Apologies

Tejinder Birk, Rachel Bird, Cllr Chris Wakefield, Cllr Lisa Northover, Eileen Moss

Present

Clodie Sutcliffe – Police, Cllr Grower, Andy Williams (Council), Cllr Phil Stanley-Watts

John Gunn (Springbourne Forum chair)

Matters Arising

Chair has written to Head of Planning and Head of Council about storage of bins in new developments.
Dorset reclaim / oil – storage license. Cllr Watts established that Dorset Reclaim hadn't applied for a license. Understood that this relates to recycling oil to use as fuel. The Forum didn’t want to pursue this further.
Grosvenor Gardens sign – Cllr Wakefield is raising this.
Boscombe Precinct – Cllr Wakefield has put a bid into the budget process for Boscombe Precinct.

Repeat Action – Cllr Lisa Northover to find out the outcome of the BCCA consultation. Briefing note passed on, but it was available at the meeting.

Police to confirm that appropriate signage was put up for the crack house closure of the Salisbury Road/Grosvenor Gardens alleyway.

Chair fed back concerns/priorities to the safer neighbourhood team.
Police not present at previous meeting owing to operational priorities.
Vice Posters – approach Inspector Kelly about that.
Police are working to engage with young people through bar-b-ques, beach activities etc.

Bank account open.
Posters distributed to shops in the precincts; national multiples tended to have policies against it.

Boscombe Precinct
Cabinet member: Rob Lawton; Head of dept: Mike Holmes
Agreed that Traders would be encouraged to reach their conclusions at the Trader’s Association meeting send representatives.

Climate change strategy

Andy Williams introduced review of the Council's climate change strategy.

Council has had a climate change strategy for four years.
Green energy is procured.
Changes to Council buildings – housing stock, BIC – take into account energy efficiency.
New recycling service has had made a big improvement.

See the notes sent to Andy Williams, Appended to this document.

The Forum thanked Andy Williams.

Stromenti String Quartet – Arts Council funding

The Quartet runs concerts at St Clement's Church.

Chair wrote on behalf of the Forum to support the grant.

Meeting voted to support this.

Bournemouth Forum chairs meeting Nov 19th.

Attended by Ben Prescott on behalf of the Chair.

View expressed by Ben that Forums are not an alternative to proper consultation.
Some discussion around the scale of the operation. Winton Forum, for example, operates with charitable status. The majority of forums operate as more lightweight model for convening meetings to get people talking.
Local Government and public involvement in health act. Not clear yet what the act will do to strengthen Forums.
Andy Williams reported that new act will impose duty on Councils to involve people in decisions.

Future Agenda Items

Public Transport

Date & Time of next meeting

7th January

18th December .. St Mary's – curry night £2.50

Get tickets from Springbourne Centre

Feedback from the Climate Change Strategy discussion at the Boscombe Area Forum meeting – 3^rd December 2007.

Present: 22 residents, Councillor Phil Stanley-Watts, Councillor Ben Grower

Suggestions and comments:

The Council needs a policy on solar energy – putting solar panels on Council buildings and enabling/encouraging their use on private properties.
More needs to be done to push the grants that are available for insulation etc to ensure housing is energy efficient. Is there anything that could be done to encourage private landlords to get rented accommodation up to standard?
There will be a landfill crisis in the coming years – what will the Council do to improve recycling. Need to ensure that different types of material can be recycled (different plastics) + need to build a recycling plant in Dorset, so we aren’t transporting materials across the country.
Recycling of trade waste needs to be improved
Re-usable nappy campaign needs higher profile
Can the 2026 Partnership encourage large companies to deal with excessive packaging. Individuals needs to be supported in campaigns to take excess packaging back to stores?
Transition towns provides a lot of info about work which could be done - http://www.transitiontowns.org/
Similarly Woking Council was mentioned as having a good Climate Change Strategy – see: http://www.woking.gov.uk/environment/climatechangestrategy
Need to look at spreading the use of bio-fuel – apparently Dorset Reclaim use cooking oil to run their vans, could this scheme to expanded?
Restricting any further expansion of Bournemouth Airport
Sustainable Planning policies need to be adopted – continued building of flats is not sustainable
Education is key to changing attitudes - what are the schools doing to educate young people about the issue
Communal composting bins should be provided for areas such as Boscombe where many people do not have access to gardens – encouragement to compost is needed to deal with food waste.
More allotment sites are needed
Plus more local (farmers) markets in the town centre.
Can the Council/partnership encourage use of paper or reusable bags rather than plastic? A scheme is starting in Westbourne, can we encourage the whole town to get involved?
Generally there is a need for leadership from the Council on this issue – we need to ensure that our buildings, vehicles, working practices etc are examples of good practice, to be able to spread this message to the rest of the community.