EAST HAMPSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL

Transcription

1 EAST HAMPSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL COMMUNITY FORUM MINUTES (WHITEHILL/BORDON, LIPHOOK, HEADLEY, GRAYSHOTT AND LINDFORD) Forest Community Centre, Pinehill Road, Bordon Tuesday 20 th May 2008 at 6.30 pm. -: Present :- Cllr Mrs Eve Hope (Chairman), Cllr Adam Carew, Cllr Ian Dowdle, Cllr Mrs Zoya Faddy, Cllr Mrs Anna James, Cllr Sam James, Cllr Richard Millard, Cllr Tony Muldoon and Cllr Mrs Yvonne Parker Smith -:Also:- Cllr David Parkinson And the following officers: ASBO Officer, Business Administration Apprentice, Community Project Worker (Development) and Committee Services Team Leader -:Also Present:- Inspector Laurie Rickwood minute 6 Mrs Phyllida Carr, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance minute 8 1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE. Apologies for absence had been received from Councillors Ferris Cowper, Philip Drury and Anthony Williams. 2. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES. The minutes of the meeting held on the 18 th March 2008, which had been previously circulated, were confirmed and signed as a correct record, subject to the following amendment: Page 4 should read: RESOLVED that 4,500 be allocated to the Wheels to Work Project. 3. CHAIRMAN S ANNOUNCEMENTS. There were no Chairman s announcements. 4. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST. Councillors A S Carew and Mrs Z Faddy - Personal and Prejudicial Interest Minute 10(ii). The nature of their interest being that they were members of Whitehill Town Council. Councillors Carew and Mrs Faddy left the room during the discussion and voting on this item. 5. ANSWERS TO PUBLIC QUESTIONS. There were no outstanding public questions from the previous meeting. 6. PUBLIC QUESTION TIME. Inspector Laurie Rickwood was available to answer questions from the Forum. Dr Bill Wain, Secretary of the Environment Conservation Group for Whitehill & Bordon Town Healthcheck. Dr Wain wished to thank the Forum for the grant they had awarded at the March 2008 meeting towards the costs of producing the Local Biodiversity Action Plan for Whitehill. A CD rom had been produced for local schools. 7. PRESENTATION THE PHOENIX THEATRE AND ARTS CENTRE, BORDON. The Community Project Worker (Development) introduced this item. The Barbados House Association managed The Phoenix Centre in Bordon. East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) had awarded The Barbados House Association a three year Partnership Funded Organisation Award of 4,000. As part of the agreement the organisation had been requested to give an Annual Presentation to the Forum on progress against their business plan. Mrs Jane Dawes, Director of The Phoenix

2 Theatre gave the following presentation: In the financial year 2007/2008 the Phoenix Theatre and Arts Centre continued to produce a wide variety of quality arts for the community, thanks to the support and contribution of their partners, funders, staff and volunteers. As per their mission statement they had delivered arts to people of all ages and abilities within East Hampshire through theatre, young people, adults and an arts festival. Mrs Dawes gave the following statistics for the period 2007/2008: 20 professional theatre performances had taken place; 16 resident amateur performances had been held; there had been audiences of over 2,000 people; 120 young people for 30 weeks had taken part in in-house drama and art; 180 young people had taken part in school and after school clubs for 30 weeks; 1,053 young people had attended other projects; 60 adults with learning and physical disabilities had taken part in drama, art, drumming and dance sessions for 30 weeks; and two groups of 30 adults for 30 weeks had attended adult art classes. An Arts Festival had been held with 100 participants, covering all ages and abilities. Approximately 5,000 members of the public had attended the festival events. They had been lucky enough to win the East Hampshire Access Award for Alternative Service. This had meant they not only had provided inclusive services and facilities for disabled people within their activities, but they also had operated an inclusive employment policy. One of their youth theatre groups was Dramability. This group had been running for almost two years and was a mixed ability youth theatre for young people aged 14 to 19. The group met weekly and produced one or two performances per year. Last year they had performed their version of A Midsummer Night s Dream. This year they had been working on dramatised fables and poems. 2 Mrs Dawes introduced the following members of the Dramability group: Bryony, Ayrton, Matty and one of the group leaders, Esi. They performed a play about an autistic boy My Brother Sam. The play told a simple story of a young boy s experiences of living with an autistic brother. Following the play Mrs Dawes thanked EHDC for their support. She hoped that the current year would be as successful. They were mindful of the uncertainty of the future plans for Whitehill and Bordon and how it may affect the Phoenix. A working party of Trustees had been looking at alternative plans for the future of the organisation, depending on whether they could remain in their present building. Cllr Carew asked if the MOD had sent a response regarding the future of the Phoenix Centre. Mrs Dawes had once again written to the MOD, but had not received a reply. Both Cllr Dowdle and the Rt. Hon. James Arbuthnot MP had written letters of support to the Phoenix Centre. Mrs Dawes added that their business plan already went up to 2010 therefore it was difficult to plan for the future. The Chairman thanked Mrs Dawes for her presentation and the young people for their play, which had a lesson to be learnt for everyone. 8. PRESENTATION HAMPSHIRE & ISLE OF WIGHT AIR AMBULANCE SERVICE. The Chairman introduced Mrs Phyllida Carr who gave the following presentation on the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance Service. The first air ambulance had been established in Cornwall in The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance Service, which was a fully registered charity, had been launched in July The helicopter was a Messerschmitt Bolkow 105DBS and was leased from Bond Helicopters, based at Thruxton. The leasing contract, which was the only practical way that

