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Easton-in-Gordano, Pill & Ham Green Community Forum
Minutes of meeting held on Monday 17th September 2007 at Pill Community Centre
Present: Bob Langton Charles Exley Elspeth Davis NS Primary Care Trust Patient Forum (elspeth.davis@btopenworld.com) Fred Gaskin Treasurer Gerald Ashley Ivor King Liz Moore Mark Kennedy Assistant Head Teacher St Katherines Paul Kent Chairman Rhian Tooker Extended Schools Coordinator (Rhian.Tooker@staff.st-katherines.n-somerset.sch.uk) Sue Tuckwell Fair Trade Coordinator and Pill Junior School Governor (suetuckwell@hotmail.com) Ted Edgar Yvonne Rees
Apologies: Gail Martin Madeleine Bickle Mike Goldsworthy Pete Brewer Peter Milner Jenny Billington
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1. Welcome:
PK welcomed everyone to the second formal meeting of the Community Forum especially the education, fair trade and health care representatives.
2. Minutes of Meeting on 2nd July 2007:
Agreed and accepted, there were no matters arising, which were not covered elsewhere on the agenda.
3. Correspondence:
PK reported the following.
a.PK has written to Jacqui Ward confirming that Liam Fox would be welcome and that details of events would be provided in due course. b.A letter has been sent to the bus company regarding the difficulty the elderly and infirm have in accessing buses. c.PK reported that the planned skittles match involving a team from the Community Forum did take place but could not report on the outcome of the event, as he himself did not attend and neither did any members of the committee present.
4. Constitution:
Held over to the next meeting, as unfortunately RSW was unable to attend this meeting.
5. Membership:
A number of gaps in the membership were identified as ongoing.
YR reported that her attempts to cajole possible representatives of commercial interests in the parish had not been successful and the matter was ongoing.
AGREED that representatives from the Youth would be desirable and that the representative from St Katherines would invite the Head girl and boy to the next meeting if the logistics of that action could be managed.
6. Corporate Identity / Logo:
Held over.
7. Action Plan Updates:
Health:
a. ED explained her role with the NSPCTPF (North Somerset Primary Care Trust Patient Forum) and in particular her activities in ascertaining the level and availability of dental care in the area, particularly NH dental care. From her initial findings on the data it was apparent that the number of NH dental services accepting new patients was very low (9 practices out of the 28 in the area) but that further analysis work was required to flush out the true picture.
b. Another area covered by the NSPCTPF and directly relating to this community was Orchard View and its future. ED agreed to monitor this developing issue through her contacts.
c. AGREED to co-opt ED onto the Community Forum.
d. TE reported on and presented data regarding waiting times for appointments to identify the extent of the problem. In general it was felt from the data supplied that the accessibility to doctors was appropriate but as there was no yardstick to measure this service by it was hard to form a definitive opinion.
e. There was no data on the most vulnerable in the community and the difficulty they were experiencing in contacting and accessing the doctors.
f. TE reported that a presentation screen was to be mounted in the surgery waiting room to raise patient awareness to any associated health and operational issues and data such as doctor accessibility and no shows would be routinely screened.
Disability & The Elderly:
a. GA reported no issues from the groups he was covering.
b. GA expressed concern at the level of Home Service/Care though the information was anecdotal it appeared that the service was deteriorating and would be put under great stress if a step increase in the services was generated by the closure of Orchard View, to cite an instance.
c. GA outlined a case for the funding of a fridge/freezer for the luncheon club and he AGREED to submit a formal proposal for funding at the next meeting.
Traffic & Transport:
BL reported that the PC had formed a subcommittee to monitor and investigate the implications of the proposed Portishead / Bristol Showcase bus route. He reported that a meeting with NSC had been arranged for early October to glean information on the project for at the moment the data in the public domain was sketchy to say the least.
Environment & Planning:
a. CE reported that a photograph archive was ready to be launched on the community website and details of the site and the project were to be included in the next issue of the Pill Paper.
b. Encourage pride in the environment. BL reported that the orderly’s hours had been increased to cover street cleaning is a particular area of concern, which has already been taken up with NSC by the parish council. It seems that the contract placed by NSC did not include anything about frequency.
c. Reusable Bag project. BL and the committee had progressed this project to the point where the business case and budget had been identified and a number of sources of funding for the initial production and purchase of the bags had been identified. There was however a shortfall in the funding and given the tight timescale BL proposed that the CF make a grant to project of no more than £1,100 on the understanding that this grant would be repaid to the CF from the sale of the bags. The proposal was seconded by YR and all AGREED.
d. ST introduced the project to be launched to achieve Fair trade status for the village and the need to set up a Steering Group to manage the project. IK expressed an interest in the project and other members of the CF were invited to join. The project would be launched in November and ST would circulate the CF with details of the requirements
e. AGREED to co-opt ST onto the Community Forum
Leisure, Recreation & Education:
a. PK reported that the questionnaire on the potential locations for play facilities had been circulated and that analysis of the results was under way and the findings reported to the next PC meeting.
b. RT introduced herself and the role she has in the community and how together we could benefit from such a resource in the community.
c. MK introduced his role at St Katherines particularly with respect to the Science Status of the school. He explained that he was upgrading the project plan to maintain the special Science Status the school enjoyed and would be contacting the community before Christmas to seek ideas and inputs into the plan.
d. AGREED to co-opt both RT and MK onto the Community Forum
Crime & Vandalism:
PK reported that police response times were now being circulated and in fact did support the concept that, generally, people’s perceptions of the problems were worse than the actual problems.
Facilities:
Nothing specific to report.
Business & Employment:
Covered previously
Community Centre:
IK reported that a request for Lottery funding had been favourably received and short listed with a final determination being announced before the year end.
Resource Centre:
There is growing concern that the funding issues of the Centre will become critical early next year and whilst it was accepted and AGREED that the CF should discuss in detail the funding issues and how the CF can support the Resource Centre.
Community Website:
CE reported that practicalities of setting up the website and the links and associations with other village websites had been resolved and agreed with those parties. The next step is to populate the website and that is open for discussion as is the corporate identity of the CF. In the absence of any direction and to cut down the length of the web address CE had unilaterally named the photo archive element “yourvillagephotos”.
8. Finance:
FG reported the finances were in good order.
9. Publicity:
AGREED that a report of the meeting should be put in the Pill Paper.
10. Any Other Business:
None.
11. Next Meeting:
Monday, 3rd December at 7.30pm at the Community Centre.
Meeting ended at 9.00pm |