Meeting documents

To confirm the appointment of Lesley Clarke, as Chairman of the Local Community Partnership.

The Local Community Partnership confirmed Lesley Clarke as Chairman for the ensuing year.  Members noted that the Chairman would be a County Councillor with the Vice-Chairman usually being a District Councillor.  

To confirm the appointment of Arif Hussain as Vice-Chairman.

ArifHussain and Ray Farmer were both nominated as Vice-Chairman. A vote was held which resulted in 4 votes for both nominees.  It was decided to defer the item to the next meeting and members agreed that Arif Hussain should chair this particular meeting.

Apologies were received from Lesley Clarke, Paul Lambourne, Julie Pritchard, Frank Downes and David Shakespeare.

To declare any personal or prejudicial interests

There were none.

Ian Reed, Senior Area Co-ordinator, Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) took members through the report.  In response to members’ questions and during the subsequent discussion, the following points were noted:

·         It was suggested that two representatives from the Level 1 meetings would sit on the Local Community Partnership (LCP) to act as a link.  Members wanted to know how these representatives would be selected.  It was envisaged that the Level 1 meetings (or Community Action Groups (CAG) would nominate their representatives to join the LCP. The LCP was designed to be a more strategic group and Level 1 (CAG) meetings were aimed more at the ‘grass roots’. Currently there was only one Level 1 CAG meeting in this area, running as a pilot, but once it rolled out across the district there would then be an increased representation on the LCP and membership might have to be reviewed.

·         Members were confused over the Level 1,2 and 3 meetings.  CAGs are based on Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG) areas so ultimately there would be 16 within High Wycombe. The pilot is Downley/Disraeli and the first meeting would be held on 27 Oct at 7pm at the Pastures Free Methodist Church.

·         A member commented that currently some community groups such as those in Loudwater, Castlefield & Micklefield/Totteridge feed into the Wycombe Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), which is a Level 3 meeting, therefore bypassing the Level 2 meeting ie the LCP.

·         Steve Orchard, BCC Getting Closer to Communities Programme Adviser, explained that there has been pressure from Central Government to develop locality working and different models were springing up all over the country.  Ideally for Wycombe District area, the16 CAGs (Level 1) will feed into the 4 LCPs, which then in turn would refer up to the LSP.  Wycombe District Council (WDC) faced a big challenge to build up the CAGs alongside the NAG meetings.  However, as a group of 5 authorities (4 District Councils and the County Council) Bucks were ahead of many others nationally.

·         A member asked how Wycombe Town Committee fitted into the structure and was advised that as High Wycombe District Councillors were all members of the Town Committee, they were automatically members of the LCP too.

·         The previously delegated Transportation budget of £125,000 which had been allocated to the Wycombe Local Committee was now divided between 4 LCPs in the Wycombe District Area so High Wycombe LCP would have approximately £33,000.  The deadline for schemes to be submitted for this pot of money was the end of December 2008.  Eric Meek, BCC Acting Group Manager Area Maintenance and Management (South) explained that realistically smaller jobs such as footpaths and installing bollards would be the types of schemes that could be undertaken.  If parishes wished to match fund then larger schemes could be considered.  The old Local Committee matrix would be used to judge the schemes initially. 

·         Members agreed that future meetings of the LCP should start at 7pm to allow people who work to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

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 facilitate a full answer on the day of the meeting.  Questions sent in advance will be dealt with first and verbal questions after.

Members were advised that the LCP meetings would feature a regular item for public questions.  Written questions would be invited in advance of the meeting and these would be dealt with first, followed by any other questions.  

None received

No petitions were received.

Presentation by Jo Oliver of the Fire and Rescue Service

Members received a presentation from Jo Oliver, Community Safety & Prevention Officer. Home Safety Checks Schemes were now operating in Chiltern District & Aylesbury Vale and Jo is currently training staff in Wycombe.  Anti Social Parking was being addressed via leaflets & working in conjunction with the Police. Jo was also running Youth Diversion Schemes to promote team building skills among young people.

Jo has trained Police Officers on fire safety issues and Adult Social Care were working with the Fire Service and Thames Valley Police to train them on what services Adult Social Care can offer, in order to help them spot and assist vulnerable adults in the community.

Russ Murden

Inspector Russ Murden, Thames Valley Police, gave an update on Neighbourhood Action Groups (NAGs).  Most NAGS were now in place but not all had non-police chairs.  Some were better attended than others.  A member asked if Russ was concerned that the CAG (Level 1) meetings might conflict with the NAGs.  Russ responded that he had an open mind - if CAGs & NAGs ultimately merged then that would be acceptable as long as services were being delivered better and harder to reach groups were being consulted. Another member commented that it would be useful if the NAGs and CAGS could be co-terminus. Russ explained that the NAG boundaries were set by HQ with no local input.

The Local Community Partnership is invited to suggest items for a Forward Plan of work. 

Madeleine Howe explained that the LCP would develop a Forward Plan of work to reflect issues of concern to members.  Members were asked for suggestions.

A member asked if the black roundabout at Kings Square, which had previously been the site of a war memorial, could be adopted by the local church, who wanted to plant flowers on it to improve its appearance.  Eric Meek commented that this had been requested before but at the time BCC had a contract for all roundabouts to be sponsored.  This was no longer in place and the island was most definitely BCC owned so he believed this could be organised.

Action: Eric Meek

Another member mentioned that vans often park on the double yellow lines around said island - Caroline Hughes said that she would ask Civil Enforcement to look into this issue

Action: Caroline Hughes

Members requested an amended NAG map to go with the minutes.

Action: Russ Murden 

The following items were agreed for the Forward Plan:

Provision of Community Facilities

Provision of Youth Facilities

Plans for old Wycombe Library building

Provision of education in East Wycombe due to population expansion

Health Provision

Children's Centres

Night time Transport Issues

Reshaping of Frogmoor

Jo Oliver reported that on 13th December she would be out in Frogmoor between 10pm and 4am giving out water and food discount vouchers, encouraging people to eat before going home to lessen the likelihood of kitchen fires caused by cooking when intoxicated.

Kyle Banks introduced himself as the BCC Adult Social Care Getting Closer to Communities contact for High Wycombe.  In this role he would be acting as a point of contact and signposting for residents.

Karen Adamson, informed members that Adult Social Care drop in surgeries would be held on the following dates:

21st November 10am-1pm in High Wycombe Library

26th November 2.30pm-5pm at Surestart in Castlefield

2nd December 10am -1pm at High Wycombe British Legion

Karen was happy to try and arrange sessions for individual local groups if members wished to advise her of any.  In 2009 she hoped to conduct sessions on the mobile library service as well.

Suggested dates for 2009

Wednesday 21^st January 2009

Wednesday 15th April 2009

Wednesday 22nd July 2009

Wednesday 14th October 2009

Venues to be advised

All meetings will commence at 7pm

Wednesday 21^st January 2009 at Millbrook School

Wednesday 15th April 2009

Wednesday 22nd July 2009

Wednesday 14th October 2009

Venues to be advised