Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

It was agreed:

That, subject to the inclusion of Councillor Hussain being in attendance at the meeting, the Minutes of the last Meeting of the Township Forum held on 12 September 2013 be approved as a correct record.

The letters referred to from The Township Forum are attached for information

It was agreed:

Councillor Bevan referred to Minute RTNM.60 - Police Update and explained that following the update from Inspector Williams at the meeting, Councillor Bevan had written to Chief Superintendent Forber at Bury Division of GMP and Mr Tony Lloyd, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester. The letters were attached to the agenda and highlighted the concerns that had been raised at the meeting regarding policing across the three wards of the Township.

Councillor Bevan reported that he had received a response from Chief Superintendent Forber and he would circulate this, but, to date he had received no response from Mr Lloyd.

A presentation will be given at the Meeting.

Councillor John Smith, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Finance and Mike Owen, Executive Director of Resources attended the meeting to update those present on the Plan for Change 3 - Additional Programme of Savings 2014/2015.

It was explained that the Plan for Change was the means by which the Council will deliver its vision for the Borough whilst recognising that the funding from central government is reducing, that residents' needs and expectations are changing and that the Council and its partners will have to work differently in the future but still be committed to deliver the best outcomes with the resources available.

The Plan for Change had first been consulted on in 2011. Since then there had been a number of different policy announcements and changes to local government funding and budgets which had seen the need to consult on more and more proposals in relation to the services provided by the Council.

The Plan for Change Programme had been approved at Council in February 2013 and outlined savings of £7.432m for 2014/2015. This had now been increased by an additional £2.2m to take account of revised figures from government.

It was also reported that the Council Tax had been raised for the 2013/2014 financial year by 3.5%. There had been no information available to date as to whether the government would impose sanctions on the Council because of this rise even though all rules were complied with when the rise was agreed. It was also too early to know what the Council Tax situation would be for 2014/2015 as no final grant figures will be available until mid January 2014.

It was explained that a package of options had been identified which included savings of £2,145,000 being made on internal efficiencies and £75,000 on a reduction in payments to external organisations.

Mike explained that this was now the time that residents and stakeholders could have an input into how the additional £2.2m could be saved by commenting on what they felt were areas to consider and what the council services should look like from 2014/2015.

Councillor Smith  explained that further challenges would also be seen in 2015/2016 when the Council will have to cut £16m  from its budget. The Council will have to prepare for this as early as possible and consider all of the options available by prioritising services whilst doing everything possible to ensure that all obligations are met, the vulnerable are looked after and Bury remains a decent place to live.

Cabinet Members and Directors had been asked to look at options including service changes, alternative ways of delivering services, increased waiting times and/or reduced quality, and the Council structure. As soon as any options were available they would be consulted on as the next stage in the process.

The public consultation regarding the 2014/15 budget was taking place currently and would close on 17th January 2014. All comments from the Township Forum Meetings would be fed into the consultation before any  ...  view the full minutes text for item RTNM.521

Officers from the Fostering Team will be present to give a short introduction and answer questions.

Emma Newey from Social Care and Safeguarding attended the meeting to report on the current drive for recruitment of foster cares within Bury.

It was explained that the authority was having to use external agencies to place some children as there weren’t enough foster carers in Bury for the number of children needing a placement.

It was explained that there were a number of different types of fostering:- Temporary, Short Term, Respite, Home from Home and Long Term. It was also explained that foster carers were needed for; Sibling Groups of younger children or older teenagers, Teenagers, Children with disabilities and Children of diverse cultures and ethnic groups.

It was also reported that if a placement wasn’t available through the Council approved foster carers within Bury, then Social Services would have to place a child with a private agency. This could mean that they were far away from their friends and family and would also have cost implications to the Council as the agency placements were more expensive.

Those present were given the opportunity to ask questions and the following points were raised:-

·               Councillor Gunther referred to the children requiring foster care and the type of contact they would require whilst being in their placement.

It was explained that a child in foster care would require as much consistency as possible. Therefore it was best to try and keep them in the same school and with their friends and with their siblings until a long term decision had been made.

·                A member of the public asked what age groups were involved.

Emma explained that the age range was from birth to 18 and a child could require a placement at any age.

Emma stated that there was a freephone number that people could telephone to get more information relating to fostering: 08009555311.

It was agreed:

That Emma be thanked for her presentation.

The Community Activator will give a short presentation on the ‘I will if you will’ programme.

Maria Folan, Community Activator attended the meeting to explain about the ‘I will if you will’ initiative which was being carried out across the borough.

Maria explained that In May 2013 Bury was unveiled by Sport England as the location for an intensive year-long sporting experiment to get more women and girls active and tackle the gender gap in sport.  Bury had secured £2,383.778 million of National Lottery funding to support this.

It was reported that 'I will if you will' was the brand name for a campaign aimed at women and girls in Bury, the aim of which was to motivate them to be more active and a wide variety of activities would be offered to assist this. These include jog groups, led walks, buggy baby bootcamps, tea dances, burlesque, total toning, total body workout, kettlecise and Zumba.

Maria explained that there was a dedicated website for the project  where you could find out what events were being held locally. It was also explained that the Community Activators would welcome suggestions from groups on other activities that could be held and these would be provided through the scheme to the groups.

Maria could be contacted on 0161 253 6664 or m.folan@bury.gov.uk

Members of the public present are invited to ask questions or raise issues of concern relating to the provision of local services.

• Mr Booth referred to the new JD Sports and Bury Football Club sponsorship deal that had been announced and asked how this would affect the Council sponsorship of the club.

• A resident of Tottington referred to the local link provided by Transport for Greater Manchester and asked why Kirklees Street and Scobell Street were not included within the scheme.

It was explained that this question had been raised by BRIF at one of their meetings with TfGM but a request would be made for it to be raised again.

Councillor Bevan referred to the funding that was available through community funding and the small grants panel and asked that people think about funding that they might apply for.

Any other business which by reason of circumstances the Chair agrees may be considered as a matter of urgency.

It was agreed:

That Mr Keith Conley, representing the Rotary Club of Ramsbottom, be approved as a Member of the Advisory Group of the Ramsbottom, Tottington and North Manor Township Forum.