Agenda item

Members will recall that O & S had requested that Portfolio Holders present their Business Plans at the last meeting of the year, in readiness for the new Municipal year, to each Select Committee. 

It was sensible for the Business Plans to be presented to the relevant Select Committee, where there would be better alignment.  This way the Select Committees would have time to undertake a more in-depth scrutiny role regarding the numerous services which make up their Select Committees. 

On this basis, the relevant Portfolio Holders are requested to attend this meeting and take the Select Committee through their plans for the coming year.

In the absence of the Housing Portfolio Holder, the Director of Communities introduced the Housing Portfolio’s elements on the Communities Business Pan for the coming year 2018/19. This was the second year of operating with a slimmed down business plan.

He explained the key points relating to the Housing Service, which were that:

·         the Cabinet had agreed to continue with the Council Housebuilding Programme and good progress had now been made on Phases 2 and 3 and will continue with Phases 4 – 6 once consultants and contractors had been consulted;

·         the new Homelessness Reduction Act placed additional responsibilities on the Council, with some funding provided by central government;

·         there was additional income of £452,000 mainly due to the government homelessness funding;

·         the decision had been made to co-locate the Housing Repairs Service to the Oakwood Hill Depot;

·         the Careline Monitoring Service had been successfully out-sourced; and

·         the new 5 year Housing Strategy had been approved;

Under the elements relating to Community and Safety Councillor Sam Kane explained that:

concerns had been raised about the level of policing in the district, which had led to a growth to the budget of £215,000 for three EFDC funded Police Officers.

Councillor Helen Kane explained that:

·         the application for Arts Council National Portfolio Status had been unsuccessful;

·         a new Epping Forest Health and Wellbeing Strategy was produced; and

·         that ‘Culture without Borders Development Trust’ had been successfully established.

Councillor Sam Kane noted that when he joined the Cabinet he was soon alerted to a range of serious ASB issues and a significant increase in crime in several areas of the District. Parkguard Security company was therefore commissioned to undertake patrolling of key areas where high levels of ASB were occurring, but soon became evident that additional Police officers were needed in the area to provide visibility and deter ASB and criminality.  This idea led to a Cabinet report recommending that the Council should fund three extra Police officers in the Epping Forest District to be tasked jointly by the Community Safety Officer and local Police Inspector. This report was agreed by the Council and Essex police were currently recruiting one police sergeant and two police constables, who would commence work in the district as from June. Their role would be to prioritise key crime and ASB hotspots in the district and to support Council officers in a range of work where police presence was required. 

Councillor Helen Kane presented two items from her portfolio and initially advised the Committee about a funding bid that Museum, Heritage and Culture had submitted to Arts Council England for National Portfolio Organisation Status for Museum partnership of Epping Forest, Broxbourne and Chelmsford. This had been a highly contested scheme and although the partnership had lost out to the National Horseracing Museum at Newmarket, the bid had been highly commended by the Arts Council who had advised that alternative funding was available for some the projects identified.

The council was now also embarking on a five year action plan designed to promote community cohesion and build a sense of community spirit across the district. This work would be supported by a network of Community Resilience Champions to be identified as part of the initiative.

A ‘Culture without Borders’ Development Trust had now been established with the aim of securing funding to support museum activities and events across both Epping Forest District and Lowewood Museums. The ultimate aim of the trust would be to enable the museum to become sustainable for the future.

In response to the briefings by the Portfolio Holders, Councillor Sunger asked if the three police officers would do 8 hour shifts each. He was told that it was not that kind of operation as they would not work across a 24 hour period.

Councillor Baldwin asked if the community development work associated with the community cohesion project was cost neutral to the council and if there was external funding for this. Councillor Helen Kane replied that the council would be funding it initially. Ms Wallis added that there were various funds that officers would be tapping into, such as the Public Health Partners who were keen get involved with the Council.

Councillor Heap asked if the Police were under the Council’s control and if they could be called away. Councillor Sam Kane replied that they could be called away, but only under exceptional circumstances. It would not be a regular occurrence and the Council would be compensated for this.

Councillor Baldwin asked about the government grant for the ‘renewable heat initiative’ and whether the Council had to repay it? Mr Hall said that as it was grant we did not have to repay it.

RESOLVED:

That the Select Committee noted and reviewed the Communities Directorate Business Plan for 2018/19.