Agenda and minutes

No apologies for absence were received.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any personal interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda. If the interest arises only as result of your membership of another public body or one to which you have been appointed by the Council then you only need to declare it if you intend to speak.

If the personal interest is a prejudicial interest, you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

No declarations of interest were declared.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Local Strategic Partnership held on 16 December 2008 (enclosed)

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Local Strategic Partnership be confirmed as a correct record for signing by the Chair.

(enclosed)

The Chair, Councillor Mike Devaney, welcomed Mr Allan Jones, Chair of the Chorley Partnership who had been invited to talk to the Group about the work of the Local Strategic Partnership.

Mr Jones explained that the Chorley Partnership had advanced considerably over the last eighteen months. The North West Regional Development Agency now recognised the excellent work of the Partnership and that Chorley had started to promote itself much more effectively.

By bringing a number of partners together along with their funding the Partnerships guiding principles had allowed them to invest in projects that had in turn brought further benefits. Mr Jones expressed the view there may be greater benefit by investing in fewer projects which covered lots of different aspects of a particular issue.

The forthcoming LAA funding would allow the opportunity to channel a larger investment into a specific project, helping to make a real impact in a particular area. This in turn would attract further investment from key partners and the Council would help by driving the project forward. Once the key partners are committed, the Partnership could turn their attention to other associated partners and groups that may wish to invest in the cause.

Mr Jones said that it was arguable as to whether the Board was too large. However, the Members of the Board do feel that they can have input into the work of the Partnership and can influence change. The Executive also seems to be getting bigger, however who would step down, and as it actually works, why change it?

Perhaps one idea would be to have a core membership and then bring in specific people for different projects by having a Co-opted Membership, for example, local media or local developers. It would depend what the project was.

To achieve inward investment in Chorley, it is necessary to get communities involved. We need to sell Chorley and ask ourselves the question, have we got the right skills that people are looking for?

Mr Jones then explained the reasons why he himself had chosen to invest in Chorley. Chorley had a history of skilled labour in electronics and assembly work, the town’s location is central to their other sites of Preston, Bolton and Wigan and is situated next to the motorway making access to the airports viable. Mr Jones also spoke very highly of the Council’s Economic Development Unit which had assisted them in the siting of their new premises.

The Members of the Group asked Mr Jones if he felt that the Partnership and the Council should be looking to identify and provide other sites for development in the Borough.

Mr Jones thought that businesses were more likely to rent Council owned premises as there was more trust than with private landlords, and that the Council should lead on this.

The Chair thanked Mr Jones for his time.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Policy and Performance) explained the membership of the Chorley Partnership Board. There were ten representative for each of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Report of Assistant Chief Executive (Policy and Performance) (enclosed)

The Assistant Chief Executive (Policy and Performance) submitted a report that summarised ongoing or planned work giving an overview of the public health impact on Chorley, as well as a broad overview on the impact alcohol has on community safety.

In terms of health impacts of alcohol related harm the statistics tell us that:

• Chorley has one of the highest rates of alcohol related harm in Lancashire and is way above the North West and England average.
• In 2006/07 there were 2410 hospital admissions caused by alcohol (including ill health and injury), compared to a Lancashire average of 1845 admissions.
• When we compare this by population size, Chorley is 3^rd worst out of Lancashire, behind only Preston and Burnley. Chorley’s figures are also worse than those of Blackburn and Blackpool, two significant nearby areas of deprivation.
• Compared to the North West and national averages, Chorley is significantly worse off, with rates per 100,000 of 1835 and 1384 respectively.

Further information was circulated at the meeting that gave a more detailed breakdown into the statistics. Some of the figures are in the lowest brackets in the country and getting worse.

In relation to crime:

• 40.3% of all violent crime recorded in Chorley between 1 April 2006 and 30 September 2008 involved an element of alcohol.
• 20% of all anti-social behaviour recorded over the same period involved alcohol.
• The Strategic Assessment currently in place highlights the fact that young people and alcohol are key strategic themes and that by addressing them in partnership could significantly reduce crime and disorder in the Borough.
• The main concentration of violent crime offences are in the Town Centre and the neighbourhoods to the East and West. Other clusters of offences can be seen in the Clayton Brook and Coppull areas.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Policy and Performance) circulated a report of an Overview and Scrutiny that had been done at Lancashire County Council relating to Young People and Alcohol.

Members of the Group felt that they had received enough statistical information on Alcohol Related Harm to satisfy them that this was a real issue for the Borough. However they would like to invite representatives from Coppull Parish Council to talk about the Alcohol Designation Order that was in place at Coppull and also Preston United, a group that tried to raise awareness about the dangers of alcohol to young people.

Recommendations:

1.         That a representative from Coppull Parish Council be invited to a further meeting of the Group to talk about the Alcohol Designation Order in Coppull.

2.         That Preston United be invited to a further meeting of the Group to talk about their work.

3.         That if Chorley Partnership decided to invest in a project relating to reducing Chorley’s Alcohol Related Harm statistics, they be invited to come and talk to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee about its work.

Members of the public who have requested the opportunity to ask a question(s) on an item(s) on the agenda will be asked to put their question(s) to the Panel. Each member of the public will be allowed to ask one supplementary question within his/her allocated 3 minutes.  

There were no questions from members of the public.