Meeting documents

South Bucks District Council

Adrian Busby (Chairman)

Santokh Chhokar, Guy Hollis, Maureen Royston and Alan Walters 

 

Buckinghamshire County Council

 

Peter Hardy, Bill Lidgate, and Roger Reed

 

Parish’s / Town Councils

 

Janet Simmonds & Deborah Sanders (Beaconsfield Town Council)

Margaret Skelton (Denham Parish Council)

Diane Needham (Farnham Royal)

Michael C. C. Saxby (Fulmer Parish Council)

Chris Brown, Ian Gordon, & David Peters (Gerrards Cross Parish Council)

Sue Cooper & Michael Rice (Hedgerley Parish Council)

Carol Gibson (Deputy) (Iver Parish Council)

Kathie Webber (Stoke Poges Parish Council)

Mary Trevallion (Taplow Parish Council)

Marion Dunstall (Wexham Parish Council)

 

Thames Valley Police

 

Inspector Bobbi Rai South Bucks Neighbourhood Inspector

 

Voluntary/Community Sector

 

Diane Rutter      Chief Officer Voluntary Action Chiltern and South Bucks

 

Business and Learning Sector

 

Alastair Pike    Chairman Wycombe and South Bucks Chamber of Commerce

Lynne Cairns    Bucks Economic and Learning Partnership

 

Bucks Primary Care Trust: -

 

Clare Blakeway-Phillips   Assistant Director - Partnership DevelopmentBuckinghamshire Primary Care Trust

 

Bucks Fire and Rescue Service

 

Jeremy Williams Bucks Fire and Rescue Service

 Officers

South Bucks District Council

 

Chris Furness      Chief Executive

Marjorie Weaver Democratic Service Officer

Alex Rowland      Policy & Performance Manager 

Rachael Winfield Communications & Partnership Manager

Ian Gillespie        Principal Planning Officer

 

Buckinghamshire County Council

 

Sue Imbriano (Strategic Officer / Liaison role – Director of Children’s Services)

Stephen Young (Area Co-ordinator Locality Services)

 

Apologies for Absence: -

 

PC/TC: -          Bob Slater (Burnham), David Quinton (Denham), Graham Easton & Peter Smith (Dorney), Peter Cathcart  (Farnham Royal) Peter Chapman (Gerrards Cross) and Julian Wilson (Iver)

 

SBDC: -            Naomi Arnold, Ken Brown, Damon Clark and Shorne Tilbey

 

BCC: -               Trevor Egleton (Vice-Chairman), Dev Dhillon, Lin Hazell and Ruth Vigor- Hedderly

 

Faith Community

 

Revd Brian Griffiths (St Peter’s Church, Iver)    Faith Representative

 

Voluntary/Community Sector: -

 

Barbara Davis    Chairman South Bucks Youth Forum

 

Thames Valley Police: -

 

Paul Cook   Chief Inspector   South Bucks LPA Commander

 

Business and Learning Sector: -

 

Ian Johnson       Vice Chairman Wycombe and South Bucks Chamber of Commerce

 

Bucks Fire and Rescue Service

 

Bryan Dugdale   Bucks Fire and Rescue Service

(a)                     to confirm the minutes of the South Bucks Partnership held on 7 July 2009

 

(b)                     to receive any notes from locality forums – Beeches held on 12 August 2009

(a)                The minutes of the meeting of the South Bucks Partnership held on 8 July 2009 were received;

 

(b)                The notes of a meeting of the Beeches Local Area Forum held on 12 August 2009 were received.

None received

QUESTIONS FROM STOKE POGES PARISH COUNCIL

 

(A)        Bells Hill Development – Update on Progress including the security aspects

 

The progress on site is as follows:

 

·         The developer has applied for and received planning consent to change the former library space into retail space.

·         The 10 affordable flats on the lower level have been transferred to a housing association. 

·         Marketing of the large retail space continues and the Pharmacy and Post Office should be relocating to the new development shortly.

·         The green space and landscaping is complete

·         The sale of the residential units continues and a number have been allocated for the governments home buyer direct scheme

 

·         The developer is responsible to manage the security of the development. 

