Agenda item

Post-NP Transition Plan adoption; Bristol Impact Fund decisions and local impacts and re-commissioning of Youth Services consultation; dates of NP Transition meetings May and June 2017.

Henbury, Brentry and Southmead NP Plan Update Report

The Area Co-ordinator made the following points concerning future arrangements for the NP:

1.        the last meeting will take place in June 2017;

2.        different options needed to be explored to support community led structures and solutions;

3.        discussion was required of the offer of Neighbourhood patches with a proposal of £200 per Councillor;

4.        The offer was for communities themselves to run any successor bodies. No staffing would be provided by Bristol City Council in respect of the grant application process;

5.        By the end of April 2017, the type of asks from communities which could be provided over the succeeding 18 months would become clear;

6.        Some staffing might be possible to advertise events and to send information to distribute;

7.        Discussion about this issue will also take place at the Henbury and Brentry Community Council on 20th April 2017 and at the Southmead Community Council on Saturday 6th May 2017;

8.        The role of other services such as the Police needed to be considered. A Police Crime Commissioner Public meeting was scheduled for Monday 20th March 2017 at the Greenway Centre;

The Chair made the following points:

9.        Under the proposed arrangements, well being was divided by parity per ward. Each Councillor would receive £200 to work with community groups, with total funding per ward of £2,500 (£1,250 per Councillor);

10.    An arrangement of top-ups would operate for lower super output areas. If an area within a ward was in the bottom 10% most deprived in the city, it would receive £4,000 per top up. It was noted that this applied to 2 areas in Southmead.

The Area Co-ordinator also made the following points:

11.    The Bristol Impact Fund had brought together £3.29 Million across Bristol for the next 4 years. Whilst some organisations such as the Henbury and Brentry Community Centre had been successful, others such as the Southmead Community Centre and Southmead Development Trust had not been so successful. It was noted that whilst the Grants and Investment Team administered the process, a number of Independent people did sit on the Panel that made decisions.

An NP member questioned the process since it did not seem to have addressed the issues raised in the residents’ plan and impacted on Value for Money. It would be more appropriate to remove all funding rather than face a situation where an outside organisation dictated to Southmead how much funding they should obtain.

Action: The Chair to write to Gemma Dando to express the NP’s concern about the arbitrary nature of the arrangements for the Bristol Impact Fund process, to provide a breakdown of expenditure in the north of the city and also to explain why the Neighbourhood Plans and Community Plans did not appear to have been taken into account.

The NP agreed that lessons needed to be learnt from the way this process has been carried out. Councillor Helen Godwin confirmed that she had written to Wendy Stephenson (VOSCUR) to establish what lessons had been learnt from the process and, in particular, why so much funding appeared to have been granted to Inner City areas.

The Area Co-ordinator stated that the Bristol Youth Services had been re-commissioned, details of which had been placed on the Bristol City Council website. It was noted that it was unclear by how much these services would be cut (whether by half to £320,000 or by two thirds).

Action: Councillor Helen Godwin to investigate this

Members noted that the final Henbury and Brentry Forum would take place at 24th May 2017 and the final Southmead Forum would take place on 20th June 2017.

Resolved – that

1.      the closure be noted of the NP Programme from June 2017 as a consequence of the budget decisions taken at 21st February 2017 Full Council meeting and the Bristol City Council “Offer and Ask” to create community-led post-NP arrangements;

2.      the holding be noted of 20th March 2017 event with the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Greenway Centre formally thanked for allowing free use of their Hall to support this event;

3.      the VCS funding decisions be noted flowing from the approval of the Bristol Impact Fund recommendations at 7th March 2017 Cabinet meeting and their impact on H & B and S-based projects and organisations;

4.      the re-commissioning be noted of Youth Services and the consultation opportunity which is open to 27th April 2017 and the NP decides if and how it wants to feed in any collective or individual opinions;

5.      the NP notes NP events fixed until the end of June 2017.

Action : Keith Houghton