| Chester-le-Street Area Action Partnership |
Venue: Civic Centre, Newcastle Road, Chester-le-Street
| Links: How it works AAP Board Members Task & Finish Group Task & Finish priorities Task & Finish leads and members AAP Finance |
HOW IT WORKS:
Following the transition to a unitary County Council, County Durham has 14 Area Action Partnerships with the following structure – an AAP Board and an AAP Forum.
Whilst the remit of both remains the same across the county, for individual AAP’s the number of meetings and ways of working may vary; for Chester-le-Street AAP:
| AAP FORUM Meets twice a year Open to: any person living or working within the Chester-le-Street area. NB: need to register as a Member of the AAP Forum with the AAP Office at the Civic Centre, prior to attending meetings 21 members of the AAP Board (see below). Objective: to identify priorities / issues for consideration and action by the AAP Board; review progress of the Board. |
AAP BOARD Meets monthly Open to: Board Members; members of the public – who may attend but not participate in the agenda. Anyone wishing to attend Board meetings who are not Board members must register with the AAP Office beforehand. Objective: to react to needs of the community and provide the best services possible for the community. |
The AAP Board consists of 21 members as follows:
• one third (7) elected members (ie Unitary Councilors; and Parish Councilors represented by one member)
• one third (7) members of the public (selected from members of the AAP Forum who identified an interest in
becoming a Member of the Board)
• one third (7) representatives from partner organisations (eg Police, Fire, Health, etc)
(see below for list of individual Board Members)
Each sector elects a Vice -Chair: Cllr.Colin Carr (Elected Councillor), Iain Miller (Partner Representative), Charles McCaughey (Public Representative)
From the three Vice–Chairs a Chair of the AAP is selected : Charles McCaughey (Public sector) for 2009/10.
The AAP Board identifies priorities for the coming year (as per issues identified at Area Forum event/s); these are
• improve the vitality of the town and village centres
• healthy lifestyles and well-being
• activities for young people
• transport infrastructure
• supporting community groups and community buildings.
Five AAP Task & Finish groups have been formed to work on the five priorities.
At each BOARD meeting the Agenda is made up as follows:
Section 1 – consideration of local neighbourhood issues (need to be brought to
attention of AAP Co-ordinator 10 working days before Board meeting)
Section 2 – consideration of Action Plans – ie from Task & Finish groups
Section 3 – countywide partner issues that impact on the AAP
Board Minutes
These, and other AAP information, may be accessed on the county website: http://www.durham.gov.uk/
Chester-le-Street and District Area Action Partnership Co-ordinator:
Andrew Megginson Tel: 0191 387 2133
AAPs – in general
AAPs across the county contribute to the County Council, and the County Durham Partnership’s, vision. AAPs work around four themes:
• Engagement: working with communities to build a dialogue with communities and encourage local people to be involved in planning local services
• Empowerment: giving people the power to work in partnership with organisations and help them combine their efforts to improve local services
• Local action: developing an action plan for the AAP, and resolving issues by using AAP funding and the resources of the county council and partner
organisations
• Performance: monitoring and improving public service performance and supporting the AAP and County Durham Partnership to achieve their aims
Why AAPs?
To ensure that the services of a range of organisations – including the county and town and parish councils, police, fire, health, and voluntary organisations – are directed to meet the needs of local communities.
To give people in County Durham a greater choice and voice in local affairs. The Partnerships allow people to have a say on services, and give organisations the chance to speak directly with local communities.
To working with existing community organisations to focus their action and spending on issues important to local communities.
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AAP BOARD MEMBERS
Public Representatives:
Derek Briggs
Jodie Cowie
Betty Gibson
Charles McCaughey
Colin Reynolds
Jake Rollings
William Worth
Partners:
Belinda Lowis - VCS representative
John Sheehan - Business Sector Representative
Martin Warhurst - Cestria Community Housing Association
Stuart Thew - Durham & Darlington Fire & Rescue Service
Elected Councillors:
Cllr Audrey Willis
Cllr Colin Carr
Cllr Beatty Bainbridge
Cllr Peter May
Cllr John Shiell
Cllr Anne Wright
Cllr Brian Walker (Parish Councils)
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have been established to enable investigation of the 5 priorities of the AAP (identified through consultation with the wider community at AAP Forum meetings earlier in 2009) and to focus discussion on information already available; each priority has been allocated a Task & Finish group, with lead members taken from amongst the AAP Board. The groups also have a wider membership identified by inviting members from the AAP Forum to register their interest in specific task groups.
The Task & Finish Overview Group will consider information identified through the AAP Forum, explore it and define what the main issues may be for consideration by the AAP; it will act as a discussion group and sounding board for the AAP. Its findings will be reported back to the AAP.
