Minutes of the meeting held on 27 March 2012.

Cllr. Eyre noted that his name had been incorrectly spelt in minute item 48. This was corrected.

Community Safety Week had now passed but the Chairman hoped that the Committee could organise a visit linked to it in 2013.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting of the Social Affairs Select Committee held on 27 March 2012, as amended, be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Cllr. Eyre declared a personal and prejudicial interest in minute item 5 as both a Councillor and the General Manager of the STAG Community Arts Centre. He clarified that he would be speaking on the item solely in his role as General Manager.

Cllr. Raikes declared a personal interest in minute item 5 as both a Councillor and the Chairman of the trustees of the STAG Community Arts Centre.

Except as discussed under minute item 4 no issues had been referred to the Cabinet.

The CXK Area Manager for Dartford, Gravesham and Sevenoaks had informed the Head of Community Development that there were no directly funded projects in the Sevenoaks District linked to youth offending.

Statistics relating to the demographics of the District would be circulated with the minutes of the meeting.

The other completed action was noted.

In September the Committee would start considering the themes from the beginning of the Community Plan again and the first was “Help communities to feel safe and be safe”. The Police and Fire Services would attend. The Environmental Health Enforcement Policy was also likely to be considered at that meeting.

The October meeting would consider the theme of “A better start for our children”. Carers First and Spring House Family Support Service would be invited to the meeting and there would be an update from the Chairman and Vice-Chairman following their visits to local maternity services and their meeting with Mumsnet. The budget would also be considered.

The Future of the NHS in the District and Health Town Status would be moved to the meeting in January for the theme “Meeting the needs of an ageing population”. The Chairman hoped that commissioning for older people could also be considered.

The Chairman proposed that the theme for March be “Improve the lives of young people in the District”. The Committee could invite the STAG to comment on its work with young people, together with the Kenwood Trust. It could also consider mental health disorders in young people. Another Member suggested that youth groups in Seal, such as Play Place, did a lot of good work and could be invited also. It would be necessary to check the timescale for commissioning of youth services since the District Council would be involved in the commissioning process and this could cause a conflict.

As the meeting scheduled for 6 September 2012 would be at the same time as the Paralympic cycling event at Brands Hatch it was agreed that another date be considered. It was proposed that 11 or 17 September 2012 be the preferred dates.

Presentation by STAG Chief Executive

Presentation by Sencio Chief Executive

Sencio Community Leisure

Mr. Mark Whyman, The Chief Executive of Sencio, was welcomed to the meeting and he gave a presentation about strong and active communities. He circulated to Members a series of graphs showing the performance of Sencio Community Leisure.

He compared the use of sporting facilities in 2008 with 2011 and was pleased that so much was still wetside based.  Swimming had seen a national decline over the period as children were not keeping up the sport as they grew older. There had also been a small decline in the use of all-weather pitches but this may have been because the pitch at Edenbridge was out of use for part of 2011. The use of fitness facilities had grown each year despite the recession and, together with golf, was creating the most income.

Some of the fitness business was picked up from private competitors as customers traded down. Although Sencio could not compete with the quality of facilities of competitors they could focus on creating a high quality visit. Sencio hoped to build loyalty and so employees were measured on the number of interactions they made with customers.  Mr. Whyman said that the organisation was committed to staff training and a good maintenance of buildings.

The Chief Executive of Sencio made it clear that a strong interaction with the community, not just balancing the budget, was important to Sencio. There had been some significant improvements in the number of school visits to the facilities in Sevenoaks. However there was a small fall for the White Oak Centre as a private school had gone into receivership and Edenbridge had suffered as rural schools were finding the cost of travel too great. The Chairman felt it important that the difficulties with travel were highlighted.

Sencio had started a partnership with West Kent Extra. Sencio had also introduced a Youth Membership scheme which allowed the use of adult equipment at any time for a cost of £24 per month.

Two case studies were tabled showing examples of how Sencio facilities were used, as was an article about the golf academy. The academy currently had 90 participants and hoped soon to cater for blind children also.

Members asked how they got customers to try the facilities. Mr. Whyman considered every day to be an open day and considered Sencio an incredibly open organisation. Customers were talked to before they even came to a centre and all inductions took place on a one-to-one basis.

Sencio tried to work with other charities in the community and with the Sevenoaks District Sports Council. He worked very closely with the Community Development team on community and health initiatives. Members were invited to the annual golf charity day with the Parents Consortium, a charitable company which was open to, and provided services for, parents and carers who had a disabled child aged 19 or under in the Dartford, Gravesham or Swanleys areas. The charity day would take place on 7 September 2012 at Lullingstone  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Head of Community Development informed the meeting that the Paralympic Games road cycling would be held at Brands Hatch between 5 and 8 September with training held on 3 and 4 September 2012. The first practice on the Paralympic track had been held earlier in the week. 225 paralympians would be competing at Brands Hatch for 32 gold medals. Brands Hatch was selected 18 months ago as the site for its undulations and camber which made it more challenging than the alternatives. 4km of the course were on the track and 4km on the road.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) had intended that all visitors to Brands Hatch travel by train. Those who travelled to Sevenoaks railway station would be taken by shuttle bus to the venue. Parking had only been provided for those with a ticket for the event. The Council with Kent County Council had therefore hired a field at Wrotham Hill to provide greater capacity for spectator parking, with the intention of reducing pressure on local communities.

The responsibilities of the District Council for the Paralympic event were listed. It would be responsible for crowd safety outside Brands Hatch and nearly 200 volunteers had been recruited, with half already trained. Each volunteer had been offered a ticket to the Paralympic training event earlier in the week. A crowd management company had also been hired and was to provide additional staff. The Council had been asked to clean the roads of the course, and would be paid additional monies for that part of the course which was inside Brands Hatch. A standing Safety Advisory Group had been established to consider every agency’s emergency plan for the event. The Community Development team was involved in producing the Event Plan, recruiting and training volunteer stewards, ensuring crowd management and safety, and communications with the local community.  The Health and Leisure Manager had engaged and strengthened links with local stakeholders, especially community groups, by giving presentations to them. Finally the Council would also be responsible for toilets and first aid outside of the venue.

Estimates put the economic benefit to the District at £1.36 million but the Head of Community Development advised caution with this figure.

The tagline of the legacy was to “Be Inpired, Be Active”. One aim was to encourage cycling in the District by creating new cycling routes and promoting Sky Rides, which were community-led bike rides. It also included proposals for an outdoor gymnasium at West Kingsdown, greater disabled access to local tourist venues and the History of Olympia school workshop which was provided by the STAG Theatre.

The Olympic torch relay was due to go through the District on 20 July 2012 and would take 1 hour and 20 minutes. It would be transported by convoy until Seal from where each runner would travel approximately 300m with the torch. Most of the torch runners came from outside the District. Officers were aware that so far, elsewhere in the country,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

There were no updates from Members’ visits.

The Head of Community Development agreed to arrange visits to a fire station and also a police station, for those unable to visit one in 2011. It was hoped that the police station in the District Council’s offices in Argyle Road, Sevenoaks would be opened by the time of the next meeting.

A Member of the Committee, who was the local Member for Seal and Weald, commented that a fire appliance had recently been delayed by 20 minutes because of a lack of local knowledge. The Chief Executive of Sencio added that the emergency services had stopped responding to automatic alarms between 9am and 6pm and from 2013 they would also stop responding to these alarms at night time. It was agreed both these matters would be raised at the next meeting.