Agenda and minutes

There were no appeals against the refusal of inspection of documents.

There were no resolutions to exclude the public.

There were no late items.

There were no declarations of Disclosable pecuniary and other interests.

Apologies were received from Councillors R Lewis and A Carter and from Inspector Mark Adams.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 17^th May 2013.

That the minutes of the meeting held on Friday 17th May 2013 be approved as a correct record.

Minute No. 83 – Provision of Bowling Greens within the West Outer area

It was noted that the consultation period for the Provision of Bowling Greens has been extended from 31^st May 2013-31^st July 2013.

Parks and Countryside have been invited to the meeting on 18^th September 2013 in order to provide further details on the provision of bowling greens within the West Outer area.

To receive a deputation in respect of concerns regarding proposals which relate to the future of Musgrave Court, Crawshaw Road, Pudsey. In line with Area Committee Procedure Rules 6.18 – 6.23, a deputation shall consist of at least 2 and no more than 5 people, and shall not be more than 5 minutes in duration.

The committee received a deputation in respect of concerns regarding proposals which related to the future of Musgrave Court, Crawshaw Road, Pudsey.

The Chair thanked Mr Lurc and Ms Rider for attending the Area Committee to raise their concerns related to the future of Musgrave Court.

To receive the report of the Director of Adult Social Services to consider the consultation process to implement the recommendations of the Executive Board on 15 February 2013. To suggest any specific local issues that will help plan for the future needs of older people and make a response as part of the consultation process agreed by Executive Board.

(Report attached)

The Area Committee considered a report of the Director of Adult Social Services in respect of the ‘Better Lives’ vision and which sought the Area Committee’s view on associated proposals for the Outer West area which had formed part of the consultation process, which had been agreed by the  Executive Board on 15^th February 2013.

Dennis Holmes Deputy Director, Adult Social Care Commission Services presented the report and invited views on the Area Committee’s perspective on the closure of Musgrave Court. The Deputy Director gave an overview of the pressures facing the service at this time and over the next few years with insufficient budget to update and maintain the care homes that we provide, or to supply the resources to support those people who require specialised care.

He explained the review was looking towards the future provision of homes and the requirements and aspirations of the next generation of older person’s residential homes.

The Members sought clarification on a number of issues including:

-number of beds currently in use at Musgrave Court

-sufficient provision of the independent sector within the area

-residents wishes for allocated places at private care homes being adhered to

-care costs of the residents being relocated into the independent sector

-trained nurses for those residents who have dementia and

-relocation of LCC staff

Members were given reassurance that there were sufficient good quality care homes within the area offering specialised dementia care with trained nursing staff.

Musgrave Court was a 36 bed facility with 28 beds currently occupied on a permanent basis. If residents were to be relocated to the Independent Sector as a result of decommissioning, the Council would cover the care costs.

The report also provided an update to the Area Committee on the decommissioned older person’s facility Westholme, located in the Farnley / Wortley Ward. The Deputy Director informed the committee that the residents of Westholme had all been allocated places and that the wishes of where they wanted to live had been adhered to and that any future decommissioning of homes the wishes of the residents would be adhered to.

Staff at decommissioned homes would be offered employment elsewhere in the Council or the option to take up the Early Leavers Initiative.

RESOLVED – That the Area Committee:

a)   noted and considered the consultation process to implement the recommendations of the Executive Board on 15^th February 2013.

b)  suggested specific local issues that will help plan for the future needs of older people and made a response as part of the consultation process agreed by Executive Board

c)  noted and considered the content of the report and recognised the progress in implementing the option approved by the Executive Board in September 2011 for Westholme care home.

To receive a report of the Chief Officer (Democratic and Central Services) seeking the approval of the appointment of co-optees to the Area Committee for the remainder of the municipal year.

(Report attached)

Members considered a report of the Chief Officer (Democratic Services) seeking the approval of the appointment of co-optees to the Area Committee for the remainder of the municipal year.

RESOLVED - The Reverend Paul Ayres be appointed as a co-optee of the West Outer Area Committee for the municipal year 2013/14.

To receive the report of the Chief Officer (Democratic and Central Services) outlining the Area Committee’s role in relation to Elected Member Appointments to Outside Bodies and asks the Committee to determine the appointments to those organisations which fall to the Committee to make an appointment to.

(Report attached)

West Outer Area Committee considered the report of the Chief Officer (Democratic and Central Services) outlining the procedure for the Committee to make and confirm appointments to those organisations (Outside Bodies) which fall to the Committee to make an appointment. The report included a copy of the Appointments to Outside Bodies Procedure Rules at Appendix 1 and a schedule of the two appointments to be made at Appendix 2 in relation to the following organisations:-

·  WNW ALMO Area Panel

·  Borough of Pudsey Charity

RESOLVED – That:

·  Councillors R Wood and R Lewis be appointed to the WNW Area Panel until July 2014.

·  Councillors R Lewis and A Carter be appointed to the Borough of Pudsey Charity until Jun 2016.

