Meeting documents

PC/TC :-        Michael Saxby, (Fulmer Parish Council); Maureen Seymour (Penn Parish Councils); Bill Richards (Chesham Town Clerk); Amersham; Ashley Green; Burnham; Chalfont St. Giles; Chalfont St. Peter; Chartridge;  Chenies; Chesham Bois; Cholesbury-cum-St. Leonards; Coleshill; Denham; Dorney; Farnham Royal; Great Missenden; Hedgerley; Iver; Latimer & Ley Hill; Little Missenden; Seer Green; Taplow; The Lee; Wexham.

SBDC:-   The Earl of Stockton

 

CDC:-    Jeremy Ryman

BCC:-    David Martin, Mark Shaw, David Schofield, Rodger Reed and Ruth    Vigor-Hedderly

BCC Officers:-         Christine Gardiner; Gillian Hibberd

Voluntary/ Community Sector

Diane Rutter             Community Impact Bucks

Faith Community

Rev Bill Jackson   Faith representative (St Peter’s Church, Burnham)  

Parvinder Matheru   Faith Representative

Business and Learning Sector

Felix Adenaike         Amersham and Wycombe College

Alastair Pike              Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce

Rodney Mallinson               Federation of Small Businesses

Rupert Waters          Bucks Business First 

Linda Walton            Federation of Small Businesses

Alastair Pike              Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce (South Bucks)

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the inaugural meeting of the joint Chiltern and South Bucks Strategic Partnership. The location will alternate between South Bucks and Chiltern Council Chambers, with the Chairmanship also alternating between each District Council’s Leader. This will be trialled for 12 months, to be reviewed in April 2014. The Partnership wishes to engage with as many Town and Parish Councils and local organisations as possible through these meetings.

The Partnership received a report outlining the terms of reference for the Chiltern and South Bucks Strategic Partnership and the steering group. The steering group is a smaller group which helps steer the wider Partnership. The terms of reference will be reviewed in April 2014 as part of the joint Partnership review. Feedback or comments on the Terms of Reference were invited, with none forthcoming.  Partners were asked to advise if the membership as listed included all relevant parties.

RESOLVED that:-

2.1       The Terms of Reference and membership lists were agreed for both the Strategic Partnership and the Steering Group.

The Partnership welcomed Richard Buck, Review Manager from the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. Richard gave a presentation explaining the review process, relevant considerations, input from Town and Parishes and the timetable (see appendix A). It was noted that as Chiltern District Council has decided against a review at this time, this applies to South Bucks district only.

A transcript of the presentation appears in appendix A.

The chairman thanked Richard Buck for his very informative presentation, noting that South Bucks requested this electoral review specifically so that each Councillor will represent a similar number of residents. There were no questions.

The Partnership received a presentation from Tony Peak, Housing Manager at South Bucks District Council and Michael Veryard, Principal Housing Officer at Chiltern District Council. The presentation discussed the current housing situation in Chiltern and South Bucks, and the measures implemented by the Councils to help people.

A transcript of the presentation appears in appendix B.

In discussions after the meeting the following points were noted:

-        The demand from the elderly was currently being met through the Bucks Home Choice Network in Chiltern, however there is a trend for increasing numbers of elderly people which could push up demand

-        Private landlords rent prices haven’t dropped because of the high demand levels

-        Those benefiting from transferring houses from a one or two bedroom property to three bedroom property or vice versa were South Bucks residents within South Bucks

-        South Bucks has currently 17 households staying in Bed and Breakfast accommodation; Chiltern has none at present, as there is a greater supply of temporary accommodation.

-        Should there be viability issues for a developer in respect of paying a commuted sum, discussions and negotiations would be entered into to find an appropriate solution.

The Chairman thanked Tony Peak and Michael Veryard for their presentation.

The Partnership then received a presentation from Alison Hadden, Chief Executive of Paradigm Housing. Alison’s presentation explained how social housing is provided.

A transcript of the presentation appears in appendix C.

After the discussion the Chairman thanked Alison Hadden for her presentation.

The Partnership then received a presentation on housing from Jeremy Hutchings, Assistant Director at London & Quadrant Housing Trust. Jeremy’s presentation explained how housing associations are being affected by the new welfare reforms.

 

A transcript of the presentation appears in appendix D.

In discussions after the presentation, the following points were noted:

-        Alison Hadden commented that Paradigm were encouraging people to work enough hours for their benefits to kick back in for example 18 hours per week for single people and 24 hours a week for couples.

