Minutes:
The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and made announcements as below.
The Chairman reported on two events held on 29 April the first being the ministerial visit by Greg Barker, the Government’s Flood Envoy who attended a round-table meeting assessing lessons learned from the floods. One of the key points arising from the discussion was good partnership working and that agencies in Hampshire knew each other which helped the way in which the problems were dealt with. The Chairman was pleased to confirm that a further £6m had been awarded to Hampshire County Council to help deal with damage to the roads as a result of the floods.
The second event was a Frontline Reception in the Great Hall, Winchester for Hampshire County Council staff and representatives of the armed services to thank them for their support during the floods. Over 100 service men and woman attended the event and cheques were presented to each of the three services Benevolent Funds in recognition of their support.
On 2 June 2014 Hampshire County Council hosted a meeting with senior representatives of Southern Water, Thames Water and Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) to look, at a strategic level, to improve resilience across the county. This was a helpful and positive meeting.
Finally on the topic of flooding, the Chairman invited John Bonney, Chief Fire Officer to update partners on the work Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service had been doing to manage the process of collating the learning post the events experienced. John confirmed that all debriefs with the various agencies that had been involved were completed and a large-scale collation process was underway which would highlight common themes. Post this exercise a report would be prepared which would be submitted to the Local Resilience Forum and to The Hampshire Partnership.
The Chairman reported that work to extend and speed up the broadband coverage across the county continues and he had met with BT representatives on 25 June. Procurement of the next contract to extend coverage beyond 90% up to 95%+ is well advanced and approval is anticipated in the early autumn. The Chairman was pleased to announce that in addition to the extra £1m for rural broadband in the New Forest and Test Valley, a further £1m approximately has been made available for innovative technologies aimed at linking the final 5% to help hard to reach areas.
For the benefit of the non local government partners, the Chairman confirmed that he had been appointed as the Chairman of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Government Association for a two-year term of office. The Chairman thanked District and Unitary Council colleagues who had entrusted him with the role. Councillor Perry emphasised that he was determined to build good two and three-tier co-operation in local government and recognised that The Hampshire Partnership is leading the way by bringing together additional partners from the private sector, the voluntary sector, health and the Armed Forces. Councillor Perry would be exploring the addition of new partners from the University and HE/FE sectors to broaden the Partnership which is crucial for the success of all sectors represented and for the county as a whole.