ITEM 2 Minutes of the Parish Assembly held on Thursday 18th June 2009 7pm in the Council Chamber, Civic Offices Present Cllr Vanessa McPake (Chair) Milton Keynes Council Cllr Charles Mitchell Astwood and Hardmead Parish Council Cllr Alex Kidd Broughton and Milton Keynes Parish Council Cllr Dai Evans Calverton Parish Meeting Cllr Tom Fraser Campbell Park Parish Council Cllr David Pafford Campbell Park Parish Council Cllr Philip Ayles Castlethorpe Town Parish Council Cllr Bert Tapp Castlethorpe Parish Council Cllr Robin Thompson Gayhurst Parish Council Cllr Kate Porter Lavendon Parish Council Cllr Alan Francis New Bradwell Parish Council Cllr Marie Collins New Bradwell Parish Council Cllr Derek Eastman Newport Pagnell Town Council Cllr Roz Hatton North Crawley Parish Council Cllr David Rumens Olney Town Council Cllr Bethan Norfor Shenley Church End Parish Council Cllr James Buxton Stantonbury Parish Council Cllr Adrian Dnes Stony Stratford Town Council Cllr Rosemary O’Sullivan Stony Stratford Town Council Cllr Marisa Cork Walton Parish Council Cllr Normans Wilkes Wavendon Parish Council Cllr David Hopkins Wavendon Parish Council Cllr Jacky Jefferys Woburn Sands Town Council Cllr Hilary Saunders Wolverton and Greenleys Town Council Cllr Tina El Shabrawy Woughton Parish Council Cllr Margaret Roberts Woughton Parish Council 3 members of the public Officers: Caroline Godfrey (Community Liaison Manager) Shelagh Muir (Snr Community Liaison Officer) Paul Robinson (Policy Manager) Richard Solly(Community Safety Manager) Steve Gillions (Senior Highways Engineer) Jan Philips(Regeneration Co-ordinator) Zahra Dhamani (Business Support Assistant – Minutes) ITEM 1 APOLOGIES and SUBSTITUTIONS Cllr Andrew Geary (Hanslope Park Ward) Cllr Jean Nicholas (Shenley Brook End and Tattenhoe Parish Council) Gillian Nicol(Weston Underwood Parish Council) Cllr Chris Mottram (Shenley Church End Parish Council) Cllr Mike Horton (Emberton Parish Council), Cllr Robin Garrett (Simpson Parish Council) Cllr David Stabler (Great Linford Parish Council) Cllr Charles Allum (Great Linford Parish Council) Cllr David Hunt (North Crawley Parish Council) Cllr Jeannette Green (Walton Parish Council) Cllr Sam Potts (Astwood & Hardmead Parish Council) Olivia Clymer (Corporate Manager – Regeneration) ITEM 2 MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING and MATTERS ARISING Amendments to made to the apologies and ensure clarity on page four, last paragraph.– CG to amend and VMcP to sign off as an accurate account. DR – regarding the Plain English response to LAAs – request for further notes to be circulated ITEM 3 MILTON KEYNES PARTNERSHIP Update from Cheryl Montgomery Information was been handed out and is attached to these minutes. Main points to highlight are: • Community development began in Broughton Gate funded by the Tariff. CM thanked B & MKPC, who “topped up” the funds available for the community mobiliser, Corrina Miller, to enable her to work in both 4 Broughton and Broughton Gate. • MKP are working with MKC on ways to improve the supply of affordable housing. They are looking at a number of smaller sites in public ownership which can offer a variety of affordable tenures. Parish Councils and Ward Members will be the main point of contact with the local community as consultation proceeds. MKC Planners are considering the suitability of each site, aiming for an initial group of six sites; this work should be completed by the end of the summer. Over the summer MKP will seek expressions of interest from about 145 housing associations. In late summer MKP, MKC and the chosen housing association will arrange meetings with the appropriate parish council (i.e., where a particular site is located) and elected members for an initial briefing to start the dialogue with the local community. • MKP are working with MKC to identify areas with outstanding adoption issues. MKP has brought together a specialist team of staff who will ensure progress is made. • Business Plan – now known as the Local Investment Plan – will identify projects for growth and regeneration and the funding streams which support them. The investment plan is available on the website. The plan is available on CD, which is the preferred method of distribution; and hard copies will be available at the beginning of July. Questions AD raised a problem with contacting CM by email. ACTION – CM to investigate RH - Regarding affordable housing – will PC visit the sites and what does the term affordable housing cover? CM -explained the term for “affordable” housing generally means homes that are subsidised and which cover a range of tenures. If members go to www.hca.gov.uk there is a more in-depth definition. The possible sites are currently with MKC planning department and they will advise MKP and MKC Housing which are suitable. At that point parish council’s will be contacted. TF - Some areas are not large enough to attract S106 contributions, is it possible to have some smaller areas aggregated to make them into viable areas for S106? ACTION CM – to investigate A member raised the recent press reports that