Agenda 21 Strategy T for Neath Port Talbot

A AF N N E E W D A D Agenda 21 Strategy T for Neath Port Talbot A 1 G 2 E N D A The Plan One of the first things that became which they live, not any sort of wider apparent from the consultation administrative area. meetings was the marked differences between our communities. If problems Each of these Fora would meet are to be dealt with as local people quarterly in their “patch” facilitated would like, they cannot all be lumped by officers from the Local Authority together and dealt with across the and the Council for Voluntary Service. County in one way from centralised The forum would consist of residents offices. This therefore requires new who had attended the public mechanisms to be put into place (i) to consultation meetings, members of the listen and (ii) to deliver on a more local Community Councils, school locally sensitive system. The Agenda representatives, local Councillors, 21 Plan will be integrated into the members of local voluntary Community Strategy for Neath Port organisations indeed any local person Talbot. Guidance on the preparation who wishes to actively improve their and implementation of this new community. Any existing fora or statutory duty will be issued by the similar community groupings already National Assembly for Wales during meeting, would not be competed with the Spring of 2001. The Authority will but hopefully be involved and seek ways of addressing community enhanced. involvement and integrating this into the working of the Council, in order The remit of the forum would be to that it and its partners may be more consider the Agenda of issues that aware of and responsive to local have been collected for their particular community aspirations and issues. “patch” and by prioritising the issues, receive presentations and hold (i) One possibility could be the discussions with any relevant creation of Community Area Fora organisations or officers about 1 based upon area groupings. Local particular subject at a time. The idea People identify with those areas with being to get service deliverers and which they are familiar and although support organisations to thrash out politically there is a strong will to pull local problems face to face with the the people of Neath Port Talbot community, looking for positive ways together, the majority of people forward, not looking back to past naturally have their strongest mistakes. allegiance to the village or estate in A AF N N E E W D A D T 41 A 1 G 2 E N D A Figure 15 Community Planning/Agenda 21 - a possible way forward Meet quarterly Serviced Serviced by Could be 3, 5, 14, 29 fora - not by Community Planning Community yet decided! Initial core to be Officers Planning Officers made of attendees at the public meetimgs.Serviced by Agenda e.g. One Stop Shop, Serviced by CVS Community Steward 21 officer and CVS or Caretaker Plus Development Officer. Meet quarterly within their area COMMUNITY 21 AREA FORUM PARTNERSHIP for Agenda 21 Consisting of partner agencies, consisting of e.g. Health Authority, Police, CVS Public volunteers who mail interested local their views on Council residents and Services. community council Numbers to be increased to representatives as take on additional promised at the volunteers from the Agenda public meeting AREA FORUM 21 process for Agenda 21 consisting of interested local AREA FORUM residents and NPT VOLUNTARY community council for Agenda 21 representatives as SECTOR FORUM COMMUNITY consisting of promised at the interested local (already in existence- extend DELIVERY public meeting residents and agenda content to include a MECHANISM community council slot on Agenda 21 or representatives as for the increase meeting frequency promised at the to have dedicated meetings outlying public meeting communities on Agenda 21) A AF N N E E W D A D Agenda 21 Strategy T for Neath Port Talbot A 1 G 2 E N D A For example, one meeting could be Community initiative could work as a dedicated solely to the flytipping very simple version of the One Stop problem for the an area Forum and Shop, it could be a community hence they would invite the steward, it could be caretaker plus Environment Agency, Litter Wardens, Keep Wales Tidy Officers and the The new mechanism should be seen Clean Rivers Project Officer all to one as the contact on the ground for all evening meeting for open discussion organisations and it is therefore on how to create a new initiative to essential that the officers selected are deal with the problem. The local experienced and understand the people should be involved as much as working of various bodies from the possible in the solutions, with support Council for Voluntary Service through from the agencies. to the Environment Agency. Indeed funding for such an initiative could be Different solutions may be agreed provided in a shared way. independently by the various Fora to a similar problem, but that is not a The mechanism could be responsible difficulty as long as each can be for monitoring the level of service delivered. response their residents get and thus feed through to the Best Value system. As the Fora over the months, work It must not subsume the role of the through their priorities, new issues local Councillor who is irreplaceable will emerge but also minor issues as the voice of the people but may would niggle as not large enough to assist the Councillor with warrant the whole groups time and administrative support for local these could become divisive over community issues. time. It is these smaller day to day or very localised problems which have (iii) It is proposed that these historically posed problems for Community Delivery Mechanisms service deliverers and residents alike. feed directly to the Neath Port Talbot Community 21 Partnership who are also responsible for the (ii) It is therefore proposed that a delivery of the Community Plan. They Community Delivery Mechanism be should also be expected to feed the put in place in each community to Area Community Fora meetings. (See work alongside the Community Police Fig 15) Officer, the local Councillor and the Community Councils. This This improved community deployment will be phased, starting involvement and tackling of issues with the most distant communities locally will help reduce unnecessary from central services. This journeys and the feelings of A AF N N E E W D A D T 43 A 1 G 2 E N D A A AF N N E E W D A D Agenda 21 Strategy T for Neath Port Talbot A 1 G 2 E N D A alienation, in return for empowerment month to a local voluntary and increased community satisfaction. organisation until all requests have However, this will not achieve been satisfied. There are dozens of sustainable communities alone. A WIs, Rotary Clubs, Round Tables, massive awareness raising/education Towns Womens Guilds, campaign is needed to help people to Soroptomists and Probus Clubs who make the right choices when it comes are constantly looking for evening to looking after our local and global speakers. The message of all talks environment. Even television should be “what can individuals do commentators get confused whether to understand and help protect the they are talking about ozone depletion environment”. It would be extremely or global warming and so it is not helpful if the Environment Agency surprising that a topic that sits largely and Health Authority could make outside the National Curriculum, yet similar commitments to water affects all of us daily, is not widely pollution and healthy lifestyles. understood. • That all of the Council’s (iv) It is therefore proposed that a environmental units listed above be major awareness raising campaign given sufficient funds to produce a be launched containing the following leaflet for every household on what as a minimum: individuals can do to help the environment e.g. on energy saving. • That INSET training be arranged for The mailing out of these should be staff of every primary and secondary phased and co-ordinated. school over the next 5 years on the full range of environmental issues • That the Eco Information points at affecting us locally. each of the libraries be used by all departments to get sustainability • That every school works towards messages over to the public. achieving the ECO Schools awards in the next 5 years. • That an Eco Centre be opened in an accessible venue for people to have • That staff of the remaining local all of the environmental queries authority departments are trained on dealt with. the environmental impacts of their sphere of work - 30 staff per month. •ASupporting Awareness Raising Strategy for wildlife is available in • That officers from the waste, energy, the Biodiversity Action Plan. wildlife, transport and air pollution units are made available to carry out • Finally, we need to achieve at least 1 evening talk each, every confirmation that all of our efforts A AF N N E E W D A D T 44 A 1 G 2 E N D A A AF N N E E W D A D Agenda 21 Strategy T for Neath Port Talbot A 1 G 2 E N D A towards working and living more by means of external validation that a sustainably are a reality in terms of company is striving to continually action not a delusion. This is best reduce its impacts on the achieved by external checking. Environment. A similar standard ISO 14001 has already been achieved by (v) It is therefore recommended the local Transport, Highway and that the Neath Port Talbot County Engineering Department and it is felt Borough Council commits to the other departments should show a achieve Eco Management and Audit similar level of commitment.

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