Present:-

Councillors Gribble (Chairman), Barker, Brook, Clarance, Clatworthy, Mrs Fry, Hook McMurray, Smith and Walters

Teignbridge District Council

-

Devon Association of Local Councils

Councillor Swain

Apologies

Councillor Connett (DCC), Councillors Christophers and Frost (TDC)

*29 Election of Chairman and Vice-Chairman

RESOLVED that Councillors Gribble and Clarence be elected Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively for the ensuing year.

*30 Minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 1 April 2010 be signed as a correct record.

*31 Mr Brian George, Area Engineer South

RESOLVED

The Chairman and Members place on record their sincere appreciation of Mr George s work within the county council over the past 36 years and expressed their very best wishes for the future.

*32 Youth Work in Devon and Teignbridge

Mr Dillon Hughes, Head of Integrated Services, Children Young Peoples Services Directorate presented a report on supporting the Devon Youth Service (DYS) in Teignbridge, which was well developed and cost effective in both universal and targeted provision. Regrettably due to the scale of in-year public finance budget reductions very recently announced by the new coalition government and in particular Local Authority area based grants reduction of 24%, DYS could not be exempt from a share of these cuts, including its work with Connexions which was funded wholly from area based grant. Out of 3.9m reductions to Devon County Council, the CYPS Directorate needed to find 3.1m of this and a report was going to Cabinet on 14 July. The new government had also made it clear that communities should take greater responsibility for services and so the DYS was looking to strengthen current good practice of collaborative working with communities and where youth provision was a priority which achieved 50% front line delivery expenditure from non-core funding. The Youth Service would do all it could to help communities meet their needs. Parish, town and district councils recognised the contribution quality youth works made to their priorities of reducing anti-social behaviour (ASB), improving community cohesion and making communities safer.

Examples of local communities raising funds, including sometimes through parish and district council precepts included Seaton (E Devon) and Bovey Tracey (Teignbridge). It was not yet clear whether parish and town councils would be able to contribute to youth provision via the precept in the future but this would not be in the spirit of the county and district council precepts freeze over the next few years. There were however a number of good models of local communities acquiring property and being funded locally. There was also a shift towards utilising local authority property more fully and to share costs for a whole range of local community provision.

The Youth Offending Service budget was based on a statutory partnership (including the Youth Justice Board, Primary Care Trust, Police and Probation) and any reductions DCC was required to take could mean similar cuts by other partners.

In order to enhance provision and give voluntary workers career opportunities, Devon was actively encouraging the establishment of a nationally recognised standard of requirements for and training of voluntary workers throughout the UK.

*33 Emergency Planning and Winter Highways Maintenance

Mr Richard Horne, Emergency Planning Manager presented work being undertaken to particularly develop resilience to emergencies in Devon s communities through:- risk assessment and emergency planning, flood planning for high risk communities, encouraging communities and Parish Councils to develop good quality emergency plans

and to recognise the value of local emergency plans for severe weather, major traffic accidents in communities close to A38 and A380 etc. Local member support in promoting emergency planning was welcomed.

Mr Brian George, Area Engineer South also reported on revised planning for winter highway management following last winter s sustained, extreme cold weather and the Environment, Economy and Culture Scrutiny Committee s Task Group report June 2010. Emergency planning sought to complement but not replace the emergency services eg in responding to last winter s A38 Haldon hill and A380 Telegraph hill road closures in the extreme weather. Although the general highways response had been good in the extreme weather situation, especially with the limitations required on use of salt by central government, ways of improving the service and the Haldon hill response in particular were being investigated to keep the highway network as safe and usable as reasonably practical. The Scrutiny Task Group report recommendations were shortly to be considered by Cabinet, as commended by the Scrutiny Committee and the Engineer advised it was likely that the affordable recommendations such as salting to secondary school entrances could be implemented either this winter or by the winter 2011/12. However some recommendations (eg pre salting town centre footways and cycleways, bus routes and primary school entrances) may not be as good value for money and could need further consideration particularly if it may be to the detriment of the budget available to repair highways. Parish Councils were to be invited to give their views on grit bin locations and feedback on the secondary gritting routes salted in extreme icing conditions when the main pre salt routes were completed. Whilst the cost of buying grit bins may be affordable, refilling in sustained severe weather could be a substantial cost. A Winter Services conference was proposed for 28 September 2010 at the Met Office where partners and stakeholders (including a number of parish councils) would be briefed about DCC s Winter Services Plans.

RESOLVED

That the emergency planning Local Resilience Forum household leaflet and list of flood sites in Teignbridge be circulated to members.

*34 Early Years and Childcare Service (EYCS) Termly Update

Mrs Susan Bolt, EYCS referred to the new coalition government s emphasis on targeted support, health visitors involvement in outreach services and narrowing the gap in the provision and opportunity for 0-5 year olds. Members were updated on Children s Centres, including background, location in Devon and the Teignbridge area, contract provision, DCC annual performance management assessment, Ofsted inspections commencing April 2010 and role of the Core Offer Monitoring Group (COMG) in ensuring the contracted organisation was fulfilling the core of the agreement and the tendering process.

In response to members questions:- Children s Centres encouraged services out in the local community rather than all provision taking place on centre premises eg Hatherleigh. Local member involvement would be welcomed on the COMGs and the monitoring role in general was important eg safeguarding monitoring; EYCS would continue to try to reach those families in greatest need notwithstanding they were often the hard to reach families.

RESOLVED that where any Children s Centres Core Offer Monitoring Group did not have local member representation, EYCS contact members direct to invite them to participate.

*35 Teignbridge Strategic Partnership

Members received the minutes of the meeting held on 6 June 2010 for information.

*36 Member Development Steering Group

Members received the minutes of the meeting held on 19 May 2010 for information.

*37 Feedback/Representations

A member requested a report on the Teignbridge Children s Trust, on which Councillor Mrs Fry was a member.

RESOLVED that a report on the Teignbridge Children s Trust be made to the next meeting.

*38 Locality Budgets 2009/10 Confirmation of Spending Proposals

The Committee considered the report of the Locality Development Officer (CX/10/48 - text only | pdf CX/10/48) on the locality budget current budget position as at 23 June 2010 together with the spending proposals approved by the Chairman or Vice-Chairman since the last meeting. Appendix 1 provided a summary of approved spending to date. New spending proposals for members now to consider were reported at the meeting.

RESOLVED

(a) that the outturn 2009/10 be noted;

(b) that new spending proposals as set out in paragraph 3 of the report be approved.

(c) that the current budget position for 20010/11 be noted.

*39 Future Meetings

(a) Dates

Thursday 11 November 2010

Thursday 7 April 2011 (to be moved to March, date to be confirmed)

All meetings will be held at 10.00am in The King Charles Room, at Old Forde House, Newton Abbot.

(b) Work Plan/Items for Future Discussion

- Surplus Property/Rationalisation

- 14-19 Provision Update (to included apprenticeships)

- Early Years and Childcare Service (termly)

- Teignbridge Children s Trust

- Youth Parliament Update

- Liaison with Torbay Council eg tourism issues

*DENOTES DELEGATED MATTER WITH POWER TO ACT

The meeting started at 10.05am and finished at 12.50pm.

The Minutes of the Teignbridge County Committee are published on the County Council s Website at:-