Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed as a correct record.

The Director of Customer and Digital and the Streetscene Services Manager will deliver a short presentation and answer questions.

Asim Khan, Director of Customer and Digital and Chris Walmsley, Streetscene Services Manager, introduced the Streetscene Strategy 2022-2025 and outlined the key changes to the policy.

Members raised the following points:

·         Maintenance of bus shelters

·         Weed spraying in Euxton – the Director of Customer and Services asked for more information on the query which had not been responded too.

·         The consultation exercise was confirmed to be successful and useful. It was the first attempt to engage wider, officers would be reaching out to meet with each of the Parish Councils separately.

County Councillor Julia Berry asked if United Utilities could be invited to a future meeting to facilitate a discussion about services offered by them.

The Chair thanked the Director of Customer and Digital and Streetscene Services Manager for their attendance.

County Councillor Alan Cullens will be attendance to speak on this item.

County Councillor Alan Cullens presented this item and explained the background and purposes of the charter. It was the County Council’s aim to create a collaborative working environment, with Parish Councils involved in what is happening in Lancashire.

The Charter was received positively by Members and it was acknowledged that Parish Council’s often felt ignored by the County Council which led to frustration. Members referred to the recent guidance given on fixtures being attached to street lighting and asked if Highways would be taking the Charter seriously.

Councillor Kim Snape explained that she had noticed an increase in response from Highways but there needed to be improvement within their consultation process. Bunting and Hanging Baskets were still an issue of concern for Parishes and Highways need to consult with residents and follow the democratic process before implementing policy.

Background

Clarification of the youth outreach and engagement work/staff support from both LCC and the CCC Inspire teams. Adlington Town Council is aware that LCC youth workers are active in Coppull. Is this support available to other outer council areas, such as Adlington, and what will be offered by Inspire during the summer holidays 2022 in particular? Will transport be considered to meet/reduce the cost of getting young people into the Town Centre to attend the Youth facilities/activities? If yes, please explain, and will any transport that is provided  offer various convenient pick up and drop off points in several locations to be effective.

Response from CBC Community Engagement Officer

The council funded, Inspire Youth Zone ‘Detached Project’, includes youth engagement at the different parks in Adlington, along with other areas of Chorley. This project involves a small team of youth engagement workers visiting parks and open spaces where young people are likely to gather. Once there, the team will engage the young people in activity and conversation in order to gain a better understanding of the behaviours and matters affecting the young people in each area and provide advice and signposting to opportunities relevant to them. Unfortunately, Inspire are experiencing significant challenges with recruitment, which has affected their ability to send the detached team out, focusing staffing resource on keeping their doors open.

There are no plans to offer transport to Inspire from Adlington at this time. The young people consulted in Adlington have told youth workers that as Inspire doesn’t have a skate park, they would not be interested in attending there. A pilot scheme to encourage young people from non central locations of Chorley is planned and described in the Outreach Plan. If this proves successful in the locations identified, we will use the learning obtained to inform further work of this nature.

I have met with LCC’s Children and Family Wellbeing Targeted Youth Service, who are also in the process of recruiting additional youth workers. Once these positions are trained and ready, by September, they will work with Inspire to rebuild relationships with young people in Adlington on Tuesday evenings for a long term project. Councillors will be informed of where and when this is to take place and ongoing outcomes & observations as the provision develops.

Free bus passes are available from Children and Family Wellbeing, for any young person aged 16-18 that is not in education or employment.

Christine Bailey (Adlington Town Council) introduced the item and explained that a response had been provided from Community Engagement.

It was the Town Council’s view that the lack of skate park did not apply to all young persons. If the outreach work could take place locally there was a number of venues in Adlington where this could take place. There had been concern locally, about anti-social behaviour and the Town Council looks forward to working with Inspire staff when they are reading to implement their outreach programme.

Background

In order to try to improve the public transport provision across the borough is there anything that Chorley Council can do to try to bring about a real time electronic display of bus (and preferably train) information at Chorley Interchange. Compared with other town’s transport interchanges within Lancashire this seems sadly lacking and detrimental to sustainable travel objectives.

Ian Horsfield (Anderton Parish Council) introduced the item and thanked officers for the response.

Background

Planning Officer Interpretation of Planning Regulations particularly with regard to Article Q.

County Councillor Alan Cullens introduced the item on behalf of Brindle Parish Council and explained that it was a complex query which had arisen from an agricultural building which had been knocked down and converted into a large four bedroom dwelling.

Brindle Parish Council requested more information on Article Q and how it is applied and asked if the Director of Planning and Development could be invited to attend a future meeting.

In order to allow members of the Liaison and members of the public to raise issues of local concern, a period of 20 minutes has been set aside.

A member of the public may speak for no more than 3 minutes.  Members of the public are not required to give notice of the issue they intend to raise, although it is expected in the case of service issues that the appropriate mechanisms for resolving the issue have been explored. 

Where a question is raised which cannot be answered at the meeting, a record will be kept by officers supporting the meeting and it will be responded to via the appropriate mechanism.

Colin Evans (Whittle-le-Woods) referred to the previous minutes and Dial-a-Ride and asked if Parishes were to help publicise the service. Councillor Debra Platt explained that Dial-a-Ride had asked members to publish information within their newsletters but nothing had been received as yet.

The Democratic and Member Services Officer agreed to contact Tracy Keating at Dial-a-Ride to obtain the information they wanted to publicise, this would be given to Parish Councils outside of the meeting.

A schedule setting out deadlines for items to be requested on the agenda for the Chorley Liaison and dates for future meetings is enclosed. 

·         United Utilities

·         Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport – general discussion about Highways

·         Article Q – Director of Planning and Development

None.