To receive a presentation from the Local Strategic Partnership Manager, John Houston.
Minutes:
John Houston, the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) Manager, took the Committee through what the LSP did over the last year, their future challenges and issues around the proposed Locality Boards.
The LSP brought together all the key public agencies, voluntary and private sectors, including Epping Forest District Council, Essex County Council, the Primary Care Trust, Police, Fire and Rescue, the Parish and Town Councils, Faith Groups, Voluntary Action Epping Forest, businesses and the Chamber of Commerce. These and other local groups were brought together to identify common problems and develop joined-up solutions by pooling their expertise. They are also able to commission research, identify gaps in provision and opportunities for new ways of working.
They have four theme groups feeding into the main board, one dealing with Healthier Communities, one dealing with Sustainable Communities, another dealing with Safer Communities and lastly, one dealing with Children and Young People.
The LSP will be holding a conference in February, and are hoping to get between 120 to 130 voluntary groups together along with the Chief Constable of Essex.
As part of their review of the year for safer communities the EFDC’s Community Safety Team was hailed as one of the best examples in the county; crime was down by 4% in this area, but unfortunately there were increasing numbers of burglary, domestic abuse and car crimes.
Part of the LSP’s sustainable communities programme helped set up small businesses and helped employ 70 younger people within our district. They encouraged people to use local businesses and pay their bills promptly and organised local business events to enable them to make contacts etc.
The LSP have just launched a new website “One Shops Local” for local businesses. Having only been going for about five or six weeks they already have 120 businesses signed up and this number was growing weekly. Despite some negative comments by some of the press the speed the system had been brought to the public and the numbers of businesses who have signed up and are offering vouchers to residents to shop locally was impressive.
The status of Locality Boards were fluid at present and they were not sure how it would link into the existing structure. A number of objections have been raised seeking clarification on what local organisations would need to do once the locality boards came into operation. The LSP is still awaiting a response to their questions.
It was noted that Epping Forest already had very good partnership working and really did not need to add extra layers of bureaucracy to this.
Councillor Wagland the Chairman of the LSP, added that it was a shame that the press chose to criticise before they found out what was happening about the support given to local shops. Mr Houston had been travelling around and talking to shopkeepers and local businesses to get them to join up to our new website which had proved most successful and she would like to congratulate all concerned in this enterprise, which so manifestly demonstrated the Council’s support for local businesses.
The meeting was then opened out for questions.
Q. Has there been any involvement of local banks as there had been criticism of a lack of investment from them to small businesses.
A. Small businesses need support and the LSP used to have a representative from Lloyds Banks onboard, he has now moved on. The Federation of Small Businesses tends to lead on this now, which we support.
Q. Were the expectations for the ‘One Shops Local’ too high initially?
A. We did not do a lot of publicity initially, and were looking to the Chamber of Commerce to line up the shops for us. It is up to the shops to help themselves. We started small and will continue to grow and grow. It is not a council scheme; the council was only one element in this. It was unfortunate that the local paper was not on our side, although other papers were more supportive. This site had proved to be popular and successful in a short period of time.
Q. The Local Council Liaison Committee assumed that they would be at the centre of the proposed Locality Boards. Is there any more information about how they would fit in?
A. We are anxious to have something in place and to this end we are having talks with Essex County Council. Unfortunately there is no one answer for this. Officers are currently working on a report for the next Local Councils meeting.
Q. The inability of the banks to lend money is all bound up with them being told to build up their capital. In Germany they have special banks for small businesses, do we have the same?
A. There was an initiative about 18 months ago called the Bank of Essex, but we are unsure how we could access this. We have heard that the take up was not very good.
Councillor Collins said that she had recently met with the Chief Executive of the South Essex Partnership Trust and he had said that they were happy to come and talk to one of the LSP meetings and if wanted supply someone to sit on their board.
Q. One Shop Local - have all shops and Town Centre Partnerships been informed of this?
A. Yes, we have contacted them. We are also working through the trade organisations letting them know that this website is there. Incidentally, we have found out that Epping Forest has the highest business start up rate in the Eastern Region.
Councillor Mohindra urged all Councillors to publicise this site and asked that businesses continued to make offers of vouchers via this site; this should be refreshed every week.
The Chairman thanked Mr Houston for giving his time and for his presentation.