Agenda and minutes

To confirm the minutes from the previous meeting

Following a Joint meeting of the OSC’s where a budget presentation was given, the Housing & Community OSC meeting began at 8.00pm

Cllr Imarni referred to the minutes of 10^th October and advised that she cannot comment as she had previously raised with the officer that some of her comments had not been included, explaining that although the officer has provided a respond, the Councillor had not had opportunity to re-review.

Cllr Bassadone & Cllr Hearn expressed that the minutes should not be recorded any differently to other committees; they should not be verbatim nor should they be as long as 22 pages and that Members should not be prescribing the content of minutes; they are intended as a summary account.

Cllr England commented that circulating the recording of the meeting would have been helpful.

Cllr Imarni raised a point of concern that the officer that took the minutes has been off ill and so did not produce these minutes, resulting in the committee waiting 2 months for the minutes; adding her suggestion that a contingency plan should be in place in such a scenario to maintain continuity.

The Chairman confirmed the meeting in question was an exception and confirmed that minutes would return to being a short summary of discussions.

The minutes of the meetings held on 10^th October 2018 and 7^th November 2018 were agreed and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies received from Cllrs Banks.

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]

There were no declarations of interest.

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

There was no public participation.

None

LRoberts delivered her presentation for the People, Performance & Innovation Service, which she advised also includes Community Partnership, Neighbourhood Action, Old Town Hall, Community Safety and Children Services.  A copy of the presentation is attached as Appendix A.

Questions

Cllr Imarni queried re. Community Grants and asked; has the criteria changed in the last 12 months, stating that it has come to attention that religious groups are not permitted to apply; referring specifically to The Salvation Army not being able to provide a Christmas lunch to this year due to their grant application being refused.

MRawdon confirmed that there has been no change to the criteria and welcomed a separate discussion outside of the meeting.

Cllr Harden added that the grants cannot fund religious organisations, however, it is possible to fund projects being run by religious groups for the benefit of the community.

Cllr Imarni reiterated that The Salvation Army were denied for that reason.  Cllr Harden responded that it would not have been owing to the religious criteria advising that there would have been another criteria not met.

Cllr England referred to CSU and suggested the proposed savings appear to be quite small, he referred to the £10k saving and asked; is this a net saving after purchase of equipment?

LRoberts confirmed and advised that in the longer term it would generate further savings.

MRawdon added that the investment in equipment will enable customers to access greater self-service routes which it is hoped will result in reduced queues and a cultural change in how people interact with us. 

Cllr England suggested some people might be affected by the alignment of hours with office hours and asked; will there be consideration for one late night a week?

MRawdon advised the decision is based on call profiling which demonstrates the level of calls received early morning and late at night are at a low percentage and often the CSU cannot answer queries as no one is in the back office to refer to for an answer. 

Cllr Adeleke referred to the Old Town Hall food refreshment provision, observing that the Old Town is already littered with restaurants and asking; how will you complete?

MRawdon advised the intention for the Old Town Hall is to be bar refreshments available when show are on, with a possibility of linking with restaurant meals also available around timings of the shows.

Cllr Adeleke then referred to Adventure Playgrounds and asked; will the insurance cost not mitigate the additional income that will be generated through private hire?

Cllr Harden advised there is no change in circumstances; we already hire the facilities for parties and already have public liability for this.  This will be about a push to advertise the availability of the facilities for private hire.

Cllr England referred to the cost of hiring Adventure Playgrounds for a party and asked, how are we sure this is affordable and for tenants in the area?

MRawdon advised benchmarking will be carried out against other providers, but confirmed that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Next meeting 23 January.