Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies from absence were received from Councillor Claire Kober and Councillor Joe Goldberg.

To consider any items of Urgent Business admitted by the Chair.

There were no items of Urgent Business.

A Member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

A Member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

There were no declarations of interest made.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 15 January 2013 as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 15 January 2013 be confirmed as a correct record.

The Committee discussed the themes arising from discussions at the Area Forum.

To review progress with respect to actions arising from the previous meeting.

(This report will be circulated separately prior to the meeting).

The Committee discussed the

To receive an update with respect to the Area Plan.

(This report will be circulated separately prior to the meeting).

The Committee considered the Area Plan Update and there was agreement that the document did not provide an effective means of monitoring issues locally. The document was not updated by officers in a consistent way and therefore its effectiveness as a tool for the Committee to use was limited.

There was agreement that the Committee should not continue to receive the document at each meeting and that the Ward Walk notes may provide a more useful tool in reviewing issues raised by Members. The Cabinet Member for Communities noted that he intended to raise this at the next Area Chairs meeting and suggested that views should be sought from each Area Chair as to the effectiveness of the Area Plans.

RESOLVED:

      i.        That the Area Plan Update be noted.

    ii.        That it be noted that the Cabinet Member for Communities would discuss the future of the Area Plan documents and their effectiveness at the next meeting of the Area Chair.  

To discuss and agree items for future meetings.

The Committee discussed the format of future meetings and how this might be improved moving into the new Municipal Year.

It was noted that the Area Forum (and other Area Forum meetings) during this cycle had been poorly attended and there was agreement that alternative meeting formats should be considered. The Cabinet Member for Communities noted that he intended to raise this at the next Area Chair’s meeting on ?

There was a general consensus that a more effective ways of engaging might be through be to delegate a budget to each Area Forum and for the Chairs of these to determine would be most effective for their particular area. This might mean that the frequency of meetings may vary or that the Forum and Committee parts of the meeting might be separated.

There was agreement that splitting the Forum and Committee parts of the meeting should be discussed by the Area Chairs and the Cabinet Member for Communities noted that he would take this forward. The Committee was advised that as a formally constituted Committee meeting the Area Committee agenda and minutes were subject to the Access to Information rules (i.e. an agenda for the meeting would need to be published and circulated five working days ahead of the meeting).

To note the dates for future meetings set out below:

The date of future meetings, listed below, were noted:

3 June 2013

7 October 2013

9 January 2014