To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on Thursday, 8 December 2022.

Decision:

That the minutes of the meeting held on Thursday, 8 December 2022 be approved as a correct record.

Report of the Director of Inclusive Economy.

This report provides an update on the employment and skills opportunities created from Manchester City Council’s major capital investment programmes, with a key focus on the Our Town Hall and The Factory projects.

The committee considered a report of the Director of Inclusive Economy which provided an update on the employment and skills opportunities created from Manchester City Council’s major capital investment programmes, with a key focus on the Our Town Hall and The Factory projects.

Key points and themes within the report included:

·   The importance of social value and the need to embed it within the Council’s capital investment programmes;

·   The integration of social value into the Our Town Hall Project through contractual mechanisms with construction and design team employers from the outset of the project;

·   The monitoring of social value against 20 specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), based around employment, skills, training, and local community benefit with a monetary value attached to each KPI that measures social return on investment (SROI);

·   The social and economic value achievements of the Our Town Hall project and progress against KPIs, including individual case studies;

·   The social and economic value achievements of The Factory project and progress against KPIs, including individual case studies;

·   Noting that the Factory’s Social Value KPIs were realigned in June 2021 to create new jobs, new apprenticeships and Kickstart placements for Manchester residents first;

·   The procurement framework used by several Greater Manchester local authorities and the North West Construction Hub (NWCH) focused on Manchester projects;

·   Tenders for a large Manchester City Council capital funded project must answer a social value question with weighting of 30%. This includes a link to Manchester City Council’s Social Value Toolkit and tenders are asked to demonstrate how their social value proposal would be both Manchester specific and project specific and targeted at hard-to-reach groups within local wards.

In introducing the item, the Executive Member for Skills, Employment and Leisure highlighted the importance of social value and explained that the Council had a strong reputation for delivering social value. He stated that social value was an important lever in the delivery of jobs, training and work experience and the Council was committed to providing these opportunities for residents.

The Director of Inclusive Economy explained that size, scale, building type and procurement impacted the delivery of social value between different projects. She highlighted how the Our Town Hall project was a once-in-a-multigenerational opportunity and social value was embedded as a core objective of this development from the outset. The scheme included ambitious social value objectives with built-in financial incentives for contractors to meet social value KPIs, and financial penalties for under-performance. She explained that a different approach was taken with The Factory scheme to work collaboratively with Laing O’Rourke and Manchester International Festival to deliver social value outcomes across the construction and creative and digital elements of the project

Two apprentices – Abdul Tahir from Mace and Rhianna Austin from Laing O’Rourke – also attended the meeting to share their experiences of apprenticeships. 

Key points and queries that arose from the committee’s discussions included:

·   Whether the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) relating to new apprentices were targeted to Manchester residents;

·   Why the number of new apprentices up to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

Report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development).

This report provides an update on the public engagement activity carried out to inform the production of the Manchester Active Travel Strategy and Investment Plan, which aims to create a city-wide, Manchester-specific strategy and network plan for active travel investment and a prioritised pipeline of measures to deliver across the city.

The committee considered a report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development) which provided an update on the public engagement activity carried out to inform the production of the Manchester Active Travel Strategy and Investment Plan (MATSIP).

Key points and themes within the report included:

·   The MATSIP aims to create a city-wide, Manchester-specific strategy and network plan for active travel investment and a prioritised pipeline of measures to deliver across the city;

·   Public and stakeholder engagement was carried out between July and December 2022, including online consultation, public engagement workshops and email responses;

·   Key themes arising from the public consultation, including safety; maintenance of existing infrastructure; new infrastructure; and non-infrastructure measures;

·   A draft network map; and

·   Next steps for the development of the MATSIP.

Key points and queries that arose from the committee’s discussions included:

·   Welcoming progress on the Strategy and noting its importance;

·   Whether the Strategy could be more specific about what inequalities it aimed to reduce, and how this would be achieved;

·   The need for an active travel network to be well-linked with schools and other infrastructure;

·   The impact of speeding and pavement parking as barriers to active travel;

·   The need for an active travel network to be integrated with public transport;

·   Bus regulation was needed to encourage walking and reduce car usage;

·   The impact of building works on reducing capacity for active travel by obstructing pavements;

·   How the Council worked with developers to incorporate active travel provisions into major schemes;

·   The need to repair gullies to improve road safety and encourage walking;

·   Whether previous consultations on active travel were incorporated into the development of the MATSIP;

·   A need for places to permanently store bicycles, particularly for residents in apartments; and

·   Noting a distinct focus on cycling in the MATSIP and expressing hopes for there to be a balance between different active travel modes in the final Strategy.

The Executive Member for Environment and Transport introduced the item and explained that the Council had taken a different approach to consulting on the draft MATSIP by holding face-to-face engagement sessions as opposed to relying on online forms of consultation. She expressed her thanks to the members, residents and community groups who responded to the consultation and stated that this helped to inform a coherent and robust Strategy that would help to take advantage of all funding opportunities.

The Principal Policy Officer explained that the consultation was undertaken in partnership with Sweco over a 6-week period in autumn 2022. He stated that the consultation responses had provided useful key themes to highlight in the final Strategy, which would be considered in February by the Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee and, if endorsed, the Executive.

In response to a member’s question around inequalities, the Executive Member for Environment and Transport highlighted that the Strategy aimed to make all active travel modes accessible to everyone, which would help to alleviate financial and health inequalities. The Principal Policy Officer advised that the Strategy would be based around five objectives, including reducing citywide  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods).