Broughton was “undesirable” CM responded that there have been no problems as reported in the media. DR - Raised the rail link from Bedford and the north? CM responded that train operators, not network rail, had issued a report of their preferred options and this is available at www.atco.co.uk. VMcP – stated that London Midland are to attend a scrutiny meeting on 16th July and if any one has questions about the London Midland and commuter issues 5 please attend, this is a public meeting, at Christ the Cornerstone Church, 7.30pm. ITEM 4 ITEMS REFERRED BY PREVIOUS ASSEMBLES ITEMS RAISED BY TOWN and PARISH COUNCILS Local Area Agreements (LAA) Update by Paul Robinson A LAA is a 3-year agreement that sets out the priorities for the local area agreed by central government and a local area (represented by the local authority, the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) and key partners). The Milton Keynes LAA 2008-2011 was signed off in June 2008. The LAA is subject to an annual refresh process. This provides an opportunity for the local area and the government to consider refreshing existing targets (particularly important now due to the current economic climate) or to agree outstanding targets. The LAA comprises: a. A set of pre-existing statutory educational and early years targets b. 34 improvement targets drawn from the national indicator set (of 198 indicators). c. also includes 2 purely locally-agreed targets - to better reflect the full range of challenges for Milton Keynes (although central Government does not require any reporting of local targets). The locally agreed targets relate to waste and the number of deaths on the road. These targets were chosen following extensive consultation and reflect those issues where value can be added by partners working together. The LSP has identified six thematic partnerships to oversee the delivery of the targets within the LAA. Town and Parish councils can influence the outcomes through these partnerships. ACTION - PR will circulate the list of partnerships. It was confirmed that no new money, either centrally or locally, has been made available to support the delivery of these targets. This has had to be found within existing budgets. However, central government has set aside money as an LAA reward grant for those areas who achieve a certain percentage of their targets. A reward score will be worked out for each indicator in the LAA, representing performance against target. The average of these scores will then be calculated and the appropriate amount of reward determined. If the average reward score is: • 100 per cent, the total reward the area is eligible to receive is payable; • 60 per cent and above, reward will be determined against the scale referred to above; • Below 59.9999 per cent, no reward will be payable. The maximum Milton Keynes can expect is just under £1.5 million if we achieve 100%. Claims for Performance Reward Grant will be paid in two instalments during 2011/12 and 2012/13. Discussions have yet to take place locally on how 6 any reward grant might be distributed. Comprehensive Area Assessment Milton Keynes Council and its partners such as the NHS, Police and Fire and Rescue Service are playing an increasingly broader role in leading the community, delivering change and tackling the challenges facing the city. These challenges require effective local governance and purposeful engagement with local people in their various roles as taxpayers, residents, service users, employers and volunteers. To reflect these changes, there has been a radical shake up of the way public services are inspected and reported on. These changes took effect from this April 2009 and have been incorporated into a new assessment - Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA). For the first time, Milton Keynes’s public services will be held collectively to account for their impact on better outcomes for people. This means that CAA will look across the council, health, police, fire and rescue service and others responsible for local public services, which are increasingly expected to work in partnership to tackle the challenges facing communities. Six independent inspectorates will be working together to gather information and make the joint assessments and, rather than being an inspection ‘event’, the CAA will be an annual ongoing and iterative process. The first report is expected in Autumn 2009. Questions DR - how can we go about raising issues surrounding targets? PR responded that the LSP has identified six thematic partnerships to oversee the delivery of the targets within the LAA. Town and Parish councils can influence the outcomes through these partnerships. AF - If targets haven’t been set, how can they be assessed for reward? Will the town and parish councils be involved with discussions? PR - in some cases there has been national delays in the collection of baseline data so it has been difficult to define specific targets. The ‘owners’ of each of the targets in the LAA has been asked to develop an improvement plan setting out how it is proposed to achieve the target.