Agenda and minutes

 The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting. This meeting today was focused on youth and the next meeting on 27 October would focus on the environment. The Community Board Co-ordinator Ross Tackley welcomed Sue Smith who had replaced David Martin on this meeting representing Chenies Parish Council.

The Chairman referred to the successful in person event on Monday 30 May 2022 held at the Elgiva Theatre in Chesham which included presentations from local businesses and charities and an Award Ceremony.

The notes of the meeting held on 24 February 2022 were agreed as a correct record.

Apologies for absence were given including Cllrs Mohammed Fayyaz, Gareth Williams, Chris Brown, Colin Sully, Anne Birkett and Oli O’Neill (Chesham Youth Club), Denise Hawkes (PCSO), Amy Jenner (Senior Community Board Co-ordinator North), Sergeant Roy Evans (TVP), Zoe Sole (Social Prescribing {Project Worker, Oasis Partnership) and Claire Annison (TVP).

There were no declarations of interest.

Charlotte Miller represented the Youth Council on providing an update to the Board on their trip to Paris which included a presentation on gender equality to Mairie de Houilles as part of the twinning project and a trip to the SITRU incineration plant to look at renewable energy. Networking opportunities were also provided with a Youth Council from Germany who were also there as part of the twinning project and the Youth Centre in Houilles. The Youth Council thanked the Board for an incredible experience.

The Chairman asked about the presentation to the Mairie de Houilles which related to gender equality in education and differences in curriculum, which included non-binary persons. Charlotte commented that it was interesting to see how the UK compared to France and their approach to gender equality. In response to a question from the Vice-Chairman Charlotte commented that it would be useful to feedback on what the Youth Council had learnt in Paris to different schools in the local area and to reflect on this, although it was noted that Chesham and Villages were very progressive in this area.

In terms of future work of the Youth Council they were looking to organise Youth Community awards. In response to a question it was noted that the awards would be split into different areas such as environment, diversity and sport. The Community Board had a small grants fund which could be used for the Awards which hopefully would also be sponsored by local businesses.

Colin Mcgregor – Paterson from Oasis Partnership reported that it would be helpful to link in with the Chairman of the Chesham Youth Council about opportunities that could be available for partnership work in the future.

Charlotte was thanked for her presentation.

Monica Bergh provided a presentation to the Board on the Mama Bee Project. Amber Preen (Director of Mama Bee) was also available to answer questions. The Youth Centre had not been operating as normal due to some challenges to manage behaviour and also staffing issues. There were also issues in Chesham that needed to be addressed relating to exploitation of young people.

There were a number of projects operating in Chesham such as working with the theatre and also with LEAP on a Sportivate project which aimed to help bring community cohesion to Chesham, bringing people from different backgrounds together with sustainable sporting activities. Chesham Youth Council were also working in partnership with the Terence Higgins Trust to provide a C-Card walk-in centre for young people and sexual health support. Switch Bucks also provided support for alcohol and substance addiction and support for family and friends and the TreeHouse Project helped young people with mental health issues. Monica commented that it was key that all these projects were co-ordinated to maximum advantage for Chesham youth. There had been discussions about smaller groups of young people meeting in the Bagnall Centre initially.

The Vice-Chairman reported that she had been appointed on the Chesham Youth Club Management Committee and welcomed meeting with Amber, Monica and Colin regarding future ideas. Alison Piriouet who had undertaken great work for the  Management Committee had now retired. The Vice-Chairman thanked Alison for her service to the Committee.

Amber reported that she had submitted some proposals to the Board on bringing services together and engaging young people. Chesham was not exclusive in the fact that there was a reduction in the provision of services for 13-19 year olds and there was a lack of support and training for volunteers. Her proposal was to have a detached 12-week project to re-establish relationships with young people and to break down barriers to engagement. This could lead to drawing them back to the Centre which could then be used in a safe way as a positive engagement space. Working with the other projects mentioned above could also help engagement and expanding services to include careers advice and help with wellbeing. Match funding was available.

