Archived decisions

R.J. Baulk

p A. Broadhurst

p P.J. Chegwyn

p P. Edgar

p E.F. Gale MBE

p R.J. Kimber

p P.K. Mason

p J.J. Maxwell

p R.H. Price

a A.W. Rice TD

p D.F. Wright

Action

79

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillor A.W. Rice.

80

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members were mindful that, where they believed they had a personal or a 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 regard 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, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with paragraph 12 of the Code. The declaration to be made at the time of the relevant debate.

No such interests were declared on this occasion

81

MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 10 April, 2008 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

82

CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

The Chairman welcomed Councillor P. Edgar to the Committee in place of Councillor R.J. Ellis.

He went on to refer to the nationwide Community and Heritage Award which has been won by the EDGE Project, Basingstoke for their work in the involvement of young people in museums. He referred to a recent cultural conference which he had attended in Aldershot, from which it was clear that bids for cultural funding would need to be coordinated by local authorities and submitted on a partnership basis. In conclusion he mentioned that he had met the new Chief Executive and Head of Local Authority Liaison at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and suggested they be invited to make a presentation at a future meeting.

Chief Executive (Martin Combs) to arrange for the October meeting

83

COUNTY OVERVIEW - COUNTRYSIDE ACCESS PLAN

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Recreation and Heritage (Item 5 in the Minute Book) which was due to be submitted for endorsement to the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage on 17 July. They also received a detailed presentation on the salient issues.

Members welcomed and supported the approach to the Countryside Access Plans and the amount of work, consultation and partnership which had been involved. They drew particular attention to the following:

· The extensive involvement of volunteers and local communities in rights of way and countryside access matters.

· The need to engage with dog owners with regard to responsible use of the countryside.

· The need for joint working with Environment Department, particularly in areas where there was a need for footpath links alongside or across busy main roads.

· Dialogue with the Ministry of Defence on the levels of public access to defence land which might be appropriate and safe.

· Make effective use of online publication for the countryside access plans.

· Shared use of footpaths by pedestrians and cyclists in suitable cases.

· The need to balance public needs and aspirations with the resources available.

· The possibility of using developers' contributions towards the costs of countryside/rights of way access.

Members generally supported the range of access options, including permissive, legal agreement and rights of way, and asked the officers to explore innovative solutions which might improve public access further, without compromising landowners' ability to manage their property. They asked for a report on progress, to include rights of way, to be submitted back to them in 12 months time.

RESOLVED:

1. That the Executive Member be advised to endorse the county overview countryside access plan, which together with the seven area countryside access plans, will form the rights of way improvement plan for Hampshire.

2. That a report on progress be submitted to the Committee at their meeting in July, 2009.

Recreation & Heritage (John Tickle/Andy Smith)

Chief Exec (Martin Combs)

84

PROGRESS WITH SCRUTINY STUDIES

The Chairman reported that the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage would be considering her response to the scrutiny study on Library and Information Services at her decision day in July. He went on to refer to the initial meeting of the working group set up to investigate charitable outdoor study centres, and referred to the sequence of visits which was in train. The Working Group would then consider the evidence and hoped to report back to a subsequent meeting of the Committee.

85

FORWARD LOOKING WORK PROGRAMME

The Committee considered briefing notes by the Chief Executive's scrutiny officer (Item 7 in the Minute Book) on four of the items identified by the Committee for further investigation. They considered these and concluded as follows:-

(a) Rurality Issues - not to be pursued further at this stage.

(b) Demographic Time-Bomb - mainly felt to be a matter for the Safe and Healthy People Select Committee, but members asked the scrutiny officer to look again at the access needs to recreation and heritage services posed by increasing numbers of over-65s.

(c) Hard to Reach Communities - members felt that the intention was to identify communities which were hard for the County Council to reach, and might lead to ways in which communications could be improved with minority groups. They suggested that a small working group should be formed to consider the scope of these issues further and report back on their findings. It was therefore agreed that Councillors Chapman, Kimber and Price, plus a labour group member to be nominated, would form the nucleus of the group, and members of other Select Committees would be invited to join if they wished.

(d) Community Projects Rationale for Grants - not to be pursued further at this stage.

Chief Exec (Martin Combs)

Chief Exec (Martin Combs)