Councillor G Griffiths, Chair

Councillors D Bebbington, J D Bratherton, D H D Charlesworth, S Conquest, M Grant,

J Lewis, M A Martin and M J Weatherill   

 

 

Mr R Allen                              Director of Partnerships Wulvern Housing  

Mr A Bain                               Team Leader Private Sector Housing (CNBC)

Mr J Bowler                            Chairman Local Strategic Partnership

Ms A Bowyer                         Connexions  

Ms H Costello                        Project Officer Local Strategic Partnership       

Ms A Feeney                         Locality Manager Children's Services (CCC)

Mrs K Hercules                      Community Engagement Manager

Mrs B Hurst                            Assistant Chief Executive (Community Development

and Social Policy)

Mr K Janes                            Regeneration & Social Inclusion Officer (CCC) 

Mrs V Jeffrey                         Head of Housing

Miss D Moulson                     Democratic Services Officer 

Mrs S Turner                          Local Strategic Partnership Manager 

Mr A Wenham                        Chief Executive

 

Councillor R Westwood        Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhoods  

 

Apologies:   Councillors T E Ankers and J A Pearson 

 

1          DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

 

Councillor Weatherill declared a personal interest in agenda item 9 (Private Sector Housing Assistance Commitment) as she owned property within the Borough which was let.  No other Member made any declaration of interest in any item of business on the agenda.

 

2          RECORDS OF MEETINGS

 

 

3          WHIPPING DECLARATIONS

 

In accordance with Paragraph 18 of the Performance and Overview Procedure Rules, Members were invited to declare in respect of items where the whip had been applied.  No such declarations were made.

 

4          REVIEW OF THE LOCAL STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP (LSP)

 

The Committee had agreed to include a review of the work of the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) in its work programme. Due to the scope of work undertaken by the LSP, it had been agreed that the Committee would receive presentations at both its June and July meetings.    

 

The Committee received a detailed presentation from a number of partner members from the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), which covered the following key areas

 

§       Introduction to the LSP                                          (J Bowler)

§       Background and Functions of the LSP                   (S Turner)      

§       Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy                          (K Hercules)

§       Children & Young Peoples Partnership                  (A Feeney)

§       Neighbourhood Action                                           (R Allen)

§       Lifelong Learning Partnership                                 (A Bowyer)

 

Copies of the slides used in the presentation were made available for those present.

 

Members were invited to ask questions of the partners, which were responded to as appropriate.  Four issues emerged from the discussion

 

i)          Lifelong Learning

 

In response to a question from a Member, Ms Bowyer confirmed that difficulties had been experienced with providing support for transient workers in the Borough who spoke English as a second language.  The demand for language classes and translation services had outstripped supply and further work in this area was required. 

 

ii)         Communication                           

   

The Committee expressed its support for the work of the LSP but considered that lines of communication could be improved.  A Member commented that if Councillors with their close connections to the LSP only had limited awareness of its work or achievements, then it was probable that members of the public were similarly ill-informed.     

 

iii)        Fear of Crime 

 

As part of neighbourhood action, efforts were being made to narrow the gap between crime and the fear of crime.  On a point of explanation, the Committee was informed that the statistics showed that the occurrence of crime was not as high as the public's perception of crime and was an issue which needed to be addressed.             

 

iv)         Next Steps

 

In light of comments made relating to communication difficulties, the Chairman suggested that this area could be explored further at the next meeting.  It was also AGREED that the July presentation should focus on the Borough Council's involvement in the LSP and consider whether it (the Council) was receiving a return on its commitment.           

 

The representatives of the Partnership were thanked for their presentation, following which they withdrew from the meeting.

 

5          BOARD BUSINESS

 

 

Members were invited to comment on reports to be considered by the Board at its meeting on 15^th June.  As a number of the reports had been included on the agenda as they fell within the remit of the Committee, no comment was made at this time.  

 

5.2        Provisional Items (Board's Forward Plan)

 

The Committee received for information the Board's Forward Plan for June, July. September and October 2006.          

 

 

The Committee noted that there were no referrals from Board or Council on this occasion. 