Each Task & Finish Group will provide potential short, medium and long-term actions and recommendations for the identified priorities for their group.
TheTask and Finish Group most directly concerned with issues etc of the VCS
is the Supporting Community Groups & Community Buildings Group.
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PRIORITIES IDENTIFIED BY INDIVIDUAL TASK & FINISH GROUPS
(as per Sept 09 AAP Board mttg)
Supporting Community Groups and Community Buildings Group
see full report.
Vitality of Town & Village Centre considered:
Parking / Transport free parking in town centre for a set period (eg first 30 mins)
Christmas shuttle bus – to link villages & town centre
Environment improved gully cleaning
Cone underpass – Clean + art work
recognise value of attractive retail environment
work with County Council Neighbourhood services on above
Market\Town centre Christmas market
investigate where C-le-S sits in County Council regeneration plans
decorate shutters/windows of closed premises
Villages identify asset register for each centre – to be used in
promotion/tourism promotion
Christmas trees for each village
Healthy Lifestyles & Well-being
1. Assess link between recession and job losses with numbers receiving incapacity benefit for mental illness.
2. Mentoring project for young people – consider engaging with schools to establish mentoring for marginalised
young people, based on model implemented at Park View school.
Sub groups established to consider above in more detail.
Opportunities for Young People
Establish parallel Young People’s AAP
– develop event for YP (possibly by end of 09) to verify\identify their needs
Expand task group to more fully reflect agencies and groups working with young people
Transport
issues identified:
Speeding, resident’s parking, road and pavement maintenance, improved transport links, improved safety for cyclists. Group to:
undertake engagement exercise with residents groups re speeding issues;
raise cross-cutting issues with Vitality Group re coach stop overs, part free parking, parking policies;
seek to influence County Council's road and pavement improvement programme;
use AAP resources to inform public about County Council road and pavement reporting system;
seek info re availability of community transport and knowledge of this;
promote County Council's zonal ‘Link Up’ scheme to be introduced in new year;
research cyclist safety issues.
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TASK & FINISH GROUPS - Leads and other members
VITALITY OF TOWN AND VILLAGE CENTRES
AAP Board Leads: Cllr Colin Carr (Chair), Sue Parkinson
Supported by: Cllr Peter May Cllr John Shiell P Cllr Brian Walker
Adrian White William Worth Cllr Anne Wright Lyn Younger
HEALTHY LIFESTYLE & WELL-BEING
AAP Board Lead: Ian Miller
Supported by: Charles McCaughey Jodie Cowie Betty Gibson
Gerald Tompkins William Worth Lyn Younger
OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
AAP Board Leads: Jake Rollings Jodie Cowie
TRANSPORT
AAP Board Leads: Derek Briggs Adrian White
SUPPORTING COMMUNITY GROUPS AND COMMUNITY BUILDINGS
AAP Board Leads: Belinda Lowis (lead) Paul Stephens
TASK & FINISH GROUP OVERVIEW
Andrew Megginson, AAP Co-ordinator
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AAP FINANCE
A. AAP Area Budget
Each AAP across County Durham, for 2009/10, receives an Area Budget of £150,000 which will be used to support the effective operation of the AAP and new or additional projects, services or facilities identified in the AAP’s Action Plan.
In most cases projects will be directly commissioned by the AAP Board.
B. County Councillor focused funding:
Highways Budget (HB)
Designed to impact on priorities identified within the Local Transport Plan (LTP). Schemes must be capital spend and are limited to £6,000 per councillor.
Members Initiative Fund (MIF)
To tackle priorities in a proactive way that would not otherwise be captured within the AAP Local Plan but which emerge a a priority for local communities.
The MIF is to support community groups and voluntary organisations to develop their effectiveness, and to help them to respond to their communitie’s needs. It aim’s:
To encourage people to become more involved in their own communities
To support county councillors in their community leadership role
To build the capacity of local groups
Minimum grant: £50
Maximum grant: £2,000 to any one project
The AAP Board does NOT have a direct role in the decision making process for HB or MIF budgets.
A report on the allocation of HB and MIF budgets will be prepared anually for the AAP.
Neighbourhood Budget
Used by elected members to support the improvement of social, economic and environmental well-being activities in their area; to support the funding of larger scale proposals identified as priorities within the AAP Action Plan, or meet emerging neighbourhood issues.
Members will know what to spend it on by talking to local community & voluntary groups and organisations, by using their local knowledge, by refering to local community and partnership plans or appraisals.
For each member:
£25,000 per annum – made up of £10,00 capital, £15,000 revenue.
Minimum allocation of £2,000 for any one project;
minimum total cost of a capital project to be £5,000.
Grants should be regarded as ‘one offs’ and not give rise to expectations of future funding.
The above is a summary – further details are available.