Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, BN17 5LF. View directions

Contact: Carley Lavender 

Note: We’re sorry to advise that due to unforeseen circumstances a recording for this meeting of the Committee is not available. 

Items
No. Item

253.

Welcome

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed members and officers to the meeting where she stated that the last few days had been difficult for all following the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. She acknowledged that all had been touched by a large variety of emotions, but she felt that continuing with this meeting and its agenda would be that our hard-working Queen would have appreciated, but that she acknowledged that some of those in attendance would have chosen differently and thanked all for attending. She then invited those in attendance to take part in a 1-minute silence to mark the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

254.

Declarations of Interest

Members and Officers are invited to make any declaration of pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests that they may have in relation to items on this agenda, and are reminded that they should re-declare their interest before consideration of the items or as soon as the interest becomes apparent.

 

Members and Officers should make their declaration by stating:

 

a)             the item they have the interest in

b)             whether it is a pecuniary/personal interest and/or prejudicial interest

c)             the nature of the interest

 

Minutes:

Councillor Daniells declared a personal interest in Item 7 [COMMUNITY WARDENS] as a member of Bognor Regis Town Council.

 

Councillor Needs declared a personal interest in Item 7 [COMMUNITY WARDENS] as a member of Bognor Regis Town Council.

 

255.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 119 KB

The Committee will be asked to approve as a correct record the minutes of the Housing and Wellbeing Committee meeting held on 21 July 2022.

Minutes:

The minutes of the Housing & Wellbeing Committee meeting held on 21 July 2022 were approved and signed by the Chair.

256.

Public Question Time

To receive questions from the public (for a period of up to 15 minutes).

Minutes:

          There were no public questions submitted for this meeting.

257.

Arun Leisure Centre Wet Change Remodelling pdf icon PDF 96 KB

The Policy and Finance Committee resolved on 10 February 2022 that the Council’s Capital Programme include a scheme to remodel the swimming pool changing rooms at the Arun Leisure Centre to improve accessibility, capacity, and customer experience.  A budget sum of £987,000 was approved for this project.  Approval is sought from the Committee to delegate authority to the Interim Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer and the Director of Environment and Communities to enter into contract for the construction works and associated budgetary decisions.

 

Minutes:

The Group Head of Wellbeing & Communities advised members that the council were now at a stage where the work had been tendered for and all bidders had submitted their bids, these would be evaluated on 22 September 2022. He explained that the report confirmed that Officers were looking for delegated authority to be given to Interim Head of Finance and the Director of Environment and Communities to enter into contract for the construction works and make associated budgetary decisions.

 

          Members were then invited by the Chair to ask any questions, a summary of those asked is below;

 

It was queried if the contingency sum of 4% would still be sufficient given the increase in costs so far this year. It was confirmed that the costs had been re-evaluated in July 2022 and it was hoped that the current costs would be enough to cover the works.

 

Discussion was had regarding if consultation had taken place with the public on the implementation of unisex changing rooms and what was the rationale behind the decision. It was confirmed that initial plans were to remodel as was, however it was deemed beneficial to plan to incorporate for more users of the facility. It was explained that a similar process was followed for the Wave in Littlehampton, and this had demonstrated many benefits in having a unisex protocol from cleaners being of either sex to clean the areas, to flexing the capacity of the space at high user times throughout the day, e.g., the female changing rooms can become overrun during children’s swimming lessons. It was confirmed that no public consultation had taken place on this topic. The Chair asked for assurance that those individuals who wanted privacy would be able to have it if they wanted it, this assurance was provided. Further discussion was had regarding what arrangements were put in place when school swimming lessons took place. It was confirmed that Friday mornings were set aside for these lessons, and the swimming pool was not available to the public at these times.

 

Discussion then moved back to the financial aspect where it was asked that should any financial issues become apparent would members be informed. It was confirmed that all costings would be accounted for in the tendered bids. However, should any issues become apparent whereby the project could not be completed within the budget then members would be advised as an update report would be presented at the next available meeting of the Committee.