The purpose outlines a revised policy around the implementation and operation of Residents Parking Zones (RPZ) within the city. The revised policy reflects the feedback and issues that have been gathered during the process of extending the Christie Resident Parking Scheme and in the design of other planned schemes.

The committee considered a report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) which outlined a revised policy around the implementation and operation of Residents Parking Zones (RPZ) within the city.

Key points and themes within the report included:

• Resident parking schemes are implemented to tackle the impact of commuter and other non-residential parking on residential areas;
• The revised policy reflects the feedback and issues that have been gathered during the process of extending the Christie Resident Parking Scheme and in the design of other planned schemes;
• Existing policy challenges identified by the review of the current scheme;
• Proposed changes to the scheme, including provisions for digital visitor permits, introduction of transferable paper permits for those without digital access and physical temporary parking permits to all residents;
• There are currently no plans to change the design of existing schemes that are already in operation;
• The removal of the visitor permit charge and provision of scratch cards to each household within the current schemes is estimated to cost £75k per annum;
• Positive feedback had been received on the proposed changes through drop-in sessions with residents within the extended Christie RPS.

Key points and queries that arose from the committee’s discussions included:

• The success of resident parking schemes in reducing parking problems;
• How the proposed changes to permits would help digitally excluded residents;
• How secure the online system was, and whether any Penalty Charge Notices (PCN) issued during technical faults with the system would be rescinded;
• Provisions for parking permits for carers;
• Whether the estimated £75k cost of the proposed changes was funded from revenue;
• How often enforcement and levels of non-compliance would be reviewed and what the process would be if additional enforcement resources were required;
• The Council’s legal right to enforce parking policy on unadopted roads;
• How many scratchcard permits each household would be permitted;
• The Executive’s approach to the issues which make Resident Parking Zones necessary, and what can be done to reduce the need for these; and
• What more could be done to deal with dangerous parking, such as near junctions.

The Executive Member for Environment and Transport and the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) introduced the item and explained that the revised policy reflected feedback from the extended Christie resident parking scheme and other emerging schemes to ensure that the policy was fit for purpose.

The Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) explained that the revised policy was to be agreed by the Executive, after which work would begin to identify how the scheme would operate in practice. Some detailed thinking around this had already been undertaken but the main design work would begin once the policy was agreed, with implementation scheduled for the next financial year.

Ensuring that digitally excluded residents could access parking permits would be addressed during the practical design phase of the policy.

The Parking Services Manager provided assurances that in the event of a resident or visitor with a permit within a resident parking scheme area receiving a PCN, this would be rescinded. She emphasised that resident parking schemes were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Report of the Head of Network Management.

This report highlights the performance, key outcomes, and successes achieved in 2021/22 along with some of the challenges that will be faced going forward.

The committee considered a report of the Head of Network Management, which provided an update on the substantial works completed and progress achieved by the Highways service and provided an overview of methods of communication to ensure ongoing engagement with residents and members, as well as the performance of the service during the financial year 2021/22.

The key points and themes within the report included:

·   Manchester’s highway network includes over 1,350 km of road length, 2,600 km of footway length and over 350 bridges and structures and the total highway asset has an indicative gross replacement value of over £3 billion, making it the Council’s most valuable asset;

·   Achievements for 2021/22, including the successful delivery of the 5-year capital investment programme, receiving £37.2m in funding from the Mayor’s Challenge Fund to improve walking and cycling facilities, embedding social value and sustainability within procurement and establishing the Highways Access Group;

·   Delivery of planned maintenance, inspections and repairs, street works, winter services, major projects and road safety;

·   The Council’s highway infrastructure assets are currently being maintained in a steady state, with improvements in several areas following the 5-year investment programme. Service delivery performance has generally been maintained with improvements in some areas and decreases in other areas.

Key points and queries that arose from the committee’s discussions included:

·   How many service requests had been opened in the past 12 months and whether there was a backlog of outstanding requests;

·   The ability for Highways Inspectors and Operatives to resolve any unreported issues in the same visit to reduce repeated call-outs;

·   Noting that speed is a major factor in road collisions;

·   Expressing disappointment in the lack of a road safety budget due to government cuts;

·   Noting that the Council is below the National Highways and Transport (NHT) average satisfaction score for road safety, and expressing hope that this could be improved in the future;

·   What other measures were being taken to promote social value within the Highways service;

·   Noting that there were no capital funds earmarked for Highways in 2023/24;

·   The prioritisation scheme for gully repairs and the timescales around this; and

·   Whether there would be provision for gullies to be repaired or replaced outside of the cyclical programme in 2023/24.

The Executive Member for Environment and Transport opened discussions on the item and advised committee members that they could raise any ward-specific issues with her directly.

The Head of Network Management highlighted that the report related to 2021/22 and that reports were provided annually. He also welcomed any feedback around specific issues and areas to be included in future reports.

In response to a question from the Chair around the amount of service requests, the Head of Network Management explained that the number of requests were available by ward area. He stated that ward dashboards would be reimplemented so that members had sight of all outstanding and completed service requests. A new asset management system had also been procured which would link to the Council’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to provide real-time  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit

This report provides the Committee with details of key decisions that fall within the Committee’s remit and an update on actions resulting from the Committee’s recommendations. The report also includes the Committee’s work programme, which the Committee is asked to amend as appropriate and agree.

The committee considered a report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit which provided details of key decisions within the committee’s remit and its work programme.

Decision:

That the report be noted.