3 the service could be run, guaranteed a replacement helicopter if down time exceeded 12 working hours. Its maximum speed was 140mph, but 120mph was more typical. The helicopter carried 450kg fuel which guaranteed 75 minutes flying time with 25 minutes reserve time. The crew consisted of a pilot, two senior paramedics and a facility to carry two patients on stretchers. This was the same as a ground ambulance. Shortly this would be changing to comply with new regulations. There would be one doctor and one paramedic. Air ambulance work was open to paramedics with at least three years experience, who volunteered for this role. Once accepted, they had to attend a two week training course. There was a total of six paramedics drawn from the ambulance service, who shared the flying roster. When not on flying duties, they would be part of the normal ambulance service. The medical equipment aboard the helicopter included all the latest resuscitation equipment and carried more equipment than a land ambulance. The air ambulance could only operate in daylight hours. It operated seven days a week for eight hours a day. Late calls meant that the helicopter had to land at the nearest airfield and the patient was then transferred to hospital by a land ambulance. Mrs Carr gave the Forum an example of a typical mission. The air ambulance had carried out an average of three to four missions a day and to date had attended a staggering 509 missions. The air ambulance was usually airborne within three minutes and could land on an area half the size of a tennis court. Helipads existed at Basingstoke, Bournemouth, Salisbury, Queen Alexandra, Portsmouth and nearby St Mary s, Isle of Wight. Southampton Hospital was currently seeking planning permission. The air ambulance was used for many types of emergencies including traffic accidents, accidents in the workplace and sporting events. It was also used to transfer patients between hospitals where a patient may require specialist treatment at another hospital. 3 It cost over 65,000 per month to keep an air ambulance running. 100,000 per month needed to be raised by 2010 to maintain the current service. No Government grants or lottery funding had been received. The service relied entirely on voluntary donations and fundraising. Fundraising had been undertaken in a number of ways. Mrs Carr stressed that volunteers were the backbone of the organisation. Mrs Carr concluded her presentation with the following facts: Collectively air ambulances were the busiest UK voluntary emergency service; and During daylight hours an air ambulance was called out somewhere in the UK every ten minutes. Following the presentation Councillors and members of the public made the following comments: Councillors were very concerned that the organisation did not receive any funding from the Government. They asked if the organisation had approached EHDC and Hampshire County Council (HCC) for funding. Mrs Carr said that as the organisation operated countrywide they had not approached individual councils. However, she agreed to look into this. Mr Damian Hinds was also surprised that Government funding had not been received and asked why this was the case. Mrs Carr agreed to look into this. She added that the paramedics were funded by the NHS but the doctors were volunteers. Cllr Mrs Faddy asked if the service could be expanded if additional funding was available. Mrs Carr was not aware that expanding the service had been considered. Cllr Mrs Faddy asked for details of the website. She felt that the website could be used to boost funds. The website address was:

