Items
No. |
Item |
26. |
Apologies for Absence
To receive any apologies for
absence.
Minutes:
Apologies were received from
Cllr Lee Baker, Cllr Tom Deakin, Cllr Bill Revans, Tash Scully
(Somerset Youth Work Alliance), Iain Porter (Quantock Hills
National Landscape) and Paul Townsend (Kingston St Mary Parish
Council).
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27. |
Declarations of Interest
To receive and note any
declarations of interests in respect of any matters included on the
agenda for consideration at this meeting.
(The other registrable
interests of Councillors of Somerset Council, arising from
membership of City, Town or Parish Councils and other Local
Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes:
City, Town & Parish Twin Hatters - Somerset Councillors
2023 )
Minutes:
Cllr Norman Cavill declared
that FWAG are looking at his land.
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28. |
Notes from the Previous Meeting PDF 142 KB
To approve the notes from the
previous meeting.
Minutes:
An amendment was proposed and
agreed to the previous notes for the item Updates from Flood
Resilience Meeting (20th October):
It was noted that there had
been a significant reduction in the EA maintenance budget for the
Wessex Region, including Somerset.
The rivers still needed
dredging and the banks maintained. The river channels are narrowing
and trees growing in the banks.
It was recognised that there
were two separate areas and that natural flood management on the
Quantocks would have very little impact on flooding events on the
moors.
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29. |
Public Question Time
The Chair to advise of
any questions, statements or petitions
received that are not covered by items on the agenda for the
meeting on which members of the public have
requested to speak.
Minutes:
There were no public
questions.
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30. |
Highway Maintenance - Working Group
Minutes:
The LCN were informed about the
possibility of starting a Highway Working Group, which enables them
to have conversations with Highways about upcoming works, issues in
the area and planning for the future, as well as how this links in
with the highway steward scheme and the flexibility of the options
available to them.
During the discussion, the
following points were raised:
- For the pilot in
Exmoor that was funded by Somerset Council, do we know the cost?
The cost of the working group is only a parish hosting a meeting
once a quarter and teas and coffees.
- Exmoor are likely to
pause the highway steward – do we know why? The funding
from Somerset Council is coming to an end, they are looking at
other sources of funding but a final decision has not been made
yet.
- What does the
£50,000 budget for a highway steward include? The budget
includes the person working as a highway steward and accompany
resources to do maintenance on the roads. They can cut back
hedgerows, do enhanced grass cutting, address surface water, and
straightforward gully clearance. For more significant works,
Highways are putting together a price list.
- There’s only
one solution – the highway steward – being offered, so
it is difficult to compare the value of it. That is the benefit
of the working group, it provides the opportunity to explore other
solutions.
- Roads are in a very
poor state and are deteriorating, and need serious maintenance
before they can look at options like a Highway Steward. The
£50,000 budget for them won’t go far
enough.
- When there are
diversions on major roads, they lanes become blocked or impassable
as they are used as alternatives. It is a safety issue.
- North Petherton has
included in their budget a further £160,000 partly dedicated
to road works and general grass cutting. They have not yet
commissioned a steward or decided exactly what the money will be
used for.
- A working group for
interested parishes will make sure there is value for money. It
would give the opportunity to get into the issues in depth and why
they haven’t been resolved, and potentially further explore
the highway steward scheme.
- Have met highways
stewards looking at drainage issues reported years ago, but there
is a lack of funding. Unless road issues are a safety issue, there
is no chance of them being addressed.
- Farmers already have
the equipment, could they be paid to improve roads? Limited
budget would make this a strain too.
- Last week two cars
were overturned on the A38 through North Petherton, and as there
are frequent motorway closures where the A38 is the diversion it
creates difficulties, particularly at narrow chokepoints. Is the
Department for Transport responsible? No, it is a Somerset
Highways road. We are hearing from Monkton Heathfield that a
downgrade of that road is inevitable.
- Durston would want to
be involved with this as they also have roads, but their precept is
very small.
- Kingston St Mary
would be ...
view the full minutes text for item 30.
