The Chairman will advise the meeting of the evacuation procedures to follow in the event of an emergency.

The Chairman reminded Members of the evacuation procedure.

To approve the Minutes of the Meeting held on 24 February 2016 (Minute Nos. 525 - 530) as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 24 February 2016 (Minute Nos. 525 – 530) were taken as read, approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves or their spouse, civil partner or person with whom they are living with as a spouse or civil partner.  They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

The Chairman will ask Members if they have any interests to declare in respect of items on this agenda, under the following headings:

(a)          Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI) under the Localism Act 2011.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DPI, the Member must leave the meeting and not take part in the discussion or vote.  This applies even if there is provision for public speaking.

(b)          Disclosable Non Pecuniary (DNPI) under the Code of Conduct adopted by the Council in May 2012.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DNPI interest, the Member may stay, speak and vote on the matter.

Advice to Members:  If any Councillor has any doubt about the existence or nature of any DPI or DNPI which he/she may have in any item on this agenda, he/she should seek advice from the Director of Corporate Services as Monitoring Officer, the Head of Legal or from other Solicitors in Legal Services as early as possible, and in advance of the Meeting.

Councillor Alan Horton declared a Disclosable Non Pecuniary Interest in respect of the Community Safety Plan item, and the Voluntary Code of Conduct for Street Entertaining and Busking in Swale item as he was the Deputy Cabinet Member for Community Safety.

Councillor Lloyd Bowen declared a Disclosable Non Pecuniary Interest in respect of the Corporate Equality Scheme item as he was the Deputy Cabinet Member for Performance.

To consider the Community Safety Plan.

The Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Health and the Safer and Stronger Communities Officer have been invited to attend for this item.

The Chairman welcomed the Cabinet Member for Community Safety and the Safer and Stronger Communities Officer to the meeting.

The Cabinet Member introduced the report which set out the Swale Community Safety Plan 2016/19.  He explained it was a three-year rolling document, owned by the Swale Community Safety Partnership (CSP), and it set out the priorities for the next three years.

The Safer and Stronger Communities Officer (SSCO) explained that a major change this year was that a Safeguarding priority had been introduced.

The Chairman invited Members to firstly comment on pages 3 – 6 of the Plan.  The Cabinet Member and SSCO answered Members questions as set out below.

Page 3

Members raised the following points and questions:  Swale Action To End Domestic Abuse (SATEDA) did not seem to be mentioned as a partner; there was a One-Stop Shop on the Isle of Sheppey, and continuing provision in Sittingbourne, what about Faversham and the rural areas?; Should Councillors be included and involved in the whole process, for example in training sessions?; and what was the ‘continuing provision in Sittingbourne’?

The SSCO advised that SATEDA was delivering the One-Stop Shop on the Isle of Sheppey, and the ‘continuing provision in Sittingbourne’ was the One-Stop Shop. Currently in Faversham there was the facility of a drop-in one-on-one service; there were plans to convert to a one-stop shop if required in the future.  She stated that training could be opened up for Councillors to attend, and this could be added to the Action Plan.

The Cabinet Member explained that the CSP was a partnership, not a public forum.  He praised the work that the Community Safety Unit (CSU) in Sittingbourne did and that it was a beacon in Kent for best practice.  He stated that if Councillors had an issue, they could go to the CSU.  Some aspects of the CSP were confidential and the Cabinet Member considered the way it operated as a partnership, rather than a public forum,  was best suited for the type of work that was undertaken.

The SSCO confirmed that she would include more information on Councillors to reflect their resources and contribution to the Partnership.

A Member considered there should be more reference to schools, particularly primary and junior to reflect issues that some pupils might be going through.

The SSCO explained that schools were not a statutory partner in terms of the CSP.  There had in the past been a Safer Schools Officer; the Safeguarding priority was now in place to raise awareness, and the focus was on risk groups, rather than a generic approach.

The Member raised concern with potentially ever increasing issues, such as extremism which he considered should be raised within schools, and that there should be dialogue with schools to see if there were any issues.

The Cabinet Member explained that a Local Children’s Partnership Group had been launched, and this Group has representatives from local schools and would be the forum to address education based issues.

Page 4

A Member  ...  view the full minutes text for item 623.

The Committee is asked to consider the Voluntary Code of Conduct for Street Entertaining and Busking In Swale. 

The Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Health and the Economy and Community Services Manager have been invited to attend for this item.

The Chairman welcomed the Cabinet Member for Community Safety and the Economy and Community Services Manager to the meeting.

The Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Health introduced the item which set out a draft Voluntary Code of Conduct for street entertaining and busking in town centre locations in Swale.  He advised that this was the first policy/code of conduct for busking in Swale and with emerging street entertainment, this would be a useful document.

