The Committee was
reminded that on 12 January 2017, it had received a presentation
from the Cabinet Member for Leisure and Culture, setting out
responsibilities covered under her portfolio.
At this meeting,
the Cabinet Member had been invited back to provide his annual
update, and Report No: OAS/FH/18/001 set out the focus of the
update.
The Cabinet Member
was also provided in advance of the meeting with some key questions
identified by Scrutiny Members on areas they wished to be appraised
on during the annual update, which were included in the report
along with responses, specifically:
1)
Rural Communities: What proposals does the Portfolio Holder have to ensure
leisure and culture is fully inclusive to all within Forest Heath,
in particular rural communities?
2)
Rural Communities: How does the Portfolio Holder
propose to ensure that rural communities do not become the
forgotten few?
3)
Rural Communities: Is there a specific leisure and culture programme for rural
communities for 2018?
Councillor Andy
Drummond opened his presentation by thanking the Committee for the
invitation to update the Committee on matters concerning his
Portfolio since January 2017, and welcomed the new format in
providing questions in advance. He was
pleased that the Committee was interested in the subject of leisure
provision in rural communities, and advised that by definition
Forest Heath was categorised in DEFRA’s Rural and Urban
classification system as a Rural District. He highlighted a number of key points in response
to the three specific questions highlighted above.
The Committee asked
follow-up questions on leisure and cultural provision in rural
communities, to which comprehensive responses were
provided. Other areas discussed
were the spending of S106 monies on leisure and culture,
particularly for play areas; the Mildenhall museum which was run by
volunteers; the Brecks Partnership and funding received for
clearing the river and fen edge along the river Lark; and the early
negotiations taking place with Suffolk County Council on the
potential purchase of Brandon Country Park.
In particular
discussions were held on the following:
1)
Renewal of play areas: Discussions were
had about the fact that play areas had a finite life and that there
was a need to have some form of replacement programme to ensure
that the facilities remained fir for purpose. To standardise arrangements across West Suffolk it
was proposed that the council should be asked to consider whether
it would be prepared to support and fund a cyclical replacement
programme as there was currently no defined budget earmarked for
that purpose.
2)
Brandon new walk/run route: Councillor Silvester had some concerns
regarding the new run/walk route and questioned the take-up as
users had indicated to him, that they could not find the discs on
the posts to follow the route.
In
response the officer advised that the launch was well attended, and
agreed to check the route and the location of the discs, which were
a standard size on posts.
3)
Parish Forums: Discussions were held on
the relationship with leisure through the ...
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