To receive any Apologies for Absence.

Apologies for Absence were received from Liz Kelsall, Claire Watson and Dean Yorke.

The Chairman welcomes all to Forum.

The Chairman welcomed all to the Forum. The Chairman thank Lisa Hughes for Chairing the last Forum.

The Chairman informed the Forum that Lisa Hughes had delivered a presentation to the Local Access Forum on Public Rights of Way and Accessibility for People with Disabilities. The outcome was the formation of a new small working party which would provide recommendations to the Local Access Forum and the Local Rights of Way Improvement Plan which was a statutory document.

Lisa Hughes had also attended the Planning and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel and had asked councillor’s and officers why the “Equal Opportunities Policy” in both the current and proposed Housing Allocation Policy excluded 7 of the 9 groups with protected characteristics in the Equality Act. People with disabilities were one of the missing groups. Russell O’Keefe assured the Panel that the Housing Allocation Policy did meet all its legal requirements but the wording of the Equal Opportunities would be changed to include all groups with protected characteristics. In a supplementary question Lisa was able to establish that Housing request forms ask applicants whether they wish to declare a disability.

Lisa Hughes, Peter Hayley and the Chairman has met with Barbara Richardson about the temporary ShopMobility arrangements.

To agree the minutes of the last Forum.

The minutes of the meeting on 10 September 2018 were Unanimously Agreed. This was proposed by Tim Clare and seconded by Peter Haley.

The order of items on the Agenda had been changed.

4.5 Leisure Centres Update – Braywick and Oaks

Kevin Mist, Community Project Lead, updated the Forum on the Braywick Leisure Centre. A newsletter was handed out to all Forum Members. The update included the following points:

·         Work had started on the foundations at the site.

·         240 car parking spaces would be handed over in Jan/Feb 2019 and this would ease congestion at weekends in the Braywick Leisure Centre area.

·         The build of the leisure centre could be watched on the web address on the newsletter.

·         Currently the team were working through the final stages of the fixed price contract with Wates.

·         Kevin Mist confirmed that there had been no compromise on any of the previous points to do with access. There was a large fixed lift.

·         The Braywick Leisure Centre was approximately 25% larger than the current Magnet Leisure Centre. This was mainly because of the two additional lanes in the swimming pool and the additional size of the training rooms.

·         The Forum enquired about the disabled parking spaces and were content after Kevin Mist showed the Forum the plans.

·         There were no changes to the pool lift.

·         There was a changing places facility with access from the corridor (dry access) and the swimming pool (wet access). The Forum commented that this was the way it was at Wycombe Leisure Centre and it worked really well.

Oaks Leisure Centre

Kevin Mist updated the Forum that the council had gone through the stage 2 and the design had been sent to the public locally, it still needed assessment by the planners. The stage 3 process was to commission Wates. All the best practice and lessons learnt had been transferred from Braywick Leisure Centre and had been applied to Oaks Leisure Centre. Currently officers were in the process of developing the budget. The planning application could possibly be presented at Panel before Christmas.

Kevin Mist thanked the Forum for all of their input.

4.9 Using Direct Payments to employ PA

Louise Kerfoot, Head of integrated learning disability services, Optalis, attended the Forum to answer any questions and share any information that the Forum required. The Chairman explained that the Forum wanted further information of why the Nuways Agency had been dismissed as it was good source for doing all DBS checks and training. Louise Kerfoot informed the Forum that there had not been a high call for Pas and the care agencies that were used assisted to find Pas. Tim Clare added that there was no guidance available on working conditions, no advice, no training but thankfully insurance was still available. Louise Kerfoot agreed with the Forum that there was no one person in post to give information. Louise Kerfoot assured the Forum that she would gather relevant information on this area and send to the Forum through the Clerk. Louise Kerfoot agreed that it would be useful to have all the information in one place, which would make it easier for residents to find information. AfC does this really well  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71.

5.1 Housing Policy for people of all ages

Russell O’Keefe, Interim Managing Director, informed the Forum that strategic planning for new houses was currently being carried out. Ashley Smith, Deputy Head of Planning  noted that the AAF had raised a concern with the emerging Borough Local Plan that 5% of accessible housing was insufficient for the number of residents with disabilities. The policy was not specific to young people, ”specialist needs” was a plan for an ageing population. If there was evidence for further need then it would be planned for.

5.2 Pinkneys Green proposed polling Station

Lisa Hughes updated the Forum on the Pinkneys Green proposed polling station. The AAF had not formally been consulted so thanked the Forum Members for their speedy responses. These had all been submitted. A second consultation was due to take place between 23 November and 14 December 2018. A decision on the final scheme would be made by the end of December 2018 and Council would approve the changes at a meeting in January 2019.

Councillor Hollingsworth informed the Forum that the Pinkneys Green polling station would be moving back to its original station location.

Forum Members to note the date of the next Forum was to be 25 March 2018.

Forum Members noted the date of the next Forum was 25 March 2019.