Herts County Council locality budget scheme

This scheme has now been published.

HCC has summarised it as follows:

Summary of the scheme

It is based on two principles…
Funding must be used for purposes which promote the social, economic or environmental wellbeing of Hertfordshire
Locality Budgets cannot be used for things contrary to HCC policies or things that are illegal
There is £10,000 per member, from July 2009, which needs to be spent in 2009-10
In normal circumstances an organisation requests a grant, members review all the requests received in a three month period and make recommendations. However in exceptional circumstances you can recommend an emergency payment before the three months is complete
The Chief Legal Officer has overall responsibility for the scheme. Her role will be to ensure that the proposals meet the principles of the scheme, not to express views on the quality or viability of any proposal.

Locality budgets …What is allowed
Members may initiate grants for funds within their Divisions (though payment must be to organisations
capital or revenue projects
an activity outside the division if people from within benefit
There are no limits to the size of grant within the £10,000 .
Pooling of budgets
Grants can be given to something that is already happening if there are still activities which require funding
A grant may be given to fully or partly support a request.

Locality budgets …what’s not allowed
Funding after a project is fully completed
Can’t carry funding forward
ongoing revenue or capital commitment (though the same scheme in successive years could be supported as the result of a new grant)
For further details, go to:

http://www.hertsdirect.org/yrccouncil/councillors/localitybudgetscheme09/

Please get in touch if you are interested in applying.

Swine flu update: note from District Council

Swine Flu
Weekly Briefing for Members

Monday 6 July 2009

The Council continues to work with the local Primary Care Trust and other partners and to assess the position on an on-going basis, and weekly at the Chief Executive’s Board meeting.

Planning for the activation of antiviral collection points continues (note that Watford activated an antiviral collection point last weekend (27/28 June).

Council personnel policies and procedures are being reviewed to cater for a pandemic scenario within the St Albans area, should that be necessary.

Latest figures show:

Countries infected: 116
Confirmed cases globally: 70893 including 311 deaths
Confirmed cases UK: 6538 including 3 confirmed deaths
Confirmed case East of England: 326
Confirmed cases Hertfordshire 57 (Herts PCT stats – last updated 26/6/09)

The Department of Health and the Health Protection Agency (HPA) have identified several areas in the UK where there is now widespread community transmission of swine flu – these are sometimes referred to as ‘hotspots’. Watford, Luton and Bedford are identified as hotspots. The latest West Hertfordshire PCT statement (see http://www.wherts-pct.nhs.uk/Content.asp?id=SXB127-A77F8085&cat=1375) reports that hotspot areas now include the Watford, Three Rivers and Hertsmere district council areas.

Councillors may wish to note that advice for faith groups is that ‘in a pandemic, it makes good sense to take precautions to limit the spread of disease by not sharing common vessels for food and drink.’ The email address for further information and specific enquiries on this subject is emergenciesmanagement@communities.gsi.gov.uk.

The HPA continues to watch for antiviral resistance and will be carrying out regular sample testing throughout this outbreak. An HPA press release on this subject can be found at http://www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAweb&HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1246345135429

Update on market licence application

The hearing to consider the application is to be held on 21st July 2009
at 2.00pm. The market manager has amended the application as follows:

All licensable activities will cease at 22.00
Opening times reduced until 22.30
No additional hours requested for Christmas and New Year
Residential Streets removed
Agree to EHO conditions
Agree to a condition stating that “permission for all events involving
on sales of alcohol or large scale events will only be granted with
prior consultation and permission from the Licensing Section,
Hertfordshire Constabulary and Environmental Health.

Market Place Licensing Application

Note from council licensing officer

I have been asked to send you a brief summary of the market application.
There are objections from the public to this application and the
consultation period ends on 30th June 2009. A licensing sub committee
hearing will then be convened to consider the application. Public
notices were displayed in line with the correct procedure for
notification of premises licences applications. Details of the
application have been on our website in the on-line licensing section
for the past three weeks and copies of the application sent to all
members of the licensing committee in line with the notification
procedures. I have also discussed the application with Councillor Pia
and Councillor Willcocks.

An application for a premises licence for the market area has been made
by the markets manager for St Albans City and District Council. There
are a number of reasons for the application which would, if granted,
make the markets manager the licence holder for the market area.
Currently, temporary event notices are required for events that are held
in the market area if they involve the selling of alcohol or some form
of entertainment. Only 12 temporary event notices can be granted each
year. We are close to that limit as requests are sometimes made to sell
alcohol at the monthly farmers’ market, the three Italian markets and
the three continental markets. In addition, the city also hosts one-off
entertainment events such as the St Albans Festival, at which alcohol is
sold and the Christmas Lights Switch On, at which alcohol is not offered
for sale. If granted, the application would mean that there will no
longer be a need to obtain individual temporary licences for these type
of events.

This arrangement would also give the council greater control over
temporary events. Under the current system only the police can object to
the granting of a temporary event notice, whereas, if the licence, is
granted then it will be up to the markets manager to grant permission
for the event after having obtained the prior agreement of the council’s
Licensing Section, the police and the Environmental Health Department.
In addition, the licence, if granted, would mean that buskers would have
to apply to the markets manager for permission to perform in the market
place. Currently, buskers can perform when and where they want. The aim
is to control and encourage street entertainment on market days, during
day-time hours only.

