What`s going on?
21st January 2003
ROTHER
COMMUNITY LINKS
Members Meeting
Brede Village Hall, Brede
27th June 2002
1. Introduction and
Welcome
Sandy Lazarus, Chair of Rother Community Links (RCL),
gave a warm welcome to members and introduced the
meeting. The purpose of the morning was to enable members
to meet each other, to brief members about progress in
the establishment of Rother Community Links and to
discuss the key issues for the community and voluntary
sector in relation to the development of a Community
Strategy for the Rother area.
2. Address by Sandy
Lazarus, Chair of RCL:
Work of the Steering Group
Sandy brought those present up to date on the work of
the Steering Group formed after the inaugural meeting in
November 2001. The membership, Terms of Reference and
structure of the Steering group had been agreed. Four
sub-groups had been formed to take forward the work of
RCL: Communication; Representation; Consultation and
Community views; Resources. A list of current members of
the Steering Group would be forwarded to members with a
report of the meeting.
Early
Consultation
Sandy reminded members that RCL was created for the
purpose of consultation on the planning and delivery of
services for the communities of Rother. There is now a
statutory requirement for consultation whereby statutory
agencies and those in receipt of public money need to
demonstrate taking account of community needs. This is
best served by a collective voice for the
voluntary/community sector having its say in the nature
and quality of services provided. This is particularly
important where there is a responsibility for the
voluntary sector to lead or assist in providing services
and to participate in changes to the pattern of services
within Rother.
Progress To Date
Since November 2001, Terms of Reference have been set
up which commit RCL to enabling its members to
participate in consultation, to running two development
seminars every year and to providing a website for
consultation and information exchange. Funding had been
secured from East Sussex County Council Social Services,
the Bexhill and Rother Primary Care Trust (PCT) and
Rother District Council. Most significantly, RCL were now
in the process of taking on a seconded Development Worker
from the PCT, whose main task would be to develop the
organisation and to secure funding for the future.
Advertising for this post would be going out soon. It had
been agreed that the Rye and District Council for
Voluntary Service (RDCVS) would undertake the
accommodation for and supervision of this post.
A website for the RCL is
still in early stages and will serve as an interactive
mechanism for exchange of information and key tool for
consultation. It is recognised that there is a need for a
co-operative approach to sharing information, discussing
issues and coming together as a collective voice. The
address for the RCL website is www.rothercommunitylinks.co.uk.
Current
Consultations
Mental Wellbeing Strategy - there is currently a call by
the East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority for
groups to be involved in the consultation and planning of
services for the mental health support structure in
Rother. On the same topic, Sandy mentioned that sessions
are available for training of volunteers in mental health
awareness through the Bexhill and Rother PCT initiative
"Care Pathways for People with Mental Health
Problems". Andrea Talbot of Rother area Age Concern
gave an account on the worthwhile training available
through "Mind Matters".
Housing Strategy
Consultation - Rother District Council Housing
Consultation forms were available for groups to make
their views known in the formulation of the
authority’s housing strategy. Anne Fennessy, from
Rother District Council Housing Department, urged members
to be involved in this consultation.
It was stressed that
extending membership of the RCL was very important and
all groups should be encouraged to sign up as members for
updating and participation in important matters affecting
their work. Membership of the RCL Steering Group is open
if groups wished to become more involved.
The question was raised
from the floor as to whether consultation is needed to
quite such a degree and also why everything appeared to
have the label "strategic". It was generally
agreed that there were significant benefits to being
involved in the planning of community services and a need
for the knowledge of voluntary and community groups to be
included from the outset in proposals for change in
service delivery.
3. Address by
Councillor Graham Gubby, Rother District Council:
Community Strategy
The Rother Community Strategy was introduced by
Cllr Graham Gubby, who underlined the importance of
consultation and of the recent welcome changes across the
statutory sector towards a commitment to consultative and
better co-ordinated approaches to the planning and
delivery of services.
Councillor Gubby
emphasised the benefits of the involvement of the
voluntary/community sector in ensuring the quality of
local life. He suggested that organisations such as RCL
could contribute significantly to the formal
participation of the voluntary/community sector in
consultation processes.
