Leader's Speech

Lord Mayor,

Just to be clear I would like to move my report, and recommendations from 23rd December Minute 145 and Minute 146. I will be leaving the minute 148 to my colleague Cllr Steve Galloway to move as I am an investor with the Credit Union.

As this will be his last Full Council with us I would like to thank Terry Collins who has been with us since May 2006 as Director of Neighbourhood Services.

His Tigger like enthusiasm for the job never subsided from when he arrived, which I can only assume derives from a coping mechanism for being a lifelong Middlesbrough supporter.

The continued improvements in street level services, cleanliness improving year on year, improvements in recycling rates, delivery of York Pride, ensuring that we gained high awards through York in Bloom, and strengthening the Safer York Partnership.

On behalf of the council I would like to convey my thanks to you, and wish him good luck with the new unitary Durham County Council.

Earlier in the week the Executive did consider an urgent report on the Barbican. I realise that there are two notices for motions relating to the Barbican Auditorium.

However, I am pleased to say that I have been advised that we now back into the Barbican, and that initial checks indicate that there is unlike to be major issues to be resolved before it can be used for events.

I would like to put on record my thanks to those partner organisations who have shown a willingness to join in with breathing life back into the Auditorium. And there will be a report coming back to the Executive in early March developing the options for the long term future.

Statement from the Executive on 20th January 2009

In the end I believe that the council was no longer in a position to allow the situation with Absolute Leisure to continue.

As Leader for the last six months I have met twice with Absolute Leisure and was given assurances for dates by which the Barbican Auditorium would be brought back into use. A final date was agreed between officers and the company in October, of the beginning of January which has triggered the termination of the contract.

For the benefit of the city I had to ensure with officers that we had exhausted all possible avenues for an "eleventh hour" solution, but it is clear that this has now passed.

It is important that we now make the best use of the building in the short term. A major clean up of the outward appearance of the building has been made, and I would urge Absolute Leisure not to hang onto the keys so that we can get on with the necessary internal inspections. By judicious use of council reserves, that have been improved upon thanks to careful management of resources by this administration, we will be able to ensure that activity does take place in the auditorium.

I have already spoken with a number of the council's partners to look at how activities and events can start to be planned in the Auditorium. These include the Guildhall Orchestra, Theatre Royal, "One Voice", and Visit York. Clearly these plans would need to follow Health and Safety Inspections.

The Auditorium building is an opportunity to improve conference, entertainment, and event facilities in the city. Nevertheless, the reasons that it was put on the market have not gone away namely that the council when it ran the facility had to inject huge subsidy. I do not believe that there is any notion that this should be imposed on the council budget.

The Executive will show the importance of the issue by appointing Pete Dwyer, Director of Learning, Culture and Children's Services to lead the Project Group to develop a long term solution.

What we need now is a clear strategy for progress, and I believe that that first step is being made today.

Andrew Waller

Leader, City of York Council.

Proposal

That the Executive:

a) Notes the contents of the report, approve the work to be undertaken by officers, and request a further report for early March when officers will be able to provide a more detailed analysis of the long-term and interim options described in the report

b) Include the requirement of £120K revenue funding for 2009/10 within the current budget setting process.

The other issue that I would like to touch on is the current economic situation within the city. Since my report was written the December unemployment claimant counts have been released, and sadly this has shown an increase in the city of 267 from the November figures. This is a percentage for York of 2.1%, which is less than the York shire and Humber figure of 3.6% (a larger increase than York) and the national figure of 3%. This shows that whilst we are not immune, we are in a stronger, more resilient position than many areas find themselves in at the moment.

There are actions that this council is taking to assist local companies, and individuals caught up in the downturn, and they are detailed in my report. I am due to meet representatives of the retailers forum tomorrow to appreciate their concerns in a sector which is feeling the downturn quite strongly.

The council will be hosting two open sessions for Small and Medium businesses to come in to the council for advice for support that they could receive, and more details will be given shortly on these. I am grateful to the work that Cllr Moore and Officers are putting into this area.