Agenda item

To receive the report of the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Communities on current issues and proposed developments within her area of responsibility and to receive answers to any questions on the report (Green pages)

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Communities presented her report which concerned a number of overarching issues:

·         Libraries including the Hive

·         The Hive

·         Adult Learning

·         Museums Worcestershire

·         Arts Service

·         Severn Arts

·         Corporate Information Management Unit

·         Registration and Coroner Services

·         Countryside and Greenspace Service

·         Road Safety

o    Bikeability

o    Road Safety Education and training

o    School Crossing Patrol Service

·         Malvern Hills AONB Partnership

·         Gypsy and Traveller Services

·         Trading Standards and Animal Health (Regulatory Services)

·         Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service (WAAS)

·         Scientific Services

·         Voluntary and Community Sector

·         Partnership Working – Syrian Refugee Resettlement.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility answered questions about her report which included:

·         Proposals for the extension of the mobile library service to hard to reach urban areas

·         Whether the decision to move Rubery Library into the local church would be reversed

·         Whether the range of magazines accessed through a digital format would be expanded

·         An assurance was requested regarding their safety at night of staff at the Hive following recent late night disturbances

·         What action would be taken to promote physical activity?

·         More specific information was requested about the high performing technology offer as part of the library service provision at the Hive

·         Had the £1.3m European Social Fund been received or did it remain under threat as a result of the Brexit decision?

·         What actions were proposed to ensure that social history was included in the museums service offer

·         What support was the Museums Service providing to help the work being undertaken to improve the Elgar Birthplace Museum?

·         What support was provided by the Museums service to smaller museums in the county?

·         What support was provided by the Arts Service to alternative forms of popular art?

·         What process had been followed for the recruitment of Trustees on the new limited company for Severn Arts? 

·         An assurance was requested that the new business arrangements for Severn Arts would deliver the Council's responsibilities for the music service

·         What other countryside sites were being considered for transfer to other agencies?

·         What was the Council's position with regard to the proposal for a cable-car up to the Malvern Hills Beacon?

·         Were there any plans to provide additional funding for the Bikeability training programme?

·         What efforts were being made to fill the school crossing patrol vacancy at St Barnabus Primary School, Worcester?

·         An assurance was requested that the Council was meeting its statutory responsibilities in relation to trading standards

·         Was the Council an active member of the West Midlands Service for Travelling Children?

·         Had the Romany Gypsies who owned land on Hartlebury Common been consulted regarding the status of Hartlebury Common

·         Was the revenue budget for Trading Standards sufficient for it to carry out its statutory functions?

·         What information could be provided on trends in non-compliance of trading standards regulations especially with the withdrawal of routine trading standards inspections?

·         An assurance was sought that there were no further proposals to reduce the opening hours of the archive service

·         Was the Council doing everything it could to alert members of the community about telephone and email banking scams?

·         A request was made for a list of equipment and capabilities of the Scientific Services laboratory and whether it would expand in response to demand

·         When would the next tranche of Syrian refugees be resettled in the county?

·         An assurance was requested that the services within the remit of the Cabinet Member would be protected from further budgetary reductions.

Other actions were promised as follows:

·         The spend on new books through the Book Fund last year

·         The number of books borrowed last year

·         The Provision of an example of the use of an imaginative venue for a civil ceremony

·         An Investigation into the possibility of providing a display in the Hive to reflect the role of those that fought in the Spanish Civil War

·         Explain why the service was struggling with the statutory timeframe for death registration and how it was trying to improve

·         A number of schools were finding the road safety education and training too costly and were not providing the service. The Cabinet Member would provide details of the cost of road safety education and training

·         Whether the Council received progress reports on the education of travelling children

·         The Cabinet Member agreed to discuss with Cabinet Member for Highways whether a shuttle-bus service could be provided from the railway station to Hartlebury Museum for visitors

·         Whether exhibits from the "Voices and Visions" Art Exhibition could be put on display at County Hall, Worcester.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for her report.