Horsham Town Community Partnership

http://horshamtowncommunitypartnership.btck.co.uk

HORSHAM TOWN COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

AgeUK, Lavinia House, Dukes Square, Denne Road, Horsham RH12 1GZ

7.30pm, Wednesday, 15th July 2015

CHAIR'S REPORT

The objects of the Partnership are to benefit the built-up area of Horsham town and its community by working on issues and projects of interest and concern to the area, and which will contribute to securing its long term viability and the maintenance of its particular character, heritage and amenities.

This last year has been a busy time for everyone and Horsham Town Community Partnership (HTCP) are extremely grateful to the continuing support of our volunteers who give their time and skills to ensure the vibrancy and continuing achievements of the Partnership.

I would like to express my gratitude for all their hard work to our HTCP Directors: David Searle, who is HTCP Vice- Chair and also represents North Horsham Parish Council, Diane Sumpter, our HTCP Treasurer and also represents Forest Neighbourhood Council, Mary Crosbie, who represents Trafalgar Neighbourhood Council, Sue Brundish, who represents Horsham in Bloom, Martin Bruton, who represents Denne Neighbourhood Council, David Skipp, who stands as an interested individual, Nigel Friswell, who represents Horsham Society, and to Jan Irwin, Sarah Mustard and Jan English, who along with the Directors make up our Management Committee. I know everyone in HTCP is very grateful to Sara Doy for her help with minute taking and for helping to organise this evening's AGM.

Within this Chair's report it is important to mention that although North Horsham Parish Council, the Horsham Neighbourhood Councils, Horsham Society and Horsham In Bloom are represented on HTCP, the views and objectives of these organisations are not necessarily the views and objectives of HTCP and HTCP is not necessarily presenting the views and objectives of the member organisations within this report.

Jan Irwin will now be stepping down from the Management Committee due to her work commitments. Many thanks go to Jan for all her help with supporting HYPER over this last year and the benefit of her expertise.

HTCP is now a recognised stakeholder in the town and as such has been represented on various other project boards as well as working our own projects. These other projects include: the West Street Enhancement Project, The Bishopric Enhancement Project and the Improvement of the North Street Subways Project.

A Company limited by guarantee, registered in England & Wales, incorporated 7th September 2011 Company No: 7765509. Registered Office Teffont Magna, Salisbury Road, Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 0AJ Horsham Town Community Partnership

HTCP is keen to support other initiatives being led by the member organisations of HTCP and will always endeavour to fully support these initiatives. For example, support can be given in practical volunteer help, using any expertise we can provide or help with locating and accessing funding streams.

One recent example of help given by HTCP was the provision of treasury services to Horsham Blueprint in their work towards area designation and establishment of a Neighbourhood Forum and Neighbourhood Plan for the unparished area of Horsham town. HTCP is represented on the board of Horsham Blueprint by David Searle.

HTCP was approached last year by a resident with a business plan, suitable background knowledge and expertise about the current functioning (at that time) of the Horsham town Shopmobility Scheme. HTCP helped to bring various interested parties both from HDC and other organisations together to have a group discussion about the Shopmobility Scheme. Following on from these discussions, a way forward was reached by Horsham District Council (HDC) to upgrade the scheme.

Apart from our main project of the improvement of the Riverside Walk, HTCP have worked on various other initiatives over this last year.

In November 2014 HTCP organised, together with the help of the HDC Estates Department, viewings of Park House by representatives of various voluntary sector organisations to enable these representatives to see the layout of Park House, size of rooms and state of repair of the building. As part of the overall office rationalisation, HDC has stated that they no longer need the office and basement accommodation that they have previously used in Park House, North Street, Horsham.

Park House, as it presently stands is a Grade 2 Listed Building dating from 1690 with additions made in the eighteenth century. Following the tours and subsequent discussions, a document on possible self-funding profitable uses that would benefit visitor and community amenity facilities in Horsham has been produced. This document has been forwarded to HDC and presently costings are being worked on by HTCP regarding profitability of the space provided within Park House. We hope that this document will be considered at future HDC meetings and discussions on the future of Park House.

