Agenda and draft minutes

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Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for absence and declarations of interest

To receive any apologies and declarations of interest.

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Youth Councillors T Brown, R Davey and W Evans.

 

2.

Minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 64 KB

To consider the minutes of the previous meeting.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meetings held on 11 December were agreed as a true and correct record.

 

3.

Digital Forum

To discuss the proposal for a ‘Digital Forum’ to enable the Youth Council and local young people to contribute their ideas relating to the future Garden Communities.  

Minutes:

Following the success of the Housing Seminar in demonstrating the willingness of young people to engage with the planning process, the Youth Council had been asked by the Planning Policy Project Manager to develop the idea of a Digital Forum. This forum would give young people the platform to share ideas and thoughts on various issues, particularly regarding future housing and development, and could be fed back into the formal planning process to give young people a voice.

 

It was agreed that the Housing Working Group would pick up this work and progress the concept of a Digital Forum.

 

The Youth Council discussed the Digital Forum, and the following ideas were raised:

 

·         How to register – to ensure only the correct demographic could participate, registration flyers would be handed out in schools. The flyers would display a unique code, so only those who had been given a flyer could sign up to the forum.

·         Incentives would be used to encourage people to register and participate.

·         The forum would be used to encourage debate, canvass opinion and provide information.

·         Surveys and polls could be carried out, with the information being fed back to the Council to demonstrate the views of young people.

·         The forum could include a news feed, linked to the activity of the Youth Council.

 

Councillor Birkbeck, who had written the report on the Housing Seminar, said he would compile a list of requests to pass on to the Planning Policy Project Manager who would be working on the forum. He asked Members to send him any further ideas via email.

 

The Chairman said the Planning Policy Project Manager would be invited to the next youth Council meeting to provide an update.

 

4.

Constitution pdf icon PDF 253 KB

To consider proposed amendments to the Youth Council’s constitution.

Minutes:

Councillor Ataparmakova updated the Youth Council on the proposed changes to the Constitution. Changes had been to proposed to elections, the definition of quoroum, the reward system, deputies and substitues and term limits. 

 

It was agreed to make the amendments proposed by the Constitution Working Group and send it to the Assistant Director – Governance and Legal Services for checking. It would then come back to the next Youth Council meeting for consideration, before being sent to Full Council for final approval.

5.

Housing Working Group pdf icon PDF 89 KB

To receive an update from the Housing Working Group, with reference to the progress made following the Housing Seminar on 1 December 2018.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Birkbeck updated members on the progress of the Housing Work Group. He said he and the Chairman had met the Planning Policy Project Manager and discussed the aforementioned concept of a Digital Forum, as well as the suggestion to appoint a Youth Councillor to the Community Forums for the proposed Garden Community settlements.

 

He added that he intended to take a report regarding the Housing Working Group to Full Council on 9 April.

 

6.

Working Groups

To receive any updates relating to the Youth Council’s working groups.

Minutes:

Mental Health

 

Councillor F Wolter said the Mental Health Working Group had been busy contacting primary schools to canvass opinion on the subject of mental health. They had also contacted a theatrical group who went into schools and did work revolving around issues effecting young people.

 

The Chairman thanked the group for their work.

 

Communications

 

Councillor Ataparmakova said the Youth Council now had accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and the Communications Working Group had been making posts to these platforms.

 

Police Working Group

 

Councillor Balchin suggested establishing a Police Working Group. Councillors Hackett, Smith and Perry showed interest although there was difficulty in agreeing to where the meeting should be held.

 

The Community Officer said taxis could be arranged to provide transport to meetings but he would need to be contacted to make the bookings.      

 

7.

AOB

Minutes:

Members asked why pizza was no longer provided at Youth Council meetings. As many councillors had come straight from school, and could be here as late as 8.00pm, they felt it was important that hot food was available.

 

The Community Officer said sandwiches and fruit were on offer.

 

The Youth Council unanimously agreed to have pizza at their next meeting and asked for this to be noted. 

 

 

8.

Date of next meeting

The next meeting of the Youth Council has been scheduled for 7 March 2019.

Minutes:

Members agreed to reschedule the meeting on 7 March 2019 to 26 March 2019.

 

 

The meeting ended at 6.45pm.