Present:

Devon County Council:

Councillors Black, Brazil, Croad, Day, Hart, Hawkins and Pennington

South Hams District Council

Councillors Hicks and Tucker

Devon Association of Local Councils

Councillor Dredge

Apologies:

Councillor Mumford (DCC)

*55 Election of Chairman

Councillor Croad was elected Chairman for the ensuing year.

*56 Election of Vice-Chairman

Councillor Hawkins was elected Vice-Chairman for the ensuing year.

*57 Minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 15 April 2011 be signed as a correct record.

*58 Devon Youth Service (South Hams) - Update

The Committee received and noted a report by the Head of Child Adult Protection (CAP/11/2 - text only | pdf CAP/11/2) providing updates on: staffing issues; Devon Youth Service restructure; programme in Dartmouth/Kingsbridge, Ivybridge and Totnes; senior member training; local youth network and youth leisure nights. The report was presented by Pippa St John Cooper, Team Leader, South Hams West Devon.

The report indicated that:

in response to budget reductions the Youth Service had been restructured from six geographical teams to four

the restructure had resulted in a number of redundancies to back office staff and management as well as some cuts to front line staff

Area Youth Workers would be taking responsibility for more than one centre

the new Southern Team would comprise South Hams and most of Teignbridge

the new structure would be effective from 15 August 2011.

Pippa St John Cooper gave further details of:

the staffing arrangements in the Southern Team (Pippa herself was moving to Exeter)

Youth Service activities in the South Hams (which showed that the Service was buoyant and generally well supported)

and responded to queries and comments from members, pointing out that - except in the case of Dartmouth - further funding would need to be secured for Youth Leisure Nights in the market towns if they were to continue beyond October 2011.

The Committee s attention was also drawn to the following resolution passed by the People s Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 15 June 2011:

That the Locality (County) Committees be asked to view and comment upon Youth Service provision in their localities and draw to the attention of this Committee issues and any concerns they may have that, in turn, may be taken into account in this Committee s consideration of proposals for the Youth Service to be discussed by the Cabinet in the Autumn, as indicated in the Cabinet Forward Plan .

Members readily acknowledged the value of Youth Leisure Nights and the funding of this activity as a good investment, given their popularity, the wide range of opportunities they offered and their positive effect on crime and anti-social behaviour. They supported Pippa St John Cooper s suggestion that Tone Leisure, the social enterprise contracted to run the leisure centres, should be encouraged to help meet the costs of Youth Leisure Nights and were favourably disposed to supporting Youth Leisure Nights through their Locality Budgets.

The Committee thanked Pippa St John Cooper for all her hard work as Team Leader, South Hams West Devon and wished her every success in her new post.

It was MOVED by Councillor Croad, SECONDED by Councilor Hawkins and

RESOLVED that the changes in Youth Service provision in the South Hams be reviewed at the next meeting of the Committee in December 2011 when more should be known about their impact on the Service, and accordingly that no comments be made at this stage in response to the invitation by the People s Scrutiny Committee.

*59 South Hams Super Cluster (Parish) Meeting - Wednesday 13 July 2011

Roger Grainger, County Community Strategy Officer, reported on the super cluster meeting of all Parish and Town Councils in the South Hams held at the Watermark Centre, Ivybridge on the evening of Wednesday 13 July 2011 and attended by representatives of the County and District Council. The aim of the meeting had been to discuss working relationships within the South Hams community and build on the potential for partnership working, the catalysts being the localism agenda and the difficult financial climate. Councillor Tucker felt that the event had been positive but did not need to be repeated too often. He hoped that future meetings of the four more local (town and hinterland) clusters would evolve with parishes setting the discussion topics and debates focusing on the local issues and how these could be tackled.

The Committee agreed that the meeting, which was well attended, had been very positive and should be repeated after an appropriate interval.

Working in support of the Leader and the Chief Executive of South Hams District Council, Roger Grainger would be reflecting on, and following up, themes, suggestions and ideas that had emerged from the meeting.

*60 Feedback from District Council and DALC Representatives

Councillor Tucker expressed concern about an increase in fly-tipping as a result of the County Council introducing charges for the deposit of construction waste etc at recycling centres and the consequences for the District Council which was responsible for removing fly-tipped waste. Councillor Croad, in his capacity as Cabinet Member, Environment Community, referred to evidence suggesting that fly-tipping problems were diminishing and commented that much fly-tipped material could be deposited free of charge. The position would be reviewed in due course. Councillor Tucker also referred to local concern about the County Council s decision to discontinue routine weed spraying on pavements and walkways for which they were responsible.

Councillor Tucker asked to be kept informed of any proposed budgetary changes affecting the District Council.

Councillor Dredge reported on the Devon Association of Local Councils activities.

*61 County Committee Locality Budget 2010/11 Outturn and Spend to Date for 2011/12

The Committee considered a report by the County Community Strategy Officer (SC/11/5 - text onlySC/11/5)

drawing attention to the Locality Budget outturn for 2010/11 (Appendix 1);

setting out recent Locality Budget spending approvals and the budget position at 20 July 2011 (Appendix 2).

Appendix 1 identified the total spend by members in 2010/11, highlighted the value of the match funding secured and showed the number of community based projects to benefit from Locality Budget funding.

It was noted that individual Locality Budgets had been increased to 15,000 in 2011/12.

It was MOVED by Councillor Croad, SECONDED by Councillor Brazil and

RESOLVED

(a) that the position regarding the outturn for 2010/11 be noted;

(b) that approval for the spending proposals set out in the report, including those agreed by the Chairman/Vice-Chairman since the last meeting and the additional new spending proposal set out in Paragraph 3, be confirmed;

(c) that the current budget position for 2011/12 be noted.

*62 County Discretionary Fund

Roger Grainger, County Community Strategy Officer, referred to the Cabinet s recent decision to set aside additional funding of 300,000 from the 2010/11 budget outturn to be shared between the eight Locality (County) Committees to spend at their discretion for the benefit of their communities (County Discretionary Fund) and mitigate the effect of budgetary reductions. This one-off funding for 2011/12 would be allocated on the basis of 50p per elector in each District Council area and South Hams allocation was 34,000. Roger Grainger indicated that the Cabinet had not set any particular rules about the use of these funds, although he suggested that members should be mindful of the operating principles applying to their individual locality budgets. The funding could be used collectively or allocated for use by individual members and it could be aligned with spending from locality budgets or other local discretionary budgets eg those held by District, Town or Parish Councillors or other partner organisations.

The Committee:

discussed possible applications for the discretionary funding for the South Hams (subsidising bus routes; supporting transport for post-16 education; roadside weed treatment; youth leisure nights; supporting Parish/Town Council initiatives)

agreed that the funding should be used collectively and that further consideration should be given to its application.

*63 Member Development Steering Group

The minutes of the meeting held on 30 June 2011 were noted.

*64 Dates for Future Meetings

The Committee noted that meetings had been arranged for the following dates:

2 December 2011

20 April 2012

(both Fridays after the HATOC at Follaton House, Totnes)

*DENOTES DELEGATED MATTER WITH POWER TO ACT

The meeting started at 11.20am and finished at 12.45pm.

The Minutes of the South Hams Devon County Committee are published on the County Council s Website at:-