Agenda, decisions and minutes

1.1

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Ian Auckland, Sue Auckland, Marieanne Elliot, Peter Garbutt and Maroof Raouf.

2.1

No items were identified where resolutions may be moved to exclude the public and press.

3.1

There were no declarations of interest.

4.1

The minutes of the meetings of the Committee  held on 16^th March and 18^th May, 2022, were approved as correct records.

5.1

Question from Nigel Slack

This is my first visit to an actual meeting of the LAC and I want to offer some budget suggestions. The Committee will be well aware of the multi-million-pound deficit in the mismanaged Property Services Departments maintenance budget. £32M in emergency repairs alone.

The Community Plan, to be voted on later in the meeting, prioritises three key areas and, in two of these there is an overlap with the assets and infrastructure at risk within Property Services. I would like to suggest that the Committee task the Committee Management to review these suggestions and, in concert with Property Services aim to clear some of these deficit repairs.

This will not only improve matters immediately but will, in a period of extreme stress on City budgets, prevent matters becoming worse and therefore more expensive to mitigate.

I am not suggesting the Committee use all its budget in this way but, where its priorities overlap, seriously consider the synergy of this approach. I list some potential locations below and hope the Committee management can look at the feasibility of this approach as development and spending choices moves forward.

Emergency Compliance Maintenance 2022

Greenhill Bradway Youth Club     £ 1124 'activities for young people'

Greenhill Park                               £ 618 'activities for young people'

Batemoor and Jordanthorpe

Community Centre                        £ 2125 'community capacity building'

Beauchief Abbey                           £ 4104

Total                                              £ 7971

Emergency Compliance Maintenance 2023?

Jordanthorpe Library                     £ 5143 'community capacity building'

Abbey lane Cemetery                    £ 5313

Total                                              £10456

I have also had a phone conversation with Nathan Rogers of Facilities Management, who has advised that they are currently drawing up their Years 3 and 4 programme of repairs and maintenance four-year programme. We discussed my thoughts over how LACs might find some overlap and synergy in their priorities that could make working together to solve some of these essential repairs’ issues viable. Nathan has suggested being in touch with LACs to provide an up-to-date schedule of their plans and commented on his willingness to discuss where LAC funds may be useful.

In response, Councillor Simon Clement-Jones, Chair, thanked Mr. Slack for his questions and said that he had raised some important issues.  He said that, as it was well documented, the Council was currently facing financial difficulties and the gap in the budget was growing.  He said that although the locations mentioned by Mr. Slack were in the Beauchief and Greenhill area, it raised the issue of how to get the community infrastructure back up and running and this showed where under investment by the Council had been over the past few years.

Councillor Clement-Jones said that the LAC Councillors where aware of the issues raised by Mr. Slack but said that the Local Area Committee did not want to spend its money on improvements that should be undertaken by the Council.   He said that there was a lot that the Local Area Committee (LAC) could try to influence, once it had got on board with the new Governance system  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1

Each Local Area Committee has a £100,000 budget to address local priorities, identified within their respective Community Plans.  This report set out details of the proposed spending in respect of this £100,000 during the 2022/23 financial year.  The report gave an overview of the general categories of proposed expenditure and sought authorisation from the South Local Area Committee to permit the Community Services Manager, in consultation with the LAC Chair, to spend monies to address identified priorities within the Community Plan.

6.2

RESOLVED: That the South Local Area Committee:-

6.3

Reasons for Decision

The South LAC is asked to note the allocation of funding under the priority headings identified to assist its ability to monitor its budget, and to authorise the Community Services Manager to approve expenditure above the current delegated authority in certain circumstances so that delivery of the Community Plan is not delayed.

6.4

Alternatives Considered and Rejected

6.4.1

Decisions on any expenditure above the existing authority to the Community Services Manager could be reserved to the LAC but this would delay delivery of priority actions to address specific issues identified in the Community Plan.

6.4.2

All decisions on expenditure to support Community Plan priorities could be delegated to officers.  However, this would restrict the LAC’s ability to monitor its delegated budget and delivery of the Community Plan.

6.1

Diane Owens, Local Area Committee Manager, South, referred to the report which gave an update on the South LAC Community Plan.  She referred to the key priorities which had been highlighted in the Community Plan and stated that the report gave an overview on some initial proposed spending during 2022/23.  Diane Owens then referred to the three key priorities that had been identified. 

