A MEETING OF THE POLICY AND ORGANISATION BOARD
WAS HELD ON 23 JANUARY 2002
The Mayor (P), Councillors Mrs Angus (P), Bartlett (P), Mrs Binfield (P), Mrs Cully (P), Edgar (Chairman) (P), Hayward (P), Hook (P), Langdon (P) and Russell (P)
5. MINUTES
RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 5 December 2001 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a true and correct record.
PART I
6. EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC
RESOLVED: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the under mentioned item of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 9 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.
7. KINGFISHER CARAVAN PARK
Consideration was given to an exempt report of the Borough Secretary (a copy of which is inserted in the Minute Book as Appendix "A") which advised of the outcome of negotiations with the current occupiers of Kingfisher Caravan Park with a view to the disposal of the site to the occupiers on a long leasehold basis on terms to be agreed.
The Borough Treasurer confirmed that the valuation represented a fair price for the Council and stressed the need for the Council to consider taking action to reverse the serious deterioration in reserves and balances referred to in his budget report and the recent District Auditor's Management Letter.
RECOMMENDED: That a lease of the site of the Kingfisher Caravan Park be granted to the current Lessees on the terms set out in paragraph 2.2 of the Borough Secretary's report, and that the Borough Secretary be authorised to execute such documentation as was necessary.
PART II
8. GOSPORT COMMUNITY SAFETY PARTNERSHIP
(Note: The Mayor and Councillor Mrs Angus declared interests in this item and left the meeting prior to its consideration).
The Board considered a report of the Director of Development and Environment, which advised of previous funding arrangements from the Borough Council to the Gosport Community Safety Partnership. The report also sought approval to project funding as recommended by the Community Safety Partnership and advice from the Board on future reporting arrangements.
Traditionally Gosport Borough Council had made available funding usually in the region of £10,000 per annum, subject to budgeting provision for the Community Safety Partnership to implement a variety of initiatives.
In previous years any funding for initiatives or requests for funding was initially put before the Gosport Community Safety Partnership for consideration. Those projects accepted by the Community Safety Partnership had formed the basis of the report to the Council's former Economic Development and Improvements Sub-Committee for approval. The sum of funding for individual projects was usually no more than £1,000 per project. The reporting of the matter to the Sub-Committee allowed other Members of the Borough Council to be aware of the type of projects being promoted through the Gosport Community Safety Partnership.
Under the new political management structures the Economic Development and Improvements Sub-Committee had now been abolished, therefore new reporting arrangements needed to be considered. The matter of the Council's relationship with the Gosport Community Safety Partnership was discussed at the meeting of the Partnership on
3 December 2001. It was resolved that a report should be put before a meeting of the Council's Policy and Organisation Board to (i) obtain approval to funding requests to the partnership, and (ii) ascertain whether the Board required a report on the future funding of projects or the matter should be delegated. If the Board approved future delegation of funding, Members could be made aware of individual projects through information notes.
The Gosport Community Safety Partnership on 3 December approved four requests for funding as follows:
(a) Bridgework Trust for the "Connect" Project
This was a very successful project that had arisen out of the Crime and Disorder Strategy. The project assisted groups of pupils in years 10 and 11 at secondary school. The pupils identified were at risk of exclusion through truancy, a disrupted home life and/or anti-social behaviour. That £1,000 be made available for the "Connect" project.
(b) & (c) "Global Rock Challenge" and Bridgemary Community School.
The "Global Rock Challenge" was an annual competition open to secondary schools and colleges. Brune Park Community School had entered the competition in previous years and had been very successful. That £500 be made available for the overall competition and £500 to each competing secondary school in Gosport.
(d) Hampshire Neighbourhood Watch Association
That £200 be made available to print a recruitment leaflet.
RESOLVED: That-
(i) funding in the sums of £1,000 to the Bridgeworks Trust for the "Connect" project, £500 to the Global Rock Competition, £500 to each Gosport Secondary School competing in the latter project and a £200 grant to the Hampshire Neighbourhood Watch Association be approved;
(ii) future funding projects approved by the Gosport Community Safety Partnership to a value of £1,000 or under, be delegated to the Director of Development and Environment in consultation with the Chairman of the Policy and Organisation Board; and
(iii) in future Members be made aware of individual Gosport Community Safety Partnership projects through information notes.
