Meeting documents

Apologies for absence were received from Peter Cathcart, Frank Downes, Malcolm Godwin, Lin Hazell, Vale Letheren, Ian Reed, Irene Thompson and Chris Williams.

There were no declarations of interest.

of the meeting held on 15 March 2007 to be confirmed as a correct record.

The Minutes of the meeting of the County and Parishes Liaison Committee on 15 March 2007 were confirmed as a correct record.

For information item - updated document attached as per the action from the Minutes.

Members received and considered the update on targeted support for specific groups of young people in the GC2C areas.

A member made reference to the recent report of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Community and Environmental Services to Cabinet about involving young people in decision making and local democracy. He suggested that Parish Councils should set up Youth Councils to run in parallel to the Parish Council. He would welcome a policy from BALC about the involvement of young people at the parish level. The Chairman undertook to look into the possibility of including an article in the BALC magazine.

Action: Patrick Martin

Another member suggested that the Cabinet Member for Achievement and Learning could attend a meeting of the Local Association to discuss youth involvement further.

The Deputy Leader of the County Council explained that members of the UK Youth Parliament attended meetings of the County Council’s Cabinet twice a year. The Council was also setting up a shadowing system which would pair young people with relevant Cabinet Members if there was a particular issue the young person wished to explore. This could potentially, be broadened out to other Members of the County Council in future.

The GC2C Programme Manager reported that for the first time the resident’s attitude survey would invite views from 13-16year olds in Buckinghamshire. The Programme Manager indicated he could share the outcome with members of the Committee.

Action: Steve Orchard

Ian Reed

Steve Orchard explained that the Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire (MKOB) improvement partnership was a vehicle for community led planning in collaboration with partners. Community planning involved identifying the distinctive needs of an area and looking at how agencies could work together to best meet those needs.

Under the auspices of the partnership, work was being done with Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups in Wycombe and Age Concern was delivering a project called ‘Voices and Choices’ which aims to give older people the opportunity to gain the confidence and skills required to take an active part in ‘public involvement’.  Other projects included one for young people in Princes Risborough and it was noted that in Wycombe the Youth Council had changed its name to the Youth Cabinet. Another project was around Member development and a member event had been held in Stokenchurch on 27 June 2007.

A member asked about the involvement of parishes in the improvement partnership and Steve Orchard undertook to report back on this.

Action: Steve Orchard

A member expressed disappointment at the change of the Youth Council’s name. He felt that a Youth Cabinet disenfranchised young people. Steve Orchard agreed to feed that back to Ian Reed.

Action: Steve Orchard

Steve Orchard

Steve Orchard reported that all Parish Councils had been consulted on the document a New Deal for Buckinghamshire - A Model for the Working Relationship between Buckinghamshire County and District Councils and Parish Councils. He thanked those Parishes that had responded but reported that only 36 of the 160 had done so. Responses would be collated and it was anticipated that BALC would endorse the agreement on behalf of its member Councils. All Parishes that were not members of BALC had been contacted to secure their endorsement. It was hoped that the agreement would be finalised by the end of the year.

Discussion Item

Patrick Martin reported that BALC had held a training event at Green Park Conference Centre 3 weeks previously. 85 people had attended and, due to the popularity of the session, it was hoped to run a similar event looking at Planning/Development Control and Pathfinder. The Deputy Leader of the Council offered to talk about Pathfinder the following evening at the BALC meeting.

Action: Bill Chapple

It was suggested that the New Deal for Parishes was a potential training topic.

Malcolm Godwin

Members received and considered Malcolm Godwin’s update on the Rural Towns initiative. A member requested that the definition of a market town be circulated.

Action: Malcolm Godwin

Richard Pushman

Richard Pushman spoke about the requirements that needed to be met for parishes to achieve Quality Status and the benefits of doing so. He strongly encouraged parishes to apply for Quality Status as did the Deputy Leader of the County Council, reminding members that Quality status was the recognised delivery vehicle for devolved County Council service provision. Steve Orchard added that small Quality Councils could sub-contract to other Councils to undertake the devolved service. Parish Councils wanting assistant with training Parish Clerks should contact the County Council in this regard.

Councils currently holding Quality Status were Aylesbury, Buckingham, Burnham, Chesham, Gerrard’s Cross, Iver, Little Marlow, Newport Pagnall, Stoney Stratford and West Wycombe.

A member asked for clarification about the 80% rule and the electoral mandate test. Richard Pushman referred to the criteria for qualification and agreed to provide this information to the Wycombe Association of Local Councils. 

Action: Richard Pushman

None

To be agreed – 3 April 2008 at 2.30pm in Mezzanine Room 2 is proposed.

2.30pm, 3 April 2008 in Mezzanine Room 2.