To notify the Chairman of any items that appear later in the agenda in which you may have an interest.

Members had no interests to declare.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 18^th July 2006.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 18^th July 2006 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

With regard to Minute AF(4)5/06, it was reported that the Chairman of the Forum had sent a letter to the Secretary of State for the Home Department regarding the difficulties in trying to contact the Police on the non emergency telephone number.  A copy of the reply was circulated to Members of the Forum. (For copy see file of Minutes)

With regard to Minute AF(4)8/06, the Forum was informed that a meeting had taken place on 8^th September 2006 with the Town Council and community representatives and the following actions had been agreed:

Bus Shelters - Town Square and Bus Terminus

Bus Terminus

Remove all glass panels from the lower half of all shelters and replace with green coloured smooth finish glass fibre panels.  Utilise the above recovered glass panels to replace damaged panels in the top half of the shelters.

Town Square

Replace damaged units with glass panels and all damaged roof tiles, fascia boards and decorative units as required.

The paintwork to all shelters to be refreshed as necessary.

Gazebos - Town Square

Attempt to clean and seal the York Stone Hackworth Wheel feature.

Ascertain the capital cost of restoring the fountain to full working order.

Clean up the fountain and attempt to remove graffiti.

Take down all damaged soffitt boards and replace with new boards with more substantial fixing detail.

Fix new vertical boarding to full perimeter of ledge to prevent access by pigeons.

Replace all damaged roof tiles and hip ridge tiles as required.

Town Square - General

Repaint as necessary, repair damaged paving as required and jet wash Town Square.

Identify alternative lighting options as the lanterns had been removed owing to health and safety concerns, however the brackets had been retained for use as hanging basket supports.

Provide temporary lighting from gazebo.

Consider replacing the litterbins with plastic coated steel cylinder bins.

Paint timber seats, if required.

The Forum was informed that the CCTV cameras were fully operational.

A representative of Shildon Police will attend the meeting to give a report of crime statistics and initiatives in the area.

Inspector S. Ball was present at the meeting to give details of the crime statistics for the area.

The reported crime figures for July and August were as follows:

With regard to nuisance/rowdy behaviour in August, it was reported that 22 incidents related to neighbour issues and 36 were youth related.

Specific reference was made to a public meeting that had taken place the previous evening to discuss the problems associated with the congregation of youths in St. Johns churchyard, particularly on weekends between the hours of 5.00 p.m. and 1.00 a.m.  The problems included: litter, broken glass around the gravestones, damage to the fencing of the churchyard, damage to garage door handles in the vicinity, abusive language from youths who were often inebriated and solvent abuse. 

It was pointed out that the graveyard was closed and Shildon Town Council was responsible for grass cutting.  It was queried whether the boundary fencing was the responsibility of the Town Council or the Church Commissioners.  Chairman agreed to seek clarification.   It was noted that the Church was willing to make a contribution towards the cost of repairing the fencing.

It was reported that Helen Dent, Anti-Social Behaviour Reduction Manager, Sedgefield Borough Council, had been informed of the problems and had proposed that a meeting of the appropriate parties be arranged to discuss what action could be taken.  In the meantime, Sedgefield Borough Council Neighbourhood Wardens would patrol the area on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and the mobile CCTV camera would be deployed. 

It was noted that the Police were also prepared to divert resources to the churchyard and the Crime Reduction Partnership had been requested to undertake a survey of the area.  

It was pointed out that rowdy/nuisance behaviour from youths was a national problem and consideration must be given to providing the youths with appropriate recreational facilities.

Specific reference was made to the problem of vandalism in the park and the need to obtain Police support in respect of the Local Improvement Programme application for funding for CCTV cameras. 

It was reported that the Police had agreed to support the application and assurances were given that the necessary documentation would be forwarded to Shildon Town Council.

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

Alyson Learmonth and Mrs. A.M. Armstrong attended the meeting to give an update on local health matters.

It was reported that County Durham Primary Care Trust would be formed on 1^st October 2006, following the merger of the current Durham and Chester-le-Street, Derwentside, Durham, Dales, Easington and Sedgefield PCTs.

Lady Anne Calman had been appointed as Chair of the new PCT and applicants for the post of Chief Executive would be interviewed on 27^th September 2006.  Nigel Porter, Chief Executive of Sedgefield PCT, would be taking early retirement/voluntary redundancy on 5^th November 2006.

It was pointed out that the new bigger County Durham PCT would significantly reduce expenditure on management and administrative functions as there would only be one Board.

The Forum’s attention was then drawn to the North East Strategic Health Authority - Monthly Performance Score Card.  Copies of which were circulated at the meeting.