The Economy and Community Services Manager (ECSM) explained that the proposal was a ‘light touch’ to help to create a more vibrant street scene in the Borough.  The code could encourage street performers as the diary of events increased.  It provided flexibility and was an informal approach. The ECSM explained that the code was voluntary at first to see how well it would be received, and it might need to have stronger terms in the future.

Members spoke and made comments on the Code as minuted below.

Members supported the proposal and a Member considered that the third bullet point – reference to assistance dogs needed to be reworded.

Discussion ensued on the proposed timings of 10am – 4pm.  The ECSM advised that this time period had come after discussion with other Local Authorities.  She recommended a clear cut-off point between day and night time entertainment.

Suggestions included: later time in the summer months; 10am to sunset; 10am to 7pm; 10am to 6pm; and 10am to 4pm GMT, 10am to 6pm BST.

The ECSM agreed to take a licensing comment in respect of some organisations having to purchase two licences, back to the Licensing Team.

Members discussed the recommended period that a performer could play and then have a break.  A suggestion was made to play for 30 minutes with a break of at least 20 minutes, and not perform again for two hours.

Further comments included:  either remove bullet point two on page 30, or make the comment stronger; it was up to the performer to arrange any copyright issues, not for the Council to advise; this was an excellent document; explanation needed regarding what was Council-owned land; some wording should be stronger; divide the document into two: voluntary code + guidance and advice; remove the word ‘drumming’; make the paragraph on performing time periods clearer; ‘close proximity’ needed to be more specific; copyright information needed to be there for advice and guidance; remove ‘please’ from bullet point two on page 29; and state ‘must not’ on bullet point three.

The ECSM explained that the document was ‘light touch’ with little involvement from the Council, and the local community would act as the policing agent.  In response to a question, see advised that there could potentially be issues of public liability to the Council on Council-owned land.  SBC were managing land that was normally considered to be KCC land, so Council-owned was not necessarily SBC-owned.  The Policy and Performance Officer advised that this could be referred to as ‘public realm’.

The Chairman thanked the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 624.

To consider the Corporate Equality Scheme.

The Cabinet Member for Performance and the Policy and Performance Officer have been invited to attend for this item.

The Chairman welcomed the Cabinet Member for Performance and the Policy and Performance Officer to the meeting.

The report invited the Committee to consider the Council’s draft Corporate Equalities Strategy 2016-20 which was currently out for public consultation.

The Cabinet Member for Performance thanked the Policy and Performance Officer for the work he had carried out on the report.  He explained that this Scheme was different to previous ones as it was focused on Swale’s communities, rather than the Council’s internal processes.

Members agreed that the four objectives in the Strategy were the right ones.

The Chairman invited Members to comment on the four objectives.

Page 43 - Equality Objective 1 – Supporting integration and cohesion in our local communities

In response to a question, the Cabinet Member confirmed that this objective was about equality, not human rights.

A Member considered that community-led projects should be supported and actively marketed.  Another Member considered …where people from different backgrounds get on together….as noted in the first paragraph was not necessarily an equality issue.

Page 45 – Equality Objective 2 – Supporting our vulnerable residents

Members agreed that the 10-year difference in life expectancy across the Borough needed to be addressed.  A Member requested that bullet point three be re-phrased; a suggestion was: ‘supporting households with the greatest housing needs to access affordable homes’.

Page 46 – Equality Objective 3 – Ensuring easy, clear and convenient access to our services

A Member suggested the Council be more pro-active in promoting the availability of Council documents in alternative formats.  The Policy and Performance Officer gave examples of documents that were issued in larger formats and explained there was a pool of staff at the Council who were fluent in foreign languages.

A Member suggested that the last bullet point on page 46 of the report be amended to include the word ‘fairness’.

Page 48 – Equality objective 4 – Promoting equality as a local employer

The Cabinet Member reported that the Investors in People award indicated that SBC was a good employer.

Members praised the content of the report including the statistics in Appendix I and II and thanked the Policy and Performance Officer for his hard work.

Resolved:

(1)       That the four proposed objectives are the right ones.

(2)       That the proposed actions under each of the four objectives are the right ones and the comments minuted above be noted.

The Chairman thanked Members for their input on the Committee over the past year.  He outlined the policies and strategies that had been considered by the Committee and the effect the Committee had had.

The Chairman also thanked the Policy and Performance Officer for his single-handed work in the support he gave Members; he thanked officers for their reports and also the Democratic Services Team.  The Chairman added that it had been a pleasure to be Chairman.