Agenda item

To receive an oral update from the Portfolio Holders for Community Affairs and Leisure and Wellbeing on developments within their Portfolio areas.

Please note – the responsibilities of each portfolio are as follows:

Cllr D Andrews, the Community Affairs Portfolio Holder, updated the Panel on the success of Appletree Careline which now offered an extensive support monitoring service, operating continuously, to 1863 customers across the District, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable, through both home alarms and wristbands.  The focus in the current business plan was to continue to grow the customer base.  There would be promotions through doctors’ surgeries and the service would also have a stand at the forthcoming Armed Serviced Day at Gang Warily on 30 June.  There would also be a presentation to councillors before a Council meeting to increase their awareness of the value of the service, so they could promote its use in their local communities.  Leaflets that explained the service on offer had been prepared and copies were still available, including through the Portfolio Holder.

The Customer Services Task and Finish Group that had been established in 2017 had been held in temporary abeyance once it was recognised that other work would need to be given priority.  It was widely accepted that the Council’s website was in need of substantial updating to allow for modern demands, and this was an essential pre-requisite to improving the customer services offer.  It was proposed to reconvene the Task and Finish Group towards the autumn for them to make recommendations to this Panel.  It was noted that a substitute member would be needed for Cllr M Harris, who had now taken up a portfolio role.

Cllr Binns, the Leisure and Wellbeing Portfolio Holder, advised the Panel that the health and leisure centres were all performing well, with Applemore’s performance being better than projected.  Ringwood had seen a welcome increase in both members and casual users following the recent investment, while New Milton was maintaining its performance even though it had recently lost a significant proportion of its parking spaces, which had been taken over for building works on this and an adjoining campus.

Work was underway to outsource the running of the pre-school at Applemore.  It was recognised that the space occupied by the pre-school was unsuitable for many other uses, but it was hoped to out-source its actual operation.  There had been 4 expressions of interest in response to initial advertisement, and the paperwork was being finalised to allow the contract to be put out to formal tender.  This would relieve the Council of the responsibilities brought by the operation of a school.  The parents would be kept fully informed about what was happening and reassured of the pre-school’s continuation.

The promotion of the 6 week summer holiday programme “Hello Summer” would start shortly.  This always offered an opportunity to recruit new members, with historically a 15-18% conversion rate from the casual users.

Eling Tide Mill had now been transferred to Totton and Eling Town Council and the Duke of Gloucester had recently attended the official opening of the Eling Experience.

The Portfolio Holder encouraged all members to respond to the forthcoming consultation on the Recreation Management Strategy for the Forest.  This was a joint venture between the National Park Authority, County Council, this Council, the Verderers and Natural England.  The document covered a wide scope, including issues such as car parks, the control of drones over the Forest and reducing access to sensitive areas, that could have a significant impact on the way that people used the Forest.  The consultation would run for 8 weeks, finishing at the end of August, and was the first round of consultation in the process.

The work of the task and finish group looking at options for the future management of the health and leisure centres was progressing.  The group had recently visited each of the health and leisure centres and had been favourably impressed by the standard of the centres and equipment, and also the staff.  The group was currently bringing together the necessary information, leading to the submission of recommendations to the Panel in September.

Previous difficulties in the relationship with MyTime Active, who were now running Dibden Golf Centre, were being resolved. There had been a recent management restructure and their new Regional Director had come down to meet the Council.  A number of commitments had been made, some of which had now been met.  They had also improved their relationship with Hythe and Dibden Parish Council.  MyTime was seeking to increase membership levels, but the national trend was for decreasing interest in golf.