Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Matt Knight and Arman Alam.

·       In connection with agenda item 6, Councillor Mimi Harker declared an interest as Vice-Chairman of the Missenden’s Community Board and Councillor Ashley Waite declared an interest as the Chairman of the Haddenham and Waddesdon Community Board.

·       In connection with agenda item 7, Councillor Mimi Harker declared an interest as a Domestic Abuse and Violence Champion for Buckinghamshire Council.

·       In connection with agenda item 7, Councillor Gregory Smith declared an interest as he worked for the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.

The minutes of the meeting held on 17 January 2023 to be confirmed as a correct record.

The minutes of the meeting held on 17^th January 2023 were agreed as a correct record.

Members expressed their sympathy for the victims of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. The Chairman encouraged the public to offer financial support to victims where possible.

Public questions is an opportunity for people who live, work or study in Buckinghamshire to put a question to a Select Committee.

The Committee will hear from members of the public who have submitted questions in advance relating to items on the agenda. The Cabinet Member, relevant key partners and responsible officers will be invited to respond.

Further information on how to register can be found here: https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/your-council/get-involved-with-council-decisions/select-committees/

There were no public questions.

The Chairman thanked Members and presenters for their contributions to the last meeting. A letter had been sent to East West Rail and HS2 to summarise the main points discussed and key actions agreed in the meeting, which had been circulated to Committee Members. An update would be provided once a response had been received.

The Select Committee will review the progress of work on implementation of recommendations made in the Community Board review report which was presented to Cabinet on 10th May 2022.

Contributors:

Cllr Steve Bowles, Cabinet Member for Communities

Roger Goodes, Service Director – Policy and Communications

Wendy Morgan-Brown, Head of Community Boards

The Chairman welcomed Councillor Steve Bowles, Cabinet Member for Communities; Roger Goodes, Service Director, Policy and Communications and Wendy Morgan-Brown, Head of Community Boards, to the meeting.

The Chairman explained that the purpose of this item was to receive an update following the Select Committee’s review of the operation of the community boards. The review report, including recommendations, had been presented to Cabinet in May 2022.

During the presentation, the following key points were raised:

·       Since the Select Committee’s review there had been a demonstrable change in how Community Boards operated, in particular in terms of value for money. Community Boards had also been subject to a member task and finish group review and a review as part of the Better Buckinghamshire programme.

·       Community Boards were not simply grant giving bodies. Community Boards played an important part in facilitating activity and engaging local partners to improve the local community. Examples included a repair café, tree planting schemes and the establishment of a community hub.

·       Since their inception, Community Boards had delivered over 840 local projects, with a financial value of over £9 million, nearly half of which was provided by partners. Over the next financial year, there would be an increased focus on delivering further improvements, increasing contributory funding, reducing overheads and considering changes to the Boards in line with the Electoral Boundary Review which would be published shortly.

·       It was noted that the forthcoming change of Highways Contract had led to some delays in transport related Community Board projects.

The following points were noted during the Committee’s discussion:

·       A Member noted that the new electoral boundaries would be implemented for the 2025 elections therefore if Community Boards were revised in light of boundary changes, this would need to be operational for 2025. The Cabinet Member commented that boundary changes would be taken into account as part of this year’s Community Board review and it could be that the number of Boards would be slightly reduced. 

·       Members expressed concern that changes could lead to a further reduction in the Community Board budget and it was important that Community Boards were well-funded.  The Cabinet Member explained that whilst the Community Board budget was being reduced for the coming financial year, there was a small underspend from 2022-23, where some projects had been delayed and reviewed and this would be carried forward to offset the reduction. 

·       In response to a question on improving community engagement with Community Boards, it was noted that some Community Board managers now worked in Parish Council offices and out in the community, which was encouraging more collaborative working. In addition, over the summer, there had been various Community Board events, which saw members of the public finding out more about the role of the Boards, helping to create a more positive image.

·       A Member asked for examples of how the Community Boards had positively reinforced Council campaigns as this could be another way of providing value in addition to funding community projects.  It was reported that successes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Select Committee will review how the Council and Partner organisations are working together to prevent violence against women and girls. 

Contributors:

Cllr Steve Bowles, Cabinet Member for Communities

Gideon Springer, Head of Community Safety

The Chairman welcomed Gideon Springer, Head of Community Safety to the meeting.

The Chairman explained that at Council in November, Members took part in White Ribbon Day, with several Members signing up to become Domestic Abuse Champions. The programme involved two days of training to learn how best to support victims.

During the presentation, the following key points were raised:

·       Training courses for Members wishing to become domestic abuse champions are run throughout the year. Since White Ribbon Day, 33 Councillors and 160 other partners had signed up to the programme. Members interested in the programme were advised to contact Faye Blunstone.

·       The Council was part of the Domestic Abuse Partnership Board and a subgroup had been set up to focus specifically on violence against women and girls (VAWG), which worked with key partners to positively impact womens’ safety. The group had four objectives:

- Early intervention and prevention focussed on several issues including domestic abuse, stalking and female genital mutilation.

- Supporting victims, through statutory and non-statutory organisations and the voluntary sector. Further information can be found on the new domestic abuse website, which also included support for women who were victims of violence in other environments.

- Pursuing perpetrators in partnership with the police.