From our work on the Riverside Walk Project, last year HTCP also undertook some investigative work regarding localised flooding in Horsham. Although surveys have been conducted by organisations such as the Environment Agency to list localised flooding problem areas in the town, residents have come forward with further information that is not listed within these surveys. These findings are currently available to be used by any organisation to help their fund application to address localised flooding problems.

With regard to the health and wellbeing aspect of the Riverside Walk Project, HTCP responded as an interested party, to the Clinical Commissioning Group's recent consultation on health service provision for the district. With regard to the Riverside Walk facility and the ongoing protection of this facility, HTCP responded to the McCarthy and Stone Prewetts Mill planning application as the Riverside Walk passes within metres of this proposed development. The Riverside Walk Project is being represented as a stakeholder consultee regarding the proposed Liberty Property Trust Ltd North of Horsham Development. The Riverside Walk goes through this proposed development for some considerable distance. The Riverside Walk project team consider it is important that the Riverside Walk facility is not lost within this proposed development.

Through the Riverside Walk Project and events regarding the project, the Walk has become an enhanced visitor attraction for Horsham, with many people coming from outside the area to use the Walk and to also visit other areas of interest close to the Walk.

Keeping residents up to date on the progress of HTCP and its work has been something we have worked hard on this last year. Regular updates, particularly on the Riverside Walk Project, have been sent to the West Sussex County Times. Public exhibitions have been held at the last two Sparks in the Park Events in Horsham Park which are facilitated by the Rotary Club of Horsham. Our thanks goes to David Jessop for his much appreciated work on these excellent press releases and exhibitions and to the support given by the West Sussex County Times.

In my capacity of Chair of HTCP, I helped represent the Community Partnerships in the Horsham district by speaking at the HDC Partnership Conference held in March 2015 about the work of and what has been achieved by the Community Partnerships since they were first established, outlined the amount of volunteer hours provided by the Partnerships, how they wish to work cohesively together with the district's statutory organisations to benefit the communities they represent and how this can be achieved. From these presentations an ongoing dialogue is currently taking place with HDC , WSCC and representatives from the Community Partnerships in the Horsham district on how we can all work best together.

Eddie Case, Chartered Accountant, has helped HTCP by auditing our HTCP accounts and for also providing a free of charge registered office as our previous registered office address needed to be changed due to the introduction of charges. HTCP express their thanks to him.

The Y Centre in Albion Way have kindly provided a free meeting facility for our HTCP combined Director and Management Committee meetings throughout the last year. HTCP thank the YMCA for this help.

HDC are currently providing a yearly maintenance grant of £500 per annum to HTCP. This grant helps with day to day running costs of stationery, print cartridges, postage and other sundry items. HDC have been extremely helpful with the allocation of this maintenance grant to HTCP. We have not been asked to provide any obligation in return to receive the grant due to the large area that HTCP cover. The other Community Partnerships in the district are asked

to provide an economic monitoring service of the businesses in their towns. Due to the size of the rural towns in the district this obligation is a little easier to fulfil in the rural towns.

RIVERSIDE WALK PROJECT:

Stage 1 of the Riverside Walk Project was completed last year. The Riverside Walk follows the water courses surrounding the town for 13.5 miles and goes through rural and residential areas of the town, but is never far from the town itself. This is a project that has come out of the action in our HTCP Action Plan: 'Promote the use of open space and keep community space in community use.' This project is being worked on by HTCP in partnership with HDC.

In Stage 1 of the project, funded by a major award from Biffa Award of £37k with HDC providing 10% match funding, addressed the design, purchase and installation of more cohesive way marker signage, interpretation boards showing the nature and historical elements to be seen on the Walk, ergonomic benches with arm rests and paving for less mobile users and also to be able to park a wheelchair or child's buggy next to the person accompanying them, the installation of benches of a more rustic design for the rural areas the Walk goes through and a new information leaflet.