The Chairman asked about services in the villages and Monica commented that young people did travel to Chesham for services which also helped with social isolation. The detached project could also be extended to the villages as well. A Member commented that young people could be reliant on parents to bring them into towns as there was no public transport outside school buses. An outreach service in the villages would be helpful. Monica reported that the initial project would focus on Chesham to try and address some of the challenging issues being experienced. Colin reported that the Oasis Partnership did have access to a minibus which was lottery funded but funding for fuel would be required.

Members noted that Newtown Family Centre were running sessions on how to build confidence and self-esteem with a four week  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

·         Funding Summary

·         Homes for Ukraine

·         Action Groups (HS2, Villages Forum)

Ross (Community Board Manager) provided an update on Community Board Funding.  At the start of the new financial year the Board had £111,128, £19,512 had been allocated with a remaining budget of £91,616. £15,108 had been allocated for projects. The intention was to allocate £28,000 per quarter and for the first quarter £27,570 had been allocated.

Projects in Q1 were as follows:-

• Chesham Society new website
• Jubilee events
• Chesham Museum exhibition space
• Hats Off ! Festival
• Repair Café PAT machines
• Chesham Youth Council – Paris trip
• Creative Translation Workshop Ukrainian
• Chesham Cricket Club (pending)

The Community event at the theatre had been very successful which had included the Proud of Bucks awards. Reference was also made to the Ley Hill Green Week. An update was given on Ukrainian support. There were two community groups; Hilltops Ukrainian Support Community and Chiltern Sunflower Support. 69 guests had arrived, hosted by 31 sponsors with 17 guests still to arrive, hosted by 8 sponsors. A number of services had been provided including advanced English for adults, music lessons for a Ukrainian boy, cooking evenings and trips. There was one area lead to help provide support and 4 sponsor liaison officers. 1,101 families were now in Buckinghamshire with 646 sponsor families. A Ukrainian newsletter would be provided including information on housing provision after six months. Sarah Graham who represented the Hilltops Ukrainian Support Community (135 guests) reported that they had a coffee morning on Wednesdays. She also commented that intensive English lessons were being provided for children.

The HS2 update would be circulated with the minutes including an update from the Village Forum.

See slides attached to the minutes.

·         Consultations

·         Public Questions

·         Petitions

The Vice-Chairman and Cllr Southworth reported that as part of local work to create the Chesham Neighbourhood Plan, Chesham Town Council were working with Create Streets to put together a design code to ensure that new development in the town were beautiful, sympathetic to architectural history and enhanced the places people live in.  This was a collaborative process, obtaining the views of residents on architectural styles, to create a design code and Neighbourhood Development Orders which ensured that new buildings reflect and were sympathetic to what Chesham residents want to see in future building styles and form.  The link below included an interactive map so that residents could share their favourite and least favourite buildings, (whether this was their brick work, detailing, arches, eaves or anything else).

https://communities.createstreets.com/Chesham

 There was also a consultation on regenerating the play areas in Lowndes Park. Comments should be made before the 31st  August 2022, when the consultation survey would close.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/lowndesparkplayareas

Colin Mcgregor-Paterson reported that a Prosperity Fund had replaced the European Social Fund and that the Oasis Partnership had submitted a bid to help improve employment opportunities. The Board had contributed £9,000 of funding. He would provide the Board with further updates.

Kat Frei reported that Bucks Mind were undertaking some projects with schools including those in the villages to help mental health; this included weekly toolkits and sessions during the holidays. She commented that this was an area to pursue including resilience particularly following the pandemic.

The Community Board Co-ordinator referred Members to the Board funding which was being supplied in quarters. The funding for young people had ended this current quarter and the next funding quarter would focus on the environment. Members were referred to a recent Cabinet report on the Buckinghamshire Levelling Up Framework where the focus of the programme would be in Aylesbury, High Wycombe and Chesham. Local action plans to tackle five themes would be developed for each area through engagement with communities led by the Community Boards (Education and Skills, job and careers, quality of public realm, standard of living and health and wellbeing).

With reference to the Ukrainian families a Member emphasised the importance of using Bucks Adult Education Service. Reference had already been made to the English lessons taking place in the area.

Thursday 27 October 2022 at 6.00pm (via video conference)

27 October 2022 at 6pm