- Strengthening the partnership response: identifying pathways for victims to come forward. Violence against women and girls was significantly underreported. Much of this objective focussed around communicating with victims to ensure they receive support through judicial and non-judicial interventions by the police.

The following points were noted during the Committee’s discussion:

·       The Chairman thanked Mr Springer for his work on the subject and highlighted the importance of communicating the issue to the public, for example through distributing posters outlining ways that individuals could get support.

·       Cllr Stuchbury posed the following question which included national figures from the Office of National Statistics: According to recent ONS statistics, in the year ending June 2022, 194,683 sexual offences were reported to the Police nationally but just 4,466 rape cases were referred to the CPS. Of these, referrals, charges were brought in 2385 cases. While this was a slight increase on the previous year, it falls short of the 3,671 cases in which charges were brought in 2016.

In the year to June 2022, there were 1,765 convictions for rape, compared to 2,991 convictions in 2016.

Have we got any comparable data for Buckinghamshire or the wider Thames Valley area? I think it is important to understand a baseline of data so that we can see how partnership working to prevent violence against women and girls translates into reporting of offences and subsequent prosecution and conviction of perpetrators, so that we can give more confidence to individuals in disclosing traumatic events that have happened to them.

·        In response, Mr Springer emphasised that the ONS data only included reported incidents and it was important to note that rape and sexual assault against females were significantly underreported crimes. The Council’s aim was to increase the reporting of offenses, as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Members will learn about the work of the Buckinghamshire Film Office in its first year of operation.

Contributors:

Cllr Clive Harriss, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure

Sophie Payne, Service Director, Culture, Sport and Leisure

Ruth Bryant, Buckinghamshire Film Officer 

The Chairman welcomed Councillor Clive Harriss, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, Sophie Payne, Service Director, Culture, Sport and Leisure and Ruth Bryant, Buckinghamshire Film Officer, to the meeting.

The Film Office offered a service for people wanting to film in locations across Buckinghamshire. The service was self-funding, meaning that the income ot the Council from filming fees covered the costs of the service.

The following points were noted during the Committee’s discussion:

·       A Member noted that most of Buckinghamshire’s filming locations were centred around infrastructure in the South of the county and asked whether the North would become more involved in the film business in the future. Cllr Harriss noted that the whole of the county had already been involved in terms of location filming. In terms of film studio sites, individual companies could choose their locations and the south of the county had proved popular in the past as it was to the West of London where there had traditionally been studios at Ealing and Park Royal and many skilled technicians who had commuted into London in the past lived nearby.

·       A Member asked about the target income set for the film office in the ensuing financial year. It was noted that a similar target had been set but the aim was to maximise opportunity and income for the Council.

·       In response to a Member’s question, it was explained that the film office had launched a website in December 2022 which included a facility for people to self-register locations for filming. So far, 120 applications had been received, and more were continuously encouraged. There was a wide variety of locations that would be of interest to productions, such as empty warehouse spaces, agricultural land and stately homes. The Film Office had been promoted at several Community Boards and they would be writing out to Town and Parish Councils to promote opportunities and the Code of Practice which had been developed to ensure that disruption from filming was minimal.

·       Some Members raised concerns about new film studio space planning applications in green belt areas.  Whilst it was acknowledged that filming in the county was exciting and brought with it job opportunities, there needed to be a balance in terms of protecting green space.  The Cabinet Member explained that the relevant Planning Committee would have to take a view according to planning policy; this was not a matter for the Film Office. In response to a Member’s concerns around frequent highway disruption as a result of filming, it was noted that film crews had to obtain permission to film on their desired roads and often alternative locations or very specific timeframes were offered to ensure disruption for local residents and traffic was minimised.

·       A Member questioned whether there was a chance that the filming ‘bubble’ could burst but the Cabinet Member confirmed that it was currently a growth area because of the increased demand for steaming services such as Netflix and Amazon.  Buckinghamshire was known as a centre of excellence  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Committee will discuss the work programme and note the items for the next meeting.

Contributors:

All Committee Members

Papers:

Work Programme attached

The Chairman led Members in a discussion around ideas for the future work programme.  The Chairman advised that she had been considering possible topics for the Committee’s next piece of review work and suggested that Digital Exclusion might be worth investigating. She noted that there was a drive to deliver more Council services digitally for efficiency and costs reasons, which might put accessibility at risk. Several Members agreed that more and more services moved to digital delivery, partly due to the pandemic, and agreed that there was a need to discuss this issue. The impact of digital delivery on older adults, disabled people, community engagement, and the environment was highlighted.   It was agreed that Scrutiny Manager would carry out some background research to formulate a scope on the topic for the Committee to discuss.

ACTION: Kelly Sutherland

Further suggestions raised included:

·       Cost of Living;

·       Performance of Social landlords;

·       Barriers to devolution for Parish and Town Councils

·       New Highways contract

It was noted that some of the suggestions might fall under the remit of one of the other Select Committees. The Scrutiny Manager would pass the suggestions on to colleagues in the team as appropriate.

                                                                                                                                 ACTION: Kelly Sutherland

The next meeting will take place on 19^th April 2023 at 10am.

The date of the next meeting would be Wednesday 19^th April 2023 at 10am.