Contact: Frances Martin, Community Strategy Manager Ext: 5122

E-mail: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 To seek comments on the following district draft Community Strategies: Hart, New Forest and Winchester, as part of their consultation process. The following report details the key points for each draft Community Strategy, summarises comments from the Corporate Community Strategy Group and focuses on areas of activity that Hampshire County Council will be expected to take the lead on.

2. Introduction

2.1 The Local Government Act 2000 (LGA 2000) imposed a statutory duty on principal local authorities to produce Community Strategies with the aim of improving the social economic and environmental well-being of the area. Government guidance makes it clear that the Community Strategy must be produced by a partnership of stakeholders known as the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) for the area.

2.2 The Community Strategy must:

- Be demonstrably "bottom up" based on extensive consultation and research in the community as to priorities of work.

- Take a long term and sustainable view of service delivery

- Have measurable targets with a robust review mechanism.

2.3 Committee is reminded that :

- There is no statutory deadline to producing Community Strategies and guidance states that the process is as important as the Strategy itself.

- Consultation on the Strategy itself should be extensive.

- The Community Strategy must go to improving delivery of services so that these are better targeted to the needs of the end-user.

2.4 In March 2001 the Hampshire Isle of Wight Local Authorities Association (HIOWLA) agreed a framework for developing Community Strategies and LSPs in the Hampshire area. All 11 Districts will have a Community Strategy produced by an LSP for the district. It was agreed that Hampshire County Council (HCC) would be a partner on each LSP and would therefore be a signatory to each Community Strategy. Hampshire County Council's representation is through the Executive Member for Community Development, Regeneration and Internal Communication, supported by a group of cross-party backbenchers and the corporate community strategy group (see Appendix 3).

2.5 The draft Community Strategies support Aim 4 of the Corporate Strategy (Building Strong and Safe Communities) by working together with local people to build strong and safe communities for everyone and improve their quality of life.

3. The Community Strategy for Hart

General comments

3.1 Hart Community Partnership was established in March 2002. It evolved from an established stakeholder group in the district specifically to prepare and subsequently monitor the Community Strategy.

3.2 A series of themed discussions during the summer of 2002 led to the identification of five priority themes for the Strategy: community safety; health and well being; environment; affordable and safe housing; and transport. Having established those priority themes small working groups were formed to investigate each theme, decide the key areas for work by the Partnership and identify a delivery plan with, if possible, short, medium and longer-term actions. Officers from the County Council led the work on transport and assisted in the work on environment.

3.3 During the first half of 2003 progress on drawing together the ideas and actions emerging from the work the various sub-groups stalled. It was not until towards the second half of the year that the whole partnership was committed to producing a draft strategy for public consultation.

Key points of the emerging strategy

3.4 In January 2004 a special pull-out feature was included in Hart News (Hart District Council's community information newspaper). "Planning for the Future of Hart Together" which outlined the purpose of preparing a community strategy, the role and nature of the Hart Community Partnership and the priority themes and actions proposed within each of them.

3.5 Having profiled the district and undertaken surveys of community needs and aspirations five priority themes were identified and examine in detail from a community perspective.

3.6 More details are provided in the actions plans for each theme, the first theme, community safety, is based on the aim of increasing public reassurance and reducing the fear of crime. The actions range form reducing anti-social behaviour and drug and alcohol abuse to crime prevention and increasing the number of activities for youth.

3.7 The second priority, health and well being, is aimed at actively encouraging personal health and well being with actions ranging from appointing community leaders to champion specific health projects to providing more opportunities for formal and informal recreation activities.

3.9 The third priority, environment, is aimed at enhancing the environment while providing for the needs of local communities. The list of wide-ranging actions range from reducing the pollution caused by motor vehicles by better integration of transport services to support for village design statements.

3.10 The fourth priority, affordable and safe housing, is aimed at meeting the housing needs of the community, particularly those of key workers by, amongst other measures, the better targeting of planning policies. There are also actions to ensure that safety in homes is improved and that the housing needs of special groups are met.

3.11 The final priority, transport, aims to ensure that people can get to essential service. With transport the actions range from raising awareness of other forms of transport to targeting public transport needs to meet the needs of those who cannot otherwise access essential services.

Issues for consideration

3.12 As a consultation document "Planning for the Future of Hart Together" is clear and succinct. It reflects back to the community the issues that it has identified as important and promotes actions to address those concerns. However many of the proposed action are little more than either ideas about more studies or generic, district wide actions. The community is left not knowing how the action will effect it. However because of the Partnership's problems during last year the individual plans neither follow a common format nor are pitched at the same level of detail.

