Agenda item

To report progress on outstanding actions from the minutes of the last meeting, for information only.

The Assistant Director – Leisure and Local Services provided updates on matters not otherwise covered by the agenda:

Central Park Security

Following the decision not to renew the security and gate locking service at Central Park, the gates had been unlocked since 31^st August 2025. Since then, the Democratic Services Team had been liaising with the Community Safety Team, CCTV Team and Environmental Health Team to monitor the situation and respond to any reports of criminality at Central Park.

Since 1^st September, eleven reports of alleged criminal behaviour had been received, ranging from anti-social behaviour to unconfirmed reports of a man with a knife. None of those incidents had occurred during the period when the gates were previously locked. There had been no reports to Environmental Health and no incidents recorded by the Borough Council’s CCTV team.

As the number of incidents were relatively small, additional information had not been requested to establish how this compared with previous years. The situation would continue to be monitored and a further update would be provided at the January meeting. At that point, the Working Group had not met again.

In response to a question from a member about how the issues might affect the Central Park Green Flag application, the Assistant Director indicated that the management plan for the application would address those matters and stressed that none of the reports had occurred during the period when the gates were previously locked.

Highways

Members had expressed an interest in hearing from the Portfolio Holder for Highways, who had been due to attend the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 4^th September. It was now anticipated that this would occur on 15^th January 2026, and further details would be provided to Members nearer the time.

Green Flag

The last Working Group meeting had taken place on 12^th November, when it was agreed that the management plan would be completed by January with a view to submitting the application thereafter. The Group Manager for Street Scene and Commercial Services had attended the meeting and shared his knowledge of the Green Flag process and the support he could provide.

An officer working group had been created to ensure officers took ownership of their respective areas of the management plan, and a further meeting had taken place. A Share point site had been created to enable officers to review and amend the document to ensure accuracy for their service areas. Discussions had also taken place with IT regarding the creation of a dedicated web page for Central Park.

Community Governance Review

The Community Governance Review Working Group had met on  20^th November following Full Council’s decision on  10^th November to amend its composition. Councillor Gilbert had been elected Chairman of the Working Group. At its meeting, the Group had considered responses from the phase one public consultation and possible recommendations, and had reviewed the project plan.

The next meeting was scheduled on 18^th December to finalise recommendations and the draft phase two consultation, in readiness for Full Council to consider at its meeting on 12^th January 2026.