Agenda and minutes
Venue: Committee Room 5, Guildhall, Swansea. View directions
Contact: Scrutiny 637732
No. | Item | ||
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Apologies for Absence |
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Disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interest Minutes: None |
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Building Sustainable Communities Inquiry Impact Report and follow up PDF 98 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes: ·
Sue
Reed – Community Recreation Development Manager came to brief the Panel on the
work which has taken place since the Building Sustainable Communities Inquiry ·
Sue’s
role looks at supporting volunteers in the community to establish groups to
facilitate the running and maintaining of open spaces and community buildings.
There are still 41 community buildings running in Swansea ·
All of
the recommendations which were put forward after the Building Sustainable
Communities Inquiry have been completed ·
The
department has reduced from 9 staff members to 3, but the needs are just as
great as the department covers open spaces and parks and community buildings
supporting both the existing groups and the any new ones who wish to establish
themselves ·
The
role of the officers is about supporting volunteers to sustain projects in
their communities with issues such as risk assessments, health and safety
information, appropriate documentation and guides on constituting groups ·
There
are a number of support guides, model constitutions and information packs which
have been developed by the department and are available free of charge to the
community ·
In
addition to the guides, community volunteers can now access Council training
such as Health and Safety and can have support in relation to food hygiene for
events such as coffee mornings ·
Swansea
Council has an excellent relationship with the volunteers it supports ·
There
has been a change in how community action is measured. It is very difficult to
put a Key Performance Indicator against this because it is a process supported
by volunteers rather than a service. There is no desire to pressure volunteers
by holding them to performance measures ·
Interest
free loans are available for community groups. These loans can assist with a range
of things. The loans need to be applied for via the Council and there is a
stringent application process including the legal and finance departments ·
The
community centres get no financial support from the Council. Any grants they
previously received which helped with fuel costs have now ended. This means
that all centres need to be completely self-funding. There is also no special
rate available for Council employees or elected members. Everyone has to pay |
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Panel to discuss thoughts on progress and agree feedback Panel
discuss their thoughts on progress and agree the feedback they wish to make to
the Cabinet Member and Scrutiny Programme Committee via their letter from the
Convener.
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