Agenda and minutes

Councillors will elect a Chair for the meeting.

The Chair will introduce those present and make any necessary announcements.

The Chair and any other Councillors who are present will make any declarations as required by the Councillors Code of Conduct.

Councillor Clair as Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and made introductions.

No declarations were made.

There were no apologies for absence.

The Action Log of the meeting held on 10 March 2020, is attached for information and discussion.

The Action Log of the previous meeting held 10 March 2020 was agreed as a correct record.

Progress of matters raised at the last meeting:

ACTION: The Rushey Mead Ward Councillors requested that progress of matters/ actions raised at the last meeting be dealt with in advance of the following meeting and discussed at the agenda meetings which take place with Ward Councillors and Officers.

Item 27 - Community Meeting Budget

The Ward Community Engagement Officer (WCEO) confirmed that in relation to this item the following actions had been dealt with since the last meeting:

·         Highfield Rangers – information had been circulated to correct persons.

·         Tai Chi group query with the recreation centre – Officers were in contact with all the groups at the centres.

The Rushey Mead Ward Councillors will provide an update on the issues they have been dealing with in the Rushey Mead Ward.

In relation to the concern of litter on Melton Road and Harrison Road, the Rushey Mead Ward Councillors noted that they would consider the investment of extra bins to be funded through the Ward Community Budget.

Councillor Clair provided an update on the Rushey Fields improvements including that all shrubs had now been cleared, seating would be installed, and hedges and knee-high railing had been proposed.

Appleton Park which received some funding from the Ward Community Budget for park gym/ equipment was now complete and could be used for exercise.

Councillor Willmott informed the meeting that at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak the ward were granted community support fund, with this Councillors had been providing support in the ward by posting leaflets with help and support details during the pandemic and support to food banks. This work was ongoing and was also supported by some volunteers.

The Ward Councillors encouraged the government to allow for charities to apply for support grants, which was a success and allowed for at least three charities to benefit. Ward Councillors ensured that businesses which were eligible had access to food grants, however, it was noted that some did not apply.

Councillors had been dealing with a lot of case work via the phone and internet including housing support and fly tipping.

Councillor Patel gave an update on recent planning applications which had been approved for developments in the ward. Other issues noted that Councillors had been dealing with were; adaptations to accommodate for people with disabilities, parking schemes and a series of interventions around Harrison Road, school allocation/ appeals work and also support for those who had been required to shield.

There was some concerns with issues during the pandemic surrounding housing situations, Councillors were encouraging faster responses from the housing team.

An update with be provided on the Draft Local Plan.

The Chair gave an update on the Draft Local Plan briefed those present on, the next steps and opportunities to engage with the Local Plan process following the conclusion of the latest consultation round on 7^th December 2020.

For more details, this Draft Local Plan briefing paper has been attached to the end of this agenda.

An update will be provided on the UHL Hospitals Reconfiguration.

The Director of Strategy and Communications at University Hospitals Leicester (UHL) - Mike Wightman, along with several of his colleagues were all present at the meeting and provided an update in relation to the UHL reconfiguration.

The meeting was informed of the following, all to note:

·         At the end of last year, the government noted that the University of Hospitals Leicester would be eligible for £450m of capital funding.

·         This was a positive for Leicester as over the past 20-30 years in the NHS, two thirds of the bigger hospitals had received significant hospital investment and Leicester had not.

The following would be proposed:

1)    Creation of a new hospital on the Glenfield Hospital site in the form of a treatment centre/ a day case hospital.

Will be doubling the intensive care capacity at Glenfield.

2)    The Royal Infirmary hospital would be the home of a new maternity hospital.

Would also be doubling the intensive care capacity at the Royal Infirmary.

3)    All children’s services would be bought together in a new stand-alone children’s hospital to be located at the Royal Infirmary by extending existing units. The children’s hospital will also be home to the new East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre.

4)    The Leicester General hospital would no longer be an acute site, instead the focus of activity at this hospital would be a primary and community care hub, with onsite access to diagnostics.

The Director of Strategy and Communications at University Hospitals Leicester explained about the local development plan in relation to submitting a response and proposal ideas for the land.

Members and residents had the following concerns:

·         Parking concerns - especially at the Royal Infirmary, it was noted that the multi-storey car park did make a difference. However, due to aging technology on the existing barrier system, there was a planned investment program taking place at the end of this year into next year which would replace some of the existing barriers with anticipations to achieve faster flow into/ out of car park.

