ARDS AND NORTH DOWN BOROUGH COUNCIL 4 January 2018 Dear Sir/Madam You are hereby invited to attend a meeting of the Regeneration and Development Committee of the Ards and North Down Borough Council which will be held in the Council Chamber, 2 Church Street, Newtownards on Thursday 11 January 2018 commencing at 7.00pm. Tea, coffee and sandwiches will be available from 6.00pm. Yours faithfully Stephen Reid Chief Executive Ards and North Down Borough Council A G E N D A 1. Apologies 2. Declarations of Interest 3. Regeneration and Development Budgetary Control Report (Report attached) 4. Lower Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN/LoRA) to Support Collaborative Internet of Things (IoT) Pilot Projects (Report attached) 5. UNESCO Global Geopark Status (Report attached) 6. DAERA Rural Tourism Scheme – Ballycopeland Windmill (Report attached) 7. Tourism NI Request Support for National Industry Body (Report attached) 8. Review and Updating of Village Plans – NIHE Grant Received (Report attached) ITEMS 9 - 10 ***IN CONFIDENCE*** 9. Review of Project 24 (Report attached) 10. Queen’s Parade and Marine Gardens Update (Report attached) 11. Any Other Notified Business Circulated for information: (a) Correspondence from Home Secretary dated 21 December 2017 for information (copy attached) MEMBERSHIP OF REGENERATION AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Alderman Irvine Councillor Ferguson Alderman McDowell Councillor Leslie Alderman M Smith Councillor Menagh Councillor Adair Councillor Smart Councillor Allen Councillor T Smith Councillor Armstrong-Cotter Councillor Walker Councillor Cooper Councillor Wilson Councillor Cummings (Chairman) Councillor Woods (Vice-Chairman) Councillor Gilmour 2 Unclassified ITEM 3 Ards and North Down Borough Council Report Classification Unclassified Council/Committee Regeneration & Development Date of Meeting 11 January 2018 Responsible Director Director of Regeneration, Development and Planning Responsible Head of Head of Finance Service Date of Report 28 December 2017 File Reference FIN45 Legislation Section 5 Local Government Finance Act (NI) 2011 Section 75 Compliant Yes ☐ No ☐ Not Applicable ☒ Subject Regeneration and Development Budgetary Control Report – November 2017 Attachments This Regeneration and Development Budgetary Control Report covers the 8-month period 1 April to 30 November 2017 and is set out on page 3. The net cost of the services is showing an under spend of £378,797 (13.8%). Although the Directorate is showing a significant underspend it is important that this is maintained for the rest of this financial year. The Council’s current projected 2017/18 surplus (approx. £988k) is based on the forecast outturns for all Directorates. The importance of having this surplus was outlined at the Special Corporate Services Committee in December as a significant part of it has been allocated to future years to help reduce future rates increases (additional MRP holiday). If the Council’s 2017/18 surplus is significantly lower it will have to reduce the amount set aside for future years which will have an adverse effect on rates increases for those years. Explanation of Variance In addition, a Budgetary Control Report by Income and Expenditure for Regeneration and Development is, also, shown on page 3 which analyses the overall favourable variance (£378,797) by expenditure (£327,190 favourable) and income (£51,608 favourable). Page 1 of 3 Unclassified Regeneration & Development Expenditure - £327.2k (10.4%) better than budget to date. This favourable variance is mainly made up of the following: - 1. RDP HQ - £29.7k favourable as a result of a vacant post (£13.2k) and consultancy (£14k). The 2017/18 budget included consultancy for a feasibility study for Exploris Phase 2. This will not be undertaken this year and is now budgeted for 2018/19. 2. Regeneration - £104.2k favourable. This favourable variance is explained by- a. Payroll £79.4k favourable due to vacancies in Urban Development (£18.4k), Rural Development (£20.7k) and Craft Development (£28.5k). The Rural Development post was filled in late November. b. Public Realm revenue costs are currently £10.4k under budget. c. Rural Development Programme running costs are £6.3k under budget to date – see 5b below. 3. Economic Development - £31.7k favourable. This favourable variance is explained by: - a. Payroll £31.0k favourable. There are 2 vacant posts within Economic Development. One is currently being recruited with the other expected to be filled in early 2018. 4. Tourism - £161.6k favourable. This favourable variance is explained by: - a. Payroll £132.5k favourable. A number of vacant posts in Events and Tourism Development are in the process of being filled. b. Events such as the Comber Earlies Food Festival (£5.1k), Summer Entertainment (£6.2k), Easter (£8.8k), Seapark Fireworks Display (£9.2k) and Seafood Festival (£5.4k) are currently £34.7k under budget. c. Donaghadee Lights Up is currently £13.2k over budget due to additional Health & Safety requirements which weren’t budgeted for. Income - £51.6k (13.1%) better than budget to date. This favourable variance is mainly made up of the following: - 5. Regeneration - £35.4k favourable. This is mainly due to: - a. Revitalisation grants are £44.7k favourable as these are in respect of the 2016/17 year and, as the programme ended in 2016/17, there is no income budget for this year. b. Rural Programme grant is £12.2k worse than budget to date but this is offset a similar reduction in running costs – see 2c above. 