-        It was confirmed that in Chiltern, 300 households were affected by the under occupancy rules, 50 of which under occupied by 2 or more bedrooms. 20 families in Chiltern are affected by the benefit cap. The higher impacted households tend to be those with large families.

-        Currently the benefit cap is based on average earned income, Government are already looking at this, which could mean it is reduced in the future.

The Chairman thanked Jeremy Hutchings for his presentation, noting that affordable housing is one of the big issues for all the Districts across Buckinghamshire over the next few years.

The Partnership received a presentation by Joy Shakespeare, Programme Lead for Families First at Buckinghamshire County Council. Joy’s presentation explained what Families First was and how successful the project has been within the county.

A transcript of the presentation appears in appendix E.

In discussions after the presentation, the following points were noted:

-          Out of 225 families identified for this programme across Bucks, only one family refused to sign the consent form.

-          This is making real changes to people’s lives. There is less crime and more people in work within the families already being worked with, which is better for the whole community.

-          There is space on all work streams for Members to join (Councillors)

-          The Manchester model, which was piloted for 5 years, costs out each ‘incident’ so that the incidents per family unit per year can be calculated prior to and after intervention. Savings per family per year averaged £29,000 in Manchester, nationally this is averaging £34,000, with Bucks falling somewhere in between.

-          All aspects of family life are tackled, including nutrition. One worker taught a mum to cook a mean every day for 5 days so that they can provide nutritious meals for their family.  Another worker noticed that a young mother didn’t know how to play with her child, so spent a couple of hours teaching her to do this.

After the presentation the Chairman thanked Joy Shakespeare for her presentation. The Chairman also commented on how sceptical people were when the scheme was first presented nine months ago. However Joy and her team have made some good progress since then. It was suggested that Joy come back in six months’ time to give a further update. 

The Partnership received a report from Alan Goodrum, Chiltern and South Bucks District Council’s Chief Executive. The Sustainable Community Strategies set out a vision for each district, identifying each Local Strategic Partnership’s long-term aims.  The strategies sit at the apex of all strategic and service plans across each district, enabling the promotion of this long term vision for improving our economic, environmental and social wellbeing. It was noted that both Chiltern and South Bucks’ Sustainable Community Strategies cover the same themes (thriving economy, sustainable environment, safe communities, health and wellbeing and cohesive and strong communities). After mapping the details, it seemed there are not many differences, and as they were written in 2009 it was time for a refresh. The plan is to prepare a draft Joint Sustainable Community Strategy to present to the Steering Group in September and then to present it to the wider Partnership in October for feedback.

RESOLVED that:-

6.1       The report was noted

6.2       Draft Sustainable Community Strategy would be presented to the wider Partnership in October for review.

The Partnership received a report from Rachel Prance, Principal Officer for Policy, Performance & Communications, Chiltern and South Bucks District Council. The report contained the annual Partnership reports for the Chiltern Community Partnership and South Bucks Partnership. These would be the final reports from the individual Partnerships as they have now merged into the Chiltern and South Bucks Strategic Partnership.

RESOLVED that:-

7.1       The Annual Reports were noted

The Partnership received this report from Rachel Prance. In 2009 each Partnership was allocated £50,000 from the Bucks Strategic Partnership Implementation Group (BSPIG). The money had to be spent within the District it was allocated to. South Bucks successfully spent all the funding, details of which are in appendix A to the report.

Chiltern has £21,347 of the funding remaining. The funding must be allocated by December 2013 and spent by April 2014. The funding can only be spent within Chiltern District. A small working group has been set up which consists of: Cllr Peter Hudson, Lynn Trigwell, Liz Wright, Diane Rutter, Melanie Williamson and Richard Vine. The working group will be looking at a similar allocation process to the one South Bucks used. The group will be meeting in the later part of August.

RESOLVED that:-

8.1       The report was noted

The Chairman drew the meeting’s attention to the proposed forward plan, which was noted. Should any Partner wish to put forward items for the forward plan, please contact Aisha Bi (abi@chiltern.gov.uk) or Laura Campbell (Laura.Campbell@SouthBucks.gov.uk).

Members noted that future meetings of the Chiltern and South Bucks Strategic Partnership would be held as follows, commencing at 6.00p.m., but may be subject to change: -

•           16th October 2013, Chiltern District Council Chamber

•           24th April 2014, South Bucks District Council Chamber