Agenda item

To consider the overview of the portfolio of the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion & Neighbourhood Working

The Chair welcomed Councillor Sheppard, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working to the meeting.

Councillor Sheppard provided an overview on each of the section of his portfolio as detailed below:

Member Neighbourhood Working and the Thriving Neighbourhoods Strategy: The Thriving Neighbourhood Strategy was introduced to ensure each ward had its own priorities. Meetings would take place with Neighbourhood Co-ordinators to agree the ward proprieties. These meetings would include a lot of data about the ward, including its demographics and information on the local community groups. He explained that he would attend some of those meetings to provide support where needed.

Towns and Villages and Our Places Funds: The Towns and Villages Fund was being replaced by Our Places Fund, which was delivering investment into communities. Although the Our Places fund was in its infancy, it was noted that previous works had improve localities and it was hope that the communities had welcomed the improvements to their areas. A number of the schemes had elements that involved working with our partners, such as colleagues in highways to join up projects to minimise disruption to residents.

Parish Council Liaison: In the south and central areas of the borough there were a number of parish councils. Whilst the Council did not have any direct control over the workings of the parish councils, as they had their own budgets, aims for their parishes, it did have a role in terms of liaising with them.  This was to ensure the parish councils were getting any support available from the Council and to ensure we worked in partnership to achieve the aims.

Member Development: He noted that for any member who wished to take advantage of training opportunities, for a specific role or to take up a specific role, there were lots of opportunities delivered by the Local Government Association (LGA).

Democratic Services: This team worked behind the scenes, putting together all of the meetings, ensuring members had everything they needed to enable the Council and members were able to function effectively.

Community Cohesion (supporting the Leader): This sat behind and alongside a lot of the threads within his and the Leaders role. Ensuring that the communities were working together, celebrating each other and learning from each other. One of the successes was the Rotherham Show, which had become much more of an event where different communities came together, supporting each other’s cultures.

Social Inclusion Cultural Services, including libraries, neighbourhood hubs, heritage, theatre and arts along with all matters relating to Leisure Services (including recreation, sport and the Leisure PFI): Rotherham had an incredibly vibrant cultural sector. The Council had a fantastic relationship with Arts Council England, which was important as it enabled funding opportunities to deliver great events. It was also valued for the support, the experience, the advice that was shared to assist with how the Council delivered events, how to ensure everyone was included within the cultural offer, where possible. The libraries were a vibrant community hub.

A lot of work was being undertaken around the borough’s rich heritage offer in places such as Keppel’s Column, Wentworth Woodhouse, and Waterloo Kiln.

The Council worked very closely with the 4 main leisure centres across the borough, sport was seen as being part of culture and want to encourage as many people as possible to get involved as this promoted not only better physical health but better mental health as well.

Voluntary and Community Sector Liaison: The Council would not be able to achieve as much as it does without collaborating with partners.  Working with the voluntary and community sector was a key element of this. The Council had a great relationship with Voluntary Action Rotherham, who worked, providing support with hundreds of groups, in terms of putting funding bids in.

Community Energy Scheme and tackling fuel poverty: As long as funding continues, this would provide support for the residents of Rotherham, who had seen unprecedented rises in the costs of fuel. Some of the Household Support Fund had been used to help tackle fuel poverty.

Development of an events programme in parks: The event at Clinton Park was incredible and positive feedback had been received. It was beneficial for local people to get involved in and it was great for the local economy. The Council would also continue working with partners to support the smaller local events.

Green Spaces and recreational facilities: A review of those spaces was being undertaken to understand them better, understand who used them and what could be done to improve that experience. Once the review was completed it could be presented to the Commission for consideration. Projects through the Levelling Up Fund for both Rother Valley and Thrybergh country parks were being progressed.

All matters relating to Allotments (including liaison with the Rotherham Allotment Alliance): The Rotherham Allotment Alliance was doing fantastic work in terms of managing the allotment sites. Some sites were at 100% occupancy with others above 80%. Through partnership work with Community Payback, the Rotherham Allotment Alliance had brought back decommissioned allotment sites into use. A lot of charities and other partner organisations used allotment sites to work with their clients.

The Food for People in Crisis Partnership, crisis loans schemes and development of the social supermarket and Advocacy and Appeals (and the Single Advice Model): Partnership in Place both with Voluntary Action Rotherham and with Citizens Advice Rotherham and Doncaster for providing extra help to people who were in crisis, particularly with food. The Council provided the top level for advocacy and appeals. He explained that Citizens Advise were moving back to a town centre location.

Regional Flood partnerships, Local Flood Authority duties, including town centre and other flood prevention investments and all matters relating to Highway Drainage (including septic tank and cesspool emptying): This was incredibly important and could be absolutely devastating if it happened. Flooding could be widespread or just affect a single home. A detailed report would be conducted for each instance of flooding, as to how the flood had happened, what could be done to rectify it in the future and any mitigating actions to be put in place.  