4 Mrs Carr listed a number of future fundraising events, including a fashion show, cycle ride and a sponsored mountain climb. Cllr Mrs James asked if the organisation held a flag day. Cllr Mrs Carr replied that they did not. Cllr James suggested that a report about this valuable service be placed on the EHDC website. 9. PRESENTATION COMMUNITY SAFETY TEAM. The Chairman introduced Miss Natalie Doig and Miss Lucy Soal from EHDC Community Safety Team. They represented Mrs Karen Dawes, EHDC Community Safety Manager who was unfortunately unable to attend the Forum. The Community Safety Team worked with local Councillors, Police and the community to help reduce crime and the fear of crime. They gave a brief update on some of the statistics that the Team had collected for the area covered by this Forum, through their processes and updates. 54 letters had been sent to parents and individuals who had been stopped by the Police and had been asked to account for themselves due to their anti-social behaviour. These letters were to inform parents/guardians what their children had been up to. Nine young people had been engaged with the Youth Inclusion Support Panel (YISP). Case workers worked with eight to 13 year olds on the cusp of offending. Six young people were engaged with the Prevent and Deter Service. This was a similar service for 13 to 18 year olds. Currently there were six community priority areas in the area covered by the Forum. These had included: South Hurst, Mill Chase Road, Ennerdale Rod and Sutton Fields in the Whitehill and Bordon area and Midhurst Road, the Infant and Junior Schools in the Liphook area. These areas had been identified from a range of souces including: information from communities, beat surgeries; community safety surveys; Community Forums; 101 calls, the 4 Police RMS systems, Councillors, the Police and other agencies. The Team were still working on a districtwide priority to tackle anti-social driving. As a result of their East Hants Campaign against antisocial driving a number of people had been warned and vehicles had been seized. A number of press releases and radio interviews had also been delivered to the public. Locally, the Bordon Tesco were now shutting their gates in the evenings to try and reduce cars gathering and disturbing local residents. This had been down to the good work of the local Police Safer Neighbourhood Team. Mr Philip Codrai, the Partnership Analyst had collected evidence of alcohol related incidents across the District. This had been with a view to obtaining more Designated Public Place Orders. In these areas the Police, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and Acdredited Community Safety Officers (ACSOs) were able to tell people to stop drinking in this area and pass over the drink. If they refused they could be given a ticket or be arrested if they were 16 plus years of age. If they were under 16 years of age their parents/guardians would be informed. Councillors made the following comments: The Forum congratulated the Community Safety Team on their excellent work and what they had achieved. Cllr Mrs Parker Smith had found the regular updates vey useful. She said that in many cases the perception of crime was greater than the actual cases of crime. Cllr Mrs Parker Smith was aware that the PCSOs drove between Headley and Grayshott. When she had visited Heatherlands, Headley Down the PCSO had been well known by local people. However, in Lindford the PCSO was seldom seen. She thought that the public found it reassuring to see a PCSO walking around the area. It was agreed that these comments would be passed on. Cllr Mrs Faddy referred to the success of the gates of Tesco being closed. She said that she had ed the Community Safety Team about this issue.they had put her in touch with the PC in Whitehill who had spoken to Tesco.

5 Cllr Mrs Faddy was impressed by the action that had been taken. She wished to thank Tesco for taking action. Cllr Carew wished action to be taken about the lack of PCSOs in the Whitehill and Bordon area. Cllr Carew was concerned about the public s perception about the Police being centralised in Alton. He thought that the public may feel that the Police were withdrawing. He felt that the changes should be clearly explained to the public. Cllr Carew added that a number of residents had told him that they would like to see more Police on the street. Cllr Dowdle thanked the Community Safety Team for their assistance in the Whitehill Pinewood area. A second meeting had been scheduled on Thursday 22 nd May Chief Inspector Kedge would be attending this meeting. Mrs Trish Bell, Whitehill Town Clerk commented that the Town Council had not been aware that Mill Chase Road had been made a priority area. She asked that in future the Town Council be kept informed. She also asked that the Town Council be informed when meetings took place regarding Sutton Fields. Mrs Bell added that PCSOs were seldom seen walking around the Bordon and Whitehill area. Cllr James asked that it be clarified that the reference made to Liphook Junior and Infant Schools was not the behaviour of the pupils but in fact the problems caused by parents parking their cars in this area whilst delivering and collecting their children from the schools. The Chairman had been working with the Community Safety Team in the Liphook area and was pleased with what had been achieved. The PCSO in this area had been very active. The Chairman thanked members of the Community Safety Team for their presentation. 10. USE OF DEVELOPER CONTRIBUTIONS: GRAYSHOTT AND WHITEHILL. The Forum considered the Report of the Senior Policy Planner, PP.29/2008, which had been previously circulated. (i) Provision of Bollards, the Sports Field, Grayshott. Councillors unanimously supported this application. (ii) Provision of Benches, Whitehill. (Councillors Carew and Mrs Faddy left the room as per their previous declaration of interest.) Mrs Trish Bell, Whitehill Town Clerk confirmed that Hollybrook Pond Park would have two benches. Cllr Millard questioned the sum of 4,922 for these benches. Mrs Bell said that the sum included the benches being installed in concrete. Councillors unanimously supported the application. Therefore, it was RESOLVED that the following requests for developer contributions be APPROVED: (i) Grayshott Parish Council - 1,290 towards the provision of bollards at the Sports Field, Grayshott; and; (ii) Whitehill Town Council up to 4,922 towards the provision of benches at open spaces in Whitehill subject to the conditions set out in paragraph 4.3 of the report. The meeting concluded at 7.40pm.. Chairman During the course of the meeting 15 members of the public and one member of the press were present. 5