Agenda and minutes

To be notified of the appointment of any Substitute Members.

Pursuant to the Council’s constitution the appointment of the following substitute member was reported:-

Councillor J O’Shea for Councillor N Craven

You are invited to declare any registerable and/or nonregisterable interests in matters appearing on the agenda, and the nature of that interest.

You are also invited to disclose any dispensation in relation to any registerable interests that have been granted to you in respect of any matters appearing on the agenda.

You are also requested to complete the Declarations of Interests card available at the meeting and return it to the Democratic Services Officer before leaving the meeting.

There were no Declarations of Interest or Dispensations reported.

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting held on ####

Resolved that the minutes of the previous meeting held on the 26 March 2019 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

To consider the formulation of the sub-committee’s work programme for the year ahead.

The sub-committee gave consideration to the formulation of its work programme 2019/20. In doing so the sub-committee took into account a report setting out its role and remit, guidance on how it might select topics for examination and the previous year’s work programme outlining the topics previously covered.

Reference was made to the sub group, appointed by the sub-committee, to examine the future of retail and town centres in North Tyneside. The group had prepared a draft report and recommendations which had been scheduled to be presented to this meeting for approval. However the Chief Executive and Head of Law and Governance had advised that the Head of Regeneration and Economic Development be given an opportunity to meet with the sub group to discuss the findings and recommendations before the report was finalised. The report was now scheduled to be presented to the sub-committee at its next meeting in September.

The Head of Regeneration and Economic Development attended the meeting to discuss the formulation of the work programme and to make suggestions as to those areas the sub-committee could usefully examine. He raised the following issues:

a)         the repositioning of retail and leisure provision in town centres and the potential for digital connections and high speed broadband to attract new businesses into town centres;

b)North Tyneside benefitted from the employment provided by its large office parks. It would be useful to track office occupation and to analyse any trends in occupation which may highlight opportunities for example to attract any overspill from Newcastle City Centre;

c)  the importance of working with partners such as the North of Tyne Combined Authority and the Port of Tyne to release opportunities such as developing offshore industries along the riverside and to work more strategically to develop the opportunities in the South East Northumberland corridor into North Tyneside;

d)there was an important link between place and the economy. The impact of major housing developments on town and district centres would need to be considered;

e)transport infrastructure was important to support a strong economy and there was a regional bid to the Transforming Cities Fund to dual the metro line near Pelaw to increase capacity on the system and to re-introduce passenger services on the Ashington, Blyth and Tyne railway line; and

f)  there was a link between the economy and employment with education and skills and the need to raise educational attainment and aspirations.

Members of the sub-committee also suggested a range of topics for scrutiny during the forthcoming year as follows:

a)         to carry out an audit of businesses in North Tyneside to analyse demand for smaller serviced office spaces which would allow fledgling businesses to network with similar businesses and grow without substantial risk;

b)to examine the economic impact of past projects such as the coastal regeneration in Whitley Bay and the development of North Shields Fish Quay, to assess what worked well and to evaluate the outcomes, benchmarked against the original objectives of the projects;

c)  ...  view the full minutes text for item EP4/19