NLP Board Minutes - 13 June 2007

NORTH LANARKSHIRE PARTNERSHIP

MINUTES OF THE BOARD MEETING

Held on Wednesday 13 June 2007

Present:	Cllr Jim McCabe, Chair	NLC
	Cllr Jim Smith	NLC
	Gavin Whitefield	NLC
	Maureen McConachie	NLC
	Chief Superintendent Anne McGuire	Strathclyde Police
	David Collie	Jobcentre Plus
	June Vallance	NL Voluntary Sector
	Roger Popplewell	Communities Scotland
	David Smith	Strathclyde Fire and Rescue
	Crawford Kirkwood	NL Voluntary Sector
	Stephen Kerr	NHS Lanarkshire
Attending:	Colin Sloey	NHS Lanarkshire
	Sandie Mackay	NLC
	Karen McNiven	NLC
	Gregor McKenzie	NLC
	Tom Campbell	Fusion Assets
	Dr Andy McGuire	Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire
Apologies:	Liz Connolly	Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire
	Ken Corsar	NHS Lanarkshire
	Tim Davidson	NHS Lanarkshire
	Hugh Logan	Motherwell College

Welcome

Councillor McCabe welcomed all to the meeting, particularly Tom Campbell, Chief Executive of the new urban regeneration company, Fusion Assets.  Also welcomed to the meeting was Maureen McConachie, Head of Regeneration, North Lanarkshire Council, who replaces Mary Castles on the North Lanarkshire Partnership Board.

Item 1.             Apologies

Apologies were noted from Tim Davison and Ken Corsar, NHS Lanarkshire; Liz Connolly, Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire; and Hugh Logan, Motherwell College.

Item 2.             Presentation  - Fusion Assets

Maureen McConachie gave a brief introduction on the background of Fusion Assets Ltd, the new urban Regeneration Company which was established following the closure of Boots manufacturing operations at Airdrie.  The Boots company donated £3.6m from the sale of the site to assist the economic regeneration of the area; tackle areas of market failure and work towards long-term economic benefits for North Lanarkshire.

Tom Campbell gave a short presentation and advised the meeting that Fusion Assets was set up 4 months ago to achieve regeneration outcomes through property development with vacant and derelict land being key targets of the company.  Capital investment is currently received from Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire Council and the private sector, all of whom are represented on the company's Board.  A business plan for the next 3 years will concentrate mainly on town centres investment and public/private partnerships.

The Chair thanked Tom for this informative presentation.

Item 3.             Minutes of the last meeting (21 March)

Agreed as an accurate record.

Item 4.             Matters arising

·     Risk Management arrangements – the meeting was advised that the NLP Officers Group were considering the draft risk management arrangements and with the input of NHS Lanarkshire, a more robust register of risks will be available which will  be considered at a future NLP Board meeting.

Action – NLP Officers Group

·     Information Sharing Group – A workshop recently took place with partners to review the role and remit of the group.  The session although worthwhile, resulted in a number of issues being highlighted e.g. consideration of data and how/who would analyse this and who can perform a monitoring role.  A full report will be produced with an Action Plan and brought to a future NLP Board meeting.

Action – NL Information Sharing Group

·     Community Forums – The meeting was reminded that the Community Forums had requested access to NLP Board papers prior to each meeting. Sandie advised that for this to happen, the existing North Lanarkshire Partnership Agreement would require to be amended.  Consideration requires to be made on issues of a sensitive or confidential nature and discussions will have to take place with the Council's administration team to ensure the papers are put on the Council's MARS (Minute, Agenda, Report, System).  It was agreed that papers/agenda would not be issued to the Community Forums ahead of each meeting but that they would receive copies of the paperwork after each NLP Board meeting (i.e. Minutes, papers and Agenda).

June Vallance advised the meeting that the voluntary sector can access Minutes of the NLP Board via their website.

Action – Community Regeneration Unit

Item 5.             Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility

Maximum funding was secured three years ago from Sportscotland to support the development of this sports facility (Stage 1 submission).  Stage 2 now requires to commence and a recent meeting was held with consultants on costs and design update.  The projected cost was £52million although following discussions with the consultants it has been agreed that costs will be capped at £29million.  A funding pack to bridge the gap is being considered.  £1.83 million additional funding from Ravenscraig has been agreed with a £3.2 million bid being submitted to Sportscotland by NLC.  A decision from Sportscotland should be known August-September 07.  A site start will be in the New Year.  The Council's Learning & Leisure Services Committee recently endorsed the Stage 2 submission.

Action: none