Archived decisions
AT A MEETING of the RECREATION AND HERITAGE POLICY REVIEW COMMITTEE held at The Castle, Winchester on Thursday 11 September, 2003
PRESENT:
Councillors M.S. Geddes (Chairman); Mrs. S.E. Allbright; R.J. Baulk; J.V. Bryant; Mrs. E.M. Byrom; K.G. Chapman; P.J. Chegwyn; J.E. Coles; C.R.H. Davidovitz; Dr. R.J. Ellis; E.F. Gale; Jo Kelly; P.K. Mason; P.A. Pierce; K.P.J. Searle.
Councillor J. Waddington was also in attendance.
94 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Members were mindful that, where they believed they had a personal or personal prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, they should, normally at the time of the debate declare their interest, and having regards to the circumstances described in paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council's Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed.
95 MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting held on 10 July, 2003 were confirmed by the Committee and signed by the Chairman.
96 THE EQUALITIES STANDARD FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT
The Equality and Diversity Adviser gave a presentation (as per Item 6 in the Minute Book) on the role of Policy Review Committees in complying with the Equality Standard for Local Government and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 through the implementation of the Corporate Equality Plan and Race Scheme. The aim of the exercise was to eliminate unlawful discrimination, promote equal opportunities and promote good race relations and a cycle of continuous improvement with five levels of achievement was being aimed at. Each department in the County Council was now working towards achieving level 2 (Assessment and Consultation) by April, 2004 and the steps to achieve this level would include developing information and monitoring systems and consulting the community, staff and stakeholders. The role of councillors, inter alia, would be to identify ways to overcome social exclusion and ensure fair and equal access and to consider how reports should show how policy decisions are likely to impact on equality and diversity and the steps being taken to overcome adverse impact.
RESOLVED:
(i) That the need to ensure that policy/decisions clearly show how equality impact assessment has been undertaken be noted.
(ii) That Members attend the training courses available in early 2004.
97 RENAISSANCE IN THE REGIONS : THE SOUTH EAST MUSEUM HUB
The Committee considered the report of the Director of Recreation and Heritage (Item 7 in the Minute Book) on progress towards creating the South East Museum Hub under the Government policy "Renaissance in the Regions : A New Vision for England's Museums" and the implications for the Museums and Archives Service. Nine regional hubs had been created with Hampshire being the lead partner in the South East Museum Hub. The latter was included in the phase 2 category and total funding of £2.2m for the three years 2003-6 had been allocated. Priorities had been established to direct the work of the hub such as creating a comprehensive service to schools and reaching a wider community and in working towards these priorities a balance had to be sought between developing resources and supporting museums in the region generally. It was felt that the priorities which had been established were welcome and relevant and if adequately funded would make a real contribution to the value of museum services to community and educational development and standards of collections management.
RESOLVED:
(i) That the progress with developing the South East Museum Hub, within the Renaissance in the Regions policy, be welcomed.
(ii) That the role of the Museums and Archives Service as lead partner in the Hub be supported.
(iii) That it be recognised that the priorities of the Hub are very relevant to the corporate aims of Hampshire County Council and the Recreation and Heritage Department in particular, and the Committee be informed of progress with the more detailed business planning for the South East Hub.
(iv) That this report be submitted to the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage for his consideration.
98 HAMPSHIRE RECORD OFFICE 2002/03
The Committee considered the report of the Director of Recreation and Heritage (Item 8 in the Minute Book) on the way in which Hampshire Record Office regularly monitors its performance against published targets and how it publishes its results. The report also covered the results for Hampshire resulting from the survey of visitors to British archives in 2002 undertaken by the Public Services Quality Group of the National Council on archives. The report drew attention to the slight decline of visitors to the searchroom during 2002/03 but this was in line with the national trend and almost certainly due to the increased availability of information on the internet. By contrast use of the Record Office website had increased during the year and was expected to grow substantially over the next few years. In the national survey good or very good results had been achieved in respect of document delivery, copying service and the quality and appropriateness of advice given by staff; the helpfulness and friendliness of the staff was rated particularly highly. Excellent progress had been made in respect of the receipt of collections of records, the number of documents conserved remained steady and significant packaging work continued in order to preserve collections to the highest standard. In the ensuing discussions members praised the work of the Record Office and drew particular attention to the Wessex Film and Sound Archive; the office would be playing an important role in the development of discovery centres which should improve access to records in an interesting manner.
