Agenda and draft minutes

Trevor Egleton, Chairman of the Community Board, welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Amy Jenner, Senior Community Board Manager, noted housekeeping and health and safety.

Luisa Sullivan, Melvin Pearce

Graham to check mailbox for any others and add

None

To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 24 October 2023 at Evreham Sports Centre, Swallow Street Iver

Action: Remove Kevin Brown from last meeting attendee (CBM)

Action: Add Carol Gibson as attendee at last meeting (CBM)

Members agreed the previous minutes,

Chairman – Cllr Trevor Egleton

Trevor gave an update on the remit of a Community Board which was referred to in page 9 of the agenda supplement pack.

Trevor highlighted the role of the board to support addressing priorities at a local level. This is not possible without the support of the local community.

Trevor highlighted that the Community Board has funding to support addressing the priorities.

It was asked if boards engaged with Schools and Social Prescribers- Amy advised that both are generally linked in with boards. They do not always attend meetings as this is not the most valuable use of their time but there are open communication channels.

Carol asked what had happened to the action groups. It was noted that the activity in today’s meeting would inform working groups going forward.

Action: Request TVP presence/report at future meeting (CBM)

Action: Review schools & PCN contacts and reach out to any not already linked in (CBM)

Action: all to consider promoting the board in local publications/social media (ALL)

Action: Encourage local groups to register on Bucks Online Directory.

Amy Jenner – Senior Community Board Manager

Amy provided an update on funding and board activity which has been referred to at page 11 of the agenda supplement pack.

It was asked if the current funding underspend was being carried over in to 2024/25- Amy confirmed that it was not- any underspend would be returned to the council.

Members expressed concerns about the budget not being allocated. Trevor advised that it was everyone’s responsibility to work to utilise the funding, that it had to be used in the most appropriate way and again, that the workshop later in the meeting would support this going forward.

It was asked if funding would be kept in place for existing schemes with allocated funding (Verges project)- it was confirmed that it would be.

Action: Provide update on verges project to Geoff Spring (Trevor/CBM)

Action: Provide update on funded growing project/invite to next meeting (CBM)

Action: Review schemes, as per page 7 of last meeting- the board would like to know the status of these schemes and feedback on why some didn’t come to fruition (CBM)

Umbrella headings

·         Improving the Environment

·         Strengthening Our Communities

·         Protecting Older and Younger People

Service Director – Sarah Keyes

Sarah Keyes, Service Director, led a workshop on the priority focus for the year ahead. The following priorities were reviewed and ideas to identify the key challenges within each were discussed.

-       Improving the Environment

-       Strengthening our Communities

-       Protecting older and younger people

This work would be reviewed by Sarah, Amy and the Community Board team to look at feasible options to take forward.

Action- feedback to the board once ideas have been reviewed and collated (Sarah/CBM)

Community Matters

·         Public Questions – received in advance – to be presented by the Chairman.

·         Corporate Update

·         Proud of Bucks 2024

Chairman/ Service Director Sarah Keyes

Buckinghamshire Council update:

Sarah highlighted Buckinghamshire Council update which included a focus on Fostering and the Autism Strategy. The full update can be found on page 3 of the agenda supplement pack.

Proud of Bucks awards will take place later this year- more information to follow.

Question time:

2 questions were submitted to the Community Board regarding Active Travel and the Playgrounds at Black Park and Langley Park. It was advised that these questions had been passed to the relevant services within the Council for responses.

Any other business:

It was asked if the Pinewood Community Liaison Group was being brought into the Community Board. It was confirmed that it would not be.

The board wished Ani (Community Board Manager) well.

Action: Start thinking about potential Proud Of Bucks nominees (all)

Action: Find out how many foster carers there are in board area (Sarah Keyes)

TBC

To be confirmed.

It was noted that meetings could be in person or online, but could not be hybrid.