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Present: Gerald Ashley Jenny Billington Fred Gaskin Mike Goldsworthy Ivor King Peter Milner Kate O’Brien Yvonne Rees Arthur Taylor Sue Tuckwell Michael Tuckwell Ralph Whiting
Apologies: Madeline Bickle Gary Colosimo (Resigned) Elspeth Davis Charles Exley Paul Kent Bob Langton Liz Moore Brian Murphy Fay Powell (Resigned) Rhian Tooker
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Mike Goldsworthy welcomed members and apologised on behalf of Paul Kent who was unable to attend due to a family accident.
Agreed as an accurate record.
None.
Mike Goldsworthy reported that he had written, on behalf of the Forum, to David Turner, Director of Development & Environment at NSC, expressing concern that the post of Parish Plans Officer was being wound up and requesting details of future support for Parish Plans. A reply had been received from Karuna Tharmananthar, Assistant Director, to the effect that the post was only intended to exist for 3 years, that future support was expected to be provided by other parish councils and that contact would be maintained by NSC through the parish liaison officer, in our case Steve Tanner, Assistant Director within the Children & Young People Services Directorate.
Members expressed concern that this change would not provide adequate support for implementation of the Parish Plan.
a. Health
Mike Goldsworthy reported that Elspeth Davis had emailed some notes on health issues, as she was unable to attend the meeting. The notes are copied below.
“Local: Gary has tried twice through the pages of the Pill paper to recruit people to join the Patient participation group for the practice - without success. One meeting has been held attended by Jane Kent, myself, Gary and one other lady who then resigned. At that meeting we looked at the outcomes from the most recent patient survey for the practice - most people are very satisfied with the service they receive with a few areas of concern largely around access - but there was only a two per cent return of the questionnaire making any real conclusions hard to justify.
I have met with Gary again recently and we (Gary, Jane and me) have decided to go ahead with the idea of a practice newsletter which will be somehow attached to the Pill paper. It is intended to publish this maybe three times a year with the first edition likely to be in September or October.
Our practice has also recently had a visit from PCT staff to look at their outcomes under the Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF). The practice came out very well indeed from this review. A very impressive result especially as Gary is so new to the NHS and has been at the practice for less than a year.
It is a very difficult time for the practice at the moment with the continued long term sick leave of Nick Kent. This puts severe pressure on all the other staff at our practice and they are all doing sterling work to make sure it is as far as possible - business as usual. It would be very good if all the members of the community forum can do all we can to let people know that the practice is doing well under difficult circumstances and that we should all be understanding if we cannot immediately see a named doctor. There is always a duty doctor who will see urgent cases.
PCT News: I have been one of four lay volunteers trained to take part in the QOF visits to local practices. I have found them extremely interesting and very enlightening. It has reinforced my view that we have an excellent practice here in our community.
On 11th May the new Marina Health Centre opens in Portishead. The new facility incorporates the Harbourside practice but the services offered there are available to all patients in the area. I
am going to be a lay volunteer at the opening on 11th and will have some training for that tomorrow - so I shall then be in a position to let you know more about what is on offer for all patients in our community.” - Elspeth Davis, 5 May 2009.
Peter Milner commented that he had offered to join the Patient participation group but that all the dates suggested for meetings clashed with other commitments.
Mike Goldsworthy reported that Gary Colosimo had resigned from the Forum as his other commitments had prevented him from attending meetings.
b. Environment
Kate O’Brien reported that the greening our village party was very successful. The Environment Group was now looking at carbon emission issues.
A meeting of the Environment Group was held on 1st April and 4 mini-groups have been set up to look specifically at the following with each mini-group taking on their own ideas:
Environment Home Energy Transport Food
Of £1,200 requested and approved by the Forum last year, £535.87 had been spent. Funds for the greening our village party were not spent as the party was partly funded out of a Quartet grant of £3,657.50, which also covered a schools food journey project [St Katherine’s food week proposed for last week of September] and a pond watch project.
A YANSEC grant application had been half approved and it was hoped that the Port Company would fund the required 3rd party 10%.
A story teller was proposed for the orchard and it was intended to make this a public event. Members approved a contribution of £100.
Peter Milner reported a proposed Pond Watch event at 10.00am on Sunday 17th May. Costs were likely to be about £300, partly covered by the YANSEC grant. Peter asked that the Forum consider making a contribution, if required.
Environment Group projects were developing rapidly and sometimes changed from what was originally intended. Mike Goldsworthy expressed concern that some check was required within the Environment Group to ensure that expenditure to be met by the Forum was approved and that where approved expenditure was no longer required due to changed circumstances this was reported to the Forum so that the funds could be allocated elsewhere, if appropriate. Members needed to appreciate that block funds were not allocated to specific groups to spend as they wished. Funds were allocated to specific projects, adopting a flexible approach.
c. Village Centre Regeneration
Mike Goldsworthy outlined the background and explained that Paul Kent had suggested to the Annual Parish Meeting that a small working group should be set up to look in detail at the possibilities and report back to the community in, say, September. In Paul’s absence it was
agreed to defer setting up the working group but Arthur Taylor expressed concern that this long-term project should not hold up continuing the small-scale cosmetic projects, which were already showing benefits to the area.
Arthur reported that Gerry Hunt was talking to North Somerset Housing about improvements to the precinct.
d. Fairtrade
Sue Tuckwell reported that on 11th July a community café is being run at the Resource Centre. Hopefully this will be the first of a series of such events.
Application to the Fairtrade Foundation for Fairtrade Village status was getting closer and hoped for by end of year.
St Katherine’s was seeking designation as a Fairtrade School.
Sue was intending to speak to the Ham Green Management Group, administered by agents King Sturge, regarding use of fair-trade products by business occupiers.
e. Footpaths
Ivor King reported that the footpath along the riverside is in a very poor condition. He walked it in December – early February and again 3 weeks ago. There are deep holes along the path, which are hidden when the grass grows long. Reported to NSC but members expressed concern that the Forum should not be encouraging use of the path while there was a risk to the public and Arthur Taylor suggested that the walk should not be published at present. There is certainly a Health & Safety issue involved.
Lodway high pavement edges are deteriorating. This has been reported to the parish clerk who will take it up with NSC.
The 4th circular walk has been completed but there is no room on the stand in the Resource Centre for the 5th.
Fred Gaskin presented a financial statement as at 30th April 2009.
Fred expressed concern that he had an invoice for payment from D Searle but no explanation as to what project it related to and no-one who had authorised payment. Peter Milner explained that it related to the construction of a framework to house the St Katherine’s School artwork for the greening our village party. It was not clear if this was covered by any projects approved by the Forum.
Mike Goldsworthy pointed out that, while we did not want to be overly formal, we did need to maintain some control over our finances. Any invoices sent for payment should be accompanied by an authority for payment signed by the Forum member who had commissioned the expenditure and reference to the project approved by the Forum to which the expenditure relates. Otherwise payment would be withheld.
Members agreed that the Forum should consider applying for a Coop Bank grant, which we qualified for as a bank account holder, and suitable projects should be considered.
Arthur Taylor suggested that the Forum may consider using the Resource Centre as its official base and postal address. This would give members a place to hold small meetings, give the Forum an official address, point of contact for members of the community and an improved identity. Full Forum meetings may still need to be held at the Community Centre due to the difficulty of opening in the evenings and the limited capacity.
In about 2 months time. Date to be confirmed.
Meeting ended at 8.45pm.
Mike Goldsworthy 24/06/09 |
