Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report from the Community Funding & Development Manager providing an overview of the recommendations in the draft Community Centres Strategy and of the consultation plan; the public was being invited to respond to the consultation, which would remain open until noon on 5 May 2017.  Members noted that proposals round the Ross Street Community Centre were not seeking to reduce provision in Romsey, but to manage it in a different way to allow the Council’s resources to be targeted to areas of the highest need.  A voluntary sector organisation would be invited to take on the management of the centre under a Service Level Agreement, not as a commercial venture.  The review concerned eight centres, but there were 180 community facilities throughout the city.

In discussion, members

1)    reported that the County Council would be conducting a further, separate consultation on the Barnwell Hub, plans for which had been slightly altered following preliminary consultation

2)    noted that the agreement for management of the Ross Street Centre would include affordable hire fees for local use; any group concerned about meeting hire charges could approach the Community Funding & Development Manager or the Grants Team to see if their activity would be eligible for a grant funding for hire costs

3)    suggested that consideration be given to using faith-based facilities to meet gaps in community provision, such as Cambridge Community Church in Brookes Road

4)    noted that officers visited all the facilities which received funding to look at use and levels of use, and to deal with any issues as they arose.

The Chair thanked the Community Funding & Development Manager for her contribution to the meeting, and for all the work which had gone into the consultation.

The Committee resolved to

1)    Note the emerging proposals in the draft Community Centres Strategy detailed in section 3 of the report

2)    Note the consultation plan and opportunities for people to feed back their comments on the draft strategy detailed in section 5 of the report.