CRAIGAVON BOROUGH COUNCIL MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE HELD IN THE MEMBERS COMMITTEE ROOM, CIVIC CENTRE, LAKEVIEW ROAD, CRAIGAVON ON MONDAY 16 JUNE 2014 AT 5.30PM PRESENT: Councillor L Mackle BA (Hons) (Vice-Chair) Presiding Aldermen: Mrs G McCullough, Mrs C Lockhart BA (Hons) (5.52pm) and G A Hatch (6.02pm) Councillors: P A Duffy (5.49pm), P J Moutray and J J Nelson MSc (7) APOLOGIES: Councillors M T R Baxter (Chairman) IN ATTENDANCE: Director of Development (Ms O Murtagh) Principal Community Resources Officer (Mrs D Clarke) Tourism Development Manager (Mrs S Durand) Economic Development Manager (Mr C Tipping) Business Manager (Mr R Griffin) Contracts Manager (Mr G McGibbon) (5.50pm) Member Services Officer (Mrs C Taylor) ALSO IN For Item D181/2014 ATTENDANCE: Representative from BNL (Mr T Proctor) For Items D186/2014 & D187/2014 Principal Administrative Officer (Mr L Porter) D180/2014 MINUTES The Minutes of the Development Committee Meeting held on 14 April 2014, adopted by Council at its meeting on 6 May 2014 with the exception of: D142/2014 Community Support Plan – Funding 2014/15 D147/2014 World War One Small Grant Scheme D157/2014 Town Centre Regeneration – Update and Approval Request which were adopted by Council at its meeting held on 23 April 2014, were noted. D181/2014 PRESENTATION – BNL – LOCAL i APP At the April 2014 meeting of Committee Members requested that BNL Productions be invited to present to Committee in June 2014 on the LOCALi app. This leading edge technology was developed as a result of funding from NESTA for a partnership comprising Council, local multi-media company BNL and Queens University. The concept was based upon the UK Government’s drive towards a ‘digital by default’ basis for communication between citizens and government. NESTA, which was closely associated with the Technology Strategy Board in the UK, provided funding for the project with the aim of developing and rolling out a ‘hyper local’ communications channel. Craigavon was the ‘test bed’ for the project. The Chairman, Councillor Mackle, welcomed Mr T Proctor of BNL to the meeting. Mr Proctor gave Members an informative presentation on the Locali App. He made the following key points: 1 D181/2014 PRESENTATION – BNL – LOCAL i APP Continued • Last year 60% of internet usage came through mobile phones. In the UK 72% of the population owned a smart phone. 62% of the activities on mobile phones was to download Apps and use them. • There were 100 – 500 people using the Local i App on an Android phone and 650 on an iphone. • 80 businesses had been worked with to date. There were 50 offers currently in the App from local businesses. • Local i App was a free App which not every Council area had. • The Local i App provided promotion of events and profiling of community groups, boosted Craigavon’s economy through the promotion of local business, was inclusive to city and rural dwellers as it could work off-line and contained a tool to count up how many times an offer was availed of. • The phone book on the App was updated on a regular basis and was complete with all business users. • The App should be promoted alongside the free town wifi initiative and promoted on the Craigavon Borough Council, Council’s Facebook page and the Discover Craigavon website. • The App could be enhanced by linking in to more feeds of information ie. Translink routes and fares. The ideas for the Local i Version 2 were as follows: • Who is my local Councillor and contacts. • Showcase business support and grant aid. • Enhance the aesthetics of the App. • Addition of business categories and push notifications. • Creation of an archive of newsletters. • Potential to go into the ABC Council. • Audio digital walking tour could add value. Questions from Members were answered as follows: • The Local i App was potentially a framework that could be sold and Craigavon Borough Council could benefit if the framework was extended. • The wifi was operational in both towns and was currently being used on an individual basis. • The App was targeted at the small local business market to enable the promotion of local spending in the towns. • Initial contact with the businesses was made by a team from BNL who called into the businesses in the towns to sign them up to the initiative or to leave information to allow them to decide whether they wanted to sign up later or not. Telephone support was provided to them for any issues they may have had. Going forward automated contact would most likely be used. • The PCSP fed into the App and the PSNI fed in through Twitter. • There was no need to tender as there was no cash cost to Craigavon Borough Council as such as the property lay within the project grouping with BNL having the largest stake. • There should not be a cost to Council should the App not be continued into the ABC Council. The Chairman thanked Mr Proctor of BNL for the presentation and he departed from the meeting 2 D181/2014 PRESENTATION – BNL – LOCAL i APP Continued (During the above