To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor M.R. Cunningham, Councillor P.G. Turpin, Councillor A.L. Williams and Mr G. Jones.

To receive details any details of Members nominated to attend the meeting in place of a Member of the Committee.

There were no named substitues.

To receive any declarations of interest by Members in respect of items on the Agenda.

Councillor J.G. Jarvis declared a personal interest in Item 9: ‘Community Services Scrutiny Committee Work Programme’.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 8th November 2006.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes for the meeting held on 8th November 2006, be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To consider suggestions from members of the public on issues the Committee could scrutinise in the future.

There were no suggestions from members of the public.

To consider the findings of the Museum Review Group following the Review of the Support for Museums and Heritage Centres.

The Committee considered the findings of the Museum Review Group following the Review of the Support for Museums and Heritage Centres.

The Chairman began by thanking the many witnesses who had met with and hosted the Review Group whilst it had completed its work.  He also expressed his thanks to the Review Group’s two principal support officers Lara Latcham and Craig Goodall.

Ms. Latcham explained to the Committee that the Review Group had considered both independent and local authority operated museums in the County.  She reminded Members that a list of all known museums in the County and a list of the Review Groups witnesses had been circulated separately before the meeting.

She informed Members that the Review Group had visited Kington Museum; Butchers Row Museum, Ledbury; the Painted Room, Ledbury; the Judges Lodgings, Presteigne; Hereford Museum and Art Gallery and the Friar Street Resource Centre.

She then took the Committee through each of the Review Group’s recommendations explaining the rationale behind them.

(a)    It was felt that the service currently known as Heritage Services should change its name to the ‘Museum Service’.  This was to help avoid confusion with members of the public who often did not realise that Heritage Services included Museums.

(b)    Nationally Museums, Libraries and Archives are grouped together.  It was suggested that the three services in Herefordshire Council were grouped together locally in the same Division to enable easier cross-discipline partnership work.  In response to a question it was clarified that the three services had never been grouped together locally.  Museums had been linked with both Archives and Libraries but not at the same time.

(c)    It was recommended that all Herefordshire Council Museums, and those independent museums with the capacity to do so, completed the Museums Association Accreditation process.  This scheme acted as a quality assurance mark for Museums.  Becoming accredited would open up potential funding streams and possibilities of item loans.

(d)    As Heritage Services was a non-statutory service (apart from the preservation of artefacts for future generations) it was potentially more vulnerable to Council budget cuts than other services.  Therefore to ensure the long-term future of the service it was felt that the possibility of Heritage Services at Herefordshire Council converting to a single entity Trust be investigated.  Converting to Trust Status may also open up new revenue streams which a local authority would be ineligible for.

(e)    If the recommendation to convert to a Trust was accepted then the Council should award a long-term funding deal to the Trust.  Therefore they felt it was prudent for Herefordshire Council to plan along the lines of a 25-year deal.

(f)      The appointment of a Museum Development Officer was proving to be a successful project and was set to used as a model for heritage and museum work in Europe.  As the post was externally funded it was hoped that this funding would continue.

(g)    Local independent museums had been hit by the withdrawal of the Voluntary Sector Grants Scheme.  The Review Group had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

To advise Members of the annual activity in Rural Regeneration within Herefordshire.

The Committee was advised of the annual activity in the Cabinet Member Portfolio for Rural Regeneration and Strategy.

The following are the principal points from the ensuing discussion:

·         Concern was expressed at the number of empty shops in Ross on Wye and the Cabinet Member was asked what he was doing to improve the situation.

The Cabinet Member shared the concern that the Member expressed and stated that whilst there were some schemes in place to help traders in Ross-on-Wye there were still some empty premises in the town centre.

The Market Towns Officer informed the Committee that there had been 16 applications for shop front grants from traders in Ross-on-Wye which had resulted in the Council approaching Advantage West Midlands for additional funds for the scheme.  He also highlighted that Business Rate relief was available to new traders for three months.

A Member of the Committee felt that schemes such as these were insignificant.  He felt that Ross-on-Wye was in serious of need of complete economic regeneration.  He stated that out of town shops were detrimental to the town centre and that planning policies should be amended to prevent further developments.

It was suggested that tourists visiting the Ross on Wye and Monmouth areas were more likely to visit Monmouth than Ross on Wye.  He thought that the Committee should consider investigating tourism in the County.

It was noted that there were many empty shops, particularly in Widemarsh Street, Hereford.  This was again seen as a serious concern.

The Director of Adult and Community Services added that an Economic Development Strategy for the County would be published soon.  He suggested that shops could widen their portfolios by branching out into web sales.

The Head of Economic and Community Services stated that investment was taking place in Hereford.  She explained that Marks and Spencer were set to complete a major refurbishment of its Hereford store in the future.  It was also noted that Asda was set to increase its opening hours.

