Agenda and draft minutes
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Contact: Leslie Ashton
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Apologies for absence / Changes in membership Additional documents: Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillors P Bass, I Hussain and M Stannard. |
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Declarations of Interest Additional documents: Minutes: There were no declarations of interest. |
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The minutes of the meeting held on 13 July 2021 to be confirmed as a correct record. Additional documents: Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 13 July were agreed as an accurate record. |
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Public Questions 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/
Additional documents: Minutes: No public questions had been received. The Chairman advised that she had received a number of questions after the public questions deadline had passed which related to community boards, these questions had been given to the relevant Cabinet Member to respond to in due course. |
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Chairman's update Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman reported that the draft Statement of Licensing Policy under the Gambling Act 2005 was approved to go out to a public consultation exercise by the Licensing Committee at its meeting on 20 October. The Scrutiny Officer would circulate the link to view and respond to the consultation once it was live on the council’s website. Members were advised that under the terms of the transitional legislation, Buckinghamshire Council had been given two years to prepare and publish a new single policy under the Gambling Act and align service provision which led to this draft policy being produced for consultation. In producing the work programme it was felt that other items were more beneficial for this committee to look at in detail as this Act was relatively prescriptive and allowed for limited local influence. Should members have any questions they were encouraged to contact the scrutiny officer who would co-ordinate responses from the licensing team.
The Chairman advised that two public consultation survey links had been circulated to Committee members in recent weeks. These were the 2021 Domestic Abuse Strategy Survey and the Community Safety Survey 2021, these surveys had now closed but it was hoped members had managed to respond.
The Chairman reported that with Community Boards having been highlighted by the Committee as a priority area to include in its work programme, she had attended a number of Community Board meetings since the last meeting of this Committee and planned to attend further meetings with a view to gaining a greater understanding of how the different boards operated across local areas. The Chairman would be meeting with the Cabinet Member for Communities to feed back her views of these meetings to date.
Further, the committee was given an update on the support being given to those arriving from Afghanistan. Buckinghamshire Council had been committed to keeping people safe from vulnerable situations, close partnership working had been taking place to welcome people arriving from Afghanistan who were in urgent need of protection. After months of planning and discussions with the Home Office, matching a family to an accommodation offer, Buckinghamshire was looking forward to welcoming its first family. The family was being helped to integrate into society and build a new life. A further twenty-nine families were expected to arrive within the next few years as part of Buckinghamshire’s pledge to take in up to 30 families. The local community was highly praised; landlords across the county had responded to the call for much-needed homes, huge offers of support had come in from communities and considerable amounts of money had been donated to the Afghan Crisis Fund, hosted by Heart of Bucks, which currently stood at £65,000. For people wanting, there were a number of volunteer organisations and groups that the council works with who can be contacted about volunteering, befriending opportunities or donating clothes and toys for the Afghan nationals. The council website holds more information - https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/community-and-safety/how-we-are-supporting-the-afghan-crisis/ . For individuals wishing to donate money to ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Youth Engagement with Community Boards PDF 967 KB The Committee will receive a brief update on community boards and will hear about plans to promote youth participation. Members are invited to provide input and suggestions to assist in achieving increased youth involvement with the community boards.
Contributors: Steve Bowles, Cabinet Member for Communities Claire Hawkes, Service Director for Localities and Strategic Partnerships Wendy Morgan-Brown, Head of Community Boards & Head of Registration, Coroners & Trading Standards Emily Davis, Programme Director, Action4Youth
Papers: Presentation slides Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received an update on Community Board activity from Cllr S Bowles, Cabinet Member for Communities and then heard from Emily Davis, Programme Director at Action4Youth who presented information on projects for young people which had received funding from Community Boards.
Slides supporting Cllr Bowles update were included in the agenda pack. The following points were highlighted:
During the presentation from Ms Davis, Action4Youth the following points were highlighted (presentations slides are appended to these minutes):
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Leisure Facilities Strategy PDF 2 MB To comment on the current leisure provision in Buckinghamshire and the emerging Leisure Facilities Strategy and to receive an update on work and plans around Girls and BAME engagement in sport.
Contributors: Clive Harriss, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure Richard Barker, Corporate Director for Communities Mark Ormerod, Director, LEAP Sue Drummond, Head of Leisure
Papers: Presentation slides Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received an update on the current leisure provision in Buckinghamshire and the emerging Leisure Facilities Strategy. The Committee also heard about work and plans to increase involvement in leisure from groups who historically had low involvement. The Committee had the opportunity to hear from Cllr C Harriss, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, Richard Barker, Corporate Director for Communities, Sue Drummond, Head of Leisure and Mark Ormerod, Director, Leap. Presentation slides were appended to the agenda pack
During the presentation, the following points were highlighted:
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The Committee will discuss the work programme and agree the items for the next meeting.
Contributors: All Committee Members
Papers: Work Programme attached Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received a draft work programme to cover this municipal year. Members were advised that items had been scheduled for the most appropriate meetings where member input would be most valuable. During discussion the Committee were in agreement that it would like a working group set up to focus on community boards and related issues as soon as practicable so that issues could be looked at during the year, rather than waiting until the end of the council year to hold an inquiry.
The Committee also discussed a desire to bring the devolution item forward on the work programme as it was identified as a priority topic for Town and Parish Councils and residents. Further, members asked for domestic abuse to be given higher priority on the work programme with the Council currently in the process of approving the 2021 domestic abuse strategy. Approaches to these items would be discussed ahead of the next meeting and reported back to members.
Resolved: That the 2021/22 work programme be noted. |
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Date and time of the next meeting The next meeting will take place on 16 December 2021 at 10 a.m. Additional documents: Minutes: The date of the next meeting is Thursday 16 December 2021 at 9.30 a.m. |