Havant Community Partnership Board

Margaret Scott (Chairman)

Dennis Ansell, Leigh Park Community Board

John Briggs, Waterlooville South Community Board

Maureen Frost, Portsmouth & South East Hampshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Ken Gilchrist, Emsworth Community Board

Robin Hine, Faith Groups (Vice-Chairman)

Sandy Hopkins, Havant Borough Council ( HBC )

Acting Chief Inspector Ian Ogilvy, Hampshire Constabulary

William Prince, Havant and Bedhampton Community Board

Sue Spencer, Havant Council of Community Service ( HCCS )

Terry Worrall, Hayling Island Community Board

Enid Ashley, HBC , HCP Co-ordinator

Helen Wood, Community Boards’ Support Officer, attended as observer.

________________________________________________________________________________

Margaret Scott welcomed Helen Wood who would be Support Officer to all six Community Boards.

 

Apologies had been received from:

Supt Gary Cooper, Hampshire Constabulary

Cllr Ted Gale, Hampshire County Council ( HCC )

Cllr David Gillett, HBC

John Hughes, East Hampshire Primary Care Trust ( EHPCT )

Ian Matthews, Parchment Housing Group

Marjorie Smallcorn, Waterlooville North Community Board

Cllr Ken Smith, HBC

John Rees-Evans, HCC

Tim Slater, HBC .

These were agreed as a true record.

a. Web Pages/Domain Name. Enid Ashley updated on progress. The domain name hcp-partnership.org.uk had been purchased (but was not yet live) and the draft web pages were nearing completion. A meeting had taken place with Steria, the Council’s IT contractor, to progress development of a template for the new site’s pages. A choice of designs would be brought to the HCP Board for selection.                                                              Action: EA

John Briggs reported on the meeting (notes previously circulated). The group had identified common themes for Community Boards but also differences. William Prince suggested that the experience in Leigh Park, ie Pride of Place, should be the focus for Community Boards as it encompassed all the identified themes in the notes.

Sandy Hopkins commented that the challenge for Community Boards was the various different methods of consulting, together with the dynamics of elected members and how they worked with Community Boards. The notes of the meeting were useful in clarifying why Community Boards existed and what they did; and showed that the boards were not just looking at specifics eg planning, but at the broader needs of wider localities.

Ken Gilchrist expressed the view that the Emsworth Community Board was fortunate in having a large Residents’ Association/Planning group in its locality, which reduced the need for the Community Board to be involved in planning issues. The Community Board was however a real opportunity for the public to express their views.

Sue Spencer felt that a further role/purpose of Community Boards in addition to those listed in the notes was to give local people a choice and the notes should be amended to include this.

                                                                                                                      Action:EA

Discussion took place on the role of Community Boards in accessing funding, which had been recorded in the Sub-Group meeting notes as "Accessing funding for projects – with guidance". Concern was expressed that Community Boards should not become bogged down in heavy financial responsibilities. Terry Worrall commented that it had always been understood that being part of the partnership would be an opportunity to access funding but there would be no funding for Community Boards post-Liveability. Margaret Scott agreed that Community Boards were not expected to be fundholders in their own right; Sandy Hopkins suggested that Community Boards could help to focus partners’ spending resources for particular needs but were not envisaged as being responsible for obtaining resources themselves.

After further discussion it was agreed that the Sub-Group meeting notes should be amended to read "A partner in accessing funding for projects" and re-circulated.                   Action:EA

Discussion then took place on consultation and the importance of widespread inclusivity. The point was made that consultation needed to be a two-way process: seeking people’s views but also heeding them.

Margaret Scott reported on a most encouraging meeting with Dawn Baxendale, Havant Borough Council’s Corporate Director of Community Services and Claire Hughes, Community Initiatives Manager, to discuss the feasibility of extending Pride of Place to other localities in the borough. Under Pride of Place, the locality decided what its priorities were; identified projects; then identified people to take ownership of them. Margaret Scott hoped that area by area (because this project could not be done simultaneously) Pride of Place could be advanced across the borough; and would provide a full report at the next HCP Board Meeting in July.                                                                                                          Action: MS

Ian Ogilvy expressed concern about the whole issue of rolling out Pride of Place to other areas because the whole branding had been centred around Leigh Park. His concern was that the impact would be lost of the initiative was "diluted" across the borough. He stressed that he had no concerns over the concept/ethos of extending to other areas but rather over the brand moving away from Leigh Park.

