ITEM 5

COUNTY COUNCIL LOCAL COMMITTEE FOR BARROW

Minutes of a Meeting of the County Council Local Committee for Barrow held on Thursday 5 January 2006 at 10.45 am at Roose Conservative Club, Road, Barrow-in-Furness.

PRESENT

Mr A D Nicholson (Chair)

Mrs A Burns Mr J D Murphy Mr C Kitchen Mr P Phizacklea, OBE Mr J H Garnett Mr W Smith Mr K R Hamilton Mr E R Wilson

Also in attendance:-

Mr M Baker - West Lakes Renaissance Mr D Brook - Community Development Officer Mr R Cuckson - Development Manager Mrs J Currie - Member Services (Secretary) Ms A Greenhalgh - Community Development Officer Ms J Henson - Sure Start, Barrow Mrs K Johnson - Area Support Manager Ms S MuGuckin - Sure Start, Barrow Ms A Meadows - Neighbourhood Development Officer Ms L Hadwen - Sure Start Barrow Mr M Robinson - Capita Symonds

PART I – ITEMS CONSIDERED IN THE PRESENCE OF THE PUBLIC AND PRESS

137. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies were received from Ms J Murphy, Mr J Richardson and Mr N M Shaw.

138. DISCLOSURE OF INTEREST

Mrs A Burns declared a personal interest in Agenda Item No 6 - Presentation from Sure Start, Barrow, as she is Chair of the Local Sure Start Partnership.

Mr J D Murphy declared a personal interest in Agenda Item No 9 – Regeneration Projects, as a member of the Borough Council’s Planning Committee, and as a member of the Wildlife Trust.

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Mr P Phizacklea declared a personal interest in Agenda Item No 10 – Community Development, as he has a relative involved with Barrow Celtic Football Club, and is a member of the Multi-Cultural Forum Executive.

Mr E R Wilson declared a personal interest in Agenda Item No 9 – Regeneration Projects, as he is a member of the Borough Council’s Planning Committee.

139. EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC

RESOLVED, that the press and public be not excluded during consideration of any items in Part 1 of the agenda.

140. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

There were no public questions, questions or deputations relating to the business of the Committee.

141. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

RESOLVED, that the Minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 5 December 2005 be agreed with the following amendments:-

123 – Declarations of Interest – Mr P Phizacklea declared a personal interest in Dalton with Ireleth and Askam Festival Association and not personal and prejudicial as stated, the personal and prejudicial referred to Furness Multi-Cultural Forum only.

Same item – Askham should be spelt Askam.

Same item – Councillor G Garnett should read Councillor J Garnett.

134 – Neighbourhood Grants Panel (iii) – should read ‘defer consideration of the grant to Furness Youth Theatre’ and not Furness Avenue as stated.

142. PRESENTATIONS

142.1 West Lakes Renaissance

The Committee received a presentation from Michael Baker, Regeneration Manager from West Lakes Renaissance. The presentation covered progress of the Waterfront Project – Development Master Plan for Barrow in Furness. The was hoped that the first stage of the master plan – the Waterfront Business Park Development, and the first stage of this would be the acquisition of the land. The land was currently in private ownership and negotiations were ongoing for this to be purchased by Cumbria County Council. However, if it proved impossible for the land to be acquired the project would not go ahead.

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The types of businesses West Lakes Renaissance hoped to attract to the Waterfront Business Park would include knowledge-based industries and services, defined as:-

• Finance • Insurance • Real estate and business services • Education • Health and social work • Other community and personal services • Post and telecommunications • High and medium-high tech industries • Chemicals; machinery and equipment • Transport The Chair thanked Mr Baker for his presentation.

142.2 Sure Start - Barrow

Members received a joint presentation from Joanna Henson, Linda Hadwen and Shay McGuckin on the ‘story so far’ for Barrow Sure Start.

Sure Start was a Government funded initiative working with children under 5 who lived in a priority area. Since January 2001 Barrow Sure Start had worked with:-

• 2035 families • 6118 parents and children • 96,210 contacts

This translated to a reach figure of 73%. Barrow Sure Start provided activities and family support to all families living within:-

• North and South Walney • • Barrow Island • Central • • • Parts of Roosecote

However, things were changing and Barrow Sure Start would shortly have a new set of targets and new challenges, with the creation of Children’s Centres. The officers explained how the targets and activities would fit into the Every Child Matters outcomes framework, which would include:-

• Staying safe • Being healthy • Enjoying and achieving • Economic wellbeing • Positive contribution

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Sure Start in Barrow had delivered its Foundation Community Support Training to 246 members of the community, which had resulted in:-

• 127 of these people currently engaged in activities with Sure Start • 21 accessing further training • 25 in employment • 5 self employed in Community Businesses

Within Barrow, Sure Start had been a tremendous success and this was due mainly to the people living in the area. If Children Centres were also to work in the Barrow area there was a need to continue to encourage consultation, participation and involvement.

The Chair thanked Ms Henson, Ms Hadwen and Ms MuGuckin for their presentation.

143. LOCAL COMMITTEE DEVOLVED BUDGET 2005/06

(1) Monitoring Report – Non Highways Budgets

The Committee received a joint report from the Corporate Director – Strategy and Performance and Deputy Chief Executive/Corporate Director – Finance and Central Services, and presented by the Finance Manager, which gave the actual expenditure and commitments recorded against the Local Committee’s Non Highways budgets to 30 November 2005.

RESOLVED, that it be noted that there were unallocated resources of £88,521 on the Local Committee’s Non Highways Revenue Budgets of which £54,515 was directly available to the Local Committee.

