Agenda item

The Bury East Township Plan is attached for information.

                Dave Thomas, Township Co-ordinator, explained to the members of the Forum that the Township Co-ordinators along with Councillor Lewis, Cabinet Member for Communities and Culture, had put together a form for residents’ views on how to provide a better service delivery to local communities, including:

§  Introducing a local ‘market place’ format which would involve stands around the room providing details of any ongoing consultations and relevant community information.  These would include Officers from 6 Town Housing, the Fire Service, Police and Highways to give the public extra access to Partner agencies.

§  Opportunities to formalise Police involvement in Township Forums.

§  Reduce the number of meetings from 6 to 4 per year.

§  Delegate decisions to Township Forums relating to combined small grants/community fund pots.

Dave explained that the residents’ views on the Township Forums were important and asked that they complete the form and provide any further comments.

o   Mr Ainsworth stated that reports should be provided within a time limit and that the general public were not attending these meetings. Councillor Holt stated that this was a good way of residents having their say in a way to refresh the meetings.

o   Tan Ahmed asked if, as a trial, one meeting could be held during the day instead of evening.  Councillor John Smith stated that Whitefield and Unsworth Township Forum does hold 2 of their Forums in the winter months in the afternoon and their public attendance was high.  They always had Police Officers in attendance at the meetings and often Officers in relation to local Public Transport issues.

o   Councillor Walmsley stated that it would be prejudice to young people, students and those at work who would not be able to attend if the meetings were held during the day.  A number of retired residents attended the Whitefield and Unsworth Township Forum but the meetings needed to be open to a wider demographic community who could attend the meetings outside school and work hours.

o   Councillor Holt asked if other Township Forums moved to different venues as Bury East held their meetings in turn at each different ward.  Dave stated that Whitefield and Unsworth, Radcliffe and Prestwich Township Forums mostly stayed at one venue.

o   Mike Harling commented that Redvales Children’s Centre did not have a direct bus service and that residents could only access the venue by taxi or walking.  It was acknowledged that certain venues did have better access than others.

o   Kath Bond asked if the meetings could be held on Saturdays.  Councillor Connolly stated he thought that was a good idea and Dave Thomas queried whether this could be trialled.

o   Mr Ainsworth stated that the PACT meetings were relevant to each ward and individually were better attended than the Township Forum.  Dave stated that through the Township Forums it was more possible to reach the wider community.

Dave also reported that the Bury East Township Plan was attached for information and that he was currently in the process of producing an evaluation report which would be sent to members prior to the next meeting.