Margaret Scott explained that there was no intention to diminish the achievements in Leigh Park: what was being sought was a project which the HCP Board could progress. There were already various initiatives happening across the borough but they were not necessarily co-ordinated. A meeting of the HCP Board Sub-Group to progress this work (Margaret Scott, Gary Cooper and Ian Matthews) would shortly be held and a proposal brought to the next HCP Board Meeting in July.                                                                 Action: MS, GC, IM

Both Ian Ogilvy and Dennis Ansell expressed concern that if there was to be such a "roll-out", it had to be done properly otherwise it would impact on the great work done in Leigh Park.

Sue Spencer commented on how nice it would be if an initiative which had originated and been so successful in Leigh Park could be introduced across the borough.

a. Hayling Island. Terry Worrall reported that there had been 26 members of the public at the Hayling Island AGM held on 27 April. In his Chairman’s Report he had outlined the history of how Community Boards had been formed and had given details of the various projects, including distributing copies of an extremely successful double page spread on the work of the Community Board in the April issue of the Hayling Islander newspaper. He had explained how the Community Board would shape where people lived, earned and learned and how it was a cohesive group representing all sectors. The Community Board was a stakeholder in the Destination Hayling Living Landmarks Lottery Bid.

 

At the AGM there had been five nominations for five vacant places. Each nominee has been asked to give a short presentation stating what they could bring to membership of the Community Board. With five nominations for five vacancies, no voting had been necessary, but those present had been asked if there were any objections to any of the nominees. There having been none, all five nominees were appointed to the Community Board.

The Community Board had previously moved to meeting every two months but had now reverted to monthly meetings.

After the AGM , Inspector Darren Murphy had given a presentation on the recent police restructuring and policing on Hayling Island.

 

b. Leigh Park.

Dennis Ansell reported that Resident Community Board members had been appointed at the Leigh Park AGM , including a 13-year old from the Havant Youth Council. At its next meeting, the LPCB was seeking to appoint non-resident members eg representatives of education, faiths, youth groups, community safety.

Dennis had been appointed to continue as Chairman but a Vice-Chairman and Press Officer were still to be appointed.

The LPCB was intending to address the following objectives:

improving Community Safety, the environment and health

promoting the benefits of resident involvement

involving young people

raising residents’ confidence and aspirations.

The Community Board saw "Cleaner, Safer, More Prosperous" (the Havant Borough Council vision) as something it also wanted to achieve. However, funding/resources were needed for eg room hire for Community Board meetings, stationery, phone calls etc

Promotion of the Community Board was very important and a residents’ newsletter and Angel Radio had been used. The Community Board was looking to establish its own website.

Dennis reported that the LPCB was keen to establish links with the other Community Boards and extended an open invitation to them to visit Leigh Park, to see the Pride of Place initiative in operation.

 

c. Waterlooville South. John Briggs reported that 4 members of the public had attended the AGM . The Community Board now consisted of 13 members and the new Chairman was Pam Cooper.

d. Waterlooville North. Helen Wood reported that Margaret Barnes was now the Chairman. The Community Board was not yet up to its full complement of 15 members.

 

e. Havant and Bedhampton. William Prince reported that 20 members of the public had attended the AGM and the membership of the Community Board now totalled 14.

 

f. Emsworth. Ken Gilchrist reported that 36 members of the public had attended the AGM . There had been seven nominations for four vacancies. The nominees had been asked to give brief presentations about themselves and their reasons for wanting to join the Community Board, prior to voting taking place. There was to be a meeting that evening to elect the new Chairman.

 

Post-meeting note: The Emsworth Community Board, at its meeting on 11 May, elected Ken Gilchrist as Chairman and nominated Frances Jannaway to be the Community Board’s representative on the HCP Board.

 

Margaret Scott commented on how impressively the Community Boards had managed the AGM process and asked for feedback at the next HCP Board meeting in July from Havant and Bedhampton and Waterlooville South Community Boards.                      Action: WP, JB

Robin Hine explained that the Compact was an agreed way of working between the Voluntary and Community Sector and the public sector. The Hampshire Compact was subscribed to by Havant Borough Council but the HCP as a body was not signed up to it. It was an important document and agreement for the Voluntary and Community Sector and included specification of certain criteria, eg consultation periods (13 weeks).