3.13 More importantly although the document establishes the key priorities for the district it has not attempted to explore how these priorities might be related (i.e. where action to deal with one priority might contribute towards resolving another). Moreover some of the priorities are lifted directly from existing plans and strategies being prepared under other legislation (for example the Community Safety actions are taken from the Community Safety Strategy 2002-2005); others fail to reflect emerging thinking (for example the emphasis on accessibility rather than transport); and there are some notable omissions (for example the whole issue of waste).

3.14 The failure to establish which partner or partners should be expected to take the lead in dealing with particular matters creates very much an open chequebook that none of the partners could be expected to sign up to.

3.15 Finally, the district council now propose to finalise the overall community strategy and devise an action plan which it proposes to adopt, and ask the partners to adopt, in April. To date the view of the partners is that they should be involved in the process of transforming the very general "Planning for the Future of Hart Together" into a proper integrated strategy and focussed action plan. Moreover given the general nature of the consultation document the community should be given a chance to consider the details before the partners, including Hart District Council, finally sign up. To adopt any other approach would, it is believed undermine the very nature and purpose of a community strategy.

3.16 These comments from the Corporate Community Strategy Group will be fed back to the Hart Community Partnership along with any comments from the PRC.

4. A Community Strategy for the New Forest

Key points of the Strategy

4.1 The focus of the Community Strategy for the New Forest District and the Changing Lives Partnership which has put it together, is on improving the Quality of Life for present and future generations.

4.2 The Strategy offers something for everyone, now and for the future. The outcomes from the Changing Lives Conference in July 2002 and the responses to the Draft Issues Report in Spring 2003 created a clear picture of:

· the priority issues facing this District;

· an understanding of who was already doing what towards those issues; and

· new ideas for making a positive impact on these issues.

4.3 The Partnership has put many of the building blocks in place in order to move forward: - The Changing Lives Strategic Core Group has attracted the lead people from each of the major agencies operating in the District; the Changing Lives Community Action Team (CAT) - the Partnership's Operational Group meets every 2 months and works together between meetings to drive the agenda forward; the Community Action Networks that cover each of the topics included in the Community Strategy are a key resource to deliver the strategy. They will also work with the communities themselves who are willing to become engaged in issues relevant to them.

4.4 The following topics for the New Forest District form the basis of the Community Strategy:

· Children and Young People

· Community Safety

· Economy

· Environment - Built

· Environment - Natural

· Environment Quality/ Protection

· Health

· Housing

· Leisure

· Lifelong Learning

· Older People

· Tourism

· Transport

4.5 The draft Community Strategy sets out for each topic the objectives, the current position and actions needed to achieve the objectives. The actions are presented under two themes:

Theme 1:Providing Better Access

Theme 2: Taking Preventive Action.

4.6 Hampshire County Council is the designated lead agency or a key partner in a number of areas, especially for transport and the Committee's attention is therefore particularly drawn to these issues.

Children and Young People

Theme 1 - Providing Better Access

· Ensure effective mechanisms are in place for actively involving children and young people in developing & monitoring services

Theme 2 - Taking Preventative Action

· Develop a Children and Young People's Partnership for the District

· Take an active part in piloting information sharing protocol as part of the County Council's preventative strategy

Community Safety

Theme 2 - Taking Preventative Action

· Deliver Personal and Social Education programme on Drug Awareness to 8 secondary schools during the year

Economy

Theme 2 - Taking Preventative Action

· Make provision for businesses to input / be informed of transportation changes / challenges arising out of Dibden Bay implementation, should proposals be approved

Environment - built

Theme 2 - Taking preventative action

· Undertake Totton town centre improvements within agreed programme

· Improve grounds maintenance

Environment- natural Environment - natural

Theme 2 - Taking Preventative Action

· Implement LIFE3 programme for 2004/5

· Further implementation of LIFE3 project over further 3 years

Environment - quality/protection

Theme 1 - Providing better access

· Continue to develop partnership-working arrangements to improve the identification and resolution of drainage/flooding problems

· Publish and implement Village Flood Plans and Local Flood Action Plans

· Respond to flooding in accordance with procedures in the Operational Flood Plan

Theme 2 - Taking preventative action

· Produce a new multi-agency flood film that draws attention to householder responsibilities and flood protection products

Health

Theme 1 - Providing Better Access

· Improve access to therapy services for children

· Ensure social services assessments start promptly, and complete within four weeks

