Daventry District Council Lodge Road, Daventry, Northamptonshire. NN11 4FP Tel: (01327) 871100 Fax: (01327) 300011 DX: 21965 Website: www.daventrydc.gov.uk Chief Executive: Ian Vincent B.A. (Hons) Arch, Dip Arch, RIBA TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE STRATEGY GROUP 4th June 2014 Dear Sir/Madam, STRATEGY GROUP A meeting of the Strategy Group will be held in the Council Chamber, Council Offices, Lodge Road, Daventry on Thursday 12th June 2014 at 6.15 p.m. Members are reminded to sign the Attendance Register on entering the Council Chamber. This meeting will be recorded in accordance with the Council’s Constitution. Mobile phones must be switched off before entering the Council Chamber. Yours faithfully, Chief Executive AGENDA 1. PRESENTATION–– Northamptonshire Motorcycle task Force - Encouraging Motorcycle Use in Northamptonshire 2. Minutes. To sign the minutes of the meeting of the Strategy Group held on 10th April 2014 (previously circulated). (Please note queries relating to the accuracy of the Minutes must be submitted in writing to the Monitoring Officer by Noon on Wednesday 11th June 2014 – Constitutional requirement - Part 5D, Section 3.3). 3. Apologies for absence. 4. Declarations of Members’ Interests. To receive declarations of Members’ disclosable interests and the nature of such interests in any of the following agenda items. 5. Councillor Development Charter - Committee Development Needs. In line with the Council’s commitment to achieving the Councillor Development Charter, to discuss and identify any development needs for the Committee as a whole. 6. COMMUNITY, CULTURE AND LEISURE ISSUES Leisure Centre East - (copy attached, ref: SG.120614/1– page nos. 1-10). 7. HOUSING AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ISSUES “Clean up my Community” – Environmental Crime Campaign – (copy attached, ref: SG.120614/2– page nos. 11-16). 8. RESOURCES ISSUES Planning Appeal Legal Costs - (copy attached, ref: SG.120614/3– page nos. 17-18). 9. STRATEGIC PLANNING ISSSUES (i) Five Year Housing Land Supply - (copy attached, ref: SG.120614/4– page nos. 19-22). (ii) Community Infrastructure Levy – Draft Charging Schedule- (copy attached, ref: SG.120614/5– page nos. 23-29). The appendices to this report (1-5) are circulated separately to the Agenda. 10. ECONOMIC, REGENERATION & EMPLOYMENT ISSUES Closure of the West Northamptonshire Development Corporation- (copy attached, ref: SG.120614/6– page nos. 30-34). 11. ACCESS AND COMMUNICATION ISSUES Superfast broadband – request for DDC contribution - (copy attached, ref: SG.120614/7– page nos. 35-42). 12. URGENT BUSINESS. To consider any other item that the Chairman decides is urgent, notice of which has been given in writing to the Chief Executive prior to the commencement of the meeting. ---o0o--- Meetings of the Strategy Group are held in public and members of the public may listen to, but not take part in, discussions. If you have any special communication needs please contact Jeverly Findlay on 01327 302324 as soon as possible. Every effort will be made to provide extracts from the Agenda in a suitable form or help with communication at the Strategy Group meeting. ---o0o--- FIRE/EMERGENCY EVACUATION PLEASE read the Fire/Emergency Evacuation Instructions BEFORE the meeting starts. These are displayed by the entrance to the Council Chamber. TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE STRATEGY GROUP Electronic copies of the agenda have been circulated to remaining members of Council Report Reference: SG.120614/1 Page 1 Wards affected: General Strategy Group – 12 June 2014 Leisure Centre East Community, Culture and Leisure Issues 1. Purpose of Report To outline the outcomes of work to date on the feasibility of a new leisure centre serving the eastern part of the District, recommend approval of the concept and seek authority to consult on the location and mix of uses to be provided to support the development of a Business Plan. 2. Advice That it be RECOMMENDED: 1. That it is the Council’s intention to provide a new leisure centre (“Leisure Centre East”) to serve the eastern part of Daventry District. 2. That consultation may take place on the location and mix of facilities to be provided at Leisure Centre East. 3. That detailed proposals should be worked up, including arrangements for funding, which should seek to maximise, to the extent proper, external and developer funding and in due course presented as a Business Plan for approval. 3. Introduction As part of the 2014/15 budget, Council agreed to set aside £50,000 to explore the feasibility of a new leisure centre to serve the eastern part of the District. This arose from both the existing identified deficit in swimming pool provision and the needs for a range of sporting and leisure provision which will be generated by the major growth planned for that area. Work has now proceeded to a point where it is possible, and desirable, for a decision to be taken on the principle of the project. 