Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Borough Councillors K Barnsley, D Birtwhistle, S Cowman, C McFall, S O’Rourke and M Robinson.

Apologies were also received from R Porter of Chatburn Parish Council and M Hacking of Read Parish Council.

The minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2023 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any disclosable pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interest in respect of matters contained in the agenda.

There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interests.

Presentation on the new Policing Model that came into force in June 2023

Sergeant Kevin Day gave a presentation on the new policing model that has been adopted in the Ribble Valley.  It was noted that the change marked an end to the hybrid policing model where officers were performing both neighbourhood and response roles.

Sgt Day outlined that under the new model there will be a dedicated response team and a separate neighbourhood policing team.  The response team will operate 24hours per day and will be composed of dedicated Ribble Valley officers.  The neighbourhood team will also now have an additional four community beat managers, who will be working alongside the PCSO’s.

The role of the rural task force was outlined and it was confirmed that they will be getting an additional officer, to bring their number to five.

Sgt Day answered questions from Committee and advised that Clitheroe police station is now open Mondays – Fridays from 9am – 1pm.  He further confirmed that officers would continue to attend Parish Council meetings, as long as they have been provided with details of the meeting dates.

Presentation by Jackie Moran

Jackie Moran, the Integrated Place Leader for East Lancashire gave a presentation on the introduction to the new Places in Lancashire and South Cumbria and the Lancashire Place journey to date.

The presentation covered the following:

1. Providing an update on the new system arrangements, and specifically, the development of the new Lancashire Place

2. Providing an update on the emerging arrangements for the East Lancashire  locality.

3. Consideration of some of the big questions / areas for development and a timeframe for next steps.

Jackie Moran then listened to concerns raised and answered various questions from the Committee.  She confirmed her hope that Place could influence local policy and re-iterated the importance of training and technology going forward. 

Jackie’s message was that Place Initiative is striving to achieve the best outcomes for the best value and that they are seeking for improvements for residents.

Report of the Chief Executive enclosed

The Chief Executive submitted a report informing Committee about the provisions of the Elections Act 2022 which were due to come into force.

Members were reminded that the Elections Act 2022 had made a range of changes to electoral law and processes, and the first tranche of changes had included the introduction of Voter ID and new accessibility requirements which were implemented for the elections in May 2023. The second tranche of changes would come into force in advance of the May 2024 polls relating to:

·         Absent Voting

·         Overseas elections

·         EU citizens’ voting and candidacy rights

·         Postal vote handling and secrecy and commonly used names

The changes would apply to the following types of elections:

·         UK Parliamentary elections in Great Britain

·         Local Elections in England – including mayoral elections

·         Police and Crime Commissioner elections in England and Wales

Further details and the implications of the above changes were explained in the report.

Discussion also took place around voter ID for elections, publicity for the changes and ensuring that people are voting in the correct ward.

The Director of Economic Development and Planning submitted a report providing Committee with a summary of all the different grant types that are administered by the Housing Team.

RURAL ENGLAND PROSPERITY FUND (REPF)

The Partnership Officer informed Committee that Ribble Valley Borough Council were now inviting expressions of interest for the REPF grant programme.  The scheme is for capital projects and grants of up to £50,000 are available to eligible organisations.

It was noted that all relevant information and criteria for the scheme was on the Council’s website.

HARP

The Chief Executive provided an update as to the current position, advising that work was underway to create the legal agreements required in order for the project to commence. 

He confirmed that Council officers were more than happy to meet with Parish Councillors to discuss HARP.  In addition, there would be a Community Liaison Officer appointed who could attend Parish Council meetings and the creation of a Community Board, consisting of officers from RVBC and LCC, United Utilities and other statutory undertakers. 

The Chairman informed the committee that the next meeting would be on 9November 2023 at 6.30pm.