Agenda item

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 this committee) and we need to set facts like we have done in the past. So how we do it, but this report doesn’t do that could we also have figures. She felt the report had come a little early. More facts would help us support the officers.

Cllr Imarni said there doesn’t seem to be any direction. For example, what will be the priority for spending? For instance will it be facilities so that any monies that come in will be spent on upgrading facilities and that the office needs to give a figure on how much will be spent and what percentage of additional engagement in sport will this bring from the community?

Cllr W Wyatt-Lowe if and when you get funding you need to decide what it goes on, so he asked to see the allocations on that. He also added that it might be worth adding the people that you are going to talk to, to help and encourage other people, it’s also worth talking about hard to reach groups.

Cllr Mahmood said he read the purpose of the report, to seek feedback, he said it’s better to have the report to scrutinise and give our feedback at early stages. The recommendation is to give feedback and Councillors have asked for more meat on the bone and for more figures, risks and opportunities. He thanks B Russell and said it was very useful to have the report now.

Cllr Mahmood refereed to page 14, there is a positive, you can see the current position and how they will achieve it so this can be scrutinised at a later date.

Cllr England said that commitment 1-5 are not supported for the strategy.

Cllr W Wyatt-Lowe said we need to include how we measure the success.

Cllr IMARNI said that the strategy needed further work and needs to come back to this committee for scrutiny before it is final

A vote was taken and the whole committee voted for it to be rewritten and for it to come back to the committee for further scrutiny before it is final