The licence application originally included some residential streets,
however, the markets manager has agreed to remove these.

Lesley Cameron
Principal Licensing Officer and (Home Counties Regional Chair of The
Institute of Licensing)
Licensing Section
Civic Centre
St Peter’s Street
St Albans
Herts
AL1 3JE
01727 819454
e-mail lesley.cameron@stalbans.gov.uk

Swine flu: Watford, Hertsmere and Three Rivers areas of ‘widespread community transmission’

Yesterday the Health Protection Agency announced that Watford, Hertsmere and Three Rivers have been designated as areas of “widespread community transmission”. In essence this means that attempts to contain the spread of the virus have had only a limited success and swine flu is now increasingly prevalent within the community – a situation we share with colleagues in the West Midlands, London, Luton and parts of Berkshire.

We are consulting with the HPA as to the practical implications of this announcement but we understand that this change of status may mean a different approach is taken to manage outbreaks in school, in that particular part of the county. Whilst local risk assessments will continue to be performed by the HPA and Head Teachers at each school associated with cases, we understand that closure will not normally be recommended unless there are some special circumstances. This reflects the opportunities for further exposures to occur in the community compared with areas where there is no significant community transmission.

Staff in CSF will continue to work closely with Head Teachers to try to minimise the impact on school activity of sickness absence amongst pupils and staff between now and the end of the school term.

From HCC’s perspective the likely consequences are:
less pressure on staff to find emergency child-care solutions (where schools might otherwise have closed)
potentially higher sickness absence from staff living and / or working in that part of the county
increased staff absence where carers need to stay at home to look after close family members who themselves catch swine flu.

All departments have recently refreshed their business continuity plans which should put us in a good position to deal with this situation and ensure that all HCC services can be delivered with the minimum of disruption.

Dates on which the county and district councils will jointly be ‘spring cleaning’ roads in the district

St Albans District Council and Hertfordshire County Council (Herts Highways) are joining forces to cleanse and repair heavily parked roads in our district. The dates in Central Division are shown below.

Clarence Road, St Albans 14/07/09-16/07/09
Hart Road, St Albans 15/07/09
Pageant Road, St Albans 15/07/09
Sopwell Lane, St Albans 15/07/09
Old London Road, St Albans 20/07/09
Grosvenor Road, St Albans 21/07/09-22/07/09
Bardwell Road, St Albans 23/07/09-24/07/09

Council magazine spending to be investigated

The Audit Commission said today it looks forward to discussing the scope of the review of council funding for local newspapers announced by the Culture Secretary, Ben Bradshaw.

The government yesterday unveiled its white paper ‘Digital Britain’ which raised concerns about the growth of councils’ own newspapers. The white paper said it might be ‘against the public interest’ if they attracted advertising revenue away from local papers in commercial ownership.

Mr Bradshaw said: ‘We are asking the Audit Commission to examine the practice of local authorities spending quite a lot of council tax payers’ money putting out free newspapers and, in the process, swallowing up a lot of local advertising that might otherwise go to local papers.’

A review by the Office of Fair Trading had already noted ‘the adverse impact on local newspapers of the increasing role of local authorities in taking paid advertising to support local authority information sheets.’ It was worried that, coupled with other pressures, this may make local commercial media unviable.

Audit Commission Chief Executive Steve Bundred said he would be discussing the breadth, timing and financing of the proposed piece of work with the Department of Culture Media and Sport. ‘The Audit Commission exists to assess value for money for the public purse, and enjoys the trust of ministers, councils and consumers in providing fair, objective assessments. Local news and council information are both valuable resources, and if we are invited to take on this study we will find out how they can co-exist in the fast-changing world of new media.’

The Digital Britain report says: ‘While local authority information sheets can serve a useful purpose for local residents and businesses, they will inevitably not be as rigorous in holding local institutions to account as independent local media … the Government is therefore inviting the Audit Commission to undertake a specific inquiry into the prevalence of this practice, its impact and to make recommendations on best practice and if restraints should be placed on local authority activity in this field.’

Swine flu update: note from District Council

Swine Flu

The Council is working with the local Primary Care Trust and other partners. The position continues to be assessed on an on-going basis, and weekly at the Chief Executive’s Board meeting. There has been an acceleration in the last week or so which is affecting how plans are developing. This also means that the figures below are susceptible to change.

Planning for the activation of antiviral collection points continues.

Council personnel policies and procedures are being reviewed to cater for a pandemic scenario within the St Albans area, should that be necessary.

Latest figures show:

Countries infected: 99
Confirmed cases globally: 49,646 including 230 deaths
Confirmed cases EU/EFTA: 4245
Confirmed cases UK: 2905
Confirmed case East of England: 101
Confirmed cases Hertfordshire 21

The latest West Hertfordshire PCT statement can be seen at http://www.wherts-pct.nhs.uk/Content.asp?id=SXBA17-A77F7FE9&cat=1375

One school in Hertfordshire, in Bushey, is closed. Two further schools, in Stevenage and St Albans have confirmed cases, but remain open.

There have been some minor modifications to the guidance to schools. While the local risk assessment process will still apply, where there is evidence of significant community transmission, closure of a school will not normally be recommended unless there are special circumstances.

There is evidence of sustained community transmission in the West Midlands, the Clyde Estuary and London.