Agenda and draft minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Environment, Culture and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel held on 18 June 2019.

RESOLVED: that the Minutes of the Environment, Culture and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel held on 18 June 2019 be approved as a correct record, and signed by the Chairman.

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests and the nature of that interest, including the existence and nature of the party whip, in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an Affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest relating to any items on the agenda, nor any indication that Members would be participating under the party whip.

There were no urgent items of business.

No submissions had been made by members of the public under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme for Overview and Scrutiny.

Using the evidence pack provided, the Panel will consider Everyone Active’s (EA) Management of the leisure facilities: Downshire Golf Complex; Coral Reef and Bracknell Leisure Centre within the Borough.

They will consider:

·         Is the contract delivering the objectives that the council set out at the beginning of the project? 

·         How is EA performing and are the performance measures right?

·         Are EA’s short term and long term plans reasonable and achievable and is their focus right?  

In addition to the evidence pack the additional information was provided at the meeting by Mark Tennant, Contract Manager, Bracknell, Everyone Active:

·        EA were attempting to reduce single use plastic across their centres but there had been some negative feedback from members so they reintroduced water cups. EA were going to talk to the manufacturers of the cups to discuss environmentally friendly options.

·        The studio which had received part of the £2.8 million investment had seen a 30% increase in use.

·        Virtual classes had been added during quieter times of day.

·        Fun days and open days at Bracknell Leisure Centre had proved successful with Colin Jackson CBE and the Bracknell Forest Council Mayor attending to support some of these events.

·        An environmental champion on site reminds people about their responsibility regarding carbon emissions and they check lights are turned off, etc.

·        Customer usage was 4,000 less than the target for this year.

·        Coral Reef had seen a slight downturn due to a power failure in November and some flumes had been down due to flood damage. However, improvements had shown a positive growth in usage during the summer holiday.

·        Bracknell Leisure Centre was proving more popular than ever since the refurbishment.

·        Mark Tennant expected the to exceed one million visits soon.

·        EA were increasingly using social media and apps to connect with customers.

Following discussion, members requested EA and the Executive Member for Culture, Delivery and Public Protection take the following points into account:

Question 1 ‘Is the contract delivering the objectives that the Council set out at the beginning of the project?

·        Members concurred with the challenges and successes highlighted in EAs presentation.

·        EA were very responsive to customer feedback.

·        Environmental issues were only starting to be addressed.

·        EA had a good relationship with local community groups.

Question 2 ‘How is Everyone Active performing and are the performance measures right?’

·        Whilst members accepted not all feedback on social media regarding cleanliness had been genuine EA also acknowledged cleanliness standards, particularly at Bracknell Leisure Centre, had not been good enough in the past. Members agreed with EAs strategy to ensure robust monitoring of cleanliness in the future.

·        EA should consider requesting Quest to benchmark delivery of their services against other operators.

·        More consideration should be given to developing facilities and activities that were environmentally friendly.

·        An energy reduction plan should be developed and should include awareness of the energy produced by the solar panels on some of the buildings; alternatives to providing paper cups, etc.

·        It was anticipated implementation of LED lighting at Bracknell Leisure Centre would encourage use of the athletics track in the Winter and it would be useful to monitor this usage to assess impact.

·        It was acknowledged the hot summer in 2018 had adversely impacted on the upkeep of the greens at Downshire Golf Course, and that this had been a national issue, but members were pleased to hear there would be continued investment in greens maintenance to address the downturn in performance.

Question 3 ‘Are  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

Members received and noted the scheduled Key and Non-Key Executive Decisions relating to Environment, Culture and Communities.

Members agreed to hold a one-off session to discuss burial space in the Borough in the future, to be held on 14 October.