Agenda item

(a)        To receive and approve as a correct record the minutes of the Partnership Committee meeting held on 10 December 2020 (attached). 

(b)        To receive any updates arising from the minutes.

(a)          The Committee received the draft minutes of the Partnership Committee meeting held on 10 December 2020.  The attendee list would be updated as J Gelder, Community Action Bedfordshire had been omitted from the list.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Partnership Committee meeting held on 10 December 2020 be approved as a correct record and would be signed at a later date, when safe to do so. 

(b)          Significant discussion took place on the content of the previous meeting minutes and the outcomes of actions discussed at the Committee meeting.

The Committee was advised that following discussion about procedure at Central Bedfordshire Council, it had been agreed that actions arising from joint committee meetings would be passed on to the Monitoring Officer, Mr S Rix, to then be taken forward to the appropriate Central Bedfordshire Overview and Scrutiny Committee. S Hughes advised that a report confirming the new process would be brought back to the committee in April.

A comment was made regarding the content of the minutes and the lack of specific agreed actions, timescales and outcomes so that Councillors could be advised on what would take place following the meeting. It was confirmed that the minutes were not a verbatim record of the meeting but a record of resolutions and recommendations agreed by the committee by vote.  Every effort was made to include a relevant amount of context in meeting minutes but any resolutions, recommendations or actions to follow outside the meeting could only be included in the minutes if they had been clearly stated and agreed by the committee, during the meeting. 

A number of specific queries were raised and discussed.

Minute ref 73/LLP (Parking Strategy): It was noted that several councillors had raised parking issues at the previous meeting but no specific outcome had been agreed or progressed.  A suggestion was made by Councillor Perham to move Parking Issues to the Town Council’s Planning & Transport Committee as this met every three weeks and was therefore perhaps able to pass on parking issues to the local authority more quickly.

RESOLVED to recommend to the Town Council’s Planning and Transport Committee that consideration be given to how to seek action from the local authority on the parking and enforcement issues raised at the December meeting of the Partnership Committee.

Minutes ref 74/LLP Schools for the Future – a question was raised regarding when Leighton-Linslade parents would be consulted by the local authority over the Schools for the Future proposals.

Minute ref 75/LLP (Informal Town Centre Members’ Group Introduction and Update). Following the decision at the previous meeting to establish a formal South Side Task and Finish Group, Councillor Palmer advised that one meeting had taken place and another was scheduled, with a particular focus on the possible development of a community facility. It was hoped that there would be further information to report back to the April committee meeting.

Minute ref 76/LLP (Partnership Project List): it was noted that this item and S.106 developer contributions were new additions to the Committee work plan and clarification was needed on how they would be taken forward, as there was no mention of this in the minutes. It was advised that both items would be factored in to the committee work plan so that further discussion would take place by committee at the appropriate future meetings.

Minute ref 77/LLP (Interim CBC Update Report):  Councillor Owen asked for an answer to his question from the previous meeting regarding whether there was a way of controlling the queueing of taxis the number of taxis in the High Street, whether there was a maximum number of taxis which should be queueing and whether Central Bedfordshire Council had any control over the cleanliness of taxis,  whether there was any limit to how many licenses were issued by CBC and whether taxis were regularly inspected for cleanliness.  Sarah Hughes, CBC, would follow this up and get back to Committee.

It was confirmed the Town Clerk had spoken to Inspector Gurr, Bedfordshire Police, regarding taxis idling engines and Inspector Gurr confirmed the police would follow this up.

A further concern was raised regarding the pedestrianisation of the High Street and that actions promised in summer 2020 had not been completed (installation of benches, clarification on management of planters and supply of extra keys for the bollard installed at the bottom of the High Street).  A suggestion was made to write to the relevant Portfolio Holder or the Chief Executive of Central Bedfordshire Council to ensure action was taken on these points.

RESOLVED to write to Central Bedfordshire Council regarding the delay in completion of the agreed actions promised in relation to the temporary pedestrianisation of the High Street (provision of benches, management of planters and provision of additional bollard keys).