Decisions

This report presents an application for funding under the Council’s Community Fund scheme.

An application for community funding has been received from Warsash U3A for the sum of £500 to contribute to the purchase of audio visual equipment, to enable the effective operation of the organisation’s meetings and presentations.

The University of the Third Age, or U3A, is a national movement through which retired and semi-retired people meet to share skills, knowledge and experience for the pleasure of learning and social support. The objectives of the U3A are to educate British society regarding its ageing population and to make retired people aware of their intellectual potential.

Although all U3As are supported by the national organisation, the Third Age Trust, and they must abide by the Trust’s principles of communal learning and voluntary membership, each local group is operationally and financially independent.

Warsash U3A was launched in 2016 and already has 150 members. The group meets monthly in Warsash for presentations by a speaker, but also operates additional learning groups around different subject matters. As members are of a retired age, the presentations rely on good quality audio visual projection.

The organisation currently borrows its presentation equipment from a neighbouring U3A. However, due to increasing demand this has become less easy to secure. It aims to purchase a public address system, projector, speakers and a laptop to remedy this difficulty. The total cost of this equipment is £1,466.

Warsash U3A aims to identify the remaining sum through fundraising initiatives. Following the organisation’s first year of running, the balance of the accounts was £5,115.25.

Both Ward Councillors, Councillor Cartwright and Councillor Ford, are supportive of this application.

That the application for £500 from Fareham Borough Council’s Community Fund, submitted by Warsash U3A, to contribute towards the cost of audio visual equipment, be approved.

That the award is made under the condition that the equipment will be available to other U3As in the Borough when not being used by Warsash U3A.

This report presents an application for funding under the Council’s Community Fund Programme.

An application for community funding has been received from Let’s Hear in Fareham for the sum of £245.60. The grant is to purchase 200 hearing loop window stickers and 500 A6 promotional leaflets.

Let’s Hear is a national Hearing Link campaign which aims to empower local people to improve hearing experiences in their own communities. Health statistics show that nationally 70 percent of 70 year olds and 40 percent of 50 year olds have hearing difficulties.

Let’s Hear in Fareham is a Rotary Community Corporation project, that is a link between the Rotary Club of Fareham Meon and the local community. It was launched in February 2016 following involvement from audiology at Queen Alexandra Hospital and Fareham Borough Council’s Communications Team.

The project has identified a bank of volunteers who are able to check the

effectiveness of hearing loop systems in public facilities within the Borough, ensure signage is adequate and staff are appropriately trained. Following a visit, the volunteer provides appropriate feedback to the organisation to encourage any improvements to the hearing loop system to be adopted.

The project has a separate terms of reference from the Rotary Club of Fareham Meon. Its stated aim is ‘to raise awareness of the importance of good hearing, to improve community hearing accessibility and inclusion across the Borough of Fareham’. The scheme currently has 7 teams of Hearing Loop checkers.

That the application for £245.60 from Fareham Borough Council’s Community Fund, submitted by Let’s Hear in Fareham, for the purchase of 200 Hearing Loop stickers and 500 leaflets be approved.

To consider and approve the Council’s consultation response to the Government’s Housing White Paper (February 2017).

The Report details the Council’s response to the Government’s Housing White Paper (February 2017).  This is focused on the inadvertent adverse impact of the ‘housing delivery test’ proposed within Government’s Housing White Paper on planned strategic sites such as Welborne Garden Village.

That the Executive Member agrees the following Council response to be submitted to the Government’s consultation on the Housing White Paper (which closes on 02 May 2017).