Agenda and minutes

Chairman, Cllr Trevor Egleton

Trevor welcomed everyone and stated that the focus today would be on speakers whose work came under the Board’s Older & vulnerable people priority.

Vishal Gupta, Ann Mayling

Paul Griffin with Dwayne Mckenzie

Agreed

Paula Carter- Evreham Youth Club

Matthew Bell – GLL at Evreham Sports Centre

Laura Price – 1^st Iver Scouts

Mark Russell - Age UK

Dwayne McKenzie – Confidence Through Football

Paula – Trustee of Evreham (notes provided)

- Evreham Youth Centre – Paula Carter

• Trustee and Youth Worker for Iver Youth and Community Services (IYCS), a charity that runs Evreham Youth Centre. IYCS was founded in 2018 by trustees who wanted to provide a safe and fun place for children to hang out with their friends
• We run the youth club on Fridays from 6:30pm to 8:30pm for ages 11-14, and on Tuesdays for over 14's: there are various games, activities, and snacks for the children to enjoy
• We also have a proposal for an engagement programme with Mama Bee, which has three parts:

• A 30-week targeted youth project that covers three locations in Iver and Iver Heath
• A training provision for volunteers – Introduction to Youth Work
• Then some centre-based health and wellbeing youth development sessions.

·       Assertive Behaviours (Self-defence providing physical and emotional resilience for building healthy relationships)

·       Foodie Friday sessions - Children prepare food, cook, and learn about food (2-hour sessions and then eat together)

• Sunday session funded by Dwayne's M4S project for SENS children and parents: Support network, socialization, and fun activities for SENS families
• Possible Friday session for under 11's with enough volunteers – the aim is to foster friendships and social skills
• Phone cases on lanyards and no phone night to reduce technology dependence
• Vision to educate and empower children to cope with life challenges

Questions/Comments

• A local resident praised the Youth Club for its excellent management and lack of noise or trouble.
• Shaunagh Hall, a police sergeant from TVP, offered to provide sessions for the Youth Club if needed. AS to introduce.

Matthew Bell – GLL at Evreham Centre.

• Centre open: gym, sports hall, astroturf, drop-in sessions, dementia-friendly classes
• Local groups use the centre, and Evreham Sponsor support young athletes
• Activities for all ages

Questions/Comments

• Facebook presence: Yes, connect with Community Board and share content https://www.facebook.com/evrehamsportscentre
• No reciprocal deal with Slough pool: They are a different operator
• Dementia-friendly activities: must promote variety and avoid overlap of days. This supports carers too. Discounted services in carers months.
• Unauthorised parking issue: AS to contact enforcement team.
• Roller boots funding application for youth club: AS to explore options.
• GLL contract status: Up for renewal. Non-profit operator, Buckinghamshire Council decides.

Laura Price 1^st Iver Scout group and Tim L’angellier 1^st Iver Heath Scouts

• Beavers, cubs and scouts are run from the hut.
• The young people grow up and work their way through, become proud to represent the organisation, learn life skills and can become young leaders. Many have used the volunteering for Duke of Edinburgh award.
• No barriers to joining, no-one will be excluded from joining, and financial assistance can be provided. Approx. 200 families are involved in the Scout groups locally.
• Vulnerable youths are supported, and activities can be adapted to be accessible for everyone.
• Scouting gives back to the local community: there have been park events, providing cream teas, Beavers and Cubs carry out gardening work at local schools, and litter-picking activities.
• 1  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Workshop to be run by Sarah Keyes (Service Director for Human Resources & Organisational Development). 

The Priorities for 23/24 are as follows:

·       Improving the environment

·       Strengthening our communities

·       Protecting older and vulnerable people

Please consider the following questions prior to the meeting:

What are the current issues for each priority?

What are the ideal projects for each priority?

Who would the delivery partners be for each project?

What are the barriers to each project?

Deferred to next meeting – looking at the priorities for the Board for 2024/2025 and the action groups.

Aniqah Sultan, Community Board Manager

Budget Update

Total Budget: £85,941

Projects Approved

Upcoming Applications

Sarah Keyes, Service Director for Human Resources & Organisational Development.

Luisa wanted to note that Ani is doing a great job.

Community Board Chair reiterated this comment, stating they have a weekly in-person catch-up and telephone catch-ups ad-hoc, working closely together to ensure they are both up to date.

