Agenda item

To receive the report of the Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure.

PLEASE NOTE:  This report will be published as a supplement to the agenda when it is available.

The Chair welcomed Councillor Lise Noakes (Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure), Councillor Paul James (Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economy) and Mr Jason Smith (Chief Executive of Marketing Gloucester Limited) to the meeting.

Members were presented with a report which set out how Gloucester City Council currently monitors the performance and effectiveness of Marketing Gloucester. 

Councillor Noakes advised that changes to performance reporting would be implemented in 2016 noting that the MGL Board regularly considered performance monitoring at their meetings in addition to being audited by an external company. She reported that quarterly performance monitoring meetings had been scheduled for the forthcoming year and these would coincide with the MGL Board meetings. She concluded by explaining that a three year festival and events programme would be presented to Cabinet in January 2017 with detailed proposals for each year outlined, commenting that this would remain exempt until approved by the MGL Board.

Jason Smith summarised the key achievements outlined within the report and invited comments from Members

The Committee discussed the following matters:-

1.    In response to a Member querying whether MGL were involved in the production of City Life, Jason Smith explained that MGL worked closely on planning and delivering projects advertised within the pamphlet.

2.    A Member queried whether the administration were considering reducing the funding allocated to MGL in light of the challenging economic climate and considerable cuts to other public sector services. Councillor Noakes reported that budget proposals would not be finalised until the settlement figure from Central Government had been received. She commented that a bigger programme of events was envisioned which would positively impact on the local economy and confirmed that discussions regarding the budget were ongoing.

3.    A Member queried how MGL were able to quantitatively measure the success of each individual event. Jason Smith explained that Gross Value Added (GVA) was utilised to measure the economic success of an event acknowledging that the success of community events were more difficult to quantify.  He advised that footfall was measured by specialised cameras placed in strategic locations across the City Centre in addition to polls of local businesses conducted after an event.

4.    A Member expressed concern that the congestion and traffic resulting from large number of visitors to events held at Gloucester Quays actually dissuaded local people from attending. Jason Smith reported that research on the Tall Ships Festival actually demonstrated that 80% on visitors were local residents, recognising that there were issues regarding congestion and traffic management at Gloucester Quays events managed independently by the Peel Group.

5.    A Member reflected that MGL had improved on past performance to become financially stable not requiring any surplus support and had helped to significantly expose the City’s cultural offer. Jason Smith reported that MGL staff had developed a financial model to ensure that events would be financially viable in terms of operational costs and affordability for residents.

6.    In response to a Member’s concern that Civic events were not being given the same priority as other cultural events, Jason Smith advised that this was new aspect of the service that had only been recently transferred to MGL acknowledging that there had been a few issues that initially needed resolving. He commented that there had not been a thorough handover and staff at MGL were being tasked with additional responsibilities than those of City Council Officers previously managing the service. He welcomed constructive criticism from Members on improvements to the service.

7.    A Member highlighted that MGL did not advertise all the cultural services the City Council offered, noting that the Guildhall and Museums had a very limited budget to promote their events. Jason Smith advised that MGL promoted these events through social media commenting that each of these sites employed their own Officers to help promote and advertise. He welcomed the opportunity to work collaboratively if requested, noting that the newly refurbished City of Gloucester website would be an additional way to increase exposure.

8.    A Member queried where the funding for the Rugby World Cup (RWC15) commemorative bench had been sourced from and whether the City Council would be required to contribute towards the cost. Jason Smith reported that the concept had been to fund the costs through crowdfunding recognising that this had been slower than originally anticipated. He confirmed that the City Council would not be required to make any contribution.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the report be noted.