic growth; Rotherham should be a place where people want to live, work and visit;

: various statistics were displayed, comparing Rotherham with the Sheffield City Region local authorities and also with national data (eg: the percentage of school pupils achieving 5 GCSE A*-C passes has shown considerable year-on-year improvement for more than a decade; yet, Rotherham does not fare as well in terms of the higher Level 4 qualifications);

: the period of the Growth Plan is from April 2015 to 2025 and will link to the Sheffield City Region Strategic Economic Plan;

: bids for funding are made to the Local Growth Fund and the new European programmes;

: delivery of the priorities of the Local Strategic Partnership and of the Borough Council;

: Increased Gross Value Added  (more money in local economy) for the Borough area;

: Growth Zones - areas where the majority of new jobs will be located and more housing constructed (eg: Dinnington and the A57 corridor; the Dearne Valley; more businesses attracted to the Rotherham town centre; the new Bassingthorpe Farm development; Templeborough and the Lower Don Valley as part of the Rotherham-Sheffield Economic Corridor);

: Transformation Projects (the Advanced Manufacturing Park Innovation District; the proposed HS2 railway station at Meadowhall; Rotherham town centre developments (markets; cinema; Forge Island; Rotherham College of Arts and Technology university campus and delivery of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.