·         The developer or its managing agent will work with the development residents and shop tenants to manage the site to minimise any issues such as vandalism as the site is occupied.

 

·         The Council as Landowner will also engage with the developer to help address any issues that arise. 

·         The developer will be asked about the security measures proposed for the basement parking areas.

 

·         Any issues problems can be communicated to either Chris Marchant at South Bucks on 01895 837200 or Persimmon on 01628 502800 until managing agent appointed

 

Chris Marchant

Head of Environment SBDC

(B)        Wexham Park Hospital Parking

 

I have been involved with parking issues at this site in recent years. Approximately 5 years ago the Hospital facilitated a number of transport workshops that were attended by a number of local stakeholders, to consider a number of problems that had been raised. These included parking issues both within the Hospital site and on the public highway.

 

In terms of parking on Wexham Street, along the frontage of the hospital, the responsibility is split between Buckinghamshire County Council and Slough Borough Council as the boundary between the two authorities crosses this road. One of the issues raised at the workshops concerned the level of parking on both sides of Wexham Street which on occasions had caused obstruction to the passage of Emergency Services to the A & E access at the hospital. Following these discussions, Buckinghamshire County Council introduced double yellow lines to prohibit parking between the Stoke Green roundabout and the A & E access. However, as a result the displaced parking transferred to the north of the hospital in the narrow section of the road, which caused additional problems, and again it was necessary to extend the waiting restrictions to address these issues. In terms of enforcement, parking within Slough Borough Council is decriminalised, and is enforced by their parking attendants. On the Buckinghamshire section, parking is not decriminalised and therefore the responsibility for enforcement still sits with Thames Valley Police. 

 

Another cause of complaint from visitors to the hospital was the method of payment at the car parks within the hospital site. At that time, visitors had to guess how long their appointment may take, and had to decide how much time to buy on their ticket. When appointments over-ran a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

To consider the report of Chris Furness, Chief Executive SBDC

Members considered the report on the Performance through Partnership PtP regarding the workshops held in July 2009.  

 

It was noted that: -

 

·         South Bucks Partnership had secured £4000 from Performance though Partnership PtP Regional Improvement and Efficiency Fund.  The partnership was awarded the money following a self-assessment of the partnership undertaken in November 2008. 

·         The South Bucks Partnership Implementation Group discussed the recommendations from PtP at their meeting in September 2009.  Recommendations from the Implementation Group for improving South Bucks Partnership including changing the format of meetings to include a theme debate for half the meeting (1 hour) on one of the Sustainable Community Strategy Themes.  Partners would be given information in their agenda packs to inform table discussions.  Each table would be asked to feedback actions for improvement and recommendations for improving partnership working within this theme. 

·         The implementation group would draw up a work plan, to include actions for improvement identified through undertaking a gap analysis on the Sustainable Community Strategy and actions and improvements identified at Partnership meetings either through the theme debate or other reports and discussions.  This would enable the partnership to track change and improvements and request feedback on actions from partner organisations responsible to achieving actions and outcomes. 

§         The District Council with support from the Implementation Group would draft a handbook with relevant information to support partners including terms of reference for the partnership, what was expected of partners – their roles and responsibilities, a list of acronyms.  This hopefully would be ready for circulation at the next meeting.  It would also be a useful guide for new members joining the partnership.

·         The Implementation Group discussed its role and the role of sub-groups supporting the Implementation Group and the delivery of the Sustainable Community Strategy.  The Bucks Policy Officers Group had been working on a project to improve communication of information to members of Local Strategic Partnerships; this included the South Bucks Partnership. 

·         A new partnership website was being developed which would have a section for the South Bucks Partnership for partners to report on successful partnership working in South Bucks and have a "know your community section" partners would be able to access with ward profiles and other statistical information about South Bucks and Bucks communities.  

 

RESOLVED that the recommendations for improving the South Bucks Partnership and moving it forward be agreed as set out in Appendix B to the report

To consider the report of Chris Furness, Chief Executive SBDC

Members considered the update on the publication of the Sustainable Community Strategy and the planned delivery of the outcomes.