Councillor Gubby gave
assurances that Rother District Council is genuinely
trying to listen to people and intends to build future
services around the demands of the community. He
explained that the Council has a duty to prepare a
Community Strategy in association with a Local Strategic
Partnership (LSP), which would look to provide
improvements in the wellbeing, social, economic and
environmental, of those who lived and worked in the
district. However, it is not the Council’s intention
to rush into an LSP but to consult first with the
community on its priorities, then to create an LSP in
response to the needs and priorities expressed. The LSP
will then evolve and will need to be flexible in relation
to changing community needs.
It was agreed that a
reminder be issued in the local press for members of the
public to send back the "Tell Us What You
Think" questionnaires.
Councillor Gubby
confirmed that Rother’s Cabinet and Scrutiny
Committees would be examining the work of the LSP after
it is set up. There should also be an alignment of local
performance indicators, as set out in the statutory
sector performance plans, with LSP targets once
established. The role of Rother District Councillors will
be to act as community leaders. Cllr. Gubby expressed the
hope that the voluntary sector will take an enthusiastic
interest in consultative arrangements and in the
evolution of the LSP and the Community Strategy. He
undertook to give feedback on issues raised from the
consultation and expressed the hope that in turn
representatives of voluntary and community groups would
undertake to keep their members informed.
4. Discussion Session
A discussion then took place from the floor.
- Brede Parish
Council: the response to their recent
questionnaire among residents of Brede showed the
need for recognition of the flexibility and
variety needed in services in different
communities, particularly in relation to the
difference between urban and rural problems. They
also highlighted transport problems, including
the reliance on cars in the rural areas.
- Age Concern:
representatives asked where they could obtain a
list of the Scrutiny Committee membership and
were advised to look to the Rother website –
www.rother.gov.uk, in the Rother District
Council Annual Performance Plan or to ring the
Town Hall at Bexhill on (01424) 787878.
- The suggestion was
made that Rother District Councillors might make
themselves better known in the community and be
available to ordinary residents.
- Rye Harbour
Residents Association: there was a need for the
community consultation to be thorough.
Other comments
and views included:
- Not all issues that
affect communities are Rother District Council
issues, for example education and transport. It
was pointed out that the Community Strategy was
for the area as a whole, across all service
providers; public, private and
voluntary/community.
- Need for a link to
the East Sussex County Council Strategic Plan.
- Need for accurate
mapping of provision of voluntary/community
sector and for awareness of potential
contribution.
- South East England
Development Agency (SEEDA) / South East England
Regional Assembly (SEERA) – the opportunity
presented by local consultation in Rother may be
threatened by the regionalisation agenda whereby
decisions would be taken for the South East as a
whole. Concern was also expressed about
SEEDA’s aim to work with larger strategic
delivery mechanisms such as the East Sussex
Strategic Partnership, which may adversely affect
local autonomy.
- Concern was also
expressed about a perceived lack of democratic
mandate and seeming preference for non-elected
appointees at the regional and local level. It
was broadly agreed that there was a need for
genuine, robust local service planning to stop
regionalisation/centralisation at the expense of
local decision-making. Need to localise debate
– over several years this has eroded towards
centralisation of services. Careful selection of
the right people to represent the District should
to be considered.
- Cllr. Gubby
responded that under his leadership, Rother
District Council would fight robustly to hold on
to local decision making, as, in his view, the
South East was too large to both function
centrally and deliver appropriately at the local
level.
- Concern was
expressed over the make-up of LSPs – there
was perhaps a danger that those involved may not
be able to deliver on priorities such as police
and health, especially non-elected members. The
question of expenses for LSP members was raised.
There was clearly a need to establish a
co-ordinated way to achieve efficiencies within
the Local Strategic Partnership
5. Any Other Business
Age Concern requested a large print copy of the
consultation document, "Tell Us What You
Think!" for the partially sighted. Brenda Mason
agreed to forward copies to Andrea Talbot.
6. Close
Sandy Lazarus drew the meeting to a close with a vote
of thanks to Cllr. Gubby for a valuable contribution to
Rother Community Links’ work. She thanked all those
who had attended and encouraged them to remain involved
with RCL and to encourage other groups to join.
For any comments or
questions concerning the meeting or Rother Community
Links please contact Sandy Lazarus at RCL, c/o Rye and
District CVS, 25 Cinque Ports Street, Rye, TN31 7AD
(01797) 225466 to leave a message.
For copies of the
community consultation document, "Tell Us What You
Think!" or for details about Rother Community
Strategy please contact Brenda Mason at Rother District
Council, 14 Beeching Road, Bexhill, East Sussex TN39 3LG
(01424) 787581, mailto:brenda.mason@rother.gov.uk
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