Report of Head of Strategy And Regeneration.

Consideration was given to a report regarding the Local Improvement Programme and the potential for funding in the Area 1 Forum locality.  (For copy see file of Minutes).

Andrew Megginson and Nicola Woodgate attended the meeting to present the report.

It was explained that £3.8m in total had been allocated over three years to 2008/09 for the Local Improvement Programme across the Borough to tackle the issues as outlined in the Council’s Community Strategy.  The allocation for the Area1 Forum locality was as follows:

Local communities and partner Town and Parish Councils could submit project proposals at any time.  The projects would be appraised and scored and then discussed at an Area Forum meeting.

The role of the Area Forum was to provide a view as to the priority of the project within the area.  The project would then be considered by the Council’s Management Team and Cabinet.  The latter would decide whether or not to support the project.

Projects eligible for support through the Local Area Improvement Programme would need to demonstrate that they met the following key criteria:

Ø        Conformity to the newly created Department for Communities and Local Government (formerly the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) Regeneration criteria which states:

“the carrying out of works or activities on any land where the land or a building on the land is vacant, unused, under-used, ineffectively used, contaminated or derelict; and the works or activities carried out in order to secure that the land or the building will be brought into effective use”.

Ø        Clear linkages to the delivery of the Council’s Community Strategy and its key aims and planned outcomes.

Projects were also expected to meet the following secondary criteria:

Ø        Appropriate levels of community consultation should have been carried out.  A clear need for the project must be identified.

Ø        The project should have specific measurable benefits.

Ø        How any recurrent or revenue funding implications would be managed should have been considered.

Ø        Value for money should be clearly demonstrated to include any match funding from other grant sources as well as accessing a minimum of three quotations regarding the proposals for work.

Ø        Where the applicant was a Town or Parish Council, there should be a financial contribution of at least 1/3^rd of the total costs of the project, to ensure that the resources made available were addressing local priorities as well as those of the Council.

Any interested groups were advised to contact the Community Project Development Officer at the Council Offices to discuss initial project ideas.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 3^rd April 2006.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 3^rd April 2006 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

A representative of Spennymoor Police will attend the meeting to give a report on crime statistics and initiatives in the area and road safety.

Inspector Adrian Green was present at the meeting to give details of the crime figures for the area. 

It was reported that the total number of crimes reported in April had increased, in particular dwellinghouse and other burglaries.

With regard to dwellinghouse burglaries, the Forum was advised not to leave house doors open and not to place handbags and purses in the vicinity of doors or where they could be viewed through windows.  They were also requested not to leave any keys in the vicinity of the front door as implements were being pushed through the letterboxes to retrieve keys.

With regard to shed burglaries, it was noted that shed alarms could be purchased at the police station at discounted prices. 

Specific reference was made to the increased number of thefts from vehicles.  Members of the Forum were again instructed not to leave satellite navigations systems in unattended vehicles. 

It was also pointed out that incidents of criminal damage had increased.

With regard to the comments made at previous meetings regarding the difficulties encountered in trying to contact the Police using the non -emergency number, it was reported that the Chief Constable had acknowledged the problem and extra staff were to be recruited for the control rooms.  It was also pointed out that a help desk had been set up and a ring back procedure was also in place. 

Reference was also made to the number of burglaries that had been committed by people posing as officials from the Water Board etc.

The Forum was given details of a joint initiative taking place in the St. Pauls area of Spennymoor that had commenced Tuesday 30^th May 2006 with a community walkabout.  The initiative would last for three to four weeks. 

Reference was also made to the decision to recruit 36 additional PCSOs.  It was noted that the first course of training would commence in July and the second course in September.  It was hoped that Spennymoor would be allocated an additional officer.

With regard to road safety, it was reported that there had been six damage only and four minor injury accidents. 

Local residents expressed concern regarding the number of vehicles parked on footpaths.  It was pointed out that it was an offence to park on footpaths as it was classed as “an illegal obstruction of the highway”.  It was, however, pointed out that given limited police resources, it was not expedient to issue tickets to all those guilty of the offence.  Officers had been instructed to target those motorists who they felt were very inconsiderate. 

Concern was also expressed regarding flooding in Carr Street.  It was pointed out that the flooding was probably due to blocked drains and would need to be dealt with by Northumbrian Water. 