Questions from members of the public can be submitted in advance of the meeting to wexiverscb@buckinghamshire.gov.uk .

There are no petitions for consideration.

Public Questions

Hybrid meetings – Leigh Tugwood: Could there be future arrangements for remote attendance to assist members that might have caring duties or who are isolating because of a positive Covid test? This is something I have raised before. Ivers Parish Council recently arranged this, via Zoom, for a Neighbourhood Plan meeting with the Chair's approval. It worked very well

• While we will take this back and look into it, the Community Boards aren’t currently supporting a hybrid meeting.

Contributory funding – Oliver Krause & Leigh Tugwood asked where the 50% contributory funding guidance came from.

• All Cabinet members have key performance indicators and targets which cover a number of key areas across their portfolio, these are review and agreed by Cabinet each year.

• Cllr Arif Hussain, the cabinet member for Communities which is where Community Boards sit has a contributory funding indicator for Community Board projects as one of his indicators.  The target which Cabinet agreed this year was set based on the amount achieved by Community Boards in 2022/23 which was an average of £1.73,  the £1 target therefore set for this year was not felt to be onerous or difficult having achieved £1.73 last year.  It is important to note this is a target for contributory funding across all projects and isn’t set as a target for individual projects. 

• Each Community Board Chairman with their board can be flexible on how much contributory funding each project brings in.  For some projects it may be appropriate to consider time-in-kind as contributory funding, but this will depend on the project scope and how wide the benefit is to the community.

• Key performance targets are reviewed on an annual basis and performance is measured through the performance targets which are reviewed on a quarterly basis by Cabinet.  These provide a good measure of the council’s performance across the many services it provides.  A link to the latest report can be provided if required.

• Community Board Managers can help with information on funding sources to help with contributory funding.

To receive an update from Residents’ Associations.

Iver Heath

·       We are, in common with many community groups, now adapting to a post C-19 Lockdown social environment and the challenges that presents.

·       We held a very successful AGM on the 14^th October attended by 35+ members . At the meeting a new committee and importantly new committee structure was approved on behalf of our 200+ membership. This includes the inclusion of

·       Area Stewards on the committee to encourage an increase and diversification in membership. Following the official business of the AGM much time was given over to contentious planning matters supported by Parish and BU councillors.

·       Going forward we intent to build upon much closer collaboration with other RAs and community groups to ensure co-ordination and minimum duplication of time and effort in addressing matters of common concern. In particular representing our members interests to TIPC, BUC and W&ICB and involvement in local events that increase community engagement and to support and strengthen existing community capital and resilience.

·       We share IVRAs concerns about the match funding requirement  for grants from the board. We believe this is discriminatory and likely to favour established groups with their own revenue and income sources and is likely to enable a higher proportion of already limited funding allocation going to groups supported by local businesses.

Iver Village

Since the last Community Board meeting, the IVRA had an AGM where 11 Committee Members have been selected (up from 7 in the previous year). This growth will allow us to do much more for the residents, share the workload, hear more opinions, and therefore – represent the residents better. During the AGM and the following meetings, we showed our commitment to a different type of leadership by organising the chairs in a circle where everyone is equal. We also dedicated a large portion of the AGM to hearing what residents want us to focus on and we base this year’s activities on the feedback we heard.

One of the main issues raised was the parking around Iver High Street. Many residents told us prior to the meeting that the plan produced by the Community Board was a bad one; mainly because it was produced without involving the residents during its creation.

A few weeks after the AGM, we arranged a meeting with the residents and heard what they liked and disliked about the previous plan. The result was a whole different plan, which included a mix of double-yellow lines and areas with time-limited parking. We also concluded that one of the side streets next to the High Street may be adversely affected and set up a separate meeting to discuss it with the residents of the said street. The result of this exercise is a much more robust plan that has a better chance of getting the majority’s support. Unfortunately, we don’t see how we’ll be able to take this plan forward since we can’t identify anyone who has enough interest in it to pay 50% of the cost.

We think that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

• The Buckinghamshire Council Complaints Procedure was discussed and can be found at https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/your-council/contact-and-complaints/ 
• Community Board Guidance will be circulated with meeting notes

Wexham bird fencing has been flagged up as not being value for money. This is being taken back through the new process by CB Chair. CB Chair and Geoff to have a meeting with the LAT to see what appropriate solutions could be put in place.

29 February 2024 at 6.30pm

29 February 2024 at 6.30pm