Agenda and minutes

The Chairman undertook the register of attendance for Members and each Councillor confirmed their attendance individually.

The Democratic Services Officer completed the register of attendance for Officers and, as with Members, each Officer confirmed their attendance.

Meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on Tuesday, 6 October 2020.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 6 October 2020 be confirmed as a correct record.

Members may make any declarations of interest at this point and may also make them at any point during the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest made at this stage of the meeting.

There are no outstanding matters arising.

The Democratic and Civic Officer confirmed there were no outstanding matters arising.

Presentation by Emma Tatlow, Chief Executive of Active Lincolnshire, regarding leisure provision across West Lindsey and in the context of national and countywide provision, through the global pandemic and beyond.

The Chairman introduced Emma Tatlow, CEO of Active Lincolnshire, and explained the focus of the Committee was to understand leisure provision across the district, including outreach programmes and how the council may be able to support local efforts.

Emma thanked the Committee for inviting her and explained that she had joined the company in May 2020, during the pandemic. The company had previously been known as Lincolnshire Sports Partnership and had primarily been focussed on provision of sports activities for people who were already involved in sports. The priority was now aiming at working with people as much as possible whether they were already active or to engage currently inactive people in new activities. She explained that there was a new management structure in place as well as new Board members and they were currently involved in business planning and assessing the key areas of greatest need across the county. Primary funding was provided by Sports England and that was for activities across Lincolnshire.

The commitment to driving forward was based on a whole system approach, to include working with health providers, transport links and support agencies in order to ensure people would be able to access activities across the board. This also included the planned launch of a new activity finder, with activities ranging from organised sports events to accessible walking or cycle routes.

Members saw details of the activity statistics across the county, which highlighted that the majority of Lincolnshire residents had a lower rate of activity in comparison with the national average. They also heard that West Lindsey was the third most inactive district in Lincolnshire. Emma noted that the statistics had not taken into account the impact of the pandemic however, initial reports showed that, whilst there had been an initial increase in activity levels at the start of the pandemic, this appeared to be petering off.

A Member of Committee enquired how levels of activity were measured and it was explained that the statistics came from a national survey run by Sports England. With regard to the accuracy of the data, it was explained that the figures could only be used if there was a sufficient number of responses in order to run data analysis.

There was discussion regarding rates of obesity and related illnesses and Emma confirmed that this was the focus behind the whole system approach, in order to engage with people who would otherwise not access traditional methods of exercise. She gave the example of promoting safe and accessible walking routes rather than focusing on trying to encourage people to go to a gym. If an inactive individual was supported to become more active through easily accessible options in their home area, it would be more beneficial than expecting that same individual to start attending a gym three times a week. It also helped alleviate transport related issues if an individual was able to increase activity without needing to go far.

The Chairman highlighted county-wide issues with speeding traffic on country  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

The contents of the Forward Plan were NOTED.

The Democratic and Civic Officer introduced the workplan for the Committee and noted there would be an additional item of work regarding the West Lindsey District Council process for Disabled Facilities Grants, as referred by the Corporate Policy and Resources Committee. It was also noted that, pending approval of the 2021/22 Committee Timetable by that same Committee, the first meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in the new Civic Year was likely to take place in June.

With no further comment, the Committee Workplan was NOTED.