9. ITEM FROM THE PRE-AGENDA LIST IN RESPECT OF WHICH THE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE HAD DETERMINED NOT TO UNDERTAKE PRE-SCRUTINY
It was noted that the Best Value Review Programme had been referred back from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and would therefore require consideration by the Board.
10. BEST VALUE REVIEW PROGRAMME
Consideration was given to a report of the Director of Development and Environment, which sought approval of the Best Value Programme (2002/2003). The Programme had been revised in the light of recent guidance on Best Value and experience.
It was reported that The Audit Commission, Best Value Inspectorate and District Audit had recommended that reviews should cover far larger service areas and be more thematic, to ensure more beneficial outcomes. In view of this Council Management Team had considered the original programme for 2002/2003 and revised it accordingly, the amended proposals were detailed as follows:
· A review called 'cleaner Gosport' to be added to the review programme for 2002/2003 (feedback from the community had shown that this was important to people). This would include a variety of services such as waste management, public conveniences, street cleaning, other cleansing services, abandoned vehicles and dog fouling enforcement.
· The review called 'customer services' to be carried out in 2002/2003 instead of 2003/2004. This review would consider the interface with our customers and would link in with the e-government agenda (the review of the print room and graphics would be deferred to allow resources to be allocated to this review).
· The leisure services review to be encompassed within the cultural services review.
· The Environmental Health review to be deferred as it could well be reviewed in the future as a Community Health theme (meanwhile some key elements of this service would be examined under other reviews).
· The highways and transportation review to be deferred due to the new Agency arrangements.
· Housing finance and strategy not to be reviewed in 2002/2003 because the finance side had just been overhauled in the light of new financial regulations and the strategy side was also dramatically changing.
· The Sheltered Housing review to be brought forward as the need to continue to comply with the DTLR supporting people initiative meant that this review had to be completed by 2002/2003.
· Development Control was still to be reviewed in 2002/2003.
RESOLVED: That the following programme of Best Value reviews for the period 01/04/02 to 31/03/03 be approved:
(i) Cleaner Gosport (to include public conveniences, street cleaning, other cleansing services, waste, abandoned vehicles and dog fouling),
(ii) Customer services,
(iii) Cultural services (to cover cultural services, community recreation and sports development), and
(iv) Development Control.
11. YOUNG CITIZEN AWARD
The Board considered a report of the Borough Secretary, which advised of the proposal to amend the criteria for the Young Citizen of the Year Award, to take account of the Honorary Aldermen Selection Advisory Panel's recommendation that service to the community should also feature in the criteria.
A Panel of Honorary Aldermen each year recommended who should receive the Awards for Gosport Citizen of the Year and Young Citizen of the Year. When the Panel met on 23 April 2001 to consider the two Awards it expressed concern that all the nominations before them for Young Citizen related to young people who had coped with a disability. Although this was one of the criteria for the Award, the Panel members found it difficult to distinguish between one disability and another and felt that service to the community should also be a consideration.
Paragraph 2.1 of the Borough Secretary's report recommended that the criteria for Young Citizen of the Year should read as follows:
"To qualify the person must be 18 or under and have shown service to the community, or have shown courage in overcoming or coping with a disability, or demonstrated an act of bravery, or shown a helping and caring attitude to someone disadvantaged".
RESOLVED: That the amended Young Citizen of the Year criteria outlined in paragraph 2.1 of the Borough Secretary's report be approved.
12. EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC
RESOLVED: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the under mentioned item of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 8 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.
13. CCTV
Consideration was given to an exempt report of the Director of Development and Environment which sought to advise the Board Members of the tendering process for the Gosport "Community Areas" CCTV system. In addition the report also sought approval to accept a tender submitted to implement the works.
RESOLVED: That -
(i) tenders submitted by Quadrant Video Systems and BT to implement the Gosport "Community Areas" CCTV system be approved;
(ii) approval be given for 6 CCTV cameras in the Gosport CCTV system, to be linked into Hampshire County Council's ROMANSE project; and
(iii) Hampshire County Council be requested to fully investigate an Urban Traffic Control system for the A32.
Chairman
