Meeting documents

Members agreed that Noel Brown should continue as Chairman for 2011-12.

Fred Wilson (Chiltern District Council) was appointed as Vice-Chairman for 2011-12 in his absence.

See above for apologies.

A current list of members and voting representatives is attached.

Noel Brown declared an interest in agenda item 11 as he had been involved in ‘Better Chesham’ discussions.

To confirm the notes of the meeting held on 13 April 2011

The notes of the meeting held on 13 April 2011 were agreed and signed as a correct record.

Matters arising

A member asked if there had been a response to the query at the February 2011 meeting regarding speeding in Lye Green Road – HW to chase response from Police.

There will be a 20 minute period for public questions.  Members of the public are encouraged to submit their questions in advance of the meeting to receive a full answer on the day of the meeting.  Questions sent in advance will be dealt with first, followed by verbal questions.  Please contact Helen Wailling on 01296 383614 or hwailling@buckscc.gov.uk to submit your question.

Age Concern Buckinghamshire Good Neighbour Scheme

The Local Area Forum had previously allocated some funding to the Good Neighbour Scheme.

Penny Miles (Age Concern Buckinghamshire) reported that there had been little response from the rural villages to the Scheme. Penny Miles asked members to promote the Scheme, but noted that The Lee and Ley Hill both had their own schemes which were similar.

The Chairman said that links should be made between the schemes in these two villages and the Good Neighbour Scheme.

Penny Miles also asked if anyone would be interested in sitting on a Steering Committee for the Good Neighbour Scheme, as the aim was to make the Scheme self-sustaining. 

A member suggested that the Chesham Older People’s Action Group could also be contacted about this.

A member said that it seemed that a number of groups were working on similar areas, and asked if there was duplication of work.

The Chairman said that the Good Neighbour Scheme was an attempt to bring a number of schemes together.

Action: Information on the Age Concern Good Neighbour Scheme to be re-circulated to all members.

There were no petitions.

Kerry Stevens, Head of Service Provision, Adults and Family Wellbeing

Kerry Stevens (Lead Area Officer for the Local Area Forum and Head of Service Provision, Adult Social Care) spoke about the Big Society. From an Adult Social Care perspective, the aim of the Big Society was to create communities of independence (people giving to their local community and benefiting from giving).

The following projects had been very successful:

·         A project called Building Community Capacity had been running for 12 months in the Chesham area, and aimed to encourage and enable residents over 50 to become better equipped to support vulnerable people living in their community.

·         CHAV (Chesham Action Volunteers) had been very successful during winter 2010-11in supporting vulnerable people when statutory services had been unable to reach them.

·         Community libraries in Little Chalfont, Chalfont St Giles and West Wycombe (the Little Chalfont Community Library had recently won the Queen’s Award). These libraries were run by the local communities, who had significantly increased the number of visitors and the opening times. In Chalfont St Giles the library had a pool of 60 volunteers which could also be used for other community activities.

From an Adult Social Care perspective, the Big Society would prevent people having to go into acute (hospital) care and would reduce reliance on public services.

Andrew Garth (Chiltern District Council) said that Buckinghamshire was the first County to set up a Big Society Review Group. The Group had met a number of times and a report on its work would be going to the District Councils in July 2011 (link to the Report on the Chiltern District Council website:

https://isa.chiltern.gov.uk/democracy/documents/s4830/Big%20Society%20cover%20report.pdf

Andrew Garth also referred to the following activities:

·         Pub lunch scheme – this offered a discounted meal and a lift and was also linked to other social activities.

·         Princes Risborough Community Bus – this was a scheduled bus service run locally.

·         Burnham Health Promotion Trust - this had a positive impact by giving small amounts of money to various local groups.

Christine Gardner (Localities and Communities Manager – Chiltern) told members about the Buckinghamshire Big Society Bank which was run by the Bucks Community Foundation and provided loans to voluntary and community organisations from £1500 to £5000. The money could be used as start-up funding or to fill a funding gap.

Kerry Stevens, Head of Service Provision, Adults and Family Wellbeing

Kerry Stevens told members that Adult Social Care was moving away from a centralised model of provision and that domiciliary care services and day care services would not be provided directly by the County Council in the future.

Another change was the introduction of Self-directed Support. In the past, services had been purchased by Adult Social Care on behalf of individuals. Now the funding would be given directly to the individual to purchase the care they chose. There were significant concerns about the transfer of risk, and there would need to be a balance between choice and control.

Internal domiciliary care services would be wound down over the next two years and provided externally. This was a significant change. Current domiciliary care staff were excellent despite being very low paid. However the current service was very expensive to run. The aim was to meet the needs of clients in the same committed way. Current staff would be offered training and support to set themselves up as micro-businesses.

A member asked how self-directed support would be managed if clients were not capable of making decisions for themselves. Kerry Stevens said that there would be a range of needs and a range of support for these. A brokerage service was being set up to ensure the best deal for social care clients.