Theme 2 - Preventative Action

· Improve life chances for looked after children

· Improve quality of life and independence of older people through a full range of well co-ordinated voluntary and social services support

Leisure

Theme 1 - Providing Better Access

· Aim to meet identified targets for Out of School provision through increased places being available at, for example after school activities and holiday play schemes

· Identified programme of implementation works for cycle routes within the overall strategic network and a mechanism put in place to bring forward related activity such as information, wardening and support facilities

Lifelong learning

Theme 1 - Providing Better Access

· Provide a wider range of services and opportunities for community use on school and college sites

· Develop sustainability in school management and in the curriculum

· Develop partnerships between learning providers & employers

Theme 2 - Taking Preventative Action

· Improve the transition from primary to secondary education and from pre-16 to post-16 education

· Improve access to information, advice and guidance to engage and retain adult learners

Older People

Theme 1 - Providing better access

· Ensure people are not discriminated against when accessing services because of age

· Improve arrangements for discharge from acute hospitals

· Continued alignment of staff & other resources to ensure capacity in response to demographic trends

· Enhance rapid response services

· Develop integrated working between agencies to deliver a single assessment process for access to care

· Develop multi disciplinary teams in local areas

Theme 2 - Taking preventative action

· Provide intensive support for older people in their home where needed

· Offer appropriate housing combined with care and assistance to help maintain independence

· Take a joint approach between health and social care services when assessing for respite care

· Increase focus on prevention through eg diet, smoking, physical activity, safety, cerebral stimulation and dental health

Transport

Theme 1 - Providing Better Access

· Identify opportunities for safer cycle and pedestrian routes

· Develop NF strategic cycle route strategy following analysis of consultation responses

· Investigate the opportunities for school safety zones

· Provide secure cycle parking in town and village centres

· Remove barriers to walking by providing improved pedestrian facilities and targeted highway maintenance

· Promote and monitor workplace travel plans

· Resist commercial development, new community facilities and significant residential development in locations that result in greater dependence on the private car

· Promote and monitor school travel plans, particularly encourage "walking buses" recognising the need for adult helpers

· Identify funding opportunities for safer cycle and pedestrian routes

· Secure funding for additional "Cango" services in NW part of District

· Extend Wilts & Dorset real time bus information system into S & W parts of District

· Implement identified cycle route proposals

· Secure funding to allow Community Transport Development Plan to be implemented in District

· Investigate park and ride to access Forest and other visitor attractions from outside the NF Heritage / National Park Area

· Provide simplified bus timetable information at bus stops

Theme 2 - Taking Preventative Action

· Undertake consultations with local communities to identify effective demand management measures that are acceptable to local communities

· Give road safety considerations a high priority when considering development proposals

· Support the New Forest Road Safety Council to promote road safety campaigns

· Establish a GIS based information database to support the development of a demand management strategy

· Implement, agreed measures to reduce the risk of more accidents occurring at fatal accident sites

· Taking account of stakeholders view's, implement effective demand management measures which have a significant degree of local support

· Introduce Decriminalised Parking Enforcement

· Resist car parking provision on new development in excess of agreed standards

· Monitor developers / occupiers compliance with site travel plan agreements made with Local Planning Authority and encourage compliance

4.7 The draft has been circulated to the Corporate Community Strategy Group for their comments and a corporate response will be sent to the Changing Lives Partnership incorporating comments from the PRC.

5. The Community Strategy for Winchester

General Comments

5.1 The document prepared by the Winchester LSP is a draft version of the community strategy that is expected to be published for consultation during March. It is important to note that the document is not complete and that at the time of writing (5 March 2004), the formal consultation process has not yet begun.

5.2 The document "Working Together to Create a better Future" has been developed in three main parts:

· An introduction to the district together with an analysis of current issues and a vision for the future

· Nine chapters - each based on a key theme with a number of medium term improvements allocated to a range of key partners. These themes (and actions) are mainly derived from existing plans and strategies that partners are already working towards. The purpose of including them in this document is to link them to the delivery of the overall vision and to provide opportunities for mutual support and increased effectiveness. As with the Hart document there is evidence that the relationships and apparent conflict between some individual themes and actions has not been fully explored.

· `Big Issues' - a selection of issues identified by members of the LSP; it is intended that these will be the focus for some joint action by the LSP that will have a visible impact within the community over a shorter timescale than the work undertaken by the partners in support of the nine strategic themes.