There were meant to be reviews of how well the Compact was working and the HCP ought to be a model for how it worked.

Sue Spencer commented that everyone in both sectors should be aware of the Compact and its contents. It had initially been given great importance but in Havant the focus seemed to have been lost: the HCP ought to be focusing on it.

Partners were asked to state what stage they had reached in implementing the Compact.

Sandy Hopkins explained that the Compact was being referred to at HBC Management Team meetings and consultation dates changed to accord with specified timescales. The Compact had also been considered during finance discussions.

Terry Worrall questioned why this issue had been brought before the HCP Board. Robin Hine explained that it was about how different agencies should work together; the perception was that some organisations were only dimly aware of it.

Margaret Scott asked Enid Ashley to circulate to HCP Board Members the website hyperlink to the Compact document.                                                                               Action: EA

A summary of the Compact would be an item for the July HCP Board Meeting agenda.

                                                                                                               Action: MS/EA

Sandy Hopkins repeated that the Compact was being adhered to in HBC and the local Compact Group was to be re-launched as a means of monitoring its implementation. Margaret Scott confirmed that the practice-based commissioning group in the Primary Care Trust would be made aware of, and sign up to, the Compact.                        Action: MS, JH

Sandy Hopkins emphasised that the issue was really to do with HCP Board partners being signed up to the Compact and ensuring their organisations applied its principles.

Enid Ashley circulated examples of headed notepaper for Community Boards’ use, incorporating the agreed logos for each (included in the new Signage Strategy) which had been consulted on. After discussion the HCP Board agreed the notepaper should also include the HCP logo since the Community Boards were members of the HCP .

Enid to rework the draft design and progress this with the Communications Manager and Graphic Designer.                                                                                             Action:EA

a. Children’s Services – Gap in Representation on HCP Board. Margaret Scott had written to John Coghlan, HCC Director of Children’s Services, asking for a representative from Children’s Services to be nominated to the HCP Board. (Post-meeting note: Joy Waelend, School Improvement Manager, HCC , has been nominated).

 

b. Transport. Maureen Frost asked for transport issues to be on the agenda of future HCP Board meetings. For example, four rail companies were currently tendering to take over from South West Trains and the HCP Board needed to make its views known.       Action: MS/EA

c. Small Businesses. Maureen Frost explained that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry represented large numbers of large businesses but the small ones were not well represented. She asked to be informed of any issues for small local businesses.                     Action: All

d. Havant Museum. John Briggs reported that HBC would be withdrawing funding, which could affect the future of the museum. Margaret Scott commented that this issue would be an item on the July HCP Board Meeting agenda so as to give it full consideration.       Action:MS/EA

e. Disability Consultation. Margaret Scott had received a letter from HCC concerning holding an event to consult with disabled people on disability equalities; and asked what partners were doing about this issue. Ian Ogilvy explained that the police were carrying out risk assessments of their disabilities policies. Sandy Hopkins explained that new legislation later this year had a much wider remit than disabilities equalities. The Access Group was a forum which disabled groups already participated in, so a network for consultation already existed without the need to hold an event. Sue Spencer commented that HCCS also had access to a large number of disabled people.

After further discussion it was agreed Margaret Scott would contact Jane Goodwin, Equality and Diversity Manager at HCC , with the view that "hard to reach" individuals could in fact be contacted, without the need to hold an event.                                                     Action:MS

Wednesday 12 July 2006, from 9.30 to 1200 in Committee Room 1, Civic Offices, Havant.

 

Distribution:

All attendees

Cllr David Gillett, Havant Borough Council

Cllr Ken Smith, Havant Borough Council

Cllr Ted Gale, Hampshire County Council

Supt Gary Cooper, Hampshire Constabulary

Dr John Hughes, East Hampshire Primary Care Trust

Ian Matthews, Parchment Housing Group

John Rees-Evans, Hampshire County Council

Tim Slater, Havant Borough Council

Joy Waeland, Hampshire County Council Children’s Services

Frances Jannaway, Emsworth Community Board

Marjorie Smallcorn, Waterlooville North Community Board

HBC Councillors

Havant County Councillors

HBC Executive Management Team

Community Boards’ Chairmen

HCC Policy/Community Strategy Unit