6. Tourism - £10.0k favourable. a. Income from a range of Council events is currently £12.3k better than budget. Page 2 of 3 Unclassified BUDGETARY CONTROL REPORT By Directorate and Service Period 8 - November 2017 Note Year to Date Year to Date Variance Annual Variance Actual Budget Budget £ £ £ £ % Regen & Development 300 Regen, Dev & Planning HQ 79,808 109,500 (29,692) 213,300 27.1 310 Regeneration 424,006 563,700 (139,694) 1,023,200 24.8 320 Economic Development 704,881 742,700 (37,819) 1,145,600 5.1 340 Tourism 1,154,008 1,325,600 (171,592) 1,786,700 12.9 Totals 2,362,703 2,741,500 (378,797) 4,168,800 13.8 BUDGETARY CONTROL REPORT By Income and Expenditure Period 8 - November 2017 Expenditure Income Note Actual Budget Variance Actual Budget Variance £ £ £ Regen & Development 300 Regen, Dev & Planning HQ 79,808 109,500 (29,692) - - - 310 Regeneration 581,158 685,400 (104,242) (157,152) (121,700) (35,452) 320 Economic Development 925,435 957,100 (31,665) (220,554) (214,400) (6,154) 340 Tourism 1,220,410 1,382,000 (161,590) (66,402) (56,400) (10,002) Totals 2,806,810 3,134,000 (327,190) (444,108) (392,500) (51,608) RECOMMENDATION It is recommended that the Committee notes this report. Page 3 of 3 Unclassified ITEM 4 Ards and North Down Borough Council Report Classification Unclassified Council/Committee Regeneration and Development Date of Meeting 11 January 2018 Responsible Director Director of Regeneration, Development and Planning Responsible Head of Head of Economic Development Service Date of Report 13 December 2017 File Reference ED46 Legislation N/A Section 75 Compliant Yes ☒ No ☐ Other ☐ If other, please add comment below: Subject Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN/LoRA) to support collaborative Internet of Things (IoT) pilot projects Attachments Background Broadband connectivity and poor infrastructure have been identified as issues throughout the development of the Integrated Regeneration, Tourism and Development Strategy. Running alongside and connected at key gateways to high speed internet, Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) will be an enabler of monitoring and data gathering for many businesses in the near future. An experimental network in London has led to the UK government planning further expansion. In June 2017, Digital Catapult was awarded funding from Innovate UK for its bid to expand the Things Connected network to cover up to five additional large-scale regional network deployments. A consortium led by Ulster University, Invest NI, Tourism NI and Local Councils across Northern Ireland has been successful in bidding to be one of the funded networks. It is intended for the prototyping of new products and services that can benefit from the unique features of LPWAN. Page 1 of 4 Unclassified What is The Digital Catapult? The Digital Catapult is a UK government funded initiative which focuses on the Digital sector and funds initiatives to build capability and capacity to assist in growing this business sector. What is the Purpose of the Fund? The fund seeks to accelerate the demand and innovation of industrial Internet of Things (IoT) with the adoption of the low power wide area networks (LPWAN/LoRA) which are emerging as potentially very powerful for business growth. This fund will lower the barrier to access for this new technology and create opportunities for innovative businesses to develop. The fund will focus on setting up a regional network, providing access to the network, stimulating interest in the business opportunities a network brings, and educating SME’s on the potential of IoT to their businesses and providing solutions to challenges that Councils along with businesses identify as well as benefitting from the data that the devices can generate. What is LPWAN? At its simplest level, the technology provides a means of inexpensive secure long distance communication between a sensor which is based in the community and the owner of the sensor. The communication requires very little power so a sensor may have a battery attached which is sufficient for the life of a device. The sensor could be measuring temperature, humidity, location, movement, air quality, or many other pieces of data. The data can be passed back to a server via the internet and presented to a decision maker with other similar pieces of data. Businesses are exploring new solutions with this inexpensive data collection to monitor tourism, improve agriculture, streamline health service delivery, improve service delivery, and drive up operational efficiency.