Agenda item

4.1  Councillor Rebecca Lury attended the committee for her annual scrutiny interview - her portfolio is Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet member for Culture. The chair invited her to give the committee an overview of her role and to answer members’ questions.

4.2  Councillor Lury gave an update on the following area of her portfolio::

·  The Cabinet agreed in March 2019 a budget of £500,000 over the next three years for 20,000 primary school children to receive free visits yearly to theatres within Southwark.

·  Free swimming lessons for Southwark residents, starting a pilot programme September 2019 which will target key groups who had never swum before and to roll out a 12 week programme for them to learn how to swim.

·  Library and Heritage strategy was agreed in January 2019 - we have looked at libraries being open when our residents need them and is aimed at books, work space and community events. Particularly looking at heritage and our new library in Walworth Heritage Centre which should be ready by the end of the year and the new library in Grove Vale which opened earlier this year. There is also a commitment for £1 million over the next 4 years from the London Devolution Deal money and business rate pool to maintain current library hours.

·  Events in Parks: the ambition for the events team is to be self financing, we have come close this year in bringing in the right amount of money and are currently conducting a review including a public consultation that is open for people to comment on how the events programme works.  Gala and Alice in Winterland were the first two events we had held in our parks to try and generate income. We have the highest number of green flag parks ever, and have opened Peckham Rye and Leyton Square playgrounds in the last year. We have also obtained an extra £500,000 for adventure playgrounds and opened the Mint Street adventure playground. There had also been a lot of work on the football pitches in Burgess and Brimmington Park and the service is  trying to get match funding to help with costs.

·  Car Parking Charges in Parks: There is a consultation open at the moment; the key parks concerned are Burgess, Belair, Dulwich, Honor Oak, Peckham Rye and Southwark parks.

·  Principles of Consultation and Engagement: presently working with officers on a set of principles that the Council can adopt.  The report will be going to Cabinet later this month.

·  Faith Strategy was published earlier this year.

·  Common Purpose grant programme funding

·  Community Councils: looking at a new structure and having discussions as well as considering the new boundary lines. 

4.3  The committee asked questions about faith strategy and the role faith communities can play in tackling youth violence; the consultation on car parking in parks; how many voluntary & community organisations the cabinet member had met;  was there a way to quantify the quality of the libraries;  what was the council doing  to promote LGBT spaces and safe places; trees causing damage to properties; improving engagement with hardest to reach communities; diversity standard; youth centres and equalities; whether lessons had been learned from the events held in parks; what was being done to promote unity in the borough; how will the council consult with the public on community council changes.