(2) Monitoring Report – Highways Budget

The Committee received an updated report by the Corporate Director – Strategy and Performance and Deputy Chief Executive/Corporate Director – Finance and Central Services giving the actual expenditure and commitments recorded against the Local Committee’s Highways Budget to 30 November 2005.

The Area Engineer had asked members to raise the fact that he had no details on the Traffic Management Investigation and the Energy budget lines. The Finance Manager agreed to investigate and report back to the Area Support Manager.

RESOLVED, that

(1) it be noted that the Highways Revenue budget is projected to overspend by £5,087 and that commitments and payments to date total £1,371,745;

(2) it be noted that the Non Principal Capital budget is expected to be contained within the allocation of £837,000 and that commitments and payments to date total £678,791.

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144. APPOINTMENT OF LEA GOVERNORS OF NURSERY, PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS

RESOLVED, that subject to their agreement the following be appointed as governors of nursery, primary and secondary schools:-

School Representative

Community, Nursery and Primary

Lindal and Marton Reverend A Postlethwaite 17 Railway Terrace Lindal-in-Furness Cumbria LA12 OLQ

Secondary

Alfred Barrow Ms J Isaacs 7 Sandhall Ulverston Cumbria LA12 9EQ

A re-appointment

145. REGENERATION PROJECTS

The Committee received a report from the Corporate Director – Strategy and Performance, and presented by Mr R Cuckson, Development Manager, which informed members of the County Council’s involvement with regeneration projects in Barrow-in-Furness.

The Development Manager explained that the County Council runs the Land Reclamation Programme for Cumbria. This started as a 5 year strategy and was now in the third year. A number of derelict, under-used or neglected sites across the county, were being reclaimed, a number of which were in the Barrow-in-Furness area.

Annual bids had to be approved by the North West Development Agency. The bids for Years 1 and 2 had released approximately £10m of funds. The bid for Year 3 (2005-6) had not yet been approved and was the subject of detailed negotiation with NWDA. Within the funds already approved, £3.12m had been allocated for projects in the Barrow area, and £1.1m had so far been spent.

In addition to running the LRP, the Project Team was also handling a number of other major projects. The Team acted as client for the recently completed extension to Furness Business Park, the land for the extension being in the ownership of Barrow Borough Council.

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The Development Manager said that the team were also working with partners from Barrow Borough Council, West Lakes Renaissance and the North West Regional Development Agency on proposals for the development of The Waterfront, Barrow-in-Furness. It was likely that the County Council would be the purchaser of land on the western side of the dock, which was to be developed as a Business Park. Capita Symonds had already been commissioned to carry out the design of the reclamation, servicing and infrastructure for this scheme. This project had a value of circa £18m.

Members were extremely concerned that they had not been briefed in connection with these projects, especially the Waterfront one. They felt the Chair, Vice-Chair and local members should be kept up-to-date on what was happening in their local areas. It was AGREED, that an in-depth discussion would be held with all elected members, in the form of a seminar to try to resolve the issue. The Area Support Manager would contact Cumbria Vision, West Lakes Renaissance and the NWDA to invite representatives to attend.

RESOLVED, that

(1) the Area Support Manager and Development Manager organise a seminar, and invite representatives from Cumbria Vision, West Lakes Renaissance and NWDA to attend;

(2) the report be received and noted.

146. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

The Committee considered a report by the Corporate Director – Strategy and Performance, and presented by Mr D Brook and Ms A Greenhalgh, Community Development Officers, which represented the quarterly report on the activity of the Community Unit Community Development activity.

Since the last Community Development update, Lesley Graham had been seconded to lead on the implementation of the Council’s new Community Engagement Strategy. Ali Greenhalgh had joined the team in September and would be continuing in the post until the end of March 2006. The Team continued to support a wide range of community projects across the Borough, including:-

• £30,000 of Children Centre funding had been allocated to Roosegate Community Centre to enable it to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act.

• The new Dalton Development Plan (partly funded by Local Committee) was formally adopted on 15 December 2005.

• Parkside Youth Station officially opened on Ainslie Street on 21 November 2005 and was providing to be a success with 18-20 young people attending each night. The Youth Station would be open on Monday and Tuesday evenings from 6.00-10.00 pm and provided the opportunity for young people to gain recognition and accreditation for their achievements through the Youth Achievement Awards and to work on Keyfund projects.

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• A potential new project was the proposed redevelopment of the Barrow Celtic Ground at Newby Terrace.

• The review of the Cumbria Multi-Cultural Centre had now been completed and the findings would be presented to Cabinet early in the new year. The team assisted the Furness Multi-Cultural Forum in obtaining Lottery funding to employ a Development worker.

• The Unit would be running a Democracy Day event at Dowdales School with Years 7 and 8 in 2006.

Mr Phizacklea, the local committee member on the Multi-Cultural Forum encouraged other members to attend an event being held on 21 January 2006 at Forum 28 from 12.30 pm. The event was a Filipino Festival, which would involve exhibitions in the afternoon and a Filipino Fiesta from 7.00 pm onwards.

RESOLVED, that the report be received and noted.

147. NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY 2005/06

The Committee received a report from the Corporate Director – Strategy and Performance, and presented by the Neighbourhood Development Officer, which updated members on the activity undertaken in the second and third quarters of the financial year 2005/06.

Members thanked that Neighbourhood Development Officer for her hard work and dedication, especially in relation to the flooding problems at Goose Green. A meeting would now be taking place in January to try to resolve the issues.

RESOLVED, that the report be received and noted.

148. MONITORING REPORT

The Committee considered a report by the Corporate Director – Strategy and Performance on the December Monitoring Report for Barrow Local Committee.

RESOLVED, that the report be received and noted.

The meeting ended at 1.10 pm

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