Agenda item

Interviews with:

·  Councillor John Perry, Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure Services, and;

·  Councillor Marion Ring, Cabinet Member for Environment and Housing.

Community and Leisure Services priorities for 2014-15

Councillor Perry presented his priorities for the 2014-2015 Municipal Year and explained the rationale behind them.

During discussions and questioning the following points were raised:

Parish Liaison:

·  The planned work under the heading of Parish Liaison was ambitious.  The staff team were keen to get started and were planning visits and meetings with parishes and the Cabinet member.  Plans were afoot to delegate some of the work, with the 41 parishes in the borough, to council members;

·  Parish Liaison included communities as well as parishes;

·  More help would be provided to the smaller parishes and would be proportionate to the size of the parish;

·  The Parish services scheme would be mapped out to see what could and could not be changed;

·  In terms of performance against priorities for Parish Liaison, the Cabinet member agreed it would be useful for him to report back on:

o  Partnerships formed

o  Outcomes achieved

o  Results for residents;

·  Regarding the allocation of sites for the Local Plan housing numbers, (allocation and spatial issues) once known – the Cabinet member confirmed these would be looked at at Parish level and relevant evidence put forward as part of the consultation process;

·  The Cabinet member explained he believed the Local Plan should take a whole community, two pronged (parish and borough), approach with neighbourhood plans taken into account and he would not be limited by the time frame of the Local Plan to make this happen;

Parks and Leisure:

·  The Committee agreed it would be useful to look at ownership of allotments along with fairness of allocation of allotment sites;

Supporting Disadvantaged Communities:

·  The Cabinet member confirmed his plan regarding community work would not just be based on disadvantaged families. It would focus on the priority work being done in communities where it would make the biggest difference, for example rural communities, elderly.  The Cabinet member stated communities would be at the heart of the Parish Charter.

Environment priorities for 2014-2015

Councillor Ring presented her priorities for the coming Municipal year.

During discussion and questioning the following points were highlighted:

·  It was noted the freighter service would not be discontinued.  European Union laws prevented the council from picking up certain items.  During August 2014 the Cabinet member and staff would be going out with the collection service to establish why people used it, how often and gather ideas for other ways of delivering the service, for example charities collecting old furniture etc.;

Street Scene Standards

·  Street scene standards re-introduced the ‘ward walks’ with a new way of measuring the standards.  Stakeholders responsible for maintaining the street scene standards (ie police, private and social landlords, Kent County council) had been invited to attend and assist with rating the standards and putting things right;

·  Concern had been raised regarding maintaining the standards.  It was hoped by making improvements it would influence a change in residents’ behaviour to maintain the standards;

·  The Cabinet member explained street cleaners had an ‘app’ on their mobile phone that enabled them to report repairs, fly tipping etc. needing attention while on site.  This had resulted in a reduction in the time between reporting the issue and it being dealt with;

·  The reduction of littering from passing cars had been looked at by the Kent Resource Partnership of 13 councils;

Bereavement Services

·  The Cabinet member explained the provision of a florist at the crematorium  was a new idea looking at ways of making residents’ council tax go further and accepted it may be in competition with local florist businesses;

Flooding

·  The Cabinet member confirmed the workshop on flooding would be attended by the Environment Agency and would be held in time to action ideas on how to deal with floods better;

Housing

·  The Housing Strategy review would take place in six months in line with the Local Plan affordable housing policy;

Maidstone Town Centre Community Toilet Scheme

·  The Cabinet member confirmed the Community Toilet scheme worked well and she planned to visit every toilet in the borough during the year.  No toilets in the scheme would be shut unless minimum standards were not met;

·  The Cabinet member stated portable toilet facilities were too expensive and there was no funds available to build more.  The aim was to improve what was already available.

RESOLVED: That the:

a.  Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure Services and the Cabinet Member for Environment priorities for the Municipal year 2014-2015 be noted;

b.  Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure Services report back to the Committee, in terms of performance against priorities for Parish Liaison, on:

o  Partnerships formed

o  Outcomes achieved

o  Results for residents

c.  Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure services investigate ownership of allotments along with fairness of allocation of sites.