Agenda and draft minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Godfrey.

To receive declarations of interest.

There were none.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 12 December 2024.

RESOLVED That the Minutes of the meeting held on 12 December 2024 were approved as a correct record.

The Chair of the Committee will answer questions from members of the public submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

There were none.

See Agenda Item 4 for deadlines for submission.

There were none.

To present the draft Council Plan which sets out the council’s priorities and objectives for the next four years.

The Chair, Councillor Brown, introduced the report and advised that the draft Council Plan set out the strategic direction for the Council over the next 4 years and whilst ambitious was achievable. The plan included 5 overarching priorities; Environment, Climate & Nature, Communities & Wellbeing, Local Economy, Housing and Working for our Communities. Housing and Working for our Communities were added as their own priorities to better reflect their importance to the council and residents within this draft plan. The plan further underpinned by specific aims, objectives and actions set out in the Delivery Plan in Appendix A.

He outlined a number of the achievements under the existing Council Plan relevant to this Committee which included;

• bringing Stratford Park Leisure Centre in house and rebrand to ‘Active Lifestyles’;
• the procurement of a digital platform to centralise first contact from customers;
• adoption of a council and district wide Anti-Social Behaviour Policy; and
• 915 referrals to the Healthy Lifestyles Scheme since its launch.

The draft Council Plan was developed over several months and each policy Committee made suggested changes during Autumn 2024. Public consultation was undertaken between October and December 2024 which included Stroud Local Strategic Partnership, Parish and Town Councils and the Youth Council. 297 responses were received which were included at Appendix C and D. Qualitative comments regarding the Communities & Wellbeing priority related to the wording and structure of the plan, including some actions not being specific, measurable or timebound and use of technical language. These comments are address in the accompanying Delivery Plan which includes specific actions and milestones to achieve each action.

Since the Council Plan had been developed, the Devolution White Paper had been published in December 2024 outlined plans for Local Government Reorganisation. Officers had begun to consider this impact and will keep the Plan under regular review. The Plan would come into force on the 1 April 2025 once approved by Council.

The Head of Corporate Policy and Governance provided the following answers to Members questions:

• Hardcopies of the plan would be made available to any Parish/Town Council who requested one and for members to share more widely within their communities.
• A high level summary including an easy read version and glossary would be published.
• Stroud District Council (SDC) would circulate and work with a number of organisations to distribute the Plan within a budget.
• The quarterly Performance Monitoring quarterly Committee reports would detail the progress made against the Plan and there is an intention to regularly public for progress made more widely in an accessible format for the public.  
• The Delivery Plan would be kept under review and adjustments or additions made made through the performance monitoring process in relation to Councillor Boyles comment relating to SDC supporting Community Ownership of Assets through a model.

Proposed by Councillor Boyle, seconded by Councillor Hamilton.

Councillor Hamilton commented that significant opportunity has been given to discuss the Plan and believed it set excellent aspirational objectives and whole heartedly supported it.

Councillor Robinson gave his thanks to Officers and  ...  view the full minutes text for item CSLC.047

This report outlines the proposed allocation of the Household Support Funding for October 2024 – March 2025, confirmed to Stroud District Council on 16^th December 2024. This funding comes from the Department of Work and Pensions, via Gloucestershire County Council. The fund is intended to support residents impacted by the cost of living pressures.

The Community Health and Wellbeing Manager explained the funding was provided from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) who allocated to the six district councils accordingly. The Household Support Fund provided funding support to frontline community hubs and organisations who delivered on community needs. SDC had seen an increase in demand from delivery partners relating to the issuing of vouchers from the support funding and support linked with increased energy costs. She concluded that a commitment for a seventh funding allocation from DWP would be issued with more detail being communicated over the coming months.

The Community Health and Wellbeing Manager provided the following response to Members questions:

• The main issue in terms of shortfall in relation to need and demand over service delivery cost was number of frontline staff and their capacity and money advice.
• The Household Support Fund couldn’t cover core costs associated with community hub salaries and instead came from the Community Wellbeing Grants. A report would be coming to March Committee outlining a new proposal for the Community Wellbeing Grant Scheme.
• She would provide data to Councillor Ananthan on the breakdown of distribution of the Household Support Fund vouchers by district ward.
• Larger organisation such as Citizens Advice and Food bank reported user data to SDC for performance monitoring purposes quarterly however there was not that expectation on smaller community groups due to resource. She would share the monitoring report from the 3 year funding project and show an example of GL11 Community Hub data collection work to all Committee members.

Proposed by Councillor Prenter, seconded by Councillor Dahdouh.

Councillor Hamilton commended the report and highlighted that it provided support in an important area of need.

The Community Health and Wellbeing Manager advised she would share with Committee the next Know Your Patch meeting dates which was a group for the voluntary and statutory sector.

