Agenda and minutes

Consider report by Service Director Children and Young People on the proposed review of the school estate and pre-consultation with communities.  (Copy attached.)

EDUCATION BUSINESS

Present:-         Mrs J Aitchison, Ms A Ferahi, Mr D Moore, Mr J Walsh.

Apologies:-      Mr G Donald, Mr G Jarvie, Miss E Page.

CHAIRMAN

Councillor Aitchison chaired the meeting for consideration of the Education Business.  He welcomed Mrs Aitchison, Ms Ferahi, Mr Moore and Mr Walsh to this section of the Executive meeting and passed on apologies on behalf of Mr Donald, Mr Jarvie and Miss Page.

SCHOOL ESTATE – PRE-CONSULTATION AND REVIEW

1.2       With reference to paragraph 6 of the Minute of 20 January 2015, there had been circulated copies of a report by the Service Director Children and Young People providing an update on the proposed review of the school estate and seeking agreement to the content of the proposed pre-consultation with communities across the Scottish Borders.  The report referred to the principles agreed by the Executive Committee (Education) which would guide a review of the school estate.  The pre-consultation would seek to engage with all stakeholders to gather information and views regarding the quality and issues within the current school estate provision.  The consultation would also seek views as to what the Council’s future school estates provision should aspire to look like.  The Council would analyse the feedback and information gathered from the pre-consultation and consider both the information from the public and the Council’s own data in analysing the existing school estate.  This information would then be used to identify a way forward as to how the school estate would be improved.  The report further explained that Scottish Borders Council had produced a Small Schools Policy in 2007 which was attached as an Appendix.  The Policy had been produced prior to the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 and had never been fully implemented, nor had it ever been formally revoked or withdrawn.  In light of the change in the statutory framework together with the introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence, this Policy was no longer considered to be relevant or compliant with the 2010 Act. It was therefore recommended that it should now, for the avoidance of confusion, be formally withdrawn.

1.2       The Service Director Children and Young People gave Members further information about the pre-consultation and review process by way of a powerpoint presentation. She stressed that the proposed pre-consultation would be carried out on an informal basis by engaging with communities, gathering information and sharing ideas before any formal process under the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 was undertaken. The aim was to achieve a full, fair and rigorous consultation providing high quality and accurate information and documentation whilst ensuring high standards of transparency.  There would be no pre-conceived ideas. The review would identify and consider a full range of possible options such as: status quo; catchment reviews; new build requirements; merger proposals; school closure and re-location of catchment; school re-design within a catchment area e.g. 2 – 18 years, 2- 8 years or 8-18 years campus; and any alternative proposals which may be presented during  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.

Minute of meeting of 19 January 2016 to be approved and signed by the Chairman. (Copy attached.)

OTHER BUSINESS

CHAIRMAN

Councillor Parker took the Chair.

MINUTE

The Minute of meeting of the Executive Committee of 19 January 2016 had been circulated.

DECISION

APPROVED for signature by the Chairman.

Consider report by Chief Executive providing an overview of the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund.

SCOTTISH LANDFILL COMMUNITIES FUND

DECISION

AGREED to:-

(a)        participate in the SLCF through its Landfill Tax Liability credits for 2015/16 and 2016/17 (90% of fund;

(b)       continue to provide the additional 10% of the fund from its Waste Services budget for 2015/16 and 2016/17; and

(c)        consider a further report in December 2016 recommending the longer term approach to the SLCF from 2017/18 onwards.

Presentation on recent Economic Development progress by the Chief Officer Economic Development. (Briefing note attached.)

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS

CHAIRMAN

Councillor Bell chaired the meeting for consideration of the Economic Development business. He thanked Members for agreeing to re-schedule the start of the meeting to allow for a very constructive event which had taken place in Hawick that morning to discuss the situation in the town following the closure of Hawick Knitwear and other matters.  He also thanked the Corporate Transformation and Services Director and Chief Officer Economic Development for organising the event which was attended by the Scottish Government Minister for Business Energy and Tourism and involved 30 businesses.  This was followed by an equally useful meeting at Abbotsford involving the Minister and the Scottish Borders Tourism Partnership.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

4.1       With reference to paragraph 4 of the Minute of 3 November 2015, there had been circulated copies of a briefing note providing an update on recent Economic Development activities. The Chief Officer Economic Development, Mr Bryan McGrath, referred to the paper and highlighted the main points. Members asked for further information about the 7stanes Community Interest Company (CIC), which would cease trading on 31 March 2016.  The Chairman gave assurance that 7stanes remained a powerful brand.  He explained that once Leader funding had come to an end the organisation had been unable to generate sufficient funding from other sources to make it viable in the long term.  The Company would be wound up in a phased manner with any remaining funds being distributed to other charitable organisations dealing with biking.  Future promotion of the 7stanes trails would be managed by Forest Enterprise Scotland (FES) who had the resources and expertise to provide full marketing support to the project.  Under the Business section of the update it was reported that Scotland’s Employer Recruitment Incentive (SERI) Scheme had been put on hold by the Scottish Government.  However the Chairman had been advised that Scottish Government would be re-launching a refined form of the scheme with a sharper focus.

