Let's Talk Together Meetings

The last Sandy/ Biggleswade meeting was held on  20th October 2011.

On the 22nd March 2012 I discovered that these meeting were being reviewed:

_______________________________________________________________

We’re currently reviewing Let’s Talk Together meetings, and we’d like to hear your views.

If you’ve been to a Let’s Talk Together event, please complete one of the evaluation questionnaires below by 3 February 2012.

• If you’ve attended as a member of the public click here
• If you’ve attended as a representative of a partner organisation or as a representative of a Town or Parish Council, click here
• If you’ve attended as a Ward Councillor / Member, click here

If you’ve got any questions about Let’s Talk Together, or about any other aspect of community engagement, please contact:

Sarah Hughes

Community Engagement Manager

Central Bedfordshire Council

Telephone: 0300 300 8000

 

____________________________________________________

 

I have since discovered that The Customer & Central Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee met on the 27th February 2012 to discuss the issue.

 

The Deputy Executive Member for Corporate Resources presented his report,which summarised the Member Task Force review of the Let’s Talk Together (LTT) meetings, run by the Central Bedfordshire Together Partnership. The report looked at actual delivery, attendance levels and outcomes to date and analysed the role of the meetings in the context of local and national policy, as well as feedback from partners. The report concluded with a number of options as well as a specific recommendation for future delivery frequency and format for consideration by the Committee.

 

Members of the Committee discussed the contents of the report in detail and made a number of comments and observations regarding the following issues:

·

The poor attendance by members of the public;

·

The fact that members of the public have many other opportunities to meet with ward councillors (e.g. at Town Committees & Councillor Surgeries) and that the Council regularly engages with its residents regarding specific consultations (e.g. the budget);

·

An acknowledgement that issue based meetings were more popular than the non-specific LTT format;

·

The need to consider LTT participation at Town & Parish Council Annual General Meetings (AGMs) in addition to attendance at major events such as festivals, fairs and fetes, etc;

·

The need for the Police and other partners to take a lead on face to face engagement;

·

The importance of the Council actively seeking out the public (i.e. at major events) rather than expecting the public to come to it (i.e. at LTT meetings); and

·

The fact that the Council is actively encouraging residents to help themselves via for instance website self service, which perhaps reduces the need for LTT meetings.

 

At the end of the debate, the Committee stated a preference for LTT meetings to “piggyback” existing major community events and Town & Parish Council AGMs, supplemented by a “rapid response” team to deliver ad hoc meetings when important and topical local issues arose.

RECOMMENDATION:

That the Central Bedfordshire Together partnership be advised that this Committee would prefer future LTT meetings to “piggyback” existing major community events and Town & Parish Council AGMs, supplemented by a “rapid response” team to deliver ad hoc meetings when important and topical local issues arose.