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31. |
Action and next steps for Youth Provision
Minutes:
The LCN received information on
local youth provision from the Connect Somerset Champion, and
detail about what that work involved. They also learned about the
work the Somerset Youth Work Alliance are doing and the need for
funding for provision by the Community Youth Project.
During the discussion the
following points were raised:
- There is a need for
wider information on youth provision, as groups like Scouts and
Brownies are not included. A lot of this bleeds into adjacent
LCNs, and young people will often cross the LCN borders to access
provision. We need to look at how we can join up with other LCNs to
mapthem.
- Why are some of the
schools included on the list? LCN geography doesn’t match
up exactly with Connect Somerset geography, as they follow Primary
Care Network boundaries.
- There are also
private schools not included.
- There is a need to
cascade to schools what youth provision is available.
- How do you work
independently, informally, with young people who have different
sorts of needs but are alienated and lack meaningful relationships
with adults? Some young people have gone on to get
qualifications so they can support young people, that’s the
sustainable way to move forward.
- Is there a place
where parents and young people can go to find out what’s
going on? There is an app called tellmi – available at
tellme.help, which has an offer of peer support and early
intervention, and has a database of youth organisations. SPARK
Somerset have also done work on this in some areas.
- As part of the
mapping process, the youth work alliance hope to have a young
person led directory online.
- What about children
under 12 rather than young people? Taunton LCN has created a
subgroup with lots of interested providers – Taunton has
denser clusters and groups. Would be useful to get input from
schools, nursery providers, etc.
- The best people to
tell what their needs are are children, young people, and their
parents. Perhaps we can cascade a questionnaire that parishes can
support with.
- If there’s
appetite, a working group can get into the detail of some of these
things.
- How big of an issue
does it seem to be in your parish? Where LCNs feel that
there’s something missing, a working group has helped speak
to young people, identify what’s happening and where the gaps
are, and if those gaps are genuine or because there is no
engagement from young people for that provision.
- Some provision has
been wound up due to lack of volunteers and trustees, rather than
lack of interest from children.
- A survey has been
done – there were many league sports and children and young
people wanted more informal sports where they just play, and
café style provision.
- There are areas where
there is lots of provision that is joined up.
- People are talking
about unwieldy and antisocial behaviour – those at the people
that are hard to reach and we need to capture their voices and
figure out what’s ...
view the full minutes text for item 31.
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32. |
Discussion Topic - Health and Wellbeing
Minutes:
The LCN received a presentation
from the locality manager for CCS, which manages the agent service
of village and community agents. There are 70 agents across
Somerset, linked with GP surgeries that take referrals from a
variety of sources. They also work with Somerset Carers
Service.
During the discussion, the
following points were raised:
- How many staff are
there across Somerset? Just over 100, core staff very small but
total is over 100. Vast majority of work is village and community
agents.
- Isolation is one of
the biggest issues. There is a once a month café in Kingston
St Mary to allow people to connect. Might not be able to measure
the preventative impact of this work but it’s a huge
preventative measure, so thank you for your hard work.
- Talking Cafés
in particular are very helpful and have high attendance, especially
if people don’t have internet and need advice. We ensure
talking cafés have internet connection so we can fill in
online forms and support people with that.
- Does Bridgwater fall
under this? As it has different areas than the LCN, there is a
different locality manager for Bridgwater – Debbie
Slater.
- In West Somerset
there’s a children’s/young person’s focused
village agent specifically funded by Dulverton. Might be something
for the young person’s working group to have on their
radar.
- How much does it cost
to fund an agent? South Petherton fund a part time village
agent, three days a week. Information can be provided regarding
cost.
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33. |
Dates and topics of future meetings
Minutes:
There is an Emergency Planning Workshop on
Monday 18th March at Brittons Ash Community Hall.
There was a request for clarity on how many
towns and parishes have an emergency plan in order to shape that
meeting, and only Kingston St Mary stated they have one.
The next meeting of the LCN is Wednesday
17th April. Wednesday 19th June follows,
which is also the AGM.
There was a request to raise the plan to
increase water levels on moors for carbon retention at a future
meeting. It is a Natural England and DEFRA initiative and more
information will be sought on their engagement process.
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