Agenda item

The Executive Member for Neighbourhoods will be in attendance to provide an update on his portfolio.  

The Chair welcomed the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods and the Head of Neighbourhoods to the meeting and invited the Executive Member to deliver his update.

The Executive Member advised the Board that a copy of his portfolio had been circulated to Members immediately before the meeting.

The Executive Member’s update included the following points:

•         The Executive Member had been in post since 2025 with many of the functions contained within the portfolio having had existed for some time.

•         This was a busy period for the Neighbourhoods team which had seen the recruitment of several staff following approval of the budget and work with external partners such as Belong in developing a community strategy.

At this point the Executive Member invited the Head of Communities to address Members which included the following points:

•         An important part of the Communities area was work around Navigators which played an important role in signposting people to relevant services.

•         A range of staff had been recruited to relevant posts.

A Member commented that the Neighbourhoods team worked well and wanted to see this continue. An explanation of the Neighbourhood Caretaker role was provided. While Area Care operatives were multidisciplinary and carried out routine maintenance, Neighbourhood Caretakers were involved, primarily, in project primarily.

A Member queried if a poster on the work of Neighbourhood Navigators had been completed. It was agreed that the Head of Neighbourhoods would follow up on this with the Member outside of the meeting. It was clarified that different areas had different neighbourhood priorities.

A discussion took place about roles in the Neighbourhood’s teams and how issues were reported to them via the Councillor Gateway system. It was commented that the Neighbourhood’s Model and Customer Model were closely linked, and it was important to understand how those links worked to ensure issues were not missed. The Head of Neighbourhoods commented that the current system was useful in capturing and processing information.

A Member queried the status of new community buildings. It was clarified there was to be four neighbourhood community hubs that would be open for residents, Councillors, officers and partners. The hubs would be based in the North, South, East and West of the town. Members also noted that the North hub, based in Newport, was operational. There was a programme of investing £5 million of upgrades to the hubs. The East hub was based in Norfolk Shops, South hub was based in the Viewley Centre, and the West hub was based in Grove Hill. Several important partners worked out of the hubs.

In terms of refurbishment timescales, the South hub would take 14 weeks starting in May 2026, with East starting in August 2026 and lasting 20 weeks, North starting in October 2026 lasting 26 weeks and West starting in late 2026.

A Member complimented the Neighbourhoods Team but commented that responsiveness of the Councillor Gateway system could be improved.

It was commented there was a disconnect between Members and the workings of the various Neighbourhoods Teams and requested a Member briefing explain this and the work of Neighbourhood Navigators. The Head of Neighbourhoods undertook to deliver a Member’s briefing on this subject.

Following a question on the subject, it was confirmed that the Council made use of community payback.

The Chair thanked the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods and the Head if Neighbourhoods for their update.

AGREED that

1.     The Head of Neighbourhoods deliver a Member briefing on the role of Neighbourhoods teams.

2.     The information presented be noted.