4.2       The report that the Scottish Borders was the pilot area for the launch of ‘Pub is The Hub’ in Scotland was welcomed.  The ‘Pub is the Hub’ organisation had worked with over 500 rural licensees in England and Wales, helping them to diversify their businesses through offering a range of additional services including retail shops, lunch clubs, library services and post offices.  The Scottish Government announced a £30,000 grants fund to support publicans’ investment in diversification projects, the initial projects being in Ettrick and Yarrow, Tweedsmuir and Newcastleton.  With regard to the economic impacts (EI) of events during 2015, reported in the update, the Chief Officer Economic Development was asked how these were evaluated and whether any economic disadvantage was taken into account e.g. financial loss suffered by businesses as a consequence of road closures to support an event.  Mr McGrath advised that there was some refinement in the way economic impact was measured and that there was an attempt to capture other economic effects in each evaluation. 

4.3  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Presentation of a short video on the innovations being developed at Glentress Forest by Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland and local businesses.  This will be followed by a short question and answer session.

HIGHLIGHTING INNOVATION – MOUNTAIN BIKING

Referring to the fact that 2016 had been designated Scotland’s Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design, the Chairman introduced Graeme McLean, project manager for Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland (DMBinS), who was in attendance to give a short video and presentation on the innovations being developed at the Mountain Bike Centre of Scotland at Glentress. The Centre was spearheaded by a partnership between Scottish Cycling, DMBinS, Edinburgh Napier University, Borders College and Scottish Enterprise.  In the video it was explained that Glentress Forest had over 300,000 visitors a year.  Nationally it was estimated that mountain biking brought in over £150 million annually to the Scottish economy.  The Mountain Bike Centre which was opened in June 2014 had engaged with over 100 businesses and effectively established a centre of open innovation, providing resources and expertise.  The Centre provided business support, academic and research support and access to a huge number of consumers at the trail centre.  Appropriate support could be given to new businesses in order to get a concept all the way from an idea to a commercialised product.  The Centre also worked with established businesses to help them diversify into cycling products.  There had been 25 business start-ups and the Centre had hosted 20 events.  Examples were given of new businesses launched and the type of support and opportunities provided at the Centre.  The Centre worked closely with Edinburgh Napier University and wanted to do more to link businesses with Scottish Universities.  There were 14 academic partnerships and 10 research projects currently ongoing.  A further goal was to attract international companies to Scotland, to attract inward investment and to use the facilities at Glentress to test and launch new products.  Members expressed their interest in the work carried out at the Centre. Questions were asked on specific aspects and there was discussion about how this type of innovative support work for businesses could be replicated in other areas of the Borders. Other questions referred to work being carried out to develop mountain bike trails in Craik Forest and in the Ettrick and Yarrow valleys, the potential development of links with local schools, and the links with the railway.  The Chairman thanked Mr McLean for the interesting presentation and for his attendance, and wished the Centre every success in future.

DECISION

NOTED the presentation.

Consider report by Corporate Transformation and Services Director providing an update on the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband Programme. (Copy attached.)

