Agenda item

To receive updates from ward councillors from Maltby, Rawmarsh and Rother Vale on the activities supporting Thriving Neighbourhoods across the Borough.

Further to Minute No. 55 of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 19^th November, 2018, consideration was given to the annual Ward Updates for Maltby, Rawmarsh and Rother Vale as part of the Thriving Neighbourhoods Strategy.

Councillors Price, on behalf of the Maltby Ward, gave an update on the Ward priorities. In rising to provide an update, he welcomed the opportunity that the Thriving Neighbourhoods had given to backbench councillors to champion and advocate for their communities in the Council Chamber. He was proud to represent the people and town of Maltby and listed a number of initiatives that had taken place in the Maltby ward, including:-

·       Community litter picks and skip days

·       Working with Tenants and Residents Associations

·       Greater collaboration from the Council, South Yorkshire Housing Association, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, South Yorkshire Police, Maltby Town Council, Coalfields Regeneration Trust, local schools and faith groups.

Councillors Bird, Marriott and Sheppard, on behalf of the Rawmarsh Ward, gave an update on their Ward priorities. Councillor Bird explained that he would focus on projects in the ward that had been funded externally and referenced the establishment as a charity of the Friends of Rawmarsh and Parkgate Green Spaces, which had received £8.000 of funding from a local business, which had been used to purchase equipment for the community to use on local green spaces. He further referred to a ‘Dragons Den’ approach to providing money to local causes and reported that in excess of £35,000 had been given to 25 local groups in the ward.  Councillor Shepherd explained that he had been keen to support, with other ward councillors, various community clean up initiatives and had worked well with the Friends of Rawmarsh and Parkgate Green Spaces to collect approximately 4,000 bags of rubbish across the ward. Councillor Marriott indicated that she had not been contacted by her ward councillor colleagues to prepare for this agenda item.

Councillors Brookes and Walsh, on behalf of the Rother Vale Ward, gave an update on their Ward priorities. Councillor Walsh provided detail on the vast nature and diversity of the Rother Vale ward in respect of its geographical spread and gave examples of the kinds of initiatives that ward councillors had been involved in supporting in Thurcroft, Treeton and Waverley, which included supporting the creation of a new Waverley Parish Council, arts projects in Thurcroft and engaging with children and young people across thw ward. Councillor Brookes reflected on what a neighbourhood was and the key questions that needed to be answered by local and national policymakers to address the issues faced by communities in her ward.

Responding to the point raised by Councillor Marriott, the Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor Watson, reminded Members that the agenda for the meeting had been publicly available for five working days prior to 24 July 2019 and that should have been ample time to prepare an update in respect of delivering against ward priorities. In addition to that, a draft of the Ward Update would have been forwarded to Councillor Marriott for review and approval long before the agenda papers for the Council meeting were published.

Resolved:-

That ward updates in respect of Maltby, Rawmarsh and Rother Valley be noted.

Mover:-  Councillor Watson                    Seconder:-  Councillor Read