A member asked if the existing domiciliary care staff were entitled to pensions. Kerry Stevens said that the current staff were entitled to pensions but that the uptake of the pension scheme had fallen over the last twelve months, probably due to the financial climate.

A member said that the changes to the Domiciliary Care Service had not been communicated to all clients. Kerry Stevens said that no clients would be removed from their current care provider, unless staff were not available. A letter clarifying this would be sent out with the Minutes – Action: KS

Kerry Stevens also told members that social care offices at Chiltern District Council had been shut and staff were encouraged to work in the Community (e.g. in Chesham Library, using a wireless internet connection). This would increase the accessibility of services.

Claire O'Regan, Rafe’s Place

Rafe’s Place provided activities for young people and work experience for students.

Claire O’Regan (Rafe’s Place) told members that in September 2010 Rafe’s Place had run a festival day in Lowndes Park. This was the second time the festival had been held and it was a two-yearly event.

The Local Area Forum had provided £1300 for professional skateboarders to attend the festival. It had been a great day for the young people who had skated with the professionals. Security for the day had cost £200. The day had been co-sponsored by the Bucks Community Foundation.

There had also been a band stage, an acoustic stage and a DJ stage, as well as street art and a big draw. Approximately 1500 young people had attended the day.

Chiltern District Council had since approached Rafe’s Place to carry out a consultation about diversionary activities in four areas. Questionnaires were circulated, including via Facebook. The feedback was that young people wanted to be involved in music production, fashion and DJ-ing.

Rafe’s Place then went on to provide these activities. There had been a 12-week programme in Amersham, with as many as 26 young people in attendance on a Monday night.

In Chalfont St Peter no one had attended the sessions for the first two weeks but following promotion of the sessions, over 50 young people had attended the 12-week programme, which had included the production of a music single about skateboarding.

The 12-week programmes had showed that Rafe’s Place could provide workshops as well as one-off events.

Rafe’s Place was currently gathering information about youth clubs which had had cuts in funding, and intended to run activities via students.

The Chairman noted that the funding cuts were to youth services and youth staff, but that the youth club buildings remained.

Christine Gardner, Localities and Communities Manager - Chiltern

Christine Gardner referred members to the report on pages 9-16 of the agenda pack.

There had been five applications for Local Priorities funding. Members discussed these.

Funding for Building Community Capacity in Chesham and the Villages

This was an application for funding to extend this very successful project to the Chiltern villages. Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards had volunteered to be the first Parish in the project. The request was for funding of £5000.

Funding for Citizens Advice Bureau

A decision on this funding had been deferred at the last meeting. The application was for funding of £5000 to move the premises and for changes including a disabled ramp.

Paul Gosling from the Citizens Advice Bureau was in attendance at the meeting.

Funding for Better Chesham to produce and distribute a ‘Discover Chesham’ Brochure

Peter Jones (Chiltern District Council) was not able to attend the meeting but had asked that his support for this be noted.

The Chairman declared an interest as he had been involved in discussions about this project.

The project was a sub-group of the Commerce of Trade, run by local businessmen.

A member asked how this brochure would differ from other brochures (e.g. the brochure produced by Chesham Town Council). It was noted that this brochure would be more targeted towards shopping, and would also have a larger presence on the internet.

Members agreed that funding should only be given for this if there was formal endorsement for the project from Chesham Town Council.

Funding for activities for young people (five separate schemes)

This was a request from Chiltern District Council for £1818.05. The activities were not entirely dependent on funding from the Chesham and Chiltern Villages Local Area Forum. 

The activities were small projects which made a big difference in local communities.

A member referred to the netball project for Asian girls and said that this needed to include playing matches against different groups, as segregation was not helpful to the community.

Funding for Community Arts Quilt Project

Although members considered this to be a laudable project, they noted the following concerns/queries:

·         The costing included a large amount of money to pay for an artist. However the quilting group was very experienced and could probably design the quilt themselves.

·         How many hours would the artist be employed for?

·         There was no evidence that there was an identified need for this project.

·         As regarded the target group for the project, how many people would be involved, and from which groups?

Members asked that further information on the above be obtained for the next meeting, and decided to defer a decision on the funding for this project until then.

Kim Hardwick, Transport Localities Team, Transport for Buckinghamshire

The Chesham and Chiltern Villages Local Area Forum received the Report of Ann-Marie Davies (Transport Localities Team Leader).

The Chairman told members that since the last meeting Martin Tett had been elected as the new leader of Buckinghamshire County Council, and had decided to re-allocate the expected increase in the Transport Delegated Budget.

Ann-Marie Davies said that the money would be re-allocated to carriageway works (in addition to £15m of additional Government funding). The carriage works would prioritised within each area by the local County Councillor, who would take into account any views held by their residents.