 

It was noted that: - 

 

·         The new Sustainable Community Strategy was approved at the last South Bucks Partnership meeting on 8th July 2009, approved by the District Council Cabinet and Council and by the County Council Cabinet and Council in September.

·         The Sustainable Community Strategy would be delivered in many ways, these include via existing strategies such as the Local Development Framework, the Cohesion and Inequalities Strategy and the South Bucks Community Safety Strategy.  The South Bucks Partnership Implementation Group would oversee the delivery of progress against outcomes in the Sustainable Community Strategy and feedback to the partnership. 

·         This action plan would include actions and improvements identified via the South Bucks Partnership theme debates to be held on each of the five themes from the Sustainable Community Strategy and other actions identified by partners from discussions held at partnership meetings. 

·         An Innovation Fund of £50,000 had been allocated to the South Bucks Partnership by members of the County and District Leaders Meeting.  The South Bucks Partnership Implementation Group had agreed some criteria for the allocation of the funding and would oversee the allocation of funding and report back to the partnership. 

·         Performance through Partnership (PtP) was offering a third year of its Central Fund through which every South East Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) was eligible for £6000 of regional improvement and efficiency funds for partnership development activity.  These activities had to be linked the development needs of the partnership and to a new self-assessment to be undertaken for the South Bucks Partnership.

·         In 2008/09 the South Bucks Partnership secured £4000 of PtP Central Fund, £2000 was used to fund the improvement workshops run by PtP in July 2009 and £2000 was used for a joint countywide project to consult with vulnerable and seldom heard groups to inform the Sustainable Community Strategy.

 

Following discussion the following gaps were identified: - day care for the elderly and respite care for caring for children.

 

RESOLVED that the update and the appendices be noted

To receive the background information to inform your discussion

The first part of the themed debate Thriving Economy was introduced by: -

 

Alastair Pike, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce – South Bucks and Wycombe Branch and Lynne Cairns, Bucks Economic and Learning Partnership (BELP).

 

The following comments were made by: -

 

Chamber of Commerce – South Bucks and Wycombe Branch

 

South Bucks and Wycombe was an area which promoted entrepreneurship and was attractive to businesses of all types.

Representing businesses across South Bucks and Wycombe, the Chamber actively supported businesses based in this geographical area helping them to grow and prosper.

Working closely with local authorities and key stake holders, the Chamber Council was focused on supporting businesses in three key areas: -

·         Business Challenges: - People & Skills; Finance; Business Development

·         Transport and Infrastructure: - Innovative Park & Ride; Town Centre; Road Capacity; Parking

·         Environment and Community: - Green Issues; Skill, Education and the affects of a mixed community; Business Crime

 

BELP

·         Buckinghamshire was the entrepreneurial heart of Britain.

·         (BELP) aimed to promote the sustainable economic development of Buckinghamshire.

·         BELP was a lobbying organisation and "think-tank", bringing together the private sector, public authorities and the community to ensure Buckinghamshire remained a thriving and prosperous place in which to live and work.

·         BELP worked in partnership with a wide range of organisations to ensure that Buckinghamshire: -

·         Was a place where business was welcomed;

·         encouraged business improvement, through innovation, productivity and competitiveness;

·         supported a community where all benefited from the advantages of a dynamic business sector;

·         built a future where the economy was vibrant, diverse and world-class;

• researched and developed the skills and training needs of young people and adults to meet the requirements of businesses in the county.

 

·         BELP worked in a variety of ways to achieve these objectives: -

·         Commissioning research into the economy of the County, for example by investigating the amount of land available for commercial activity.

·         Commenting upon major planning proposals which will shape the economic future of the area.

·         Supporting initiatives which promote business development, for example Enterprise Hubs in Aylesbury and High Wycombe.

·         Working in partnership with other agencies to promote investment in infrastructure.

·         Working with a wide range of both public and private sector training providers, FE/HE colleges and universities to ensure a cohesive and varied curriculum is available to all.

