Attendance
In the absence of Julie Morton, the QED Steering Group Chairperson, Pat Still (Chair of QED Health) agreed to chair the meeting.
APOLOGIES
Julie Morton, Colin Sharpe, Bill Lewis, Ian Hammerton, Pauline Witherall, Julie Witherall, Jean Armour, Pat Hamilton, Bill Hamilton, Barbara Judge, John Gunn
ELECTION OF CHAIRPERSON
Nominations were invited for the position of Chairperson to the QED Steering Group. Richard Wiltshire nominated Mrs Pat Still and no other nominations were received. Mrs Pat Still was elected as Chairperson for the forthcoming year.
Pat proposed that a letter of thanks be sent to Julie Morton for her support of QED and her time as Chairperson of the Steering Group.
The Minutes of the previous meeting were confirmed.
RESTRUCTURING WITHIN THE COUNCIL
Rob Scott, Director of Environment, thanked the meeting for having the opportunity to meet with them and explain the nature and extent of the changes to the political and officer structures within the Council. As from 11 May 2000, the Council has a political structure based upon a single party Cabinet headed by the Leader of the Council. The decisions of the Cabinet would be scrutinised by the Scrutiny Committee, and long term policy matters would be the subject of debate by the Select Committee.
On the officer side, a team of Cabinet Advisers would advise Members, and there would be a team of Service Directors under whom the staff would provide the day-to-day services of the Council.
RS also provided information on the areas of responsibility within his Directorate and that there would be 2 main issues happening later this year that would be of great interest to QED, namely the development of DBC's LA21 Strategy and the declaration of Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA's).
There followed a questions and answers session.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
RW proposed thanks to JB re the work carried out on the Raised Beds at Dartford Road Allotments.
JB reported that the Open Day at Dartford Road Allotment, when Dr Howard Stoate, MP, officially opened the Raised Beds, had been very successful and 7 letters of appreciation had been received.
Some debate took place re the future of the QED Biodiversity Group. PO was of the opinion that not much more could be achieved until the outcome of the request to DBC to establish a local Biodiversity Action Plan was known. PK agreed to follow this up and report back to the next Steering Group.
There was a general discussion concerning a potential project for the QED Waste and Pollution Group involving local schools debating the issue of waste disposal with local residents. The QED Waste and Pollution Group would discuss this idea in more detail.
PK informed the meeting that Alan Cremer's replacement, Justin Bettey, would be taking up the post as from 24 July. RW proposed a vote of thanks to PK for covering the vacancy since Alan Cremerís departure.
Date of Next Meeting: 6 September @7.00pm @ Enterprise House, Dartford.
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