Older People s Assembly. General Meeting 20 Wednesday 22 June 2011, Council Chamber, Civic Centre, Southend. Committee. Marlene Richardson Vice Chair

Transcription

1 Older People s Assembly General Meeting 20 Wednesday 22 June 2011, Council Chamber, Civic Centre, Southend Minutes of Meeting 20 OPA Derek Iles Chair Marlene Richardson Vice Chair Jean Forge Secretary Lynda McLernon Treasurer Pat Balls David Brannon Tony Carr Molly Dennis Brian Dillon Vaughan Hartridge Guests Alison Semmence, Southend Association of Voluntary Services (SAVS) Ron Alexander, Disability Information and Advice Line (DIAL) PC Stan Ferris, Essex Police Peter Dolphin, Environmental Care Team, Southend Borough Council Paul Mathieson, Strategic Transport and Planning Policy, Southend Borough Council Apologies Treasurer Lynda McLernon, members Vic Tassell, Marlene Richardson Councillors in Attendance Cllr Mike Assenheim, Cllr Martin Terry, Cllr Nigel Folkard 1

2 Agenda Item 1 Welcome, Introduction and Address 1.1 The Chair welcomed everyone to the Older People s Assembly General Meeting, including the guests, councillors and new members. The new Chair also took the time to introduce himself and gave a quick background to his special areas of interest such as transport and dementia care. 1.2 No declarations of interest were received from the assembly. Agenda Item 2 Minutes & Matters Arising 2.1 The Assembly agreed that the remaining minutes were an accurate account of the previous meeting. (Proposed and seconded.) Agenda Item 3 Southend Association of Voluntary Services Presentation by Alison Semmence 3.1 Alison Semmence (AS) began her presentation by giving a quick overview of SAV s. It was established in 1980 and is a support and co-ordinating agency for the local voluntary sector, liaising between voluntary groups, statutory organisations and the public. 3.2 AS also discussed SAVS role as a 3 rd sector voice. This has two aspects, the first as a panel and the second as organising assemblies to discuss and feed back on strategies and policies. SAVS offers grant funding and contract advice for members and are also a volunteer centre and brokerage centre and are also home to Turning Tides. The centre based at Alexandra Street, Southend is home to back offices with services, conference facilities and at the back of the centre there is a community café recently rebranded as The Secret Café. 3.3 AS went onto give some details as to the current volunteering vacancies available: Jewish Care is looking for a number of older people to visit local care homes and chat with residents. Southend Rethink based in the Southend Library are looking for help with knitting and crochet classes. Thorpe Greenways School are looking for a library assistant. Southend Hospital are also looking for a range of volunteers. If any assembly member is interested in these volunteering opportunities then just visit the Volunteer centre and have a discussion with the trained advisors. 3.4 Q. Does everyone need to be CRB checked for the volunteer positions. A. This is dependent entirely on the position that is being applied for. SAVS don t believe in blanket checking for roles. 3.5 Q. The Voluntary Sector is facing a tough time of it at the moment especially in regards to funding. How are SAVS placed for the future. SAVS will continue to deliver the same service where possible and obviously due to the cuts volunteering has become more necessary. SAVS has seen 2

3 cuts in funding to some projects and some projects have not been renewed. As yet Southend Borough Council have not cut grants. 3.6 Q. The Big Society means that more volunteers will be needed. Could SAVS be wholly volunteer run. A. SAVS already has a number of volunteers however not all roles could be covered by volunteers. 3.7 Q. Do SAVS write to local employers to enquire about jobs. A. SAVS work with a number of local businesses and advertise volunteering vacancies. SAVS also work to get unemployed people back into work and improve their skills at the same time. 3.8 Q. A recent Evening Echo article detailed the closure of a community taxi service in the borough at the hands of SAVS. A. It was working through SAVS but did not have the necessary paperwork to continue. There were no receipts and no paper trails involved. There needs to be procedures involved and it needs to be regulated. Agenda Item 4 Presentation by Ron Alexander on DIAL and Mobility Scooters 4.1 Ron Alexander (RA) began his presentation with a quick overview of DIAL and what the organisation can offer service users. 4.2 DIAL now have a new mission statement and RA gave some background to the organisation. DIAL were formed in 1971 are part of a national organisation for a network of approximately 120 local disability information and advice services run by and for disabled people. Last year DIAL helped over a quarter of a million disabled people. 4.3 DIAL helps and supports people with a number of issues from changes in lifestyle to Blue Badge arrangements, universal credits, Disability Living Allowance assessments and many more. 4.4 RA stated that it is going to be a difficult time for all third sector organisations and DIAL will be no different especially as disabilities affect so many people. 4.5 Q. How will housebound service users on DLA be assessed? How will they cope. A. When they have a paper assessment they can request a home visit and the paperwork can be filled out there. 4.6 Q. Have you managed to get Porters DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) compliant. A. We are still looking to get Porters DDA but currently it is not fully compliant. 4.7 Q. Hamlet Court Road and many new roads are difficult for the disabled. Can anything be done about them. A. Unfortunately SBC no longer have an Access Officer to deal with such issues 3