5.3 The County Council has had a limited input to the draft document, which has been prepared by officers at Winchester City Council and by the lead partners nominated for each of the strategic themes. The County Council is not the lead partner for any of the themes and the low level of direct involvement is perhaps best illustrated in the chapter on Lifelong Learning (prepared by Professor Chris Turner, King Alfred's University College) and by the vacancy for a lead partner for the Transport and Environment chapters. The County Council has participated in the regular LSP meetings, but this involvement has not been fully developed. This may partly be due to some lack of continuity in the Council's representation (there have been three link officers from the County Council), but it may also reflect the concerns expressed by Winchester City Council about the relationship and interaction between the HSP and LSP plans.

5.4 In common with the HSP, there is an intention to expand and improve the action plans contained in the document through the consultation process. In the light of the circumstances described in paragraph 5.3, it will be important that departments consider their contribution to the corporate response carefully. However, the strategic themes captured in the draft document are familiar and show a close fit with the issues identified by other LSPs and by the HSP.

Key Themes

5.5 The nine key themes contained in the document are listed below together with the `owner' or lead partner. The detail of specific improvements that are the responsibility of the County Council is also shown (plus an indication of the number of actions which have not yet been allocated to a lead organisation):

· Housing - Winchester Housing Group (4 actions)

Create an action plan to tackle bed blocking arising from poor/inadequate housing and support.

· Health and Well-being - Mid Hampshire Primary Care Trust

11 actions identified (currently unallocated)

· Freedom from Fear - Hampshire Constabulary (8 actions)

Addressing road safety and traffic speeds.

Ensuring programmes are designed to improve the District's leisure offer, provide more affordable housing, improve education, training and skills or improve transport and access also realise opportunities to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour (all partners).

· Transport and Access - Vacant (12 actions)

New park and ride site at Bushfield, south of Winchester.

Reduce traffic flows and air pollution in Winchester town centre.

Provide safer and more convenient walking and cycling routes.

Enhance rural life through sustainable access initiatives.

Encourage the provision of rural demand responsive bus services (Cango buses) - initial advice from the Environment Department indicates that this reference to the CANGO bus initiatives is inappropriate in relation to services over a wide area and that other schemes should be investigated.

· Economic Prosperity - North Hampshire Chamber of Commerce (12 actions)

Work to achieve improvements to M3/A34 junction, and M4/M34 junction and to the M27 corridor.

Establish Park and Ride on all principal routes into Winchester, with increased parking at the Railway Station.

Work to support diversification, encouragement of enterprise and the development of niche sectors and products in rural areas (unallocated action).

Work to reconnect rural communities to town centres, leisure and cultural facilities and employment bases with transportation provision.

· High Quality Environment - Vacant (6 actions)

Reduce use of non-renewable energy sources (all partners).

· Lifelong Learning - King Alfred's University College (2 actions)

No actions allocated to the County Council.

· Leisure and Recreation - Vacant (9 actions)

To improve the public transport links between important leisure locations so that they are more accessible without car use.

· Inclusive Society - Winchester Area Community Action

6 actions identified (currently unallocated)

`Big Issues'

5.6 Following discussion at a meeting on 12 February 2004, the following items were selected as the focus for further attention and action:

· Housing for vulnerable people

· Youth Services

· Improving Access to Services (with an emphasis on joint provision)

· Promotion of recycling

5.7 The detailed action plans have yet to be developed in these areas and there is clearly an opportunity for the County Council to make a substantial contribution to these issues.

Consultation

5.8 The consultation brief developed by the Winchester LSP invites all partners to develop their contributions to the document and to the action plans during the consultation period. Initial circulation will include:

· all Parish Councils

· all City Councillors

· all County Councillors within the district

· LSP partners and their staff

· organisations that participated in the October 2002 conference

· The Hampshire Strategic Partnership and Local Strategic Partnerships in adjoining districts

· neighbouring district councils

· members of the public

5.9 Suggestions for other groups to be consulted have also been invited from the LSP members and it may now be appropriate for the County Council to develop a package of assistance to support LSPs with the consultation process, for example through libraries and information centres.

5.10 The draft document has been circulated to the Corporate Community Strategy Group for their comments and a corporate response will be sent to the Winchester LSP, incorporating comments from the PRC.

Recommendation

That the Policy and Resources Policy Review Committee advises the Leader when appropriate to approve the Community Strategies for Hart, New Forest and Winchester, subject to any comments made by Members.

Background Information

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

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.

File Local