From Cllr Sally Hatton to the Leader of the Council
“Does the Leader agree that:
- the community rooms associated with our sheltered housing complexes are of great value to our parishioners;
- the user communities who make use of these facilities extend well beyond the residents of the sheltered housing complexes; and
- therefore, any attempt to use a naive count of the number of residents of sheltered housing complexes to measure the sizes of the user communities of these facilities is likely drastically to underestimate the community benefits of these rooms, as it does not take into account the many users who live in the surrounding areas?”
Minutes:
“Does the Leader agree that:
- the community rooms associated with our sheltered housing complexes are of great value to our parishioners;
- the user communities who make use of these facilities extend well beyond the residents of the sheltered housing complexes; and
- therefore, any attempt to use a naive count of the number of residents of sheltered housing complexes to measure the sizes of the user communities of these facilities is likely drastically to underestimate the community benefits of these rooms, as it does not take into account the many users who live in the surrounding areas?”
The Leader referred the question to Councillor Mark Howell, Housing Portfolio Holder, who clarified that the rooms were “communal” not “community” and that their primary use was for residents of the sheltered housing schemes who subsidised their provision. Use of the rooms by other groups could be done only with the agreement of residents. Councillor Hatton, as her supplementary question, sought assurance that communal rooms would not be used by Council staff, and Councillor Howell explained that the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), in which this proposal had been set out, had been agreed by Council in February 2012 with only one vote against.