Agenda and minutes

Venue: The Bradbury Room, Appletree Court, Lyndhurst

Contact: 023 8028 5588 - Ask for Jan Debnam  Email:  jan.debnam@nfdc.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

Apologies

 

None were received.

 

 

31.

Minutes

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held 20 November 2018 as a correct record.

 

 

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

 

That the minutes of the meeting held on 20 November 2018 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

 

 

32.

Declarations of Interest

To note any declarations of interest made by members in connection with an agenda item.  The nature of the interest must also be specified.

 

Members are asked to discuss any possible interests with Democratic Services prior to the meeting.

 

 

Minutes:

Cllrs Beck, Carpenter and White – minute 35.

 

 

33.

Public Participation

To note any issues raised during the public participation period.

 

 

Minutes:

No issues were raised in the public participation period.

 

 

34.

Portfolio Holders' Reports

An opportunity for the Portfolio Holders to provide an update to the Panel on developments within their portfolios.

 

 

Minutes:

Cllr Binns, the Health and Leisure Portfolio Holder, reported that work in preparation for the tender process to seek a partner to run the health and leisure centres was progressing well.  Information gathering was the current focus, which would include a full condition survey of each of the buildings.  A series of customer forums would be held in June 2019 to clarify the outcomes that the customers wanted to see before there was further engagement with potential partners.

 

The Portfolio Holder was pleased to report that the operation of the crèche at Applemore Recreation Centre would be taken over by Hamble Early Years on 1 February 2019.

 

The recruitment for the new structure to operate the health and leisure centres was progressing.  There had been 39 applications for the 6 shift manager posts, of which 13 people had been interviewed.  There had been 3 external and 3 internal appointments made.

 

The Portfolio Holder also reported that the new senior management team for the health and leisure centres was working together well and the business was well on target to achieve the required level of savings against the budget, partly through income generation.

 

Business performance at the health and leisure centres was showing encouraging growth.  One of the centres had been below target for the 6 week period leading up to Christmas, but that target had previously been revised upwards.  The centre had achieved the originally set targets.  One key area of focus was to encourage more memberships, as opposed to single pay and play attendances.  This was in accordance with national business trends.

 

Work on the Recreation Management Strategy for the National Park had been subject to delay as the Steering Group evaluated the findings of various reports that had been commissioned.  It had been expected that there would have been a further round of public consultations by this stage.  The process was expected to start again in June.  Internally, this Council had appointed a task and finish group to advise the Portfolio Holder.  This group had met once and made some very constructive comments, which were being fed back into the process.

 

Cllr D Andrews, the Community Affairs Portfolio Holder, reported that there were no new issues under her portfolio that needed to be brought to members’ attention.

 

 

35.

Safer New Forest Partnership - Priorities for Partnership Plan pdf icon PDF 147 KB

To consider the draft Strategic Assessment for 2018/19 against the Partnership Plan, and advise the Cabinet of any information, concerns or actions they might wish to put forward for consideration for inclusion in the 2019/20 Plan.

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cllr Beck disclosed a non-pecuniary interest as the Chairman of the New Forest Association of Local Councils which was a consultee on the appropriate assessment, leading to the development of the Partnership Plan.

 

Cllrs Carpenter and White asked that it be recorded that they were members of Hampshire County Council and that their comments and decisions at this meeting were based on the information now before them, but they reserved the right to change their view in the light of any additional information.

 

The Panel was advised that, normally, the local Chief Inspector of Police would have been present at this meeting, but unfortunately the new Chief Inspector would not be taking up their post until the end of January 2019.

 

The Panel considered the strategic assessment prepared by the Safer New Forest Strategy Group on behalf of the responsible authorities for discharging crime and disorder functions in the District.  This assessment looked at statistics and trends for the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 to inform the development of the annual Partnership Plan which would set out agreed strategies for the period 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.

 

It was noted that interpretation of the crime statistics and trends was difficult for a number of factors, including changes in the way certain crimes were classified and recorded; and also the use of percentage increases, which could give the erroneous impression of large increases in certain categories.  For example, there had been an increase in recorded instances of theft, but the increase in this District was lower than surrounding areas and the national trend.  There had also been an increase in the number of recorded vehicle offences, but this was partly as a result of instances of criminal damage to vehicles now being included.

 

For last year the Partnership had decided to be more focussed in their work and had introduced 4 priority areas, each of which had a lead partner and which was supported by actions throughout the year to ensure delivery.  The priority areas were:

 

·      Children at Risk

·      Modern slavery and human trafficking

·      Drug and alcohol related harm

·      Domestic abuse

 

The statistical trends demonstrated that this approach was being successful and it was therefore proposed that the Partnership should retain these priorities to allow them to embed further.

 

One innovation in the last year had been the organisation of the first Safer New Forest Conference.  Over 200 organisations had supported the event, which had been held at Brockenhurst College. This had been a valuable opportunity to identify the resources that were available through each organisation and to look at potential synergies and opportunities for directing the resources that were available to meet the identified needs.

 

Members were advised that the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner had been looking at developing a database for each community safety partnership to give them a more detailed analytic overview of the crime data.

 

In the ensuing debate Members identified the harm being caused by the various cybercrimes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

36.

Community Grants Task and Finish Group pdf icon PDF 323 KB

To consider the Task and Finish Group’s recommendations with respect to the allocation of grants for inclusion in the 2019/20 budget.

 

 

Minutes:

The Panel received the recommendations of the Community Grants Task and Finish Group, which had assessed the applications that had been received for grant aid in the 2019/20 financial year. 

 

The Panel welcomed the introduction of greater rigour and transparency into the process.  They were also pleased to note the introduction of a budget for the grants.  The grants payable were now more reflective of the budgetary constraints that applied to the Council across all service areas and would increasingly emphasise the message that the Council should, in future, be seen as a source of funding of last resort, once other sources had proved unsuccessful.  In the past the Council had been seen as the first potential source of funding to be approached.  The focus on delivering outcomes that were important to the Council was also welcome.

 

The Panel thanked the Task and Finish Group and supporting officers for their detailed evaluation of the grant applications, leading to the development of robust, soundly based recommendations.

 

RESOLVED:

 

(a)       That the community grant awards as set out in paragraph 4.1, and in more detail in Appendix 1, to report item 6, be recommended to the Cabinet for approval and inclusion in the Medium Term Financial Plan; and

 

(b)       That the Cabinet be advised that Citizens’ Advice New Forest should be awarded a revenue grant of £229,500 in 2019/20; and

 

(c)       That, in future, grant awardees be invited to a second interview in July to update the Council on progress with their projects and also to be advised of alternative sources of funding should they be considering further grant applications to the Council.

 

 

 

37.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 201 KB

To consider the Panel’s future work programme and to make changes where necessary.

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

 

That the work programme attached as Appendix 1 to these minutes be approved to guide the Panel activities over the coming months.