These are draft minutes that have not yet been approved by the council.  The minutes are subject to change and will be confirmed at the next meeting.

C24/041 PRESENT

Councillors Hartley, Dalzell, McCulloch and Russell

A Keppel-Green (Town Clerk)

 

C24/042 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies were received from Cllrs Banks (civic business), Forrest and Watson (health) and

Gardiner (personal business)

 

C24/043 DECLARATIONS OF MEMBERS’ INTERESTS

Cllr Hartley declared a personal interest in C24/047 having attended their Heart Start training.

 

C24/044 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

No members of the public wished to address the committee.

 

C24/045 CONFIRMATION OF PREVIOUS MINUTES

It was RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the meeting held 30th September.

 

C24/046 REVIEW OF YEAR TO DATE INCOME AND EXPENDITURE

The income and expenditure year to date was noted.

 

C24/047 KNUTSFORD COMMUNITY FIRST RESPONDERS

The Chair and Secretary of the Knutsford Community Frist Responders Trust addressed the committee and gave an outline of their four key services: providing first responders, public defibrillators, CPR training and cardiac screening for the young. It was reported that since COVID the number of first responders has significantly reduced to just two, that the Heart Start course is run every month except January to increase confidence in using a defibrillator and providing CPR, 1,197 young people have had cardiac screening thanks to the trust and that the cost of each session where 100 people can be screened is £8,000.

The Trust further reported that a number of the defibrillator it maintains are now around 15 years old and reaching the end of their life. The Trust needs to develop a programme of replacing defibrillators over the coming years at a total cost of approximately £6,400 per year. It was noted the Trust had applied to the Town Council for a grant in its next funding round and the Trust also sought assistance from the council in publicising their activity.

 

C24/048 ASSETS OF COMMUNITY VALUE: NOMINATION OF PUBLIC HOUSES

A motion not to seek registration of the big six owned public houses as assets of community value and refer the request back to the resident was proposed and seconded and with the chairman’s casting vote, failed.

With the chairman’s casting vote, it was RESOLVED to coordinate applications to register the big six owned public houses as assets of community value.

 

C24/035 YOUTH SERVICES

It was RESOLVED to:

  1. Note the consultation report concluding the youth survey
  2. Endorse the recommendations therein, namely to:
    1. Undertake further engagement with young people to involve them in continued discussion about the design and delivery of new/additional services/activities.
    2. Undertake engagement with providers of youth services/activities to understand demand, capacity and reach. This will help understand capacity in existing provision and whether there are barriers to further reach.
    3. Establish a working group to develop a Knutsford Youth Strategy
  3. Establish a Knutsford Youth Strategy working group

It was further RESOLVED to appoint Cllrs Dalzell, Johnson and McCulloch to the working group.

 

C24/036 LIBRARY VOLUNTEER SCHEME

It was RESOLVED to introduce a volunteer library scheme to initially provide a Wednesday morning session, subject to the decisions of Cheshire East Council and ability to recruit a sufficient pool of volunteers.

 

C24/037 STRATEGIC PLAN

It was RESOLVED to approve the following actions for the 2025/26 action plan:

  • Implement specific actions from the [to be developed] St John’s Wood ward action plan.
  • Deliver a successful fifth ReFresh Knutsford community freshers fair
  • Agree actions to address issues arising from the [to be conducted] community group survey
  • Issue monthly new and community group e-newsletters
  • Develop the e-newsletter database to reach 2,500 resident subscribers [carried forward]
  • Subject to the outcome of the trials, host regular Mayor in the Market engagement
  • Opportunities
  • Trial councillor “ward walks”
  • Undertake further engagement with young people to develop a Knutsford Youth Strategy

The progress on actions in the current action plan was noted.

 

C24/038 OUTSTANDING MATTERS LOG

The log was noted.

It was RESOLVED that to undertake further discussion with Great Places regarding CCTV on the Longridge estate, seek a police attendance at the next committee meeting and consider the funding of additional CCTV cameras at the next meeting.

 

C24/039 QUESTIONS TO THE TOWN CLERK

The Town Clerk responded to questions advising that there is currently no conclusive date for when a new medical centre might be completed as it will be dependent on decisions of the ICB, that he had received no further correspondence from the Crown Estate nor Bruntwood with respect recent enquiries and that all members who had responded to a recent email regarding the Bluebell Village development were of a consistent opinion.

 

C24/040 DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING

It was noted that the next scheduled meeting would be held on 3rd February 2025 at 7pm.