Agenda item - Members' Update

208.1  The OPC have written letters to the Argus and Independent about Tower House, community meals, toilets, bus passes and sent out a letter to all party leaders about the impact of these cuts on older people. Some success has been achieved in relation to bus passes and less severe closures to public toilets. The key concern which remains is that of Tower House following on from the last OPC meeting which heard from Cllr Yates and Naomi Cox. The OPC wrote to all members of the Policy & Resources Committee and Denise D’Souza outlining their concerns. The OPC will also visit Tower House again to see how the service users and faring, offer support and check if they have independent advocates.  Have been in contact with St Vincent and Paul’s Society who want to start a day centre service and wanted to explore whether Tower House could be a resource. It is the hope that there could be a way to keep this as a resource for community use. Concern was also expressed by the lack of public consultation on the proposals and whether sufficient alternatives had been identified for the users/carers. Whether this closure would achieve savings when issues such as transport had been taken into account.

208.2  Lynne Shield spoke of the need to make Older People’s Day a positive experience but also recognising that older people needed to be ‘full of fight’ in the forthcoming months. She was working with public health on a falls workshop, which could include the link between alcohol and falls. 

208.3  OPC agreed that they would like to receive the emails from the Age

Friendly City forum.

208.4  John Eyles had participated in the following:

·         Vallance Community Centre relaunch

·         Brunswick Older People’s project 

·         Know my neighbour – the One Church meeting

He also gave feedback from a heating get together and the Environment and Transport Committee. He expressed concerns about:

·         Road and passenger safety

·         Rubbish bins in Brunswick & Adelaide

·         Closure of basement collections and the need to put bins out on top and whether those who need assistance can still request it. 

208.5  Francis Tonks explained that he was involved in 2 research groups re: health and self funding. He had attended an unveiling of a plaque, a Lifelines meeting and singing for Better Health next week as part of the Brighton Festival.

208.6  Jack Hazlegrove had recently been re-elected as the chair of the Brighton & Hove Pensioners Forum and become a Director of Grey Matters. He recently had joined a group looking at issues relating to the hospital and was a regular attendee of the U3A.

Mike Bojczuk had attended both the recent P&R and HWB Committee meetings and was writing to councillors about Tower House. He was in the process of updating the OPC webpages and encouraged people to contact them using this resource. He was a keen campaigner on digital exclusion and wanted to become a digital champion for Brighton & Hove.