Councillor Prenter advised that the funding would make a big difference to a number of peoples lives.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

To seek permission to reduce the current five key priorities within the Stroud DistrictCommunity SafetyPartnership (SDCSP) to three priorities.

The Head of Community Services introduced the report advising the Partnership focused on reducing crime and Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) with statutory agencies and organisations. The initial SDCSP Plan was approved in September 2023 with 5 priorities, as listed on page 92, with an aim to have 5 sub-groups supporting these priorities. Due to limited funding available for crime prevention, using local data and intelligence a revised SDCSP Plan was produced in November 2024 retaining 3 of the original priorities (ASB, violence against women and girls and serious violence and community cohesion) as these aligned with priorities within the new Council Plan. The 2 priorities removed were as a result of partner organisations undertaking work as part of their statutory roles.

5 videos had been commissioned from the serious violence grant funds which focused on the effect of ASB within Stroud from real ASB examples which had occurred within the district. The videos would be used to educate within schools. She concluded and outlined the next steps following Committee and advising the 3 sub groups would develop action plans to report to the SDCSP.

The Head of Community Services provided the following responses to Members questions:

• PREVENT was a lower priority following data received from the Police and the reoffending and probation priority, the SDCSP experienced difficulty in obtaining information to make appropriate action plans which was why these 2 priorities were removed, however ongoing monitoring would continue relating to these 2 topics.
• Videos to promote the effects of ASB had been used by other organisations and did have a positive impact on behavioural change.
• SDC fed into a GCC PREVENT group and identified training opportunities for SDC and partnership Officers in response to Councillor Boyles question on monitoring and support on PREVENT.
• In September 2024, SDC were asked to report on ideas on how they could meet the priorities of the SDCSP and Officers had some concerns relating to funding opportunities from the Police requirement to save £14m.

Proposed by Councillor Aldam, seconded by Councillor Robinson.

Councillor Robsinson thanked Officers for the report and reminded members of the upcoming Police and Crime Commissioner briefing.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

This report is seeking approval from Committee to support in principle the application by the Dr Jenner House museum in Berkeley for World Heritage Site status and requests that the Chair is asked to write to the Chair of the Jenner Museum Trust expressing this support.

The Strategic Director of Communities advised that the report outlined a request for the Chair of Committee to write to the Dr Jenner House Trust on behalf of SDC  to support the process to obtain World Heritage Site Status. He explained the first stage of the process would be to write to the UK Government to proceed with endorsement from the Government to UNESCO and the application process was lengthy due to the prestige and profile associated with the status. He explained 2030 would mark the 50^th anniversary since the formal eradication of Smallpox of which the Dr Jenner House Trust Museum was one of the first locations where vaccinations first began.

Proposed by Councillor Prenter, seconded by Councillor Turner.

Councillor Turner advised that the Dr Jenner House Museum had exciting plans in the coming 5 years and hoped that Committee would support the resolution.

Councillor Hamilton recognised the global importance of the Museum and agreed that it should be promoted.

The Chair, Councillor Brown, provided a personal story that related to his work with polio sufferers which descended from Dr Jenners work and World Heritage Status would be a great prestige to the Museum.

Councillor Prenter explained that he had recently worked with some of the doctors from the Museum and stated many believed Dr Jenner was the scientist responsible for saving more lives than any other scientist.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

To appoint the Chair as the representative for the Community Safety Partnership for the Civic Year 2024/25.

Councillor Brown was nominated and appointed to the Community Safety Partnership in his role as Chair of Committee.

There was no update to provide.

The Member report had been circulated prior to Committee. There were no further questions raised.

Councillor Edmunds queried what support was being provided to those who where in Council Tax arrears. The Community Health and Wellbeing Manager advised SDC were collating data and were looking at how best to share this data within communities. This was to help identify and prioritise resource on how to reduce arrears and struggling financially.

Councillor Boyle asked what procedures and penalties were in place for contractors where they did not meet contractual requirements and timeframes. The Head of Community Services explained that penalties had been put on companies from delays but no further penalties could be added and instead alternative solutions were to be sought instead of penalties. She would ask the Head of Property Services to provide more detail relating to this.

Councillor Robison asked if a date was known for the second round of Crowdfunding. The Chair, Councillor Brown, advised that it was already open and an information sheet would be included in the Members Weekly Update including details on community workshops.

Councillor Robinson commented that he was looking forward to the feedback following an event held at Forest Green Rovers on the Strategy.

Councillor Robinson informed Committee of some issues relating to graffiti in his County division and had reached out to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner who’d recently provided Cheltenham Borough Council some funds to tackle graffiti.

To consider the work programme.

The following changes were made to the work programme:

·         Kingshill House Member report added to all meetings

·         Community Grant Allocation – March 2025

·         Removal of Bulky Waste from March 2025 as the report would be considered by Environment Committee instead.

RESOLVED   To note the above update to the Work Programme.