DIGITAL SCOTLAND SUPERFAST BROADBAND ROLL-OUT UPDATE

With reference to paragraph 6 of the Council Minute of 26 June 2013, there had been circulated copies of a report by the Corporate Transformation and Services Director providing an update on the progress being made in delivering the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme in the Scottish Borders.  The report explained that Scottish Borders Council had contributed strongly to the roll-out of the DSSB programme, providing £8.4m over two years to help extend the roll-out as far as possible in the Scottish Borders. To date, 70 new superfast broadband cabinets had been installed as part of the roll-out, enabling the provision of new services to over 17,500 premises in the Scottish Borders.  The roll-out would continue until the end of 2017, aiming to serve approximately 94% of all the premises in the area.  The Scottish Government had also put in place the Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) programme to support those communities and locations where the DSSB roll-out would not reach.  However officers were concerned about the limitations of this initiative.  Although good progress was being made with the DSSB programme, there was a range of challenging issues still to be addressed in relation to providing superfast broadband services across the Scottish Borders.  These issues presented a significant impediment to allowing all communities to access the Broadband services in an equitable way.  The DSSB programme would cover less than 94% of premises in the Borders, which meant around 6% of premises, mainly in remoter rural areas, would not be covered by Superfast Broadband and may only have access to slower broadband services, or have no broadband access at all.  There was a need for a national solution to this issue, for a programme to cover the remaining 5-6% of premises in the Scottish Borders and other areas of rural Scotland.  It was proposed to raise these issues with the Scottish Government when the South of Scotland Alliance met the Deputy First Minister on 8 February 2016.  In discussing the report Members raised serious concerns about the unsatisfactory situation of the apparent two levels of Broadband provision which was unacceptable to outlying areas.  Attention was also drawn to apparent ‘grey’ areas where properties were quite proximate due to settlement pattern but which were still not within connection distances to the new superfast broadband cabinets.  Members agreed with a suggestion that in remote areas the provision of radio broadband masts could perhaps be considered along with new development and included in the consideration of planning applications.  It was also agreed that an updated list was required to indicate, within the DSSB programme, the numbers of premises in the Scottish Borders connected to Superfast Broadband, the number waiting for connection and the number who would not be connected.  Members discussed the recommendations of the report.  It was agreed the second recommendation should be strengthened but there was a division of opinion about the wording of the first:

VOTE

Councillor Bhatia, seconded by Councillor Cook, moved that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Consider report by Corporate Transformation and Services Director providing an update on the delivery of the Borders Railway Blueprint and other railway related project activity.  (Copy attached.)

BORDERS RAILWAY BLUEPRINT – UPDATE

With reference to paragraph 8 of the Council Minute of 2 April 2015, there had been circulated copies of a report by the Corporate Transformation and Services Director providing an update on progress in delivering the Borders Railway Blueprint and other railway related project activity.  The report recognised that the new Borders Railway represented a once in a generation opportunity to provide a step-change sustainable improvement in the Scottish Borders economy, and particularly in the economies and welfare of some of the disadvantaged communities.  However, there was no guarantee that such uplift would occur on its own.  The Council, along with its Borders Railway Blueprint partners, was therefore implementing a comprehensive programme of activities to promote economic development through strategies for business development, inward investment and tourism, as well as promoting greater accessibility to labour markets and education and training.  The programme had been developed to provide the optimal environment, to realise these positive outcomes for the Scottish Borders economy and local communities.   An infographic showing overall progress was attached as an Appendix to the report.  Details were given of activities taking place under the themes: great locations for working and investing; great communities for living and learning; and great destinations to visit.  It was noted that usage of the railway to date was much higher than predicted. Based on these rates a conservative annual projection would be around one million passengers, in comparison with the pre-opening projection of 647,000 passengers per annum.  Members welcomed the update report.  In response to questions the Director advised that monitoring information on the financial investment being made by the Council and partners in delivering the Blueprint strategy would be reported on a quarterly basis, the first due to be presented in March 2016.  He confirmed that the first phase of the Central Borders Business Park would commence during summer 2016.  With regard to the higher than predicted use of Tweedbank, Network Rail and ScotRail were aware that the car park had been at capacity on many occasions and were expected to work closely with the Council in looking at options to address this. It was noted that the development of housing land was now a priority area to be addressed, Scottish Government having facilitated a meeting of senior planners from Scottish Borders and Midlothian Councils to discuss the strategic role of the railway in creating a new ‘development corridor’ for Scotland.   This would also be taken forward in discussions through the South East Scotland Strategic Development Planning Authority.

DECISION

AGREED to:-

(a)        welcome the major commitment being shown by the Council and its Borders Railway Blueprint partners towards maximising the economic benefits of the new railway to the Scottish Borders; and

(b)       request that the Corporate Transformation and Services Director submit further update reports to the Executive Committee on a regular basis to provide monitoring information on the financial investment being made by the Council and Partners in delivering the Blueprint Strategy.

Before proceeding with the private business, the following motion should be

approved:-

“That under Section 50A(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 the

public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the

grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in

the relevant paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 7A to the aforementioned Act.”

ITEMS LIKELY TO BE TAKEN IN PRIVATE

DECISION

AGREED under section 50a(4) of the local government (scotland) act 1973 to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the business detailed in the Appendix to this Minute on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 9 of  part 1 of schedule 7a to the Act.

Private Minute of Meeting of 19 January 2016 to be approved and signed by the Chairman.

MINUTE

The Committee approved the private Minute of 19 January 2016.

Consider report by Chief Executive on the New Kelso High School project. (Copy attached.)

URGENT BUSINESS

The Committee considered a matter arising from the Minute.