·         There were plans within the £450m funding spend to also invest into some of the car parks, which would be a combination of decking certain areas and building new multi-storey car parks across the Glenfield Hospital. These works were being developed collaboratively with organisations such as ‘Go Travel’.

·         There were also plans to improve cycle networks and look at cycle pathways into the hospitals and storage.

·         Bed capacity concerns – It was explained that the bed numbers would be increased over the lifetime of the plan and aspects taken into account to ensure the calculations for bed usage were detailed.

·         Concerns of why not building one large hospital – it was responded that this would cost at least £2b and in this time especially with the pandemic it was not feasible. As a safety precaution, the two sites also allowed space for switching between the two for instance if something was to happen at one of the sites.

The next stages would be:

·         A  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

There will be an update on highways and transport work within the Rushey Mead Ward.

Rupert Bedder - Highways Network Asset Manager was present at the meeting.

The following update was provided in relation to actions from the last meeting:

·         Camera on Melton Road which was knocked down by an accident and also took out the Council’s controller cabinet had been dealt with, the signals had now been sorted out and the camera which was the responsibility of the Police was replaced.

·         Walking leaflets for schools. This concern was taken back to the cycling and walking team who noted it was only being distributed through schools at the moment and schools were also requested to distribute them via their schools’ websites and eventually the Council website.

·         Concern over the right turn between Checketts Road, Melton Road and Marfitt Street junctions, this was investigated and the signals - a green arrowhead was installed a few weeks ago, the configuration of the controller cabinet works was still ongoing and should be operational by end of month/ early new year.

·         It was requested that if there were specific streets were cars were being parked on grass verges, to inform the officer.

The following update was provided in relation to works currently taking place in the ward:

·         Patching works on Lanesborough Road and joint sealing on Watermead Way.

·         A series of bollard installations around the ward at; Melton Road, Oliver Road, Gypsy Lane and Kerrysdale Avenue which would be installed in January 2021.

·         Highways and Councillors had been supporting schools with social distancing measures.

·         Key worker corridor works would be coming forward as part of the active travel program. Melton Road cycle way would be part of this for improvements.

·         Traffic Safety team were currently progressing the Sandfield Close 20mph zone.

Harrison Road Scheme update provided by the Ian Nash – TRO Project Officer:

·         A number of streets in the ward had been requested for residents parking however, the type of parking required needed to be considered.

·         It was being looked at which streets would benefit from parking on carriageway and footway parking.

·         There were six streets in total being considered and potentially Harrison Road.

·         The Officer noted the pros and cons of parking permit schemes.

·         Stage one consultations would go out to Ward Councillors and other partnership colleagues next week and would finish late to mid-January 2021.

·         Following this any suggested changes would be looked at and a report would go be provided to the relevant Director.

·         After this, the next stage would be a formal consultation to the public where objections could be made. Dependant on the objections received, this could still sometimes allow parts of the scheme to be completed. If there were no objections, the service would be in a position to proceed with implementations.

A Police Officer will be at the meeting to provide an update on local policing issues in the Ward.

PC Robert Wills from the Local Policing Unit, noted the following:

·         The Covid-19 pandemic had not currently resulted in considerable increase of crime.

·         There was an increase in theft of cats.

A local resident noted the positives of the neighbourhood watch and requested Police to promote this via their website.

ACTION: Councillor Patel requested that the Police provide figures for the next meeting, on the impact of crime and mental health issues in the ward during the pandemic.

The City Warden will give an update on activities and enforcement issues taking place in the Rushey Mead Ward.

The Ward Community Engagement Officer (WCEO) – Laura Burt read the update provided by the City Warden for the Ward. This update has been attached at the end of this action log.

Councillors are reminded that under the Council’s Code of Conduct they should declare any interest they may have in budget applications.

An update will be given on the Ward Community Budget.

The WCEO – Laura Burt provided an update on the Ward Community Budget. The following was noted:

·         There was £18,397 at the beginning of the financial year.

·         Since then 10 applications had been submitted, totalling £2,000.

·         There were currently still applications submitted to be considered.

·         The next application deadline would be 31 January 2021.

·         The current total was £16,397 which would need to be spent before the next financial year.

·         Councillors would clarify with the WCEO the amount of funding to be considered for Appleton Park.

·         All three Rushey Mead Councillors agreed at the meeting, that they were mindful to support the Northfields food share with approximately £3-400.

ACTION: The WCEO to contact the Northfields food share and invite Councillor Cank to submit an application.

ACTION: Talks would take place amongst the Rushey Mead Ward Councillors to prioritise environmental works in the ward.

The meeting closed at 7:47pm.