Agenda item

The Board held a challenge session on health and wellbeing within the Borough. The Community Manager gave a presentation attached as an Appendix to these minutes.

In response to questions raised by members of the Board, the Community Manager advised that:

(a)          Oak Park

              The planning team worked with Hampshire County Council to ensure that minimal work was undertaken on the site to enable the planning permission to be kept alive. If these works had not commenced, the permission would have lapsed towards the end of 2018.

(b)          Emsworth Hospital site

              The NHS had advised that up to £4.4m could be available for a new GP surgery to serve the Emsworth area as the existing surgery premises was not up to modern standards to serve a growing population. The funding would be made via the Estates and Technology Transformation Fund (ETTF)

              A number of options for the surgery had been explored and a community engagement exercise had shown that there was a clear preference to use the Emsworth Victoria Cottage Hospital site (EVCH) either as a new build or refurbishment, rather than a new build at the Redland Grange site. A refurbishment of the EVCH site rather than a rebuild was estimated to cost less than the £4.4m and was therefore affordable in capital terms.

              The ETTF funding was subject to a business case approval and had very tight spending deadlines which it would appear could not be met on any of the proposed schemes. An approach had been made to the Council to take a role in the project that would involve the ETTF money transferring to the Council. This extended the period in which the money had to be spent and therefore the project could be completed. The Council has confirmed as part of the ETTF Outline Business Case submission on 21 December 2018 that it would be willing to act as ‘banker’ to enable the scheme.

              The ETTF transfer also appeared to involve the Council taking a long lease (99 years) or purchasing the EVCH site (£1m). Whilst it appeared that the first 25years of the 99-year lease would be funded from the NHS and potentially a sinking fund created to maintain the buildings; the period after the 25 year GP lease was uncertain. The Council would also have to manage the project, which had not been identified in the regeneration programme.

              Therefore, the level of involvement of the Council had yet to be finalised and a meeting between Executive Officers and the NHS had been scheduled for March 2019 to fully understand the risks involved.

(c)          Play areas and Open Space

              An assessment of all the open spaces including play areas had been undertaken as part of the Open Space, Sport and Recreation Strategy. This information was published on the HBC website at: http://www.havant.gov.uk/open-space-sport-and-recreation-strategy

              This assessment did not map the two outdoor gyms at St Clare's open Space, Warren Park & the AdiZone, Hayling Island.

              All of the facilities mentioned were operational and had different quality ratings assigned to them in the Open Space Assessment. Maintenance of HBC owned open space, play areas and skate parks was delivered by Norse SE.

              Havant Leisure Centre was operated by Horizon Leisure who had a lease on both leisure centres to 2042. Any improvements to the existing facilities was the responsibility of Horizon Leisure, subject to the required consent and permissions. The Built Leisure Facilities Strategy outlined some options for enhancing the existing Havant Leisure Centre and for providing new facilities. Although the strategy recognised that the existing Havant Leisure Centre was an ageing building, as far as the Community Manager was aware there were currently no plans in place to re-provide this facility.

(d)          Statistics

              The statistics collated which are used to inform us of the health of the residents of the Borough come from a variety of sources including hospital visits and stays, GP visits, Police data and Education.  These were used to develop the annual Havant Health Profile and are also used by the Clinical Commissioning Group of GP’s.

(e)          The Hampshire Health & Wellbeing Strategy was developed with input from every district.  Havant had signed up to deliver the Healthier Communities element of the strategy albeit within the Council’s limited resources; and

(f)           Walking for Health was a scheme that aimed to improve people’s health and well-being through regular walks; the scheme was managed by the Ramblers Association.

The members of the board were encouraged to take part in the Hampshire Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy consultation.