Agenda and minutes

Everyone present introduced themselves in turn.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Church and Mike Kitchen.

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 March 2008 were agreed.

Andrew referred to paragraph 3 of item 10 of the March minutes regarding sperm donation.  Andrew advised that as agreed a letter had been sent and a satisfactory response had been received from the company’s Medical Director.  As such the letter from the Forum had achieved the desired effect in raising awareness that the company were acting unlawfully and now the company were getting all donors to be looked at on a case by case basis.  It was agreed that this item would be placed on the agenda for the next meeting for a further update.

T Harvey then referred to the final paragraph in the March minutes under any other business. This had advised that further to the last meeting discussions had taken place where it had been decided that it would be more appropriate for the sex workers issue to be considered outside of this Forum.  T Harvey asked what action had been taken and questioned this move to discuss the issue outside of this Forum.  It was noted that this had been taken out of the LGB context to be dealt with separately as it was not specifically an LGB issue. Councillor Glynane advised that following a separate meeting with T.Harvey the matter had been passed onto Overview and Scrutiny to consider whether it could be included in its work plan.  He stated that he would ask the chair of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee to write to T Harvey accordingly.  He could not say when this matter would be dealt with by Overview & Scrutiny Committee as issues relating to them were theirs to decide as they see fit.

T Harvey then asked when elections for co-chair would be taking place for this Forum.  It was noted that this would be in the Autumn.

S Katz was present for this item.  She stated that there was an external consultant looking at validating the assessment for Northampton Borough Council and all was on track for attaining Level 3.  She explained that there was now a new framework which would focus on five areas of management.  A workshop on equalities had been held the previous day attended by senior management, the Leader of the Council and the Portfolio Holder.  She went on to explain that previously Equalities had 43 competencies that had to be achieved.  However under the new framework this would be reduced to 26 and they would be sharper and more focused.  A consultation period was running until 16 August and she stated that any of the Forums who did not fit into this timeframe to receive a presentation would be notified by e-mail.  She then referred to self-assessment and commented that for the forthcoming year there would be at least 100 areas that would be impact assessed and those findings used to develop services that were required.  As part of the consultation the community at large would be consulted.

In terms of the county a report was due to be submitted to the county’s Cabinet saying where there were gaps.

It was noted that this item had been placed on the agenda of this meeting to give an update in terms of gay venues in the town.  General comment was made that Northampton was not very successful in maintaining gay venues and recently it had been indicated that Route 69 no longer wished to be a gay venue.  Andrew commented that it was probably all to do with commercial viability.

P Colhoun gave an update on hate crimes drawing attention to a couple of recent assaults upon which he elaborated.

Some discussion then ensued in terms of CCTV coverage in the town.  It  was noted that there were over 450 CCTV cameras within the Borough.  Tom asked the question as to whether those who managed the CCTV had equality and diversity training.

A further discussion then ensued in terms of disablist crimes following a comment from T Harvey regarding the SWAN workers project.  It was noted that a discussion had taken place at the Disabled Peoples Forum the previous week when feedback from the Disability Hate Crimes Conference had been given by Tom.  Concerns had been expressed about the lack of disablist matters which were reported and the comment had been made that in some cases a person’s disability might be both the reason for being targeted and also appeared to be the reason for no action being taken if it impacted on their ability to give a full account of what had happened or what they had witnessed.  This issue was due to be discussed more fully at a future meeting of the Disabled Peoples Forum.

Stuart Docker was present to speak on this item.  He referred to the discussion on this matter at the meeting before last and stated that he had been invited to this meeting to give an update on the works which were progressing very well.  He circulated a plan showing concept proposals that had been produced for the area.  He elaborated upon the works that had been completed to date which included a new gateway feature at the entrance to Beckets Park.  Other proposals included improved lighting and improved cycle access through the park.  There was a desire to create a green corridor to link Beckets Park through with Delapre Abbey.  Other proposals included improvements to the Sea Cadets facility, removal of the existing embankment between the park and Morrisons to improve access, the creation of a new high quality skateboard/BMX park with facilities and shelter, the creation of a new marina with moorings.  In all sixteen new proposals were earmarked for the area.

In terms of funding this was dependent upon developer contributions.  WNDC were keen to see that the infrastructure was in first so that this was all in place when the land was ultimately developed.  Tom commented that these proposals would change the existing informal socialisations of the area and that this was possibly something that needed to be looked at in the future and it was important not to lose sight of this.  In response to a question from Andrew regarding timescales it was noted that the infrastructure was going in but that it was difficult to be specific about timescales as this was down to English Partnerships.

Andrew advised of a forthcoming festival at the Forum Cinema and was pleased that the Borough Council was continuing to support the Festival.  He stated that he would advise of dates etc in due course.

L Ambrose advised that the IDAHO the International Day had proved to be a well supported event with more people turning up than the previous year.  This year the county had expressed a wish to be included more in the event and as such the group had processed from the flagpole under the Guildhall steps to the flagpole at the County Council.

It was noted that items for the agenda for the September meeting would include:-

(1)       Mental Health Services Commissioning and Needs of LGB Community

(2)            Presentation of Northamptonshire Charter Health & Wellbeing.  With regard to this item it was agreed that a representative from the LAA or someone from the Board who was launching this initiative could be invited to attend.  L Ambrose undertook to look into this.

10 Sept,6 Nov 08 and 8 Jan,12 March,21 April,16 June 09.

It was noted that the next meeting was scheduled for 10 September at 6.30pm.  That future meetings were scheduled for 6 November 2008, 8 January, 12 March, 21 April and 16 June 2009.

The meeting was concluded at 8.25pm.