The Chair welcomed attendees and viewers to the meeting and reminded everyone that the meeting was webcast and retained on the Council’s website.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Jerry Williams and Councillor Ivan Camphor.

Members are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

Members were asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

No interests were declared.

To approve the accuracy of the minutes of the meeting held on 16 June 2022

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 16 June, 2022, be approved and adopted as a correct record.

Please telephone the Committee Services Officer if you have not received an acknowledgement of your question/statement by the deadline for submission.

There were no questions, statements or petitions from the public or Members.

Notice of question to be given in writing or by email by 12 noon, 21 July 2022 to the Council’s Monitoring Officer (committeeservices@wirral.gov.uk) and to be dealt with in accordance with Standing Order 10.

Notice of representations to be given in writing or by email by 12 noon, Thursday 21 July 2022 to the Council’s Monitoring Officer (committeeservices@wirral.gov.uk) and to be dealt with in accordance with Standing Order 11.1.

Petitions

Petitions may be presented to the Council if provided to Democratic and Member Services no later than 10 working days before the meeting, at the discretion of the Chair. The person presenting the petition will be allowed to address the meeting briefly (not exceeding three minute) to outline the aims of the petition. The Chair will refer the matter to another appropriate body of the Council within whose terms of reference it falls without discussion, unless a relevant item appears elsewhere on the Agenda. If a petition contains more than 5,000 signatures, it will be debated at a subsequent meeting of Council for up to 15 minutes, at the discretion of the Mayor

Please telephone the Committee Services Officer if you have not received an acknowledgement of your question/statement by the deadline for submission.

Questions by Members to be dealt with in accordance with Standing Orders 12.3 to 12.8.

The Director of Neighbourhood Services presented the report which detailed the results of two years of successful partnership development work with the Football Foundation.

Members were informed that the Football Association and Football Foundation had targeted Wirral as an area for special consideration, in terms of attracting grant aid towards the development of new Artificial Grass Pitches. This was in direct response to the exponential growth in grassroots junior football over the past few years in all age groups and all abilities (both in the men and women’s game) throughout Wirral.

As stated in Wirral’s Playing Pitch and Outdoor Sports Strategy – the Borough had approximately fourteen artificial grass pitches short of meeting demand. This was evidenced in Wirral’s Local Football Facility Plan.

Members thanked officers for the report and their hard work securing the funding. Questions were raised on how officers had mitigated against possible overspend with assurance officered that the project planning had been robust in terms of time and cost control.

The environmental impact of the project was also discussed by Members who queried the Building Research Establishment’s’ Environmental Assessment Methods (BREEM) rating of ‘Good’ and the impact of microplastics generated by 3G pitches. Also raised was storage for bicycles and travel plan as well as participation in football by women and girls.

On a motion by Councillor Cameron, Seconded by Councillor Smith it was –

Resolved – That

(1) the Director of Neighbourhood services be authorise to grant offer letters and associated conditions attached in Appendix 1 and 2 for Wirral Tennis and Sports Centre and Woodchurch Leisure Centre and accept both grant offers from the Football Foundation.

(2)  The Director of Neighbourhood Services be authorise to vire match funding of £114,000 from an existing approved Capital Programme Budget - ‘Health & Safety - Condition Surveys’, and vire an underspend of £68,000 from ‘Wirral Tennis Centre 3G’ project to a newly established, ‘Woodchurch Leisure Centre supersize 3G pitch and pavilion’ budget. 

(3) The Director of Neighbourhood Services be authorise award the tendered pavilion contract to Lyjon Construction Ltd, in the sum of £859,867.13 with regards to the development of the facility based within the grounds of Woodchurch Leisure Centre (part of the overall project and the procurement element for which was managed by the Council).

(4) The Committee determined that the decisions referred to above be not subject to removal of delegation and reconsideration under Part 4 Section 4 of the Constitution because the delay likely to be caused would lead to the withdrawal of the grant offers from the Football Foundation which would seriously prejudice the interests of the Council and of the public.

The Director of Neighbourhood services provided performance information in relation the group of Neighbourhood Services that report to the Tourism, Communities, Culture and Leisure Committee.

The report was designed based on discussion with Members through working group activity in 2021. Members requests had been incorporated into the report presented at this committee meeting.

Members discussed the Beat the Street Project, asking about the cost and budget for this and if there were any plans to repeat it. Officers responded to say that the original funding had been via a grant and there were conversations being had with public health to re-launch it.

Members also asked for further information on foot-fall within the leisure centres (post-covid) as well information on profits made by from the catering offer.

Members asked for further information to be incorporated into future performance reports and asked on the progress of Power BI for the tourism Committees.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

27  Work Programme Update

The Solicitor introduced the report of the Director of Law and Governance which provided the Committee with an opportunity to plan and review its work across the municipal year.

Members requested that the quarterly budget report contain more detail rather than the headline budgets and that an update on One Stop Shops be included the forthcoming Libraries report. Further suggested items included requested more information on ‘Changing Places’ in regard to Public Toilets and an update on the Voluntary Community and Faith Sector to tie in with the’’ keep it local initiative’.

Resolved – That the work programme be noted