Cemeteries, crematorium and mortuary services, including the Dignity Contract and the Registrars Service:  The crematorium and most of the cemeteries were under contract with Dignity and it was about halfway through the contract. He worked with officers to ensure the contract was being fulfilled.  It was hoped that a position could be reached in the future whereby fines to Dignity were not being issued because the contact was being fulfilled as set out. The Registrar’s Service was an inhouse operation, for births, deaths, marriages, civil partnerships.

He highlighted that a Member Seminar on our Children’s Capital of Culture would be scheduled, which would explain the journey so far, how the title Children’s Capital of Culture was bestowed and what it would deliver not only in terms of events but also as a legacy moving forward.

The Chair informed the Commission that they would be receiving an update on Flood Alleviation at their September meeting.

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working explained he was in the fortunate position that he was able to devote a lot of time to his portfolio and to offer assistance to other portfolios.

Councillor Jones felt the Council was reliant on third sector organisations and supplier to bring events into the town centre. He found it was strange that there was no direct budget for town centre events. The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working noted that budgets had been reduced. Whilst the Council didn’t have a zero budget, it worked creatively within the cultural budget it had and it worked with partners for external funding bids, for example with Arts Council England, with Heritage Lottery Fund to bring in events.  The Council was attracting great events into the town centre, which were free events. 

Councillor Jones sought clarification if there was a budget specifically for town centre events. He understood that match funding needed to be put in for some events. The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working indicated that there was not a specific budget line for that however the Council explored ways of being able to provide that funding where possible from within the existing sport and culture budgets. Sometimes that is in the form of providing barriers for events rather than actual funding. This process was also used for events in other localities as it was understood that not everyone wanted to travel into the town centre but that they wanted events in their community.

Councillor Havard expressed concerns that whilst library staff were reporting crimes to the library manager, that these were not being reported further. The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working asked for details of the specific instance to be sent to him to be taken forward to ensure that all staff feel safe in their place of work.

Councillor Havard also mentioned that none of the ward information had been updated on the Citizens Advice Bureau website. The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working indicated it would forward that information on.

Councillor Tinsley commented that Maltby was one of the biggest Town’s and Villages schemes submitted however there had not been much movement with this project recently. He queried if any resources had been removed or other projects taking precedence to prohibit Maltby from progressing. He also asked if there was an option to combine funding from the Towns and Villages and Our Places fund to expand the project further. The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working clarified that no resources had been diverted elsewhere. The Council was working to ensure the final schemes were completed as quickly as possible and a close to the original specifications as possible. He explained that the Our Places fund would work separately to the Towns and Villages fund.

The Chair queried if the cemeteries had enough space to meet the need going forward or was the Council looking to purchase additional space? The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working explained this was an area that the Council needed to ensure it was able to provide peace of mind for people and their relatives during that very emotive time. He attended a meeting recently that showed where the investments would be needed. He explained this would be one of his priorities to ensure that all localities had above a five-year minimum supply of spaces.

Councillor C Carter asked for further information about the Our Places fund and what the next steps would be and when consultation on this may begin. The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working explained that this was very new, and it would expect it to be a few months away but when it was ready to be consulted upon, he offered to bring it back to the Improving Places Select Commission to be scrutinised.

Councillor Thorp indicated he had raised an issue through the members casework system regarding the planters and was told that it was the Parish who had responsibility for these rather than the Council through the Towns and Villages fund. The Stag where these were located did not have a Parish to run them so he queried how these would be maintained. The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working believed that the planters would have been filled with low maintenance plants.  He clarified that if the Council had placed the planter there, then it would be within the Council’s remit to maintain it, when needed.

Councillor Thorp asked if there was a regular schedule for highways drainage and gully cleaning on the housing estates? The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working explained the Council monitored when areas were last cleaned however the priority was to the main routes, but estate roads are included. Councillor Thorp noted that quite a few of the roads on the Grange estate have lots of trees, meaning these get clogged quicker than other areas. The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working asked Councillor Thorp to let him know of any streets that needed to be cleaned and he would consult with the service to ensure they were cleaned.

The Chair noted he had recently had some casework regarding drainage and had found out that all sorts of things were being put down drains that should not be, such as two chairs. He asked if there was any form of training or leaflets that could be issued to households to aid their understanding of what was and was not suitable.  He understood that there was a new IT system that had been put into the Highways team and drainage would be part of it. The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working said he would need to seek further information regarding this system and if there was an issue in a particular area, the Council would look to provide information within that locality.

Resolved: That the Improving Places Select Commission:

1.    Noted the overview of the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working.

2.    Agreed that consideration of the review into Green Spaces would be added to the work programme at the appropriate time.

3.    Agreed that consideration of the Our Places Fund be added to the work programme at the appropriate time.

4.     Agreed that information on the implementation of the new IT system in highways would be provided.