Hampshire County Council

Executive Member - Recreation and Heritage Item 8

17 July 2003

East Hampshire Resource Project - Re-connection to Hampshire Public Services Network (HPSN)

Report of the Director of Recreation and Heritage

Contact Margaret Plumridge Ext: 6173

1. Summary of Decision

i) that support in principle for the connection be indicated but that a decision on this be deferred to the next decision making day

ii) that a report be requested from the Head of IT Services concerning justification for the difference in costs between broadband and HPSN connection

2. Reasons for recommendation

i) to support community associations who seek to enable local people to meet the recreational, educational, social, cultural and environmental needs of their local communities

3. Other options considered and rejected

i) Providing no financial support

4. Conflicts of interest declared by the decision maker, or a member or officer consulted

None

5. Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee

Not applicable

6. Reasons for matter being dealt with, if urgent

Not applicable

Approved by: (Signature) Date: (of decision)

................................. ........................

Councillor J. Waddington

Hampshire County Council

Executive Member - Recreation and Heritage Item: 8

17 July 2003

East Hampshire Resource Project - Re-connection to Hampshire Public Services Network (HPSN)

Report of the Director of Recreation and Heritage

Contact: Margaret Plumridge Ext 6173

1 Introduction

1.1 The East Hampshire Community Resource Network was established to develop a range of resources and equipment which is available to support the voluntary and community sector in East Hampshire including an ICT link to the 9 participating centres. This link was provided via the HPSN broadband connection and provided the following organisations with direct links to Hampshire County Council :-

Alton Community Association

Headley Down Community Association

Horndean Community Association ( Merchistoun Hall)

Kingsley Village Centre

Liss Community Association ( The Triangle)

Petersfield Community Association

Petersfield Voluntary Centre

Voluntary Action for East Hampshire (Council of Voluntary Service)

Whitehill and Bordon Community Association

1.2 The East Hampshire District Council area is largely rural. Consequently these links were essential where other HPSN connections such as in the local library were not easily accessible on a day to day basis.

2 Funding the project - initial phase

2.1 The funding for the project came from a joint bid to the Home Office Active Community Unit (ACU) and the Community Fund. The capital bid to the ACU included 12 months funding for the connection to HPSN. The revenue bid to the Community Fund failed.

2.2 Following this the Executive Member - Recreation and Heritage agreed to provide funding towards a development worker in order to ensure the project reached its potential and to assist with marketing of the Resources Centres to other local community organisations. It was hoped that further funding could be found either via the East Hampshire District Council or via the Local Strategic Partnership. This funding has not been forthcoming and the Consortium Steering Group have now agreed that there should now be no further delay searching for funding and that the development worker should be appointed on a part-time basis.

3 Hampshire Public Services Network

3.1 HPSN provided these organisations with the following :

Direct links to Hantsweb and the full range of county information services

Direct links to local statutory services at district and county level

Direct links dedicated to voluntary and community sector information

Resources for training, learning and information

3.2 The Advantages of HPSN

i. Broadband connectivity. At the time of the bid HPSN had 90% coverage in the district while commercial providers had access to only 30%

ii. HPSN was already expanding connectivity to other public institutions, it therefore potentially offered direct links to an infrastructure with public services in mind

iii. The county is a key funder of the voluntary sector. However, the voluntary sector takes pride in its independence and attracts funding from other sources. HPSN offered services which would recognise and respect the independence of the sector but also afforded opportunities where the county council could support the IT development in a cost-effective and imaginative way.

iv. The project is complementary to community services provided by the county and district councils. It provides a route through to a wider understanding of statutory services and facilities; likewise the statutory services have a route through to voluntary sector activities

v. HPSN has a public rather than a commercial ethos

vi. Phone system -HPSN becomes the default phone provider

3.3 The Disadvantages of HPSN

i. Expense - HPSN is expensive because the costs are based on connection regardless of organisational size. This means it is as expensive for a small not very well resources community centre as for a school or social services office.

ii. Contract -Although it can be broken with no penalty there was a risk of tying the consortium into a five year contract which was the stipulated minimum

4 The consequences arising from the cost of HPSN

4.1 It has not been possible for the Consortium to obtain further funding towards the cost of the HPSN connection. The annual cost to continue this service to all nine sites would be £36,000 based on figures produced by Hampshire County Council's IT Services. The organisations involved in the consortium recognised that they could not support these costs from their own budgets and when negotiations with IT Services were unable to provide a solution before the end of Year 1 the consortium members agreed that they had no choice but to disconnect from HPSN.

4.2 At this time most of the organisations are providing internet access and other services ( though not the full range of services provided through HPSN) via individual broadband connection. Three of the organisations, Voluntary Action for East Hampshire, the Triangle Centre at Liss and Headley Down Community Association are unable to access broadband in this way and have therefore had to curtail the services provided or in the case of Headley Down are paying for an HPSN connection to their centre.

4.3 Following this a further meeting was held at the request of Councillor Filer at Headley Down Community Centre on 12 June 2003. Those attending included the Director of Recreation and Heritage and a representative from our IT services department. It was agreed that the consortium members should be invited to re-connect to HPSN while the matter was re-considered.

5 Financial implications

5.1 It is proposed that the cost of re-connection for all centres should be supported for a further 12 months by Recreation and Heritage and that both East Hampshire District Council and Hampshire County Council's IT Services should be asked to make a contribution to this cost. The total charge should all sites re-connect would be £36,000 and this will be met in the first instance from the Community Support budget. At this time only 2 organisations have requested re-connection, these are Headley Down Community Association and Liss Community Association.

5.2 If these organisations re-connect there needs to be some guarantee that this situation will not be repeated in a further 12 months and therefore it is also necessary to guarantee further financial assistance towards these costs if it is required.

6 Future Planning

It was also agreed that IT Services should re-consider the issues relating to the cost of the HPSN connection and that some distinction should be drawn between major organisations and small not well resourced community organisations that have limited income so that any future connectivity is not put in jeopardy.

Recommendation

i) that a maximum of £36,000 be provided to support the HPSN connection to the members of the East Hampshire consortium.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the act.

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