Present: Councillor A Wilkie (Chairman) (Cotgrave Town Council), Councillor E Woolsey (Cotgrave Town Council), PC John Reason (Nottingham Police), Catherine Sowter (Rushcliffe Borough Council), Councillor Eric Woolsey (Cotgrave Town Council), Phil Smith (The Hot Bread Shop), Councillor Christine Jeffreys (Cotgrave Town Council), Hilary Strasburger (Notts County Council - Libraries), Gina Hudspeth (Cotgrave Town Council), Kath Drakes (Resident), Paul Goodman (Cotgrave Candleby Lane School).

Apologies: Councillor Bryan Tansley (Cotgrave Town Council), Steve Gardener, Ann Ellis (Cotgrave Town Council), Councillor Richard Butler (Cotgrave Town Council), Insp Jeff Haywood (Nottingham Police), Carola Jones (RCAN), Peter Meadows (HCA), Peter Cook (Notts County Council – Youth Services)

The meeting was chaired by Councillor Andrew Wilkie and was held in Studio 4 of the Leisure Centre and commenced at 7.30 pm.

215 Resolved : "That the minutes of the meeting held on 18^th November 2009 be received and confirmed as a true record".

Cllr Wilkie welcomed all to the meeting, he explained that he is still recovering from very successful surgery. Cllr Jeffreys stated that she was glad to see him back, but said that he was not to push himself too hard and therefore, set himself back in his recovery.

The Chairman thanked Gordon Marsh for picking up the reins during his absence.

Cllr Jeffreys asked if Minute 213 could be amended to state that the amount Cllr Jeffries has access to is a maximum of £500 that she can spend annually in the community. She is not sure where Dean Daws got the figure of £3,000 from and would like to see this amended.

Community Clean Up will be taking place on the 9^th April. Cllr Jeffreys expressed how the last community clean up was very successful as it took place near to the forest. She asked if we could also make the community aware that the Borough will take unwanted items away, instead of them being dumped. Everyone at the meeting agreed that Streetwise were very good in Cotgrave. Catherine Sowter gave out leaflets/posters for the event and explained that she had received some good response and lots of people were already aware of the event. The plan is to start at 10am from the Welfare and then in conjunction with Streetwise staff be pointed in the direction of ‘hot spots’; if the volunteers then returned back to the Welfare at about 1pm, there will be food available. If any members of the community had an areas of concern that they would like to see cleaned, then they can email the information to Catherine Sowter. The schools are getting involved in this activity. Cllr Jeffreys asked if the Cadets were getting involved and if other local groups within the community had been informed such as the WI. Cllr Jeffreys and Kath Drakes took some posters/leaflets. It was also asked if this notice could also go up on Town Council notice boards. Cllr Wilkie expressed thanks to Catherine Sowter for bringing this event into the Community.

The deadline for the Connections is Friday 19^th March, if anyone has any information, events that they would like the community to be aware of, they can email the information to Jane Pick.

Hilary Strasburger informed all present that there is an event running on Saturday in the library called ‘All about me – Scrapbook Workshop’ this is running from 10am till 12noon. It is all part of the Storyfest event running through March.

All members present were asked to look at the Community Emergency Plan document, when you first look at the document it does seem daunting. This has been bought to the meeting to see if people who attend would like to take on roles within the plan, otherwise the plan will fall back to the Town Council; which has limited resources. As there are not that many people attending this meeting; it was suggested that it be bought back to the next meeting, when hopefully more people will attend.

Cllr Jeffreys asked if there could be a public meeting, possibly at the Welfare to get as many people as possible involved and try and gain people’s expertise. We do need to have people with allocated roles within the plan such as where the food is; where fresh water is kept; blankets etc. Cotgrave Town Council is tasked with developing and expanding the plan. If we could possibly have this meeting after Easter, giving people plenty of notice.

Cllr Eric Woolsey suggested that the first stage is to have a small group of people who could canvass other people before going to a big open meeting. People are willing to be canvassed and become involved, we might struggle to find the right people from an open meeting.

Cotgrave Town Council needs to investigate this further and then write up the plan, then it will be possible to put names in boxes who could come forward and help with the plan, once they know what they are volunteering for. At the moment in the back of peoples’ minds are the local elections, which may slow this process down. In reality the plan is something that could take up to a year to develop properly. We can put something together that could not be very practical if rushed. The plan is something that is on the Council’s horizon and once we get more involved in to it; it may not be as complicated as it first appears.

It was agreed that this would be discussed further at the next meeting and be taken to Full Council for discussion before organising an open meeting to get names in the frame.

