Agenda and minutes

There were apologies for absence received from Councillors G Rapley and N A G Richards.

It was noted that, in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 4, Councillor B J Glayzer and S F Bannister were appointed as substitutes for Councillors G Rapley and N A G Richards respectively.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members in respect of business to be transacted on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members.

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 13 September 2017, 19 September 2017 and 13 December 2017 (to follow).

The Minutes of the meeting of the committee held on 13 September 2017, 19 September 2017 and 13 December 2017 were deferred to the next meeting.

Please note that in accordance with the agreed Protocol for Public Speaking at Overview and Scrutiny, the right to speak does not apply to any agenda items.

The right of the public to speak does not apply to the following agenda items: Apologies, Appointment of Substitute Members, Declarations of Interest, Minutes, the Forward Plan, the Scrutiny Work Programme, any agenda item that is not accompanied by a written report and items that are exempt business.

The Democratic Services Manager advised that no members of the public had registered to speak on items on the agenda to which the public speaking protocol applied.

The following decisions were taken by the Cabinet at its meeting held on 15 January 2018in respect of recommendations from the Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee:

·         Bus Routes in the Dover District

RESOLVED:   That the decision of Cabinet relating to recommendations from the Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee be noted.

There were no items of business for consideration.

(a)    Items placed on the agenda by a Member of the Committee or any individual Non-Executive Member

       Any individual Councillor may request that a matter is placed on the agenda of one of the Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committees.

       There are no items for consideration.

(b)    Call-In

       Executive Decisions may be called-in by the Chairman or Spokesperson of the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee or any three non-executive members. Call-Ins are heard by the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee unless it decides to refer the matter to the Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee.

       There are no items for consideration.

(c)    Public Petitions

       There are no items for consideration.     

There were no items of business for consideration.

The Democratic Services Manager presented the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions to the Committee for its consideration.

RESOLVED:   That the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions be noted.

The Democratic Services Manager presented the Scrutiny Work Programme to the Committee for its consideration.

Members requested the Democratic Services Manager to reschedule the Private Sector Landlords (PSLs) meeting to February and to include a meeting with Environmental Health officers to discuss noise nuisance to the Work Programme, which should be brought forward to the meeting in February failing a PSL reschedule.

In addition, members requested an update from officers on Manston Airport to be added to the Work Programme for a future meeting, date to be arranged.

RESOLVED:   That the Work Programme be noted subject to the inclusion of the following:

(a)              Environmental Health – Noise nuisance

(b)              Update from officers on Manston airport

To receive an update on the Council’s communication and engagement from the Head of Community Services.

The Committee received a Communication and Engagement Update presented by the Head of Communication and Engagement, the Funding and Communication Manager and the Community Development Manager.

A presentation was shown to the Committee and set out the service priorities as followed:

Community Services

•                 The development of strong, sustainable communities

•                 To support communities to help themselves

•                 To support young people into the workplace

•                 To inform and engage people about services and projects

•                 To secure external funding to support key projects

•                 To deliver a cost-effective service

Communication Strategy

•                 Providing effective communication, tailored to individual needs

•                 Promoting engagement with council business

•                 Promoting community cohesion

•                 Promoting new investment – Invest in Dover

•                 Promoting skills – Skills4Dover, Jobs Fair

•                 Promoting the district as a great place to live, work and play

•                 Crisis communication

Community Development

•                 Building capacity within our communities so that they are better equipped to support themselves
- skills and resources to organise and run events
- engage and co-ordinate volunteers
- establish new community groups
- identify and apply for funding
- access training, etc.

•                 Working with Members to support communities to deliver services or events

•                 Take suggestions and advice from members in relation to community services e.g. Snow Wardens

Members and officers discussed various projects the teams had been involved in which included the Jobs Fair and grants presentations which members welcomed and congratulated officers on the success of the events. The Community Development team were involved in 46 community projects and were pleased to have initiated the Inspire Fund which had been established to provide funding support to help young people who were facing challenges by helping them to create new friendships, introduce them to healthy lifestyles through sport, and open new doors into work with opportunities to learn new skills. The Inspire Fund was evidence of the success of the recently merged Community Safety and Community Development teams by providing intervention and prevention in its approach.

Funding was available to communities and groups for various projects and Members were encouraged to subscribe to Keep Me Posted to get regular updates on funding opportunities and to help share knowledge of the funding opportunities available to the groups. The Funding and Communication Manager was available if Members or the public had any project ideas that they would like to discuss and to be assessed for funding.

The Committee was informed that Dover District Council had the biggest social media following in East Kent. The Keep Me Posted platform, which provided news and alerts by email, had in excess of 50 topics to subscribe to and 60k subscribers. The success of Keep Me Posted and other social media platforms could be monitored and assessed through the growth of subscriptions and social media followers as well as gathering information on the length of time of each visit to a page and further navigation from a page which was valuable in assessing public engagement.

In addition, the social  ...  view the full minutes text for item 103.