Work on Stage 2 of the project is well underway. This will address: preserving and maintaining the bio-diversity and ecology of the Walk, highlight the heritage and history to be seen on or near the Walk, creating a comprehensive booklet on this heritage as well as a more detailed route map, the upgrading of the paths and creating new routes where feasible to avoid pavement walking while still at the same time maintaining the rural aspect of the Walk, encourage and make more practical the use of the Walk for healthy outdoor exercise, make certain areas of the Walk dementia friendly (Horsham is working towards becoming a dementia friendly town and certain areas of the Walk pass directly by high dependency assisted living facilities) and create more educational opportunities from the Riverside Walk.

The project team have been busy over the last few months working on the consultations regarding these elements of the project with many varied groups and organisations that are represented in the Horsham community. We have been liaising with HDC Museum Curator Jeremy Knight, the Arun and Rother Connections project team, giving presentations to collective meetings of the head teachers of Horsham schools, speaking to organisations such as AgeUK, the Horsham Access Forum, the district Scouts and Guides, the Horsham Cycling Forum, Horsham Joggers and many more. From these consultations and feedback the project scope has taken shape.

The preparation for our fund application is progressing well although fund application submission will not take place before this summer. The project team presently working on Stage 2 are: David Searle, Mike Powell, Maggie Weir Wilson, John White as well as myself. However, as we progress with the project scope more project team members will be brought on board. My thanks go to David, Mike, Maggie and John for all their expert work and for being such a pleasure to work with.

Last July we held a very successful walk event to mark the end of Stage 1 of the project. This was organised and led by HDC Healthy Walks coordinator, Jill Shuker. It was a tremendously well organised and well attended event, everyone really enjoyed the event and by popular demand we are now making this an annual event. This year's walk takes place on Saturday, 25th July. It starts at the Horsham Rugby Club in Hammerpond Road, there are plenty of refreshments stops along the route and Friends of Chesworth Farm are providing the first pit stop. The event is being sponsored by the three Horsham Neighbourhood Councils and North Horsham Parish Council and HTCP are very grateful for their support.

If participants don't want to walk the entire 13 mile route, there will be a Horsham District Community Transport minibus and driver to take people back to their parked cars. Last year we had 200 people taking part and this year we expect even more. A email address has been set up for registration and many groups wish to use the event as a sponsored walk to raise funds for their chosen charity although we are asking that no street collections take place on the day of the event.

HYPER The Horsham Youth Workers, Helen Sare and Dan Fairchild together with volunteers Sarah Mustard and Jan English have done a fantastic job in bringing the youth council, HYPER, from strength to strength. HYPER is under the management umbrella of HTCP and Jan Irwin, HTCP management committee member, has done a sterling job keeping us updated on HYPER's activities.

Last year members of HYPER attended the 'Free Your Mind' convention which aims to give information and support to young people with mental health issues. They attended the 'Megaphone Event' in London to raise awareness of alcohol use, some HYPER members took part in the 'Take Over Day' which gives young people the opportunity to shadow for the day people in high profile roles. Group members took part in the Sussex Voice Convention at Sussex University last December. DCI Howard Hodges came to a recent HYPER meeting and one of the HYPER members stood for a seat in the UK Youth Parliament for Horsham and Mid-Sussex.

Last year HYPER had a stand at the Sparks in the Park Event and raised funds of over £130 for the charity 'Youthscape – Self Harm.' The group are also having a stand at this year's event.

Currently HYPER are working on mental health 'first aid' kits. This is in collaboration with the Emotional Health and Wellbeing Services. The kits could contain various items such as stress balls, pens, key rings post-it notes and information leaflets which all have helpline phone numbers printed on them. Funding is being sought for this and HTCP already have allocated some funding towards the project.

Jane Apostolou, Chair, Horsham Town Community Partnership. June 2015.

A Company limited by guarantee, registered in England & Wales, incorporated 7th September 2011 Company No: 7765509. Registered Office Teffont Magna, Salisbury Road, Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 0AJ