 

In the final discussions on this item, it was requested that the number of single, double and larger family sized cubicles be confirmed. It was confirmed that there would be the following;

 

1 person cubicles x16

2 person cubicles x31

Family cubicles x5

Oversized cubicle x1 

 

It was also confirmed in response to an additional question relating to users who would need larger sized cubicles to incorporate a wheelchair that the existing Changing Places facility would be upgraded and confirmation would be sought that the family and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 257.

258.

Community Wardens pdf icon PDF 111 KB

On 7 March 2022, this committee approved a recommendation to authorise the Group Head of Wellbeing and Communities to scope the implementation of a community warden scheme in Bognor Regis.

 

This report sets out the progress of that scoping exercise and makes recommendations based on the outcome, looking to make best use of the allocated funding.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

          (Councillors Daniells and Needs both redeclared their personal interests as Bognor Regis Town Councillors in this item.)

 

The Wellbeing and Communities Manager advised members that the report reflects the decision to implement Community Wardens scheme in Bognor Regis as made by the Committee earlier this year.

 

          Members then took part in a full debate where the following points were raised.

          Clarity on the area the Community Warden scheme would operate was sought, it was confirmed that the scheme would cover all of the Bognor Regis Parish areas including Barnham and Yapton. There was also discussion had regarding a similar proposal that was being considered separately by Bognor Regis Town Council. It was confirmed that Arun District Council and Bognor Regis Town Council were in communication regarding this proposal and the Wellbeing and Communities  Manager was yet to the review and respond to the proposal that had been submitted. It was also confirmed that there were known ‘hot spots’ of anti-social behaviour within the Bognor Regis Town Centre and how the Community Warden role would be of assistance in helping to reduce the number of incidents that were currently being seen. It was confirmed by both officers and the Chair that the work undertaken by the Community Warden team operating in Littlehampton had been impressive and had built up good working relationships with the public and other external partners in order to have a positive impact in the area. The Chair expressed her commitment to the scheme.  She also noted the importance of building relationships with Parish Councils so there is wider coverage for the scheme to prevent the displacement of problematic behaviour to areas which do not have wardens.

 

          Further discussion was had regarding how the council would ensure areas in the West of Arun would be covered without overspending and potential opportunities for match funding from Town and Parish Councils to maximise the benefits of the scheme across wider district areas. Working with Bognor Regis Town Council and Parish Councils who were also considering similar warden schemes being implemented and the importance of ensuring that communication across all these partners is vital, It was confirmed that a proactive approach would be taken by Arun to ensure good two-way conversations continued to take place with all partners and stakeholders parties involved.

 

          The final comment made at the end of the debate was that the community warden reports on the website page had not been updated for some time. It was confirmed that this would be rectified by the end of the week.

 

          The recommendations were then proposed by Councillor Thurston and seconded by Councillor Cooper (Andy).

         

          The Committee

 

                     RESOLVED

 

1)    To authorise the Group Head of Wellbeing and Communities to implement an Arun West community warden scheme, within the agreed budget allocated for a Bognor Regis scheme from October 2022.

 

2)    To authorise the Group Head of Wellbeing and Communities to agree the scope of a community warden scheme in Bognor Regis with effect from April 2023, in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 258.

259.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 80 KB

For information only.

Minutes:

          There was discussion regarding items detailed in the minutes from the last meeting of the Committee (Minute 65) that were requested to be added to the work programme were not included within the agenda pack for this meeting. It was confirmed that Officers were still in discussions regarding the timings of when these additional items would be reported into the Committee whilst managing the other work that was also due. There was a request for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) report that was coming to the October meeting to include the most up to date figures. As well as an update on the Sheltered Housing Review. It was confirmed by the Chair that she would liaise with the Head of Housing for an update on the Sheltered Housing Review and report back to members.

 

The Committee then noted its work programme.