To receive a report of the Assistant Chief Executive (Citizens and Communities) inviting Area Committees to make appointments to Area Lead Member roles, Clusters and Corporate Carers Group for the next municipal year 2013-2014.

(Report attached)

The Assistant Chief Executive (Citizens and Communities) submitted a report requesting that the Area Committee make appointments to the Area Lead Members roles. The report also asked the Area Committee to nominate their representative on the Corporate Carers Group, and nominations to local Children’s Services Cluster partnerships.

In recognition of the differing size of individual Area Committees and that the roles may need to be tailored to best reflect local needs and circumstances and it was noted that Area Committees may wish to consider splitting two of the roles namely;

-  Environment and Community Safety – with one member focusing on the environment agenda and another community safety.

-  Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care - with one member covering public health and wellbeing agenda and another focusing on adult social care and community health services.

The Area Committee considered the following Roles suggested in Section 3 of the report:

• Environment & Community Safety

• Children’s Services

• Employment, Skills and Welfare

• Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care

RESOLVED –

a) That appointments be made to the following Area Lead Member roles for West Outer Area Committee:

-  Children’s Services - Councillor D Blackburn

-  Employment and Skills - Councillor R Wood

-  Welfare – Councillor J Hardy

-  Health and Wellbeing and Adult Social Care - Councillor J Jarosz

-  Environment – Councillor M Coulson

-  Community Safety – Councillor A Blackburn

b) That the following Councillors be appointed as member representatives to the local Children’s Services Clusters relevant to the West Outer Area Committee:

-  Farnley Cluster – Councillor A Blackburn

-  Pudsey Cluster – Councillors J Jarosz and A Carter

c) That Councillor D Blackburn in his appointment to Area Lead Member of Children’s Services also be appointed to the role of Corporate Carer.

To consider the report of the Locality Manager (West and North West Leeds) providing an update on performance against the SLA between Inner West Area Committee and the West-North West Environmental Locality Team.

(Report attached)

The Area Committee considered the report of the WNW Locality Manager, Environment and Housing providing a comprehensive end of year performance report for the 2012/13 Service Level Agreement and setting out details of the SLA for 2013/14.

Jason Singh the Locality Manager attended the meeting to present the report and drew the Members attention to the SLA for 2013/14 which is appendix A of the report. The changes and additions to the SLA for 2013/14 included:

a)  a commitment to agree and regularly inspect priority ‘sites of concern’ in each ward

b)  a programme to be developed to tackle priority sites and problematic arterial routes in each ward that are prone to litter accumulating between the end of the cutting season and the beginning of the next.

c)  a menu of additional changeable services for Members to consider commissioning extra local, targeted provision

The Locality Manager reported that extra resources for the roll out of the new bin collection programme will be undertaken through the ‘Waste Doctors’.

The Locality Manager updated the committee on the covert CCTV cameras saying that they were being purchased and that he would update on how they are working at a future meeting.

RESOLVED – The Area Committee:

a) noted the content of the report and;

b) approved the Service Level Agreement 2013/14 attached at Appendix A of the report 

To receive a report of the Director of Children’s Services providing an update on the recommendations agreed at the Executive Board 13th March 2013. The report will inform and update area committees of their delegated responsibilities for Youth activity funding.

(Report attached)

The Director of Children’s Services submitted a report providing an update on the recommendation of the Executive Board in respect of the future direction for the provision of youth services in Leeds and set out the responsibilities that would be delegated to Area Committees for youth activity funding.

The report included specific matters for the Area Committee to address and those responses would inform the July Executive Board report in respect of targeted youth work services. The Area Committee considered the issues raised in respect of:

-how the activity funding will be delivered building on the Breeze brand

-how the Area Committee could link to other possible funding streams to maximise activity for children and young people

-how children and young people will be involved throughout the planning, decision making and evaluation of the activity funding

Ken Morton Head of Service Young People and Skills presented the report to the committee explaining that this project in to run over this financial year and next financial year. The new allocation for the Outer West Area Committee budget ring-fenced for youth activities is £23,218 in 2013/14 and £46,435 in 2014/15.

Head of Service Young People and Skills advised the committee that:

-work was underway with Area Support in branding for Breeze

-agreement with Area Chairs as to how the project would work within Area Committees and he would provide the basics as to in-house spend and voluntary spend

-there would be a small team to provide support and advice to the Area Committees

-a number of summer activities were already proposed and that he would supply the relevant details to the Area Support Team.

RESOLVED-

a)  That, having considered the issues, the contents of the report and the comments made by Members be noted

b)  That the Youth Activities Fund budget decision making functions be delegated to the authorised officers, subject to initial consultation with Ward Members.

To receive a report of the Director of Children’s Services to consider the information outlined in this report on the work being undertaken across the city to ensure the authority meets its statutory duty to ensure sufficiency of school places in the context of an increasing birth rate. This includes formal consultation on three proposals, for which members comments are sought, and an update on six proposals consulted upon in February and March 2013. 

