Agenda and minutes

To approve as correct the minutes of the meetings of the Council held on:

The minutes of the meetings of the Council held on 27^th April and 25^th May 2016 were approved as correct records and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive any announcements from the Chairman of the Council, the Leader, Members of the Cabinet or the Chief Executive

The Chairman:

·        Announced that he had sent a letter on behalf of the Council offering sincere condolences to the Mayor of Orlando and expressing deepest sympathy for the families affected by the mass shooting at an Orlando Nightclub on 12^th June 2016.  He also advised that prayers had been offered and he had spoken at the civic service on both this and the death of Jo Cox MP.

·        Reported that 24 groups from West Sussex had achieved the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service over the fourteen years since it had been created.  This year the Community Minibus Association (West Sussex), which was based in Horsham, had been granted the Award and would be presented with it by Mrs. Susan Pyper, the Lord-Lieutenant at a special ceremony later in the year.

·        Announced that he had sent congratulations to the following residents who had been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List and made Medallists of the Order of the British Empire (BEM):   

o   Miss Sarah Louise Holmes from Steyning for services to the Order of St. John; and

o   Mr. Stuart Stevens from Steyning for services to Scouting and the community in Steyning.

o   Also, Mr. Sean Ruth the Deputy Chief Operating Officer for West Sussex County Council and County Fire Officer who had been awarded the Queen’s Fire Service Medal.

·        Advised Members that the Council and Democracy pages on the Council’s website had been refreshed and updated and now included additional information about the Chairman.  He also encouraged Members to take advantage of the offer of being copied into all Council press releases as a way of keeping up to date with Council news.

To receive questions from the public

(1) Mrs Kornycky asked the following questions:

The existing BBHLC has 3 separate halls, a Badminton Hall, a Table Tennis Hall and ‘Hall-Space’ at the top-end of the Tube.

The new leisure centre will have one multi-purpose hall with dividing curtains; with total space approaching 1000 sq metres, i.e. an increase of no more than 10%.

For over 6 months, users have been requesting schedules & layouts to show how the many different activities will both fit & feasibly co-exist into this multi-use space. Even as part of the recent ‘concept design’ exhibition our request for some typical examples (e.g. Table Tennis and Badminton, Archery and Trampolining) was denied.

In good faith, the Joint User Group has proposed for evaluation, an innovative layout for the Sports Hall which appeared to solve many of these issues identified by users.

Q1. Please explain the logic of fixing the sports hall layout in concept design, yet only establishing the feasibility of the activities in the later detailed design phase?

Q2. Why will you not at least evaluate, preferably with ‘at the table’ user input, the alternative layout proposal to determine the optimal sports hall configuration?

Councillor Jonathan Chowen, the Cabinet Member for Leisure and Culture replied as follows:

Thank you Mrs Kornycky for your questions, as always we welcome your input into the process. 

A1. The process to fix the design follows best practice in the design of leisure centres. The council has employed a highly experienced project team with many years of expertise in designing and constructing leisure centres.  Members of this team have worked with Sport England to develop guidance on sport hall model layouts.  They are therefore well qualified to inform the concept design and have a thorough understanding of the type of activities that can be provided. 

During the original consultation the Joint User Group (BJUG) asked for 'activity time-tabling'  of the new sports hall which we undertook and shared with you and your members.  This programming exercise had been undertaken to demonstrate that current activities (currently offered in the badminton, table tennis and part tube facilities) could take place in the new leisure centre and that there was additional capacity to enable other sports to be played.

We consider, therefore, that the initial 'activity feasibility' of 3x2 courts has already taken place and we have continued to build on this configuration as the basis of the concept design.

We cannot continue to explore variations of a design concept otherwise we will never make a decision and deliver a new leisure centre.  We are satisfied that the 3x2 configuration is absolutely the right layout for the centre. 

We also offered to meet with you on 16 June to discuss and explain to you why we had discounted your 6x1 proposal.  However BJUG asked to postpone this until further meetings with local clubs take place.  I still hope we are able to meet soon to provide detailed explanation.

A2. As we have informed BJUG, we have been actively evaluating your  ...  view the full minutes text for item CO/14

To receive questions from Members under Rule 10.2 (Questions by Members on notice)

No questions had been received.

To receive the minutes of the following Committees and, if approved, to adopt any recommendations contained therein:

The following minutes were received:

Standards Committee – 8^th June 2016

Licensing Committee – 9^th June 2016

Personnel Committee – 15^th June 2016

Councillor Tim Lloyd, the Vice-Chairman of the Committee, moved the recommendation contained in Minute No. PC/7.

Pay Policy Statement 2016/17

            RESOLVED

That the Pay Policy Statement 2016/17 be approved for publication.

REASON

To comply with the requirements of the Localism Act 2011 to approve a published pay policy annually.

To receive the minutes of the following meetings:

The minutes of the meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 9^th May and 6^th June 2016 were received.

To consider matters certified by the Chairman as urgent

There were no urgent matters to be considered.