Agenda and minutes

To confirm the minutes from the previous meeting

The minutes of the Housing and Community OSC meeting on 21^st March 2018 were agreed by Members and signed by the Chair.

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies received from Cllr Fethney.

To receive any declarations of interest

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered -

(i)            must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent

and, if the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest, or a personal interest which is also prejudicial

(ii)           may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter (and must withdraw to the public seating area) unless they have been granted a dispensation.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Members’ Register of Interests, or is not the subject of a pending notification, must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal and prejudicial interests are defined in Part 2 of the Code of Conduct For Members

[If a member is in any doubt as to whether they have an interest which should be declared they should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer before the start of the meeting]

Cllr England declared an interest on item 11 as he is the named admin on the sports and leisure facilities Facebook group which is not for profit.

An opportunity for members of the public to make statements or ask questions in accordance with the rules as to public participation

No Member of the Public had registered beforehand to speak at the meeting.

No Member of the Public had registered to speak to the Committee.

A member of public did attend the Meeting, and at the end of the meeting wished to raise some points on the Sports and Activity Strategy. The Chairman advised that the meeting could not discuss anything to do with the Award of the Leisure Contract which had now been concluded. After some discussion the Chairman advised the person to either (i) email his points for a direct response; and/or (ii) if he wanted to address the Committee, then to follow the proper protocol and procedures for member of public registration to speak at the meeting. After the Member of Public had departed, some Committee Members did not fully agree with the Chairman's stance and felt that the Member of Public should have been given the opportunity to speak.

None.

F Jump presented the report and was happy to take questions.

There were no questions asked, Cllr W Wyatt-Lowe said this was looked at the finance committee last night and is well scrutinised

J Guiton presented this report in absence of M Rawdon who had given his apologise. He was happy to take questions on the report.

Cllr Bassadone referred to 4c, page 4 M-ASK she asked for clarification on this.

Cllr Harden said it’s a well-being project which he is involved in which is held at the Old Town Hall. It gives people chance to perform behind masks to boost their self-confidence.

Cllr Mahmood refereed to 5b – regarding the long ques, is this another project.

J Guiton said he wasn’t sure but will happily come back to Members on this.

Cllr Banks asked for an update on neighbourhood action.

J Guiton said 9^th August there is a love your neighbourhood event.

Cllr Mahmood referred to page 6, the attendance on the adventure playground had gone down, why is this?

J Guiton said its due to the weather, its weather dependant. However, there are no issues.

Cllr England said he had spoken with a few people down there and they had noticed that when kids attend twice in a day they only sign in once.

J Guiton said he was aware of this and they are currently looking at a way to monitor this.

Cllr Imarni asked for an update on the appointment of a victim support officer that was

Agreed during December/ January budget meetings. She was surprised to learn that the role had been reduced to a 6 month temporary position and asked if this was part of the reason that they had struggled to fill the role.

Cllr Harden suggested that the role may not be required and that it duplicates other services provided elsewhere and that the recent restructuring may have erased the need for this.

Cllr Hearn commented that these other services do not cover the needs present during various scrutiny meetings and that it was very much needed in Dacorum to support residents and officers

Cllr Imarni asked for an update on the appointment to be put on the agenda for the next scrutiny meeting

Cllr Harden agreed to provide an update

F Williamson presented the report to Members and was happy to take question.

Members asked what RAG was.

F Williamson confirmed that it was a score rating, Red, Amber and Green.

N Beresford presented then report and introduced her colleague Carly Thomas. They were happy to take questions from Members.

N Beresford confirmed that HRA is the Homelessness Reduction Act and has nothing to do with the HRA budget and informed members not to get confused.

Cllr Mahmood asked if homelessness figures had been reduced.

N Beresford said that figures aren’t reducing, there are 120 people signing up a month, these aren’t necessarily people on the streets but there are people that are registering as they potentially could be homeless.

Cllr Imarni asked if the figures were similar before the act come in.

N Beresford said that they are similar to before, we just work with the clients for a longer period of time.

Cllr Bassadone referred to 2.10 page 10, Officers working on the two processes, how long will this be for as the officers are doing the same things twice.

N Beresford said all the old cases are now closes down and in the new system, there are three stages to the new long process.

Cllr W Wyatt-Lowe said that he runs in the water gardens most mornings and on an occasion he noticed a homeless person with blood on their face, there were clean safe and green staff in the water gardens but nothing was done, can we raise awareness and train staff.

Cllr Bassadone asked if there has been an increase in numbers with temp accommodation.

N Beresford said yes there are they are currently building more temp accommodation.

Cllr England asked if the rough sleepers figures on an autumn night didn’t affect the Elms.

N Beresford said that local authorities aren’t required to include figures, there are 44 beds at the Elms, it is monitored and there is an increase.

Cllr England asked if it was not odd that the count of rough sleepers in Dacorum undertaken annually on an autumn night did not appear to have been affected by the arrival of The Elms hostel.

Cllr Griffiths thanked the team for the hard work and expressed how lucky they were to have the team they have.

A Care presented the report and was happy to take questions from Members.

Cllr W Wyatt-Lowe said he is a trustee of Age UK and asked what our objectives were and how we measure the value.

A Care said that there not statutory for DBC, there are consultations for the gaps in the service. This impact is measured from case studies.

Cllr Mahmood added to that stating how the case studies were good and interesting.

B Russell presented the report to Members for consideration and to note the report and provide feedback on the draft sports and activity strategy.

Cllr Imarni asked how he arrived at these points.

B Russell said it was through consultation with internal colleagues. They then consulted with sports clubs.

Cllr Imarni was slightly confused by the strategy as its not at the stage for them to take and go ahead. She was not sure how some of the points are key facilities and there is nothing in there about bids etc.

ONE. Sport England and FA have announced several funding streams there is nothing in the strategy as that would enable us to access this. The strategy does seem targeted and I would have expected the officer to come to the group and inform us of these funding streams and how they will be accessed to benefit Dacorum

TWO. The target groups don’t seem to reflect the make-up of Dacorum and there’s no explanation or facts on how the office arrived at these conclusions about target groups 

B Russell confirmed that there was a bit about bids.

Cllr Imarni said that maybe the strategy had come to the committee to early. She asked for the strategy to be more specific to Dacorum so that when they get criticized by the public they want more meat on the bone to set facts.

B Russell confirmed that feedback will be added in.

Cllr Harden said that it’s a consultation we have consulted on and the next step is to work with key groups, we are asking the committee for comments to see what they feel has been missed, it’s not the final strategy it’s here for comments and scrutinizing as to where we go from here.

Cllr England said he thought it was missing the bigger picture there is no substance and no ownership on this strategy, the report is not read, there is no budget and he’s very disappointed with it and there could be a lot more included.

Cllr Harden explained that is why reports come to committee as they want Members to feedback and have an input. He expressed that there is no budget as or yet. Cllr Harden confirmed that he will be driving a more active community and then he will look at resources.

In response to Cllr Harden’s statement that there were no funds for the Sports Strategy, Cllr England noted that as a result of the Leisure Management Contract, SLM is paying a large amount to Dacorum Borough Council.

B Russell said with everyone active they will try to collaboratively develop this. We will be more specific on who is involved.

Cllr England asked if the council had someone who sports and leisure knowledge working for them.

Cllr Harden said yes, B Russell was brought in to look into this ‘get set go project’ its about engaging with the community.

Cllr Imarni gave examples of other projects we have done (ones that have come to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 210.