·         It was noted that Bromyard Town Council was developing a Parish Plan and had recently formed a steering group to facilitate the process.

·         The Chairman called for the development of a night-time economy in Hereford City Centre.  He felt that the Council could provide grants to City Centre cafes to remain open into the late evening.

·         It was noted that the livestock market would probably be the subject of a separate meeting and any questions on the issue could be addressed them.

·         In response to a series of questions the Cabinet Member explained that some small parts of the Council’s smallholdings estate had been sold. 

He also explained that many of the properties within the Councils ownership would require a lot of maintenance expenditure.

He gave an example of a property which contained a listed wall that would have cost £70,000 to repair.  However, it had been possible to sell the property and the £70,000 bill was avoided.  He explained that it was his intention to continue with this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

To report on the available Performance Indicators position and provide information about current performance management work within the Economic and Community Services Division of the Adult and Community Services Directorate.

The Committee was informed of the available performance indicators position and provided with information about current performance management work within the Economic and Community Services Division of the Adult and Community Services Directorate.

The Performance Improvement Manager began by explaining that all the indicators in the performance report were not under their target figures but improvements on the previous year.  With regard to Best Value Performance Indicator (BVPI) 178, ‘The percentage of total length of footpaths and public rights of way which were easy to use by members of the public’, the target of 48% had been exceeded so a successful status icon should have been printed in the report. In addition to this BVPI 127a ‘Number of violent crimes in Herefordshire’ performance in Quarter 2 was 7.5 and not 4 as listed in the agenda papers.  A copy of the performance report was appended to the report.

The Committee continued to discuss BVPI 178 regarding footpaths in more detail.  In response to a question the Performance Improvement Manager explained that in order to measure success towards the target a small percentage of the County’s footpaths were inspected at specific intervals each year. 

A Member of the Committee said that, whilst he understood the inspection regime, he felt that more needed to be done to ensure that the County’s footpaths remained open.  Inspecting a small percentage of the County’s footpaths each year did not ensure that all footpaths were accessible to users.  The County had many footpaths which were an important feature in its attraction to tourists.

It was noted that whilst the target for footpaths had been met the target set was not  particularly high in the first place.  According to the performance report only 49% of the footpaths inspected were considered easy to use by members of the public.  A Member of the Committee deduced that this meant that the remaining 51% of the footpaths inspected were considered not easy to use when they were inspected.  As this figure only represented a small percentage of the County’s footpaths the Committee expressed concern at the potential number of footpaths which may not be easy to use throughout the County if the figure from the inspected footpaths was representative of all footpaths in Herefordshire.

Other Members commented that individual farmers and parish councils had responsibilities to keep footpaths in their jurisdiction open.

The Director of Adult and Community Services informed the Committee that there were significant resource issues which impacted upon the level of footpath maintenance that could take place.  He also accepted that to a certain extent the Council was reliant on the work of parish councils in ensuring that footpaths in the County were easy to use by members of the public.  He stated that he would circulate a briefing note outside of the meeting concerning the issues raised and the responsibilities of parish councils and footpaths.

The Head of Economic and Community Services explained that there were good relationships in place with many of the County’s parish  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

To consider the Committee work programme for the remainder of 2006/07.

The Committee considered its work programme for the remainder of 2006/07.

It was suggested that the Committee recommend to its successors, following the May elections, that they consider completing a Review of Tourism in the County.  The Review should be on two fronts.  Firstly, to consider now Tourism is managed in the County.  Secondly, on what can be done to attract more visitors to the County.

The Cabinet Member (Community Services) asked the Committee to consider delaying any planned Review of Tourism until the new Destination Management Partnership had been become more established.  He felt that to review tourism whilst the DMP was still finding its feet could be potentially damaging.

The Chairman added that the Divisional Commander of West Mercia Police was to be invited to the next meeting of the Committee as part of its Community Safety remit.

In response to a question on progress with the recommendations of the Courtyard Review Group the Committee was informed that the Courtyard had still not submitted its response to the Review to Cabinet.  The response had been delayed pending the outcome of a consultant’s report commissioned by the Courtyard.  It was expected that this report would be completed by March which would allow the Committee to be updated on the situation at its next meeting.

Members expressed concern about the length of time it was taking the Courtyard to respond to the Review Group’s report and the cost of consultancy work that had been commissioned.

Following earlier concerns expressed about the County’s economic position it was suggested that the Committee considered the Council’s Economic Strategy.

RESOLVED:

That the following issues raised by the Committee be approved and reported to the Strategic Monitoring Committee:

(a)   Review of Tourism;

(b)   Community Safety and West Mercia Police;

(c)   Response from the Courtyard Centre for the Arts to the Courtyard Review Group;

and;

(d)   Herefordshire Economic Strategy.