RESOLVED:
(i) That the "How We Did" report be noted and congratulations be offered to Hampshire Record Office on its achievements during 2002/03.
(ii) That the results of the 2002 survey of visitors to British archives be noted.
(iii) That this report and the support of the Committee for the work of Hampshire Record Office be submitted to the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage for his consideration.
99 CAPITAL PROGRAMME 2003/04 TO 2006/07
The Committee considered the report of the County Treasurer and Director of Recreation and Heritage (Item 9 in the Minute Book) on the proposed Recreation and Heritage capital programme for the four years 2003/04 to 2006/07. Firm recommendations on the programme for 2003/04 had been drawn up and the make-up of the programme in subsequent years was indicated in broad terms. Further work was needed to establish relative priorities amongst the various individual schemes that had been put forward for 2004/05 onwards and how these could be accommodated within the existing capital programme limits and guidelines. Attention was particular drawn to funds ring fenced for discovery centre developments and library improvement schemes whilst other matters covered work community buildings and village halls, countryside and rights of way improvements and further development of facilities at Milestones; £50,000 had been included to contribute towards work required by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
RESOLVED:
That the proposals on the Recreation and Heritage capital programme for 2003/04 to 2006/07 be supported and submitted to the Executive Member for his consideration.
100 RECREATION AND HERITAGE BUDGET MONITORING 2003/04
The Committee considered the report of the County Treasurer and the Director of Recreation and Heritage (Item 10 in the Minute Book) which gave a brief update on the position in respect of the Recreation and Heritage budget since July. The budget continued to be under pressure but management action being taken led to the belief that the budget could be delivered on target by the end of the year. Pressures highlighted were the transitional costs of the libraries and countryside reviews, challenging income targets and Milestones.
RESOLVED:
That the position on the 2003/04 budget be noted.
101 EAST HAMPSHIRE RESOURCE PROJECT : CONNECTION TO HAMPSHIRE PUBLIC SERVICES NETWORK (HPSN)
The Committee considered the report of the Director of Recreation and Heritage (Item 11 in the Minute Book) on the East Hampshire Community Resource network which had been established to develop a range of resources and equipment to support the voluntary community sector in East Hampshire. This included an information and communications technology link via the Hampshire Public Services Network (HPSN) broadband connection to Hampshire County Council. Unfortunately funding for the project had originally been only for a 12 month period and efforts to obtain further funding towards the cost of the HPSN connection had failed. Since the network had been established a broadband internet connection scheme had been started and for small organisations solutions other than HPSN would be more cost effective. The report outlined the relative merits of HPSN and ADSL and also proposed that some £9,000 be provided to cover the cost of the IT connections to the consortium members for the current financial year with a further sum being provided to support consultancy work to be undertaken by IT Services which would look into how organisations in rural areas could acquire more locally based public access solutions relatively cheaply.
RESOLVED:
(i) That the following proposals be supported and submitted to the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage for his consideration:
(a) The provision of £9,296.63 to cover the costs of the IT connections to the consortium members for the year 2003-2004.
(b) The provision of £2,750 to support the consultancy costs for the work as outlined in paragraphs 7.1 to 7.3 in the report.
(ii) That a further report be submitted to the next meeting of the Committee on the ICT needs of bodies in rural areas and the relevant costs.
102 INCOME GENERATION WITHIN THE RECREATION AND HERITAGE FIELD
RESOLVED:
That a small Panel of Members consisting of one member from each political group (Councillors Chegwyn, Rice and a Labour representative) be established to examine ways of increasing revenue across the recreation and heritage field.
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