 

6           PERFORMANCE MONITORING

 

The Committee received the performance monitoring report which provided out-turn performance against all statutory BVPIs and LPIs for the year 2005-2006 and included a brief commentary on any variances.   

 

7          BEST VALUE REVIEW OF HOUSING SERVICE

 

The Best Value Review of Housing Service had now been concluded with the final report to be considered by the Board at its meeting on 15^th June 2006.

 

The Head of Housing drew Members' attention to the key variances from the interim report considered by the Committee on 22^nd March 2006.      

 

i)           Homelessness Services

 

Whilst the homelessness service lay with Wulvern Housing, the report had indicated that extra resources were required to support the function, a situation which was not unique to the Council nor within Cheshire. 

 

ii)           Affordable Housing

 

Council policy had been amended in January 2006 to include Crewe as an area in need of affordable housing.  In conjunction with the targets set for the delivery of affordable units in the rural area, the capacity of officers to deliver affordable housing had been brought into question.  Two additional half-posts had been identified as being needed to carry out the work required; funding for which was being put forward for inclusion in the draft budget for 2007/2008. 

 

The Committee was invited to approve the final report and associated action plan.  

 

RECOMMENDATION TO BOARD:  The Committee commends the report to the Board and proposes that the Council makes a commitment to funding the additional posts proposed.  

 

8           PRIVATE SECTOR HOUSING ASSISTANCE COMMITMENT

 

The Committee received for information the quarterly report of the Head of Housing which summarised the expenditure on the four main housing renewal grants or assistance up to 31^st March 2006. 

 

A number of discrepancies were identified in the report and it was requested that the report be amended and resubmitted to the next meeting of the Committee. 

 

9          WORK PROGRAMME

 

 

Performance & Overview Local Economy & Environment Committee had reappointed a number of its Task Groups at its meeting on 13^th June.  An invitation had been extended to P&O Community to appoint a Member to the Affordable Housing Task Group, a topic area which fell under the remit of both. 

 

AGREED: That Councillor Martin be nominated as P & O Community's representative on the Affordable Housing Task Group. 

 

             

For the benefit of new Members of the Committee, the topic areas covered by the Committee during 2005-2006 and the associated outcomes had been listed on the agenda.  Members commented as follows

 

Violent Crime/Youth Nuisance  

A report on violent crime was due to be submitted to  the July meeting when it was to be considered with issues relating to youth nuisance.  The Chairman requested that the two subjects should be discussed independently of each other with the violent crime report being submitted as arranged in July

 

Workers from Abroad          

An update on this topic was requested for the Committee's September meeting

 

Health Inequalities 

The title of this topic was considered to be somewhat missleading as the Committee had actually considered issues surrounding access to food and healthy eating.  As part of the discussion, an undertaking had been given to supply Members with a copy of a Primary Prevention Group summary (record 56.1) which the Assistance Chief Executive Community Development and Social Policy agreed to progress.  It was also requested that the Health Development Manger submit an update report to a future meeting

 

It had been agreed that an annual report on this subject was to be submitted to the Committee                      

 

The Committee requested that a schedule be drawn up of the cycle of reports to be submitted to the Committee as part of the work programme.  It was also - 

 

AGREED: That an item be included on the next agenda to enable the Committee to discuss the work programme and consider any proposals for additional topic areas. 

 

 

The Committee was invited to re-appoint the Migrant Workers Working Group.  However, Members requested that an item be included on the Committee's agenda for September. 

 

9.4         Neighbourhood Management

 

Changes were due to take place in September/October with regard to the way in which neighbourhood management was conducted.  It was suggested to the Committee that it might be premature to consider this topic whilst there was uncertainty as to how the service would function in the future.  The Committee acknowledged that it was not possible to review how the service would change it but considered that it could look at its remit, how it had operated and its effectiveness.  An information report was sought.  It was proposed that any review would benefit from hearing the views of residents involved with the service and officers were requested to give consideration as to how this could be achieved.    

 

10          DATE OF NEXT MEETING

 

19^th July 2006     

 

.........................  Chair