Minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2004
Present:
|
Allan Arnott |
Chair, Perkins Engines |
|
Richard Astle |
GPP Director |
|
Gillian Beasley |
Peterborough City Council |
|
John Durance |
GPIA |
|
Janet Martin |
Cambridgeshire Constabulary |
|
Harmesh Lakhanpaul |
Peterborough Race Equality Council |
|
Trevor Gibson |
Peterborough City Council |
|
Roger Tallowin |
O & H Hampton Ltd |
|
Councillor Goldspink |
Peterborough City Council |
|
Keith Nelson |
Peterborough Learning Partnership |
|
Helen Turner |
Peterborough City Council |
|
Helen Randall |
Peterborough City Council |
|
Liz Wade |
Peterborough City Council |
1. Apologies for Absence
Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Franklin, David Hankins, Ken McKay and Bishop Ian.
2. Minutes
The minutes of the meeting held on 24 November 2003 were agreed.
3. Matters Arising
We were still waiting to hear from PALC on their representation.
4. Regional Planning Guidance
We were pleased to hear that our efforts to include Peterborough as an area for growth may have paid off. A letter had been received from the Minister of Regeneration and it was likely that we would be recognised as a growth area and would qualify for capital funding. The Chief Executive had met with John Davey, Director of Go East regarding 18,000 additional houses and the Sub-regional study recently carried out must be evidenced well to support the bid. Officers were currently working on a number of bids which needed to be submitted by the end of the month. This was a great opportunity for the city to have a clear vision for the next 20 years through the Community Strategy.
Graeme Law, Head of Planning Services has been asked to work on a brief on how we could get the LSP and other organisations involved in the study and he would present a report to us shortly.
5. Directors Up-date
i) City Centre Masterplan
The Chairman of the other groups should let Richard have their comments on the Masterplan as soon as possible.
ii) Youth
Team
We would engage with youth on the group as and when necessary, but it was felt we did not need a place on the board for a youth representative.
Partnerships were working very actively at the present time.
6. Community Cohesion
Harmesh introduced the item and expressed his concern that this had only been taken on board at community level but not enough in some areas where there was a lot of different nationalities who were not involved. We need to look at our own services to see what we offer. Two surveys had been carried out and 10 areas had been identified as areas of action on issues to tackle over a short, medium and long term. It was felt that the LSP should take ownership of this and form a small group to take it forward. Liz advised that some work was being done on the Community Safety Board. Gillian said the revised Community Strategy should be aligned with the community cohesion action plan and the group should monitor its progress.
Action
Harmesh, Richard and Liz would meet with a group of people to take this initiative forward to ensure that we engage the ethnic minorities communities in the project. The group would report back each quarter, we need to be seen as making a difference.
7. Community Engagement Best Value Review
We noted a best value review was being carried out on community engagement and although it was felt that the Council were good at engaging with the public the GPP could help in making this even better. By Autumn 2004 the action plan must be completed and between April-July the team would be going through the 4 C's of Best Value to see if anyone could help with delivering the service any better.
Allan was wondering where GPP could help, Helen said this would be on a strategic level and through the vision of the Community Strategic. There would be a joint panel which would be service specific, looking at similar areas to avoid any duplication. A meeting would be held tomorrow and some of the members of the GPP are also on this team so they could represent the group. We must identify routes and solutions to improving. There would be a conference in July which GPP would be invited to and it was hoped that common ground could be identified and we could see ways of joining all the strands together.
8. Fairshare Funds
Helen Turner introduced the paper and gave details about what Fairshare Funds were. Following successful allocation of funds we now needed to decide which area the money should be spent in.
There was a criteria on what type of project the money could be spent on and 3 areas had been identified, one in Parnwell, Werrington and Orton Goldhay. The allocation of funds is £88,000 per year for 10 years, the priorities may be reviewed throughout the 10 years to reflect changes and demand in local areas.
Action
We agreed to recommend Parnwell as the preferred project for 3 years and then we will see how they are doing after 2 years to see if we continue after the 3 years or change the nominated area.
9. Community Strategy and GPP Forum
Richard advised that things had moved on somewhat since the papers were distributed and the vision had changed, he handed round another document which was more meaningful following recent announcements. The whole idea of the vision was for the Council and the partnerships to deliver this balance together.
Following discussions on the cultural historical heritage, trains, new town developments etc it was agreed that we could do a lot more than we have in the past and we must realise our potential and take on the opportunities.
Action
We agreed to include the balanced approach and the 2nd vision put forward by Richard.
The GPP Forum would be held on the 4 March, venue still to be confirmed. We agreed to have a short introduction and then ask for comments, then break up into 6 workshops but not confined to one only.
10. Actions from Board Awayday
The awayday was useful and we should be doing something similar every six months. We could have familiarisation visits, get healthy week and focus on the key schemes. Trevor advised about Environment week which had been arranged for June. We agreed to discuss the name of GPP and whether we should change it at the Forum.
11. Budgets and Administration
Richard was working 2 days per week but things were not getting done. Allan would be asking EEDA for more money for the partnerships. Liz thought that it would be focussed on Economic Strategy but the Council are committed to pursue with the partnership arrangements. No funds were received from Go East, we agreed to pursue this more.
Action
At the next meeting we would discuss the administration arrangements for the partnerships.
12. Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held on 26 February at 5.00pm in the Town Hall.
The meeting having commenced at 5.00pm concluded at 7.05pm.