presentation, Councillor Duffy joined the meeting at 5.49pm, Alderman Mrs Lockhart joined the meeting at 5.52pm and Alderman Hatch joined the meeting at 6.02pm. Alderman Mrs Lockhart temporarily departed from the meeting at 6.00pm and re-entered at 6.02pm) URGENT BUSINESS D182/2014 AUTUMN PROGRAMME OF EVENTS TO DEVELOP FUTURE PRIORITY Agri-Food Sector – Event for September 2014 Officers had been exploring potential programmes and initiatives to support local SME and indigenous Agri-food Businesses with the focus of responding directly to the Going for Growth Strategy. From this research the focus had been directed towards the Craigavon Agri-food and Drink Business Development Programme and the Craigavon Agri-food and Drink Forum on the themes of innovation, export and entrepreneurship. In preparation for these Agri-food focused programmes it had become apparent that the local SME’s were not aware of or equipped to gain maximum advantage from available EU grant funding, in particular Horizon 2020. With this in mind the focus/theme of the first Craigavon Agri-food and Drink Forum in September 2014 would be awareness raising around potential funding sources, in particular Horizon 2020 with the aim of establishing collaborative clusters and networks. There were other funding supports that would complement Horizon 2020 and it was the intention to have INI, Queens University Belfast and Southern Regional College in relation to Enterprise Europe Network, Innovation vouchers and Knowledge Transfer programmes. Overall this would provide the local Agri-food SME’s with a much better understanding of Horizon 2020 and an opportunity to become part of a much wider collaborative network. Research and Development Through Technology – Event for October 2014 Officers had worked closely with the NI Technology Centre at Queen’s University and would hold a Conference in October 2014 on the theme of innovation and research and development aimed at establishing a pilot cluster and programme around: • Disruptive Technologies • High Performance Computing • Additive technology • Virtual Realisation NITC and Council’s strategic partners would present case studies and real examples of how this technology could move businesses up the innovation escalator to a point where they become more competitive and can see their market opportunities grow and develop. 3 D182/2014 AUTUMN PROGRAMME OF EVENTS TO DEVELOP FUTURE PRIORITY Continued The Conference would help to establish collaborative networks of SMEs so that this could be driven forward on an innovation and research and development agenda. Invest NI needed collaborative networks to come together to access funding. Council as the strategic leader in economic development would fulfil this need. Life and Health Sciences – Event for November 2014 To continue with the promotion of Craigavon as a Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences and to support an application to Interreg 5, Council would be holding the second Annual Life Sciences Conference in November 2014. The main focus of this event would be facilitating the networking/collaboration between Clinicians and SME’s. Through the promotion of Craigavon as a Centre of Excellence and other programmes including the Life Sciences Supply chain project and Life Sciences Innovation project it has been identified that within Craigavon there were some highly innovative SME’s. Despite this however the SME’s were not aware of all of the EU grant opportunities that may be available to them, in particular the Horizon 2020 programme. The Conference would be the perfect environment to provide an overview of the Horizon 2020 funding programme and focus on those elements that were directly relevant to SME’s such as the SME instrument and particular Life and Health Science calls. The awareness event would also be of benefit to the Clinicians and Health professionals as the SME element in partnerships for Horizon 2020 is essential and would provide those from the clinical environment direct access to this invaluable element to their specific research applications. It was RECOMMENDED: That the significant and ground breaking work that is ongoing, to establish and develop business centered collaborations and partnerships for the future economic prosperity of the region and to reinforce the important leadership role that Craigavon provides to the business sector in terms of economic development, be noted. D183/2014 LIFE SCIENCES CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE Craigavon’s Economic Development team had established strong linkages with a range of stakeholders in Life and Health Sciences with a view to maximizing the economic benefit of this key growth sector to the borough. This had resulted in the development of partnership arrangements with key sectoral players including Biobusiness, Southern Health and Social Care Trust, Craigavon Area Hospital, University of Ulster, Queen’s University Belfast, Invest Northern Ireland, East Border Region Ltd and Dundalk Institute of Technology.