Kim Hardwick (Transport for Buckinghamshire) said that this meant that the Transport Delegated Budget for the Chesham and Chiltern Villages Local Area Forum had returned to the original sum of £34 441. The additional schemes which had been agreed would not be ignored, but would be kept for the future.

Unfortunately the original schemes which the Local Area Forum had agreed had been re-costed and now came to a total of £15 516. In the future initial costings would be more robust so that they would not need to be reviewed.

The original schemes agreed, with revised costings, were in the report.

Also in the Report was a list of possible additional schemes. Members were asked to agree which of these additional schemes should go ahead. The funding had to be allocated by the end of July 2011.

The Salt Bin on Latimer Camp Road was now in place, so this could be removed from the list of schemes.

A member noted that many of the schemes were subject to feasibility studies. Kim Hardwick said that this was due to past requests for Vehicle Activated Signs (VAS) where it had subsequently been found that there was no identified need, or no suitable location.

A member asked if a scheme would be prioritised if the feasibility study found that it was required. Kim Hardwick said that this would depend on the outcome of the feasibility study, and that schemes were not usually given priority unless there was a safety issue.

Feasibility studies for a number of Vehicle Activated Signs would be carried out together to increase efficiency.

Chesham Park Community College had made an application for funding (£30 000) to widen the entrance. This was in addition to the application the College had already had agreed for £3300 to evaluate the pedestrian crossing point (page 2 of the Report).

Graham Tunstall (Business Manager, Chesham Park Community College) was in attendance and gave some additional information about the application for £30 000:

·         The College was working towards its change of status to Academy in September 2011.

·         Funding from the Department for Education was available for environmental improvements.

·         There had been a near-fatal accident during the Easter holidays involving a ten-year-old girl and the proposed changes to the school entrance were for safety reasons.

·         There were currently 700 students but there was a planned increase to 900 students. There were 100 members of staff. There  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

Kim Hardwick, Transport Localities Team, Transport for Buckinghamshire

Members noted the Report.

Service Information Centre

Kim Hardwick asked that any transport issues be reported to the Transport for Buckinghamshire Service Information Centre:

http://www.transportforbucks.net/Transport-and-roads.aspx

The Service Information Centre was also the first port of call for information on community gangs, grass cutting, roadworks etc.

Issues reported to the Centre would be logged and passed to Mike Barber, the Local Area Technician.

A member asked if Cholesbury still had a different community gang schedule to Chesham Town. Kim Hardwick said that she did not think that this was the case, and that the Local Area Technician had planned the schedule for the gangs.

A member of Latimer Parish Council asked about rural grass cutting. Kim Hardwick said that this was carried out by a separate team. Information was on the website via the above link.

There had also been a written question from Fred Wilson (Chiltern District Council):

Re Community Gangs, we received the following message from Chesham Town Hall:

Dear Councillors,

Thank you for responding with your ‘gang’ requests.

"Unfortunately however, Mike Barber from Bucks County Council has just called to say that the gang are extremely busy and cannot fit any more work in on Monday 13^th and that the list which I sent to him will now not be completed until Monday 18^th July - (this is the next day which the gang are scheduled to be in Chesham)."

Are enough resources being provided to Community Gangs and/or is this because they have just started?

Kim Hardwick told members that the Community Gangs had only just started and had therefore got more work than could be undertaken in a one-week period. Considering that this resource had not been available since about October 2010, work had been building for some time, so this visit was already over-subscribed with work. Mike Barber was managing this as best as he could with the resources he had.

Mike Barber was also the person to contact with regard to further work for the Community Gangs.

The website had the most up-to-date information on when the next Community Gang visit would be:

[Link no longer valid]

Germain Street, Chesham

Kim Hardwick reported on the pedestrian crossing scheme in Germain Street which had received funding from the Local Area Forum. A consultation of residents had generated six negative responses. Due to the contentious nature of the decision, it therefore had been escalated to become a key decision, which would need to be taken by the Cabinet member. It was hoped that this would happen shortly and that if agreed, the work would start between August and October 2011.

[Link to the decision taken by the Cabinet member:

http://democracy.buckscc.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=2427 ]

The Scheme would require a higher level of street lighting than was currently in place (6m high columns would be needed as these dispersed light further than 5m columns).

The columns used would be black columns, and not heritage-style columns, due to the limited budget.

The lighting could be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

• 25 June 2011, 9am – 12.30pm, Haddenham
• 28 June 2011, Hazlemere
• 12 July 2011, 6pm – 9.30pm, Winslow - SOLD OUT - Please add your name to the waiting list
• 26 July 2011, 6pm – 9.30pm, Amersham  - SOLD OUT - Please add your name to the waiting list

To book please visit the BALC website - www.bucksalc.gov.uk

Members noted the report.

Members noted the report.

19 October 2011, 7:30pm, venue tbc

19 October 2011, 7:30pm, Latimer House, Latimer (this meeting will include a workshop to review the local priorities for the Local Area Forum).