Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report from Jackie Hanson, the Community Funding & Development Manager regarding the work being undertaken as part of the strategic review of community provision.

The Committee were also provided with a list of community facilities identified to date across the city that were invited to complete a survey and a map of those that had responded to the facility audit.

The Committee and members of the public asked the following questions regarding the report:

Q1. Councillor Bird

Out of the age groups which age group was the highest user of community facilities?

A.  This information was being collated as part of the review process.  The assessment across the City will be provided as part of the results.

Q2. Councillor Manning

Asked whether there was a document which detailed which community facilities received Council funding?

A.  There is no specific document and facilities receive different types of Council funding including direct management, grant funding and S106 developer contributions. Some Council facilities would be managed by community groups on behalf of the Council. Referred to the map which had been provided to Councillors at the start of the meeting which detailed where community facilities were. This would be updated as part of the on-going project.

Q3. Ms King

Referred to the Meadows Community Centre which most people would think was situated in Cambridge City but was in fact within Histon and Impington parish, where a precept would be raised. Questioned whether the funding for the community centre should be looked at and whether resources should be sought from Impington Parish Council.

A.  The City had funded the centre for at least 20 years, would need to have a dialogue with the Parish Council as the centre did fall within South Cambs district.

Action

Q4. Mr Bond

Spoke as the Treasurer of St Andrew’s Hall. Referred to Councillor Bird’s question regarding the most popular user age groups of community facilities. There were lots of different age groups that used the hall but they were trying to encourage facilities for younger people. There were plenty of community facilities that were under used because people did not know how or who to contact to book them. This information needed to be kept up to date so the public could use and find it.

A.  The Council collected data for Council owned centres, for example on numbers of visits and use by priority groups of the centres. The Meadows Community Centre had a mixed use during the day which included families and older people and had more youth based activity during the evening.  Further information would be collected as part of the review.

Community Centres also provided opportunities for the Council to deliver other projects for example the digital inclusion project, which sought to provide skills and access to computers for people who did not readily have access to a computer or feel competent in their use.

The Committee

Resolved unanimously to:

i.             Note the work of the review and initial findings of the city-wide community facilities audit.

ii.            Promote the ‘call for evidence’ stage of the review and encourage stakeholders to feed in their experience and evidence as detailed in sections 5 and 6 of the Officer’s report.