Cllr Andrew Wilkie introduced Catherine Sowter to the meeting. Catherine explained that she is in the process of setting up a community group to lead the Area Base Initiative (ABI). She asked if any people present would like to become involved in this project; she has tried to get people involved but needs a few more. At the moment there are approximately 6 people involved in the Community Group, but as there are only a few people at the Forum, it is probably not the best time to ask for volunteers. Cllr Christine Jeffreys offered to help; although she did explain she was not sure how she could help; she suggested getting younger people involved. Catherine explained that there would be training for people who became involved in the group with chairing meetings, budgets etc. Cllr Christine Jeffreys offered to chair the meetings. Cllr Andrew Wilkie explained that a few years ago they had ‘Street Meetings’ at hot spots in Cotgrave; he wondered if this was something that could be used again as they did have some success with this. You could notify the public by sending information to houses stating a time and date and specific location.

It was suggested that Catherine could get the local School Council’s involved with the ABI and see how they feel within the community and see how school life can be affected. If we get the schools involved the children can then ‘pester’ their parents/carers. Children state that teenagers are their biggest problem, which equates to the rest of the community. The perception we have is if there is half a dozen ‘hoodies’ on the precinct or congregating anywhere else; then they are causing problems.

Cllr Christine Jeffreys also expressed concern over the growing number of big dogs, who are leaving excrement all over Cotgrave. Catherine Sowter explained that at the same time as the Community Clean Up there will be a dog fouling campaign running; as dog fouling is on the increase. Both Cllr Christine Jeffreys and Kath Drakes stated that Hollygate Lane has lots of rubbish and dog fouling and suggested this as an area for the clean up campaign.

Gina Hudspeth passed on some information from Peter Cook – Youth Services. It was explained to all at the meeting that the post Matthew Simpson held has not been filled as of yet; although they have the name of the person who will be filling this post. His name is Matthew Trickett and he will start work at the beginning of May subject to satisfactory references. On Mondays the youth service are working with between 40-50 young people at Cotgrave Candleby Lane School; on Tuesday there is the Youth Forum which comprises of approximately 9 girls; they have just submitted an application for a grant for the Bridge Festival, and they have met with the Consultants with regards to the possible re-development of the precinct. On a Friday evening they have a youth worker working along side the Police on an initiative called ‘Stay Safe’; where the youth workers will try and engage with the young people and give them information about drink, drugs etc. On a Thursday evening they have a detached youth work session which is about giving support to the young people; they will get more involved in projects once Matthew Trickett is onboard. Peter also wanted to express that he is very happy to meet with any Councillors/members of the Forum to discuss their roles and plans in more detail; if they would like to contact him.

Paul Goodman from Cotgrave Candleby Lane School introduced himself to the Forum and explained that he has a non-teaching role within the school and his job title is Community and Income Lead. He is leading on community cohesion with pupils having contact with their local community and the global community and how the pupils can contribute to these. He explained that schools has extended services and that it operates out of school hours to provide facilities for the community. Paul is also responsible for raising income for the school; he explained that the school is in the process of converting an old caretakers bungalow into a recording/media centre and he hopes that this will become an asset of the community. The school also has a farming and gardening space, which hopefully will be developed, the school are currently looking for funding for this project. Paul informed the meeting that the Citizens Advice Bureau is based in the school on a Thursday afternoon, but the funding for this is disappearing; he asked if any members had any thoughts on how this service can be kept within the community.

Paul is also managing a new extended schools curriculum called CLES; this is to develop new life skills. The school will close down its traditional school life on a Monday afternoon and the pupils will be encouraged to engage in various projects to gain life skills. People from companies, police, PCT and other organisations will be bought into the school and explain to the pupils how they can help and develop the community by working alongside the pupils. Each session will run for 8 weeks and at the end of each term there will be a celebration event to show the parents/community the developments the pupils have made.

Catherine Sowter stated that she would have some contacts that Paul could use and she would email them to him. Paul expressed his thanks and said that he would like also to explore links with the library.

Cllr Christine Jeffreys asked if the facilities at the school are being used during the school holidays? Paul explained that the school is trying to become a community facility and open when the community requires it to be open. They are trying to see if this can be done as it is a stipulation in the planning permission

Cllr Christine Jefferys said that she had read in the Evening Post that some chickens had been incinerated and wanted to know if anyone knew where this had taken place? Kath Drakes stated it was near Stragglethorpe.

The date of the next meeting was confirmed as 23/06/10

The meeting closed at 8.30pm as the Vice Chairman expressed thanks for all who attended.