Agenda item

(1)       Mr Hill and Ms Edwards (on behalf of Ms Honey) updated Members on the issues listed in the paper circulated with the agenda and answered questions from Members.

Ms Edwards

(2)       Ms Edwards informed the Committee that she would be retiring from Kent County Council at the end of March 2011 and she took the opportunity to thank Members, especially Mr Hill as Cabinet Member, for all their support over the years.  The Committee recorded their thanks to Ms Edwards for her support and expressed their best wishes to her for the future.

Restructuring

(3)       Mr Hill reminded Members that the restructuring agreed by the County Council on 16 December 2010 would bring significant new services together under the remit of the Customer and Communities Directorate including Gateways, Healthwatch and Public Rights of Way.   He reported that Ms Honey had been slotted into the post of Corporate Director of Customer and Communities. 

Emergency Planning Exercise (16 November 2010)

(4)       Mr Hill referred to the Emergency Planning Exercise that had been held on 16 November 2010.  This had been the first exercise that the Cabinet and Corporate Management Team had held.  It had been a great help in terms of clarifying the role of services and the decisions making response by Corporate Management Team and Cabinet.  A further exercise would be held in due course.  

Visit to Cookham Wood (19 November 2010)

(5)       Mr Hill stated that he had visited the Young Offenders Institution at Cookham Wood, which currently accommodated eight young people from Kent.  Progress with vocational training was still in its infancy and some of the young people were not there long enough to get a meaningful qualification.

Youth Justice Board: Conference – Newport (23 & 24 November 2010)

(6)       Mr Hill explained that the Youth Justice Board was being disbanded and that it was not yet clear what would take its place.

Turner Contemporary Handover Celebration (8 December 2010)

(7)       Mr Hill referred to the very successful handover celebrations that had taken place on 8 December 2010.

Chief Coroner Interviews (10 December 2010)

(8)       Mr Hill informed the Committee that a new Chief Coroner had been appointed.  This would be Kent’s first full time Coroner.    A Member referred to the number of post mortems carried out in the County at the discretion of Coroners which impacted on the county council’s budget.  Mr Hill stated that there was a wide variation between the percentage of post mortems carried out in different parts of the county and he would expect the Chief Coroner to look at consistence across the County.

 Library – Self Service

(9)       A Member mentioned the new self services system which he had seen in operation in Cornwall.  He stated that it worked very well and made the job of the Librarians more interesting.   Mr Hill undertook to supply a note informing Members of the roll out of self service.

The Youth County Council Election Results

(10)     Ms Edwards reported that there had been over 100 candidates for the recent Youth County Council Elections and that over 27,000 votes had been cast.  The successful candidates would be attending a residential event in January and would set the agenda for the year at their first meeting in February 2011.    It was agreed that there should be a report on the work of the Youth County Council to a future meeting of the Committee and it was suggested that Members take the opportunity to observe meetings of the Youth County Council

Forward Plan - Edenbridge Centre

(11)     In relation to the Edenbridge Centre, Mr Hill confirmed that the planning phase had been completed and that the developer would begin on site in March 2011.  He suggested that the Committee should receive a paper on this in 6 months, to see what could be learned from this example of developing a Community Centre with a large number of partners on green belt land. 

(12)     RESOLVED that the update be noted.