Specific reference was made to the Ambulance Service targets and the tremendous improvement with regard to number of Category A calls achieving a response within eight minutes.

A. Learmonth also gave details of the recently published Director of Public Health Annual Report.  The report had been prepared as a stimulus to action and service development that would improve health and wellbeing for the people of Sedgefield.  It provided an overview of the health of the population, tracking changes since last years report, identified inequalities that must be addressed if the gap in the health experience was not allowed to widen and made recommendations for Sedgefield in the context of the Combined County Durham and Darlington Public Health Annual Report.

The presentation covered those areas where good/steady and little progress had been made in the past year, the priorities for the Local Strategic Partnership, Practice Based Commissioning Groups, Practice Business Plan and the report’s recommendations.

The Forum queried what arrangements had been made to address the potential problems of a pandemic flu outbreak.  It was explained that the PCT had prepared an operational management plan.  GPs practices had also plans in place as had the Borough Council to minimise the expected disruption to services.

Members of the Forum expressed concern regarding the difficulties in making appointments to see a particular GP as a result of the appointment systems that had been introduced.  It was pointed out that a number of practices were aware of this problem and were trying to move to a dual appointment system for urgent/non urgent appointments.

To receive a presentation from Sedgefield Borough’s Waste Management Officer.

Ruth Clayton, Waste Management Officer, attended the meeting to give a presentation on the above. 

It was explained that the Council was in the processing of developing a new Waste Management Strategy and Action Plan to take the Authority forward to 2012. 

Sedgefield Borough, as the designated ‘Waste Collection Authority’, had a duty to provide a service for the collection of municipal waste, which included household waste and litter.  Durham County Council was the designated ‘Waste Disposal Authority’ responsible for the disposal of all municipal waste collected within the County.

Household waste included material collected from domestic wheeled bins, plus items such as white goods, bulky waste for example furniture and carpets and garden waste.  Municipal waste comprised household waste, plus commercial trade waste.

It was noted that on average, household waste within Sedgefield Borough was increasing by approximately 3% a year, and the Council was determined to take positive steps to tackle the problem.

The Forum was given details of what type of waste was found in bins.  It was noted that 35% of the contents comprised of green or food waste.

 Waste Minimisation Initiatives such as home composting, re-usable nappies, reducing the amount of junk mail, smart shopping and bin size reduction were being examined.

Specific reference was made to a stakeholder consultation, which had been undertaken to gain an understanding of residents views on:

Ø               Support towards a number of waste reduction methods including alternate weekly collections

Ø               Current level of satisfaction with the current waste collection service

Ø               Future services residents would like to see provided.

It was reported that a questionnaire had been developed and had been delivered to houses throughout Sedgefield Borough.  Copies of which were circulated at the meeting.

Members were reminded of the Council’s existing waste management service which included domestic wheelie bins/trade waste, special collections, bring sites, white good collection and the Kerb It Scheme.  The Council offered a free special collection service for white goods to all residents across the Borough.

It was reported that the current kerbside recycling scheme - ‘Kerb It’ was scheduled to expire in March 2008 and decisions needed to be made in the near future about the provision of an alternative/replacement service. It was reported that there were health and safety concerns over the manual lifting and handling of the containers both by the operatives and by the householders. 

It was noted that the collection of green waste was very popular with residents, however, Durham County Council did not pay recycling credits for its collection. 

Reference was made to the challenges facing the Council and the existing and future recycling and composting targets.  The target for 2007 was 20% and it was anticipated that it would increase to 30% to 35% in the next couple of years. 

It was reported that any system chosen needed to be convenient to use and accessible to residents financially sustainable and operationally sustainable it also must fit in with the residual waste collection service and the disposal and treatment services available.  It was pointed out that the questionnaire sought the public’s views on which materials they would like collected for recycling. The list included plastics.

Reference was made to the contribution to the Council’s 20% recycling rate by the various collection services.  It was noted that 58% came from the Kerb It Collection Scheme, 9% from Green Waste/Composting and Wood Waste, 5% from White Goods, 4% from Bring sites, 20% from material recovered by the Thornley Digester and 4% from third party and other.

 Members of the Forum expressed concern regarding the amount of packaging on goods and pointed out that the Government needed to work more closely with multi-national companies to reduce packaging and promote recycling.  It was noted that a number of supermarkets were promoting recycling by the reward of loyalty points for the re-use of carrier bags.

With regard to the operation of the Kerb It Scheme, it was pointed out that extra boxes were provided free of charge and lids could be purchased at a cost of £1.50, which included delivery. 

14^th November 2006 at 6.30 p.m. in Shildon Sunnydale Leisure Centre.

14^th November 2006 at 6.30 p.m. in Shildon Sunnydale Leisure Centre.