The Head of Community Services submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which detailed proposals for a framework for the determination of leases in respect of city council owned community centres occupied and operated by community associations.

Cllr Simm, Executive Board Member for Culture and Communities presented the report. She explained the reasons for the proposed changes and said that it had been the original intention to present this report in parallel with the Community Centre Strategy report.  However, in view of the concerns expressed by the Community Centre Associations it was felt that delaying the lease proposal report would be unreasonable. She assured the Board thatthere was nothing in the draft Community Centre Strategy that conflicted with the lease proposals.

Cllr Simmons, Chair of the Scrutiny Committee, presented the scrutiny recommendations.   Commenting on the draft City Executive Board responses to the recommendations he said that Recommendation 2 was about developing some basic non-negotiable conditions which would give the Council grounds for termination.  The Executive Board Member for Culture and Communities said that this would be something that would be pursued in more detail in future discussions with the Community Associations.

The Board noted that they would receive an update on the progress on the lease negotiations when they considered the Community Centre Strategy report at their November meeting.

The City Executive Board resolved to:

1.    Agree that for community centres that currently have a licence to occupy a notice to quit be served in respect of that licence along with a proposed replacement lease on the terms broadly set out in paragraph 8 of this report.