To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Ms K Berry; Mr N Parker; Mr RI Stevenson.

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

There were no named substitutes.

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

GUIDANCE ON DECLARING PERSONAL AND PREJUDICIAL INTERESTS AT MEETINGS

The Council’s Members’ Code of Conduct requires Councillors to declare against an Agenda item(s) the nature of an interest and whether the interest is personal or prejudicial.  Councillors have to decide first whether or not they have a personal interest in the matter under discussion.  They will then have to decide whether that personal interest is also prejudicial.

A personal interest is an interest that affects the Councillor more than most other people in the area.  People in the area include those who live, work or have property in the area of the Council.  Councillors will also have a personal interest if their partner, relative or a close friend, or an organisation that they or the member works for, is affected more than other people in the area.  If they do have a personal interest, they must declare it but can stay and take part and vote in the meeting. 

Whether an interest is prejudicial is a matter of judgement for each Councillor.  What Councillors have to do is ask themselves whether a member of the public – if he or she knew all the facts – would think that the Councillor’s interest was so important that their decision would be affected by it.  If a Councillor has a prejudicial interest then they must declare what that interest is and leave the meeting room.

The following declarations were made in relation to Item 6 - Swimming Provision in Hereford City and Surrounding Area:

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 7 July 2008.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 7 July 2008, 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.

No suggestions were made by Members of the Public.

A Councillor in attendance suggested that Special Educational Need (SEN) and Banded Funding should be considered for closer scrutiny.

To consider the Cabinet Decision to approve the closure of St Martin’s Swimming Pool with immediate effect and the subsequent capital investment in the Hereford Leisure Pool prior to the new academic year which has been called in by three Members of the Committee: Councillors WJ Walling, WU Attfield, JD Woodward.

The Committee considered the Cabinet Decision to approve the decision not to reopen the St Martin’s Swimming Pool (the LEA Pool), to evaluate the use of other pools for school swimming, particularly the Hereford Leisure Pool , and to report back by Easter 2009 with proposals for the future use of pools, which had been called in by three Members of the Committee.

The agenda report detailed the stated reasons for the call-in.  Appended to the report was the decision notice of Cabinet setting out the decision and the report to Cabinet on 31 July 2008 on which that decision had been based. Also attached to the report at appendix 3 was an extract from the minutes of Cabinet and appendix 4 was a response to the questions raised by the call-in.  Members received at the meeting copies of financial and usage statistics submitted by Councillor AT Oliver.

In the course of discussion the following principal points were noted:

• In response to various questions concerning why the pool had needed to close and the levels of maintenance, the Property Services Manager reported that the pool had been closed on Health and Safety grounds, principally due to the failure of the heating system and lack of emergency lighting.  The maintenance of the LEA Pool had to be seen in the context of a £17m backlog of Council-wide maintenance.  The £72,500 estimated capital investment required to enable the pool to reopen had been based on professional estimates rather than on competitive quotations. 
• Responding to whether the Section 106 funding from the Bradbury Lines, Hereford, development had been allocated to the LEA pool, as specifically suggested at Central Area Planning Sub-Committee, the Committee were referred to paragraph 12 of the Cabinet report.  The Director of Children’s Services commented that 106 funding was to be invested in education for locality and amenity purposes.
• Concern was expressed over the capacity of the HALO Pool to accommodate the number of people wishing to swim, particularly in relation to future government proposals to introduce free swimming for the over 60s and under 16s.  In this context the Councils ‘duty of care’ towards the child under ‘Every Child Matters’ was also raised.  Further concern was raised regarding the potential for complaints that the paying public were unable to make use of the whole of the main pool.  In response Mr Argent, Chief Executive, HALO Leisure, commented that HALO was part of the solution and not the problem in that they had reorganised the swimming programmes at the HALO pool at short notice to accommodate the schools.  While there may be some minor disruption between 9am – 3pm during term times, mixed use by schools and public already occurred satisfactorily at other pools in the County and at the Hereford Leisure pool.
• Responding to questions over the use of the leisure pool for teaching Mr Argent acknowledged that while the floor of the leisure pool sloped to a beach, he was confident this was acceptable for teaching on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.