4 Issues such as access need to be addressed at the Planning stage. Agenda Item 5 SAMERU A presentation on the launch of New European Safety Laws 5.1 Paul Mathieson gave a presentation on the SaMERU (Safer Mobility for Elderly Road Users) project. The project and associated consultation is part funded by the EU and is looking at the mobility of elderly road users and how this is affected by a number of variables. 5.2 The consultation consists of questionnaires which have been distributed - the assembly members have been asked to fill out the questionnaires [handed out at the meeting] at their convenience. It also consists of the creation of travel diaries by members of the public to get an understanding of the issues first hand. 5.3 PM stated that the process has been steered by the Older People s Assembly and a consultation event has taken place to mould the questionnaires. Hopefully both methods will ensure good feedback for the project. 5.4 Q. The questions deal with pathways. The OPA is currently running a petition against cycling on the pavements. Why is more not done to protect elderly people from the dangers that lurk on the pavements. A. SBC and Cycle Southend provide a number of cycling training courses for young people such as Bikeability as well as Roadshows showing the danger of cycling on the pavements. 5.5 Q. The City Beach incorporates a shared space instead of the normal road/pavement combination. Is this not more dangerous. A. There is no evidence to prove that the layout is more dangerous than any other layout. The public space and access has greatly increased and the scheme is being constantly monitored. 5.6 Q. What was the consultation process like for this project. A. There has been an exhaustive consultation involved in this project. Meetings have taken place with a number of older people s organisations and a consultation event took place earlier in the year. The OPA have also been involved at every step. [Post meeting note: Correction to the above last sentence: the OPA has not been involved at every step of this project but it did receive a presentation under the title of Better Southend Schemes on the 1 st September 2010 at a time when work was well advanced.] 5.7 Q. Is there complacency on the part of SBC in terms of City Beach. Are you just waiting for an accident before making changes. A. Of course not, as previously stated the road layout is not proved to be more dangerous. It makes everyone more aware of their surroundings and thus will take more care. SBC will continue to monitor and assess the scheme. 5.8 Q. There is very little disabled parking on the seafront? Can this situation be improved. 4

5 A. The car park at the Sea Life Centre does have some disabled parking available and I will look into the situation further. Agenda Item 6 Presentation by the PC Stan Ferns from Essex Police on issues affecting Southend followed by a Q&A 6.1 PC Stan Ferris gave a quick overview of the policing in Southend and some the issues that occur on a daily basis from cycling on the pavement to antisocial behaviour, violent and drug related crimes. 6.2 Q. Parking on pavements? What can the Police do about this. A. Vehicular obstruction is an offence and the Police can act in this event. 6.3 Q. There are a lot of young people cycling on the pavements in the borough. Do the Police still go to schools and talk the children. A. There are Police Liaison Officers who still attend schools and discuss road safety and how to use the pavements and roads responsibly and introduce the Highway Code to the children. There is also joint working with Cycle Southend for the tagging of bicycles and mobility scooters. 6.4 Q. There is a petition being put together by the OPA to stop people cycling on the pavements. What can Police Officers do to stop this. A. The Police issue fixed penalty notices where appropriate. 6.5 Q. Can the Police not temporarily confiscate bicycles of the offenders. A. Unfortunately the Police do not have the powers to confiscate bicycles presently and a law may have to be changed for this to come into force. 6.6 Q. What happens on the new shared spaces such as City Beach in terms of cycling. A. It is a shared space and as such the area is shared between pedestrians and cyclists. For a fixed penalty to be used the area must have a highway. 6.7 Q. Do the Police see cycling on the pavement as the serious offence it is. A. Yes the Police take it very seriously and if more resources were in place then more could be done to stop these cyclists however resources need to be used for other serious crimes such as murders, rapes etc. Agenda Item 7 Peter Dolphin, Environmental Health Team on issues such as A-boards 7.1 Peter Dolphin gave some background to the A-board issues in the borough and some information on the new team that has taken over from the Streetscene team. SBC put forward some proposals for A-boards shops need to ensure that they are near to the premises, they are of reasonable size and there is only one per shop. Over the past year SBC has started to enforce these regulations especially in the High Street and London Road areas. SBC has a very good system in place for dealing with non compliance and the response time is very short. Now most shop owners know the rules and are adhering to them. 5

6 7.2 Q. Nosh and Costa have been putting their A-boards at unreasonable locations. What can be done about them. A. Currently licensing on the premises is pending which will affect the situation. SBC is working with these premises on this issue. 7.3 Q. What kind of size is reasonable. A. It has to measure no more than 0.6m sq. 7.4 Q. How many people are in the new team. A. There are 13 people in the new team, of whom 11 are officers. Agenda Item 8 Future Items & Close of Meeting 8.1 The Chair asked the Assembly for items for the next meeting and reminded everyone that they could be sent through to the committee at any stage before the next meeting. It was agreed that the disabled parking on the seafront would be investigated. It was put forward that someone from the Planning department should be invited to the next meeting. 8.2 The Chair explained that there are some vacancies still available for committee and that any interest would be gratefully received. Interested parties should contact either Derek Iles or Vaughan Hartridge. 8.3 Vaughan Hartridge, ex-interim OPA Chair, asked members to join him in thanking Derek for ably taking on the Chair s role and wished him well for the future. 8.4 The Chair thanked everyone for attending and closed the meeting Date of next meeting: 21 st September