Concern was also expressed regarding the number of lorries travelling through Kirk Merrington that exceeded the 7.5 tonne limit.  The Forum’s attention was drawn to a document that had been prepared by Councillor E. Foster, Durham County Council and had been circulated at the meeting. The document gave the results of a survey that had been undertaken on the B6288 Ridgeside and C38 outside Kirk Merrington School.  It was pointed out that the County Council and Durham Constabulary considered the figures obtained in the survey to be above average compliance with a posted  ‘7.5 tonne weight limit Except for Access’ restriction when compared to many of the locations within the county and indeed nationally.  It was, however, proposed that the signage could be improved and it was agreed that Councillor Foster would contact the Highways Department to ascertain if anything could be done.  He also agreed to investigate a request for an additional sign warning motorists of tractors turning and the need to drive carefully.

Arrangements have been made for John Saxby, Chief Executive, County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust to attend the meeting to  respond to the concerns expressed at the April meeting of the Forum.

John Saxby, Chief Executive, County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust attended the meeting to respond to the concerns expressed at the April meeting of the Forum. 

He referred to press reports regarding the likelihood of the County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust making 300 people redundant this year, 200 the next year and 200 the year after that - 700 posts in total.  It was pointed out that the Trust had a workforce of 5,700 and the 700 posts equated to 12% of the workforce. 

The Forum was given details of the changes to the way the Trust was to be funded which related to the number of patients treated.  It was predicted that the Trust would receive less patients as more illnesses were treated with medication as opposed to surgery and more minor surgery was taking place within doctors’ surgeries.  The Trust had to save £50m in the current financial year.  It had ceased employing agency staff which were more costly and had also reduced the number of hours overtime worked.  Voluntary redundancies may however be required in the future as the Trust did not want to go into debt.   It was pointed out that although nurses accounted for 60% of the workforce, any redundancies would not be confined to nurses.

Specific reference was made to the integration of ICT systems with the health service.   It was noted that a lot of GPs were able to refer patients for their first outpatient appointment by using the ‘Choose and Book’ service.  It was also pointed out that from October the same system of patient administration would be used in all County Durham hospitals.

A representative of Sedgefield Primary Care Trust will attend the meeting to give an update on local health matters and performance figures.

Melanie Fordham attended the meeting to give an update on local health matters.

It was reported that Sedgefield, Durham and the Dales, Derwentside, Easington and Durham and Chester-le-Street PCTs were to merge into one organisation covering a population of 500,000.  It was expected that the new organisation would be in place by 1^st October 2006.  Darlington PCT was to remain serving a population of 99,000.  All PCTs had to make at least 15% savings in management costs.  It was noted that this would easily be achieved by the new larger PCT. 

It was reported that Sedgefield PCT had been working closely with the other PCTs for the last eighteen months and a financial plan was in place to tackle the current £3.7M overspend.  It was noted that the budgets currently attached to the various PCTs and localities would remain in place until 2008.

With regard to the proposed development of a new health centre at Spennymoor, it was reported that the existing site was not suitable and therefore a new site was required. 

Specific reference was made to the funding Doctor Roy had received for a new extension in respect of the Oxford Road surgery.

The Forum’s attention was drawn to the Performance Management Report that had been submitted to the PCT Board on 11^th May 2006.  Specific reference was made to the Ambulance Service targets and the tremendous improvement in the response in respect of Category A calls within eight minutes.  It was anticipated that the target of 75% of responding to all calls to life threatening emergencies in eight minutes would be achieved in the near future.

With regard to in-patient waiting, it was anticipated that the target of achieving a maximum wait of three months for all in-patients by December 2008 would be achieved by October 2008.                                      

The Forum’s attention was also drawn to Page 16 of the report which detailed the primary care procedures that had been undertaken during the period April 2005 to March 2006 - 1,442 procedures in total.

The Chairman will take questions from the floor.

The question was raised of when residents in Spennymoor would receive a bin for recycling their green waste.

It was proposed that the matter should be discussed at the next meeting.

Monday 4^th September 2006

Monday 23^rd October 2006

Monday 11^th December 2006

Monday 12^th February 2007

Monday 2^nd April 2007

Monday 4^th September, 2006

Monday 23^rd October, 2006

Monday 11^th December, 2006

Monday 12^th February, 2007

Monday 2^nd April, 2007