Agenda item

M Rawdon presented the quarter 1 performance report for the services he manages and invited questions from the Committee.

Cllr Barry asked if the 3 D pitch at Grovehill was open to more than just the adventure playground.  M Rawdon confirmed that it will be open to children for free play and available for people to hire, we will be looking at appropriate fencing and how best to manage with a better booking system and codeless entry, which seems to be the most effective way of managing it while still keeping as much of the income as we can.

Cllr Barry mentioned that the turning is pretty awful when you turn into the Adventure Playground and wasn’t the sports track was going to be moved there but it was not suitable.  M Rawdon confirmed it was one of the reasons but the level traffic will be a lot less than hiring out a sports pitch, although there will be increased visitors he didn’t think it would be significant traffic.

Cllr Adeleke said that the Adventure Playgrounds appear to be in Hemel Hempstead but there is no provision in areas like Berkhamsted, Tring and outlying areas, all the reports seems to miss out these areas.   M Rawdon replied that we have the facilities in Hemel Hempstead and we look to improve them and run them as best we as we can.  We have inflatable pop ups in other areas, which are children events.  We are looking at it but it is difficult as the Playgrounds are located in Hemel, but point taken, obviously residents outside of Hemel are just as important.

Cllr Adeleke advised that about 5 or 7 years ago he raised the same questions and would it be appropriate, through the Chair, to ask if we can have Youth Activities to support outer Hemel areas on the Committee over the next months or year.   The Chairman said that she will liaise with the Directors for timetabling and feasibility of that.

Action: The Chairman

Cllr Adeleke suggested that the Old Town Hall marketing scope included plans to attract Members and Staff to events so that we can help advertise what’s going on there.  It would be good to know what you can do to encourage Members and staff to attend.  M Rawdon mentioned that there is a report coming to the next Scrutiny Committee and it will set out some of the challenges and ideas, but we can include marketing ideas.

Cllr Bassadone enquired about the problems with the splash park but they’ve been sorted out now and asked when it will close.  M Rawdon mentioned that it was not his area and he would find out from Dave Austin, he believed the maintenance issues had been sorted out and he will refer back to Dave as to when it closes.

Action: M Rawdon

[After meeting note:The splash park will be closing for the autumn/winter break on Sunday 29th September 2019.]

Cllr Mahmood asked about gang and knife crime reporting, that we didn’t want that problem in our town, where do the public go to report complaints.   I would initially suggest they go to the Police, this Support Worker is one post that is shared across Hertfordshire so we need to be careful that they can manage the workload. It’s very early days in terms of that post and we are just working out the mechanisms for how people will report issues into the post.

Cllr Mahmood asked if it was a problem in the Borough.  M Rawdon confirmed that it was and also nationally.  We are no different to the national picture. 

Cllr England commented on the Adventure Playgrounds and the s106 money for the 3G sports pitches, that was obviously in the action plan, to get more pitches.  Cllr England mentioned the point made by Cllr Adeleke regarding facilities outside of Hemel, and asked if this needs to be a line in the Action Plan or in the Sports Activity Policy, because you are saying that the Adventure Playgrounds need to attract more sports clubs and visitors.  M Rawdon said you are right, but there are conditions on the s106 money around where you can spend it. There is a bigger issue in terms of 3G pitches across the Borough, but with that particular one it had to be in that vicinity. 

Cllr England said that the fact the funding is coming from s106 fights with the strategic objective of doing what Cllr Adeleke wants which is to spread out the facilities.  M Rawdon confirmed it was a challenge.

Cllr England asked about the work that the Community Safety Team had undertaken with the Police, 130 vehicles stopped and a number of arrests, can we have the numbers.  M Rawdon will provide the information.

Action: M Rawdon

[After meeting note:

A total of 130 vehicles were stopped during the six hour operation

·        Six people were arrested for the following offences; taking a vehicle without consent, drink driving, drug driving. Four people were arrested for possession of drugs with intent to supply.

·        Ten vehicles were seized for numerous offences including no insurance, driving licence or tax.

·        Ten Traffic Offence Reports (TORs) were issued for no insurance, bald tyres and no MOT.]

Cllr England asked about the placement of the electronic sign for main reception.  M Rawdon confirmed that where the visitor book is at the moment, there will be an iPad which will scan someone’s face and then they need to fill in their details and we will give them a badge, which will be a lot better than it is at the moment, writing in a book.

Cllr Oguchi highlighted that the team are doing great work with all the events that are happening, her children have benefited from some of them and she felt quite lucky to live in a Borough that cares for its people so much and cares so much about brining communities together.  Cllr Oguchi said that the splash park had raised quite a lot of noise about how it was desecrated and it’s such a great facility for children, especially during hot summer days, whenever you have nice things of course there is always going to be one or two people who ruin it for everybody.  Cllr Oguchi wondered if we can get some assurance or some level of confidence that this will not be shut down at any point because of a few bad apples.  M Rawdon replied that it had been a heavily invested facility and he was sure that all of us would want it to continue.  Cllr Griffiths gave assurances that it will not be closed down, it may have to for health and safety reasons, to clean it out and to correct any problems, but closing it down is not an option.

Cllr England asked if there was any way that the design of the splash park can be adapted so that if something happens only part of it needs to close down.  Cllr Banks confirmed that it was one filtering system and one water supply system so that would not be possible, with contamination the whole park needs to be shut down and disinfected.