The first priority was the Environment and Green Spaces, and work was to be carried out at The Lumb, Gleadless Valley.  She said that there had been a budget allocation of £10,000 for the work to be carried out by Council services and the community, to clean up the area initially and look at longer-term prevention measures to reduce fly tipping and litter and to make the area cleaner and more attractive to increase use of the area by the local community.  The budget could also fund some improved signage and small scale public realm improvements.

Ms. Owens said the second priority was around communities and community capacity building.  She said that there had been a budget allocation of £40,000 and the focus was on building community capacity and social infrastructure within the South LAC.  She said the approach would be based on the needs within the area to include community planning and investing in community leaders and the voluntary sector to support community led activities, develop community assets and improve community engagement. 

The third priority was based around Children, Young People and Families, with a budget allocation of £20,000.  This would focus on activities for young people within the South LAC. 

This gives a total initial budget allocation of £70,000 leaving the South LAC with £30,000 to allocate against the remaining priorities, as outlined in the South LAC Community Plan

The Committee will have further conversations with the local voluntary, community and faith sector to inform the approach to our priorities around community capacity budling and young people.  This will include seeking the views of young people and could include exploring any opportunities for match funding. 

6.2

The Chair invited comments/observations from Members of the LAC which were as follows:-

·                The Plan was welcome as it focused on local investment within the LAC area.

·                Although the funding was not a large amount of money, it was localised funding and welcomed.

·                Members suggested the possibility of visiting schools and other young people’s organisations to find out their views and what they wanted to see and invited their suggestions.

·                Members would welcome the chance to meet with representatives of Sheffield Youth Cabinet.  This will be arranged.

·                There were issues around women and young girls avoiding certain areas as they were afraid and there was a need to focus on giving support to women.  Funding was being sought to addressed this within the Masterplan.

6.3

The Chair summarised by stating that many people had been involved in development of the Community Plan.  He said he had met with many organisations but was conscious that many organisations didn’t  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.1

The Committee received a presentation regarding Community Safety and Neighbourhood Policing.

7.2

Present for this item were Inspector Katie Rowland-Wilson, Damon Pass, Safer Neighbourhood Co-ordinator and Jonathan Roberts, Sharrow Community Forum.

7.3

Inspector Rowland-Wilson introduced herself and the team.  She said that there were two teams covering six Ward areas split into two teams, she was based at Woodseats.  She said that each team consisted of a Sergeant, four Police Constables and between two to four Police and Community Safety Officers. 

She said the team focused on the national themes set out by Government on policing and the three key elements were problem solving, targeted activity and engagement.  Inspector Rowland-Wilson stated that following a community survey that had been carried out, three priorities had been identified by members of the public in the Southwest Police area, these being domestic burglary, speeding vehicles and drug dealing.  She said that the Neighbourhood Action Groups set up in the Sharrow/Nether Edge, Gleadless Valley and Batemoor, Lowedges and Jordanthorpe areas had had a really positive affect in problem solving and focused on key problems within those areas and how to deal with them. 

She referred to the Safer Neighbourhood Co-ordinator whose role focused on community safety issues and worked collaboratively with all key partners. i.e. local schools, the City Council, Central ASB Team, Housing Services, Local Area Committees, local Councillors, TARA’s and community organisations e.g. Sharrow Community Forum.  Inspector Rowland-Wilson stated that the policing plans were to tackle theft from cars and burglaries by focusing on better street lighting and the use of CCTV and looking out for themes occurring in crime hotspots.  One crime hotspot recently identified in the Sharrow/Nether Edge was theft from vehicles and the Team were working on how to deal with that and also business and residential burglary.  The Team was looking at patterns and themes that might be occurring.

7.4

Damon Pass, Community Safety Co-ordinator stated that he had been in post since March 2022 and was based at Woodseats Police Station.  He said the area hasa small team of very dedicated officers working really hard to tackle problems within the South LAC area.  He said he was the link between the Council and the Police and its was about partnership working to solve problems.  He said that the task was incredibly difficult, so the NAGs memberships were key to working together to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour and deal with some of the more challenging people in society.

7.5

Inspector Rowland-Wilson stated that the Neighbourhood Action Groups (NAGs) were holding regular meetings bringing together statutory agencies and voluntary partners.  She said that the Sharrow/Nether Edge NAG, which was held every month, was really embedded and showed good practice for the rest of the city by being effective in managing issues and individuals of concern.  She said that the Batemoor, Jordanthorpe, and Lowedges NAG met every eight weeks and the Gleadless Valley NAG had held two meetings, six weeks apart, and work was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.