Issue - items at meetings - Chair's Communication

The Chair welcomed everybody to the first public meeting of the seafront scrutiny panel. There would also be a wider evidence gathering process, including a drop-in event at Alfresco and using the council website to seek the views of stakeholders. The panel had already held two internal meetings with council officers to understand the technical and financial issues facing the seafront, which had fed into the Draft Seafront Strategy.

The findings of this panel will be used to inform a future version of the Seafront Strategy and the issues they were looking at would include:

·       Challenges facing the seafront

·       Budgets for the seafront

·       Other possible funding solutions

·       The seafront as an income generator

·       How is the seafront valued and how to take care of it

·       Other suggestions to tackle the issues.

2.1       The Chair welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the Budget Scrutiny Panel. The meeting would take a high-level strategic look at the 2014/15 Budget plans, examining them in light of the Council’s broader strategic thinking, particularly in terms of the Corporate Plan commitments. The second and third meetings of the Panel would be more in-depth examinations of key parts of the Budget.  The Chair invited the Leader, Councillor Jason Kitcat to introduce the Budget after which the Panel would ask questions around the four main Corporate Priorities.