4. Information 4.1 Objectives The objectives of the exercise were to establish if a new leisure centre serving the east of the District, and ideally providing a hub for outreach sports development activity, could be sustained without an ongoing subsidy. If this was the case and Report Reference: SG.120614/1 Page 2 Members agreed that the principle should be supported, work would then proceed to look in more detail at a specific location (or conceivably locations) and the mix of facilities to be offered. In general terms, there are three main elements – dry sports, swimming pool(s) and gym – but a wide range of sub-elements, options and additional items are possible. As with the current leisure centre, the need would be to provide an offer which is attractive enough to generate significant income, which is then used to cross- subsidise elements which are themselves financially loss-making but which contribute to public wellbeing. It is thus a form of social enterprise. Of course, whilst also seeking to meet existing needs, the potential development would also, and importantly, respond to the needs created by growth. The growth in focus is within Daventry District but addresses the needs of Northampton. There is also some growth within the Northampton Borough boundary which may potentially relate. Given these inter-relationships dialogue with Northampton Borough Council and other interested parties on these issues and may influence the final form of any proposals. 4.2 Initial feasibility process The assessment of the feasibility of providing a new leisure centre to serve the east of the District (called for now ‘Leisure Centre East’; a formal name can be considered in due course) has thus far used a combination of in-house and external expertise. The likely catchment of the new centre was initially mapped using the Council’s GIS (geographic information system, digital mapping) and in-house expert. This allowed an assessment to be made of the likely catchments of different general locations in the east of the District, taking into account travel times and competing facilities. In this process, as in the following step, potential gym membership was the key factor, as typically gyms provide the major source of income to offset less financially beneficial elements such as swimming pools. The general locations were chosen for testing on the basis that they represented a reasonable geographic spread, therefore making it likely that if a viable location existed it would be identified, and that construction would be possible without requiring demolition of existing property. All locations also relate to either existing settlements or proposed sustainable urban extensions, and either have or could have reasonable access by public transport. Having established potentially credible broad locations in this way, they were then submitted to a specialist company (The Leisure Database Company, TLDC) for more detailed assessment against socio-demographic and competition data. 4.3 Initial feasibility outcomes Four broad locations were originally tested with TLDC and a fifth general location was added following further internal discussions about the planning policy implications of the potential broad locations. To the TLDC outputs were added comments based on planning policy and practical considerations. The results of this exercise are set out in Table 1, appended. The ‘latent demand’ figures are Report Reference: SG.120614/1 Page 3 those from TLDC and outline the total number of fitness memberships that it is believed can be achieved for the location. Given that this is the highest income generator within a leisure centre it is standard practice within the industry that feasibility is based on these latent demands. The TLDC methodology may validly be relied upon for these purposes as substantial investment decisions in the private sector are taken based on it. Moreover, the Council would only be using it for this initial stage and further work would substantiate results. By way of comparison with the figures in Table 1, the TLDC latent demand figure for Daventry Leisure Centre is 2,400. However, as the Table shows, the latent demand number is not the only factor in anticipated gym income; the population mix is also an important factor as higher gym membership fees can be sustained if the population is generally wealthier. In considering this factor, it needs to be borne in mind that gym income is used to cross-subsidise other activities which benefit the wider community. The impacts of the broad locations have been assessed against the Sport England Affordable Sports Centres model (on which, see below). In summary, it is concluded that all five general locations are potentially viable and therefore worthy of further exploration and consultation. Engagement of the local communities and other interested parties is an important factor in establishing the preferred location, form and mix of facilities, including whether it would be a collaborative arrangement. 4.4 Costs and income For the present purposes, the 2013 Sport England Affordable Sports Centres model has been used.