(Report attached)

The Director of Children’s Services submitted a report updating the Area Committee on the work being undertaken across the city to ensure that the authority meet its statutory duty to ensure sufficiency of school places in the context of an increasing birth rate.

Viv Buckland, Head of Strategy and Commissioning in Children’s Services attended the meeting.

The Head of Strategy and Commissioning in Children’s Services updated the Area Committee with information that the Catholic Diocese have indicated the need for additional places for baptised children in the Pudsey area; the governing body of Pudsey St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School are therefore seeking to create additional places at the school. The school is an academy and therefore the process would be managed by the school. The proposal was complimentary to the one to increase Primrose Hill and would create additional places in an area of need.

Discussion took place on a number of issues in relation to the expansion of schools including:

-performance pay of leadership team at schools where expansion had taken place

-clarification on planning permission

-clarification on how the school is selected for expansion, demographics, money and travel plans

The Members requested that Pudsey Lowtown be reconsidered for expansion.

-The Head of Strategy and Commissioning Children’s Services offered to undertake a piece of research on Pudsey Lowtown and return to the Area Committee with her findings.

RESOLVED – That the contents of the submitted report, together with the comments made by Members be noted.

To receive a report of the Director of Environment and Housing to provide the West (Outer) Area Committee with information on crime trends, partnership initiatives and future joint projects between Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Police in Outer West.

(Report attached)

The Director of Environment and Housing submitted a report to the committee with information on crime trends, partnership initiatives and future projects between Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Police in Outer West.

The report was presented by Gill Hunter, Area Community Safety Co-ordinator provided the recent crime statistics for West Outer Leeds.

Discussions took place on a number of issues including:

-  Lack of response from enquiries passed to the Police by Members

-  No information from the Police to Members regarding major incidents in the area

-  The closure of the public counter at Pudsey Police Station and the re-opening of the public counter at Weetwood Police Station. The Members requested that there was an urgent need to ensure that all residents are made aware of this closure.

The Area Community Safety Co-ordinator informed the committee of a number of initiatives being undertaken in the area:

-  Community Triggers Pilot which would run from 4^th July, through to December 2013. The aim of the pilot was to respond and act quickly on complaints of Anti-social behaviour with the use of a multi-agency partnership which may include, Police, Council or registered social landlords;

-  The off road bike team was to operate in local hot spots and the off road

-  The CCTV camera for the Farfields will be operational in the next few weeks;

-  Action days are planned to raise awareness of burglary;

-  The Neighbourhood Police Team would continue to support local forums and events providing crime prevention advice;

-  Schools within the area have had leaflets printed raising awareness of the dangers of parking outside schools.

RESOLVED- Members of the West Outer Area Committee noted the content of the report and offered comments to the presenting officer.

Councillors Coulson and Marjoram left the meeting during the consideration of this item.

To receive a report of the Assistant Chief Executive (Citizens and Communities) advising the Area Committee on the current position of the Outer West Wellbeing revenue budget.

(Report attached)

A report was submitted to the Committee by Assistant Chief Executive (Citizens and Communities) on the budget position of the Wellbeing Fund 2013/14

Harpreet Singh presented the report highlighting the current position of the Small Grants and Skips Pots and those small grants and skips that have been approved since the last meeting.

Approval for Small grants and skips pots was sought on those applications which had been received for consideration, as detailed within table 2 of the submitted report.

Members approval was also sought for the Business Engagement Proposal £14,400.

The Area Committee was asked to decommission the following projects and release the funding back into the Outer West capital Wellbeing fund:

Committee approval was sought for a new capital project Tyersal Residents Association Community Centre – Concert Room/ Youth Club, flat roof repairs - £9,500.

Alison Szustakowski from West North West Area Support Team attended the meeting to update the committee on the Welfare Reform Project. Members had agreed to allocate a sum of money to fund Welfare Reform projects, to support residents affected by the Welfare Reform Changes. Some of the Welfare Reform changes had been implemented and the partners had come together through WNW Employability and Welfare Reform Workstream to consider areas of need for West Outer Area Committee.

The following bullet points were a list of suggestions which had been identified as part of this process:

-  IT suites/ training

-  Supplement Libraries Information Bus to support residents in areas where service accessibility is difficult

-  Money management / Debt Projects

-  Illegal money lending projects/campaign

-  Promotional campaigns

-  Credit Union Schemes

-  Pop up benefits advice

-  Establishing localised Clothing and Food Banks

Members discussed the merits of supporting the above list of suggestions and considered the projects that would best support the residents of West Outer Area.

RESOLVED – The Area Committee:

-  Noted the current budget position for the Wellbeing Fund for 2013/14 as at Appendix 1

-  Noted the current position of the Small grants and skips pots and considered those Small Grants and skips that have been received with approval for funding as shown below:

-  Agreed the proposal for a Business Management proposal as at appendix 5 and that Cllr Wood, as Area Lead for Employment and Skills be included in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.