Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Councillors Bloch.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business. (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with at item 7 below).

None.

A member with a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered must disclose to that meeting the existence and nature of that interest at the commencement of that consideration, or when the interest becomes apparent.

A member with a personal interest in a matter also has a prejudicial interest in that matter if the interest is one which a member of the public with knowledge of the relevant facts would reasonably regard as so significant that it is likely to prejudice the member's judgment of the public interest and if this interest affects their financial position or the financial position of a person or body as described in paragraph 8 of the Code of Conduct and/or if it relates to the determining of any approval, consent, licence, permission or registration in relation to them or any person or body described in paragraph 8 of the Code of Conduct.

None.

To approve the minutes of the meeting of 23 October 2007.

AGREED:

That the minutes of the meetings 25 September and 23 October be approved.

To consider appropriate conclusions and recommendations for the review.  An issues paper, outlining the key evidence received by the Panel to date, is attached to assist Members in this process.

The Panel was of the view that the Haringey Strategic Partnership, in making decisions on how funding within the areas based LAA grant is divided up between different blocks, should not look merely at the historical position in relation to funding and seek to replicate this within the new structure. It felt that a strategic approach should instead be adopted and that this should be based upon the key priorities identified within Haringey’s Community Strategy.  The introduction of the new funding regime, as well as a strategic approach, could help to facilitate longer term planning and hence a greater level of sustainability. 

It was noted that redundancy costs could not be funded from grants monies. The impact of the funding changes depended on what Haringey was allocated by central government.  If the settlement was better then expected, the likelihood of redundancies would be diminished.  Community safety had been extremely successful in brining in external grant funding for community safety purposes in recent years but, to some extent had become a victim of this.  The tacit assumption had been made that there was no need to put internal resources into the service as external grants could provide necessary funding.

The Panel expressed concern that relevant services might cease when grants expire and felt that all alternative sources of funding should be fully investigated.  The services provided were of high value to the local community.

It was noted that Camden had two Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and that these had provided an opportunity to bring in additional resources.  BIDs were locally controlled partnerships for improving the environment and economic performance of a defined area. They were created by groups of businesses to oversee and fund environmental improvements and the provision of a limited number of additional or enhanced local services.  Consideration had been previously been given to setting a BID up for Wood Green but not pursued.  The Panel were of the view that this issue should now be revisited by the Haringey Strategic Partnership.

The Panel noted that the 7 Safer and Stronger Communities targets within the LAA were likely to focus on children, young people, volume crime, drugs, alcohol, terrorism, anti social behaviour and traffic accidents.  These would be equally rated in terms of their priority level.

The Panel noted that licensing and planning issues could impact considerably on the character of a specific area and felt that it was important that crime and disorder issues were given full consideration when relevant decisions were taken.  They noted that the Police Service in Camden had taken a particularly assertive and proactive role when the Council were dealing with such issues. 

The Panel felt that there was a need for crime and disorder to be given wider consideration across the Council so that it is considered explicitly when significant decisions were taken.  It should be a major consideration in relation to a range of issues, particularly planning and licensing.  The Panel was therefore of the view that there should be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

The Panel felt that they had been able to meet all of the objectives of the review.  They had found some of the terminology and jargon to be challenging initially. The support that had been given by officers had been very helpful, particularly the initial meeting where the topic had been introduced and where they had had the opportunity to question relevant officers in detail.  In addition, they felt that visits to other local authorities had also been useful exercises.

None.