Document Community Centres

Community Centres Task and Finish Group The objective of this Task and Finish Group was to support the development of policy in relation to:- · the provision of premises for community use, and · the role of Northampton Borough Council in such provision · to monitor any budget proposals in relation to community centres The Task and Finish Group noted that some Community Centres did not hold an Agreement and had not done so for many years and felt that this was an area that required a Policy so that the people of Northampton could get the most out of these facilities. This piece of Scrutiny activity started out as an Appreciative Inquiry and became a Task and Finish Group in December 2009, with available resources, to conduct this in-depth piece of work. The Task and Finish Group was set up by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Regeneration, Planning, Community Engagement and Safety and comprised non-Executive Councillors Tony Clarke, Keith Davies, David Palethorpe, Tess Scott and Portia Wilson (Chair). The Task and Finish Group visited various community centres throughout the borough and compared the Council’s management of the services against those of number of Local Authorities by desktop research. The two that were specifically relevant to this Review were Stevenage Borough Council as it had undertaken similar work to that of this Task and Finish Group and North Tyneside Borough Council as its Asset Transfer Policy and its assessment template were useful documents for the Task and Finish Group. A number of expert witnesses attended a meeting of the Task and Finish Group, forwarding their comments and advice, which informed the evidence stage. The Task and Finish Group held interviews with the Portfolio Holder and Senior Staff at Northampton Borough Council. The Task and Finish Group was made very welcome on all of its visits and the Group was generally impressed with what it saw however, there are some areas that need attentio