City Development Committee - 12/03/2001

At a MEETING of the ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 12th March, 2001.

Present:-

COUNCILLORS

Councillor ROLFE, Convener, in the Chair.

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 12th February, 2001 was held as read.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I MOBILE CCTV UNIT

On a reference to Article I of the minute of meeting of the Policy and Resources Committee of 22nd November, 1999 the Director of Economic Development reported that the first tranche of 11,000 had been received from the Scottish Executive towards the establishment of a Mobile CCTV Unit.

On his recommendation, the Committee approved a contribution to Tayside Police of 9,000 towards the purchase of a Ford Transit van for this purpose and noted that tenders for fitting out the vehicle (and a similar one for Perth & Kinross Council) had been issued by the City Engineer and would be reported to a future Committee.

II SCOTTISH SUMMER CREATIVE COMPETITION

The Convener declared an interest in this item and vacated the Chair which was taken by Councillor Sturrock.

It was reported that the Economic Development Department had been approached by the University of Abertay, Dundee and Scottish Enterprise Tayside (SET) to support the Scottish Summer Creative Competition "Dare to be Digital" which had been expanded from the previous year's Computer Games Challenge to target students throughout Scotland with the aim of developing their digital ideas into commercial products or prototypes.

It was proposed that the partner organisations of the University of Abertay, Dundee City Council and Scottish Enterprise Tayside would establish a Company Limited by Guarantee "The Scottish Creative Industries Project" which would retain ownership of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) until such time as the student teams formed a legally constituted partnership or limited company to exploit the IPR.

The winning team would receive an expenses paid trip to the ETCS (Europe's Premier Interactive Entertainment Show) with runners up receiving 1,000 cash prize and a third prize proposed as the "Dundee Endeavour" award of 500 to be sponsored by Dundee City Council and presented to the team viewed by the judging panel as having made most effort/progression during the competition.

The Committee approved the proposals and agreed that the Council provide funding of 17,700 towards total budgeted costs of 120,000 comprising:-

Dundee Endeavour award - 500

Marketing materials - 6,000

Team production budgets - 1,200

Contribution towards students' allowances - 10,000

Thereafter the Convener resumed the Chair.

III PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Reference was made to a report undertaken by the Internal Audit in relation to the replacement of the in-house Property Management System currently in use within the Economic Development Department which was Microsoft Access based and no longer capable of meeting the Department's requirements.

The Committee approved the replacement software from GVA Software at a cost of 28,545 plus VAT to cover the software, installation, set up and testing and noted that the subsequent licence fee would be 3,500 per annum payable from financial year 2002/2003 onwards.

IV SMALL BUSINESS GATEWAY

On a reference to Article I of the minute of meeting of this Committee of 8th January, 2001 the Director of Economic Development reported that discussions had been underway with SET and Perth & Kinross Council and Angus Council on the setting up of a Small Business Gateway.

The Committee agreed;

(a) to become a member of the new company - Tayside Business Gateway Limited, subject to the satisfaction of the Director of Economic Development and Director of Support Services on the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the new company;

(b) to appoint the Convener and the Director of Economic Development as the Council's Directors of the company; and

(c) to agree to fund this company by making available the sum of 115,000 in the following way for financial year 2001/2002:- Provision of accommodation 45,000; Provision of staff 15,000; Provision of cash funding 55,000.

The Committee resolved under Section 50(A)(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1973 that the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the undernoted items of business on the grounds that they involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 6 and 9 of Part I of Schedule 7(A) of the Act.

V COMMERCIAL LEASES

There was submitted and approved Report No. 147-2001 by the Director of Economic Development detailing commercial leases in respect of the undernoted premises:-

Unit 11 Faraday Street

Unit 4 Old Glamis Road Industrial Estate

Yard, Erskine Street

Units 5, 6 and 7 Slessor Court, Claverhouse Industrial Park

VI SALE OF VARIOUS CITY COUNCIL SITES AND PROPERTIES

The Director of Economic Development reported that 9 Council owned properties had been advertised with a closing date of 10.00 a.m. on Friday 16th February, 2001.

The Committee agreed to accept the highest offer for each of the first 6 properties listed and noted that offers received for the last 3 properties listed had not been deemed to be acceptable.

VII LINLATHEN ESTATE

The Director of Economic Development reported that negotiations had taken place with the occupier of land at Linlathen Estate which was farmed under a farming partnership. It was now proposed that this farming partnership be ended and the land in question be leased to the occupier at the rental and conditions detailed in the report.

The Committee approved accordingly.

VIII PROPOSED HOTEL DEVELOPMENT - CITY QUAY

The Director of Economic Development submitted Report No. 170-2001 seeking approval for financial assistance being granted in respect of the proposed hotel development by way of an interest free loan upon completion of the project and subject to confirmation of the evaluation, construction costs and site purchase price.

The Committee approved the terms of the Report.

MERVYN ROLFE, Convener.