 

The following comments were also made: -

 

·         BELP had a leading role in generating growth / leadership / new skills for the 21st century across the whole of the County

·         Leading to a balanced economy

·         Buckinghamshire had a high business start up rate - could help with sign posting for Businesses and start up

·         What did the sub-group want to achieve

·         In certain Wards there were definite skill gaps

 

Focus for first discussion: -

ØAim 1: Build business, enterprise and innovation and promote global competitiveness

ØAim 2: Develop skills and employment for the future

ØAim 5: Promote investment in South Bucks

Including: -

ØWhat areas of work should the partnership prioritise?

ØWhat  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.

To consider the report of Diane Rutter – on behalf of the Buckinghamshire ChangeUp Consortium

In June 2009 representatives from 25 different charities and voluntary organisations identified the following common experiences of the effect of the recession on their services.

·        An increase in demand for their services

·         An increase in volunteers coming forward

·         A reduction in funding and donations

·         An increased pressure on overstretched resources

 

This information arose from a Surviving the Recession workshop held on 18 June.

 

Participants shared their experiences of the impact of the recession on their service delivery. Opportunities and resources to support voluntary organisations were also explored, in particular the benefits of collaborative working and mergers.

 

The participants asked the Changeup Consortium to present a paper to local strategic partnerships on their behalf asking partners to consider what they could do to help local voluntary and community groups to survive the recession.

 

Following points emerged from the Members: -

·         Voluntary organisations needed a higher profile and direction was needed on tapping into the various different sorts of funding available

·         Building Bucks  - PCT were looking at the Health Care and were organising a workshop in the Spring

·         The number of short term volunteers had increased due to the economic climate and may in time become long term volunteers.

 

Diane Rutter the co-ordinator for Voluntary Action Chiltern and South Bucks requested that if any Members had any ideas on how to improve the support in the Volunteer sector either in kind, cash or recognition please could they email her direct on diane.volaction@googlemail.com

To note the information provided by Clare Blakeway-Phillips, (PCT)

Members noted the information sheet provided by Clare Blakeway-Phillips, (PCT) on Healthy Minds – Buckinghamshire Primary Care Wellbeing Service which provided a single point of access for all referrals for people with common mental health problems needing cognitive behaviour therapy.

To receive the Newsletter and an oral report on the Bucks Pathfinder –

Chris Furness, Chief Executive SBDC

 

 

 

 

 

The Partnership considered an oral report from Chris Furness, the Chief Executive of SBDC on Pathfinder.

 

He made the following comment: - two bidders had been asked to submit outline proposals for Support Services by 17/11/09, at which point each Partner would have to decide if they wished to proceed to the next detailed stage.

(a)                     To consider any other business which the Chairman considers is urgent

 

(b)          Items for consideration at future meetings

(A)                           Bucks Strategic Partnership Carbon Management Survey

 

The Policy and Performance Manager reminded the Partnership of Marylene Mansfield-Williams’s email concerning carbon emissions sent on 23 September 2009 and return the short questionnaire: - link www.ceac.co.uk/survey.html 

 

It was noted that theEnvironment Task Group of the Bucks Strategic Partnership was conducting a survey to establish which partner organisations had a programme of work in place to reduce carbon emissions and to adapt to climate change. This survey was an important first step in identifying areas in which partnerships could work together to combat climate change.

 

It was hoped to hold a countywide workshop in the New Year to raise awareness of all Bucks Partners on climate change mitigation, adaptation and energy reductions and to gain information on energy efficiency and renewables; exchange best practice; identify areas where further work is needed and combat climate change as a Partnership.

 

(B)                            Themed Debate for the next Meeting

 

The Partnership themed debate for the next meeting on 27 January 2009 would be the Sustainable Environment.

The following provisional dates have been made, each on a Wednesday, commencing at 6.00 p.m. but may be subject to change: -

 

27 January 2010                   21 April 2010 – changed to 19 May 2010

 

14 July 2010                          6 October 2010

	Members noted that the future meetings of the South Bucks Partnership would be held on Wednesdays, commencing at 6 00 p.m. as follows but may be subject to change: -   27 January 2010                        19 May 2010   14 July 2010                              6 October 2010
The next meeting of the Committee is due to be held on Wednesday, 27 January 2010

 

The meeting having commenced at 6.00 p.m. terminated at 8.06 p.m.