Agenda and minutes

For the first part of the meeting, members of the public were given an opportunity to look at various information stands and talk to the different service representatives. 

INFORMATION SESSION

The following information stands were sited in the room. Members of the public visited the stands and were given an opportunity to meet Councillors, Council staff and Service Representatives, and to bring enquiries and raise any issues.

          Table 1          General Enquiries

At this stand, members of the public were given the opportunity to ask any general questions that could not be answered by the representatives on the other information stalls. Members of the public were informed that the questions would be recorded and sent to the relevant department or service representative. A response would subsequently be sent directly to the questioner.

          Table 1A          Patient Advice and Liaison Service

A representative gave out information packs and was available to take questions relating to the Primary Care Trust.

          Table 2          Waste Management

Members of the public had an opportunity to look at a display about recycling and the removal of waste in the City. Representatives from Environmental Services were available to answer questions from residents.

          Table 3    Air Quality and Pollution

Members of the public were given the opportunity to ask questions or give their views on air quality and air pollution.

          Table 4          Emergency Planning

A representative was present to explain how civil emergencies were managed and co-ordinated. 

          Table 5          Aylestone Baptist Church

A representative was available to talk about the work of the Church in the community.

          Table 5A          Spirit of Aylestone Community Group

Members of the public were able to ask questions relating to their work in Aylestone.

          Table 6    The Police/Anti Social Behaviour Unit

Representatives were present to talk to members of the public and answer questions.                                   

At the conclusion of this informal session members of the public were invited to take their seats and take part in the formal session of the meeting.

Councillors will elect a Chair

Councillor Mrs Chambers was elected as Chair for the meeting. Everyone was welcomed to the first Aylestone Community Meeting and the Councillors said that they were delighted at such a good turnout.

There were no apologies for absence.

The first main item on the programme is Declarations of Interest where Councillors have to say if there's anything in the programme they have a personal interest in.  For example if the Community Meeting wanted to talk about digging up a road and one of the Councillors lived on that road, he or she would have to say they had a personal interest in that.

Councillors are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business on the agenda, and/or indicate that Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

Councillors were asked to declare any interests they might have in the business on the agenda, and /or indicate that Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act applied to them.

No declarations were made at this time.

There will be a short presentation on the new Community Meetings and what this will mean for residents in the Aylestone Ward.

Jerry Connolly, the Member Support Officer, gave a presentation on the new  Community Meetings and explained how the new system would work. The key features of the new Community Meeting were as follows:

·        The aim was to hold meetings four times a year. The meetings would be in two parts, an informal information session and a formal meeting.

·        The informal session would consist of information stalls, which would be varied over time. 

·        Partners, who were involved in the area, would be invited to the meetings and members of the public would have an opportunity to talk to them during the information session. At this first meeting for example, representatives from the Police, Environmental Services and the Primary Care Trust were present.

·        The meeting’s initial task was to identify and prioritise residents’ issues or concerns within their ward.  After the presentation, Members of the public would be invited to complete a green priority card, giving details of what they considered to be the main issues for the area.

·        From the priority cards, a Ward Action Plan would be developed.  A draft Action Plan would be brought to the second Community Meeting and at the third meeting, the Action Plan would be agreed.

·        The Community Meetings had been given a budget of £10,000 for the first year and £15,000 for the second year.  Two thirds of the budget would be spend on Ward Action Plan issues.

·        The focus for the first year would be Environmental issues.

Members of the public will have an opportunity to discuss what priorities they would like to see in their Ward Action Plan.

At this point of the meeting, the public were invited to split into groups to identify Ward Priorities for inclusion in the Draft Action Plan. The findings of the session were to be reported back at the next Community Meeting.

Adrian Russell, Service Director, Environmental Services will invite members of the public to give suggestions on where they would like to see trees planted in their Ward.

The meeting heard that the Council intended to plant 10,000 trees in the City and Members of the Public were asked to consider where they would like to see some of the new trees planted.  Any suggestions could be brought to the next Aylestone Community Meeting.

There will be a short feedback session to inform members of the public of some of the main issues that have arisen from the discussion on Ward Priorities.

The meeting was informed that a summary of the issues that had been raised on the priority cards would be brought to the next meeting. In the meantime though, some of the issues raised included:

• Traffic problems and a need for traffic calming, chicanes, one way streets.
• The impact of traffic on the Aylestone Conservation Area
• Lack of cycle lanes
• Too much high density housing, too many flats
• Travellers on Middleton Street. In respect of this, Councillors explained that the Travellers were encamped on privately owned land and therefore the Council could not take any action. Action could only be taken if the Travellers were on Council owned land.

The next Aylestone Community Meeting will be held on Wednesday 17 September 2008 at Lansdowne Neighbourhood Centre, Knighton Lane, at 6.00pm

It was announced that the next Aylestone Community Meeting would be held at 6.00pm on Wednesday 17 September at Landsowne Neighbourhood Centre, Knighton Lane.

Members of the public were asked to complete the yellow evaluation sheet, with their views on the meeting, and if they gave their contact details they would be sent minutes and agendas for future meetings.

The following issues were highlighted:

1)     A member of the public questioned whether the Council intended to reinstate the Link Road,

It was explained that this matter was being discussed again.  There were concerns that there had been two public enquiries, which had concluded that the Link Road would not be a good idea, and it was also stated that bus lanes were not suitable for Aylestone.  The Aylestone Councillors stated that they would oppose the Link Road.

2)     A member of the public questioned whether bids could be submitted for the Community Meeting budget.

Jerry Connolly explained that each Community Meeting had been asked to agree the Ward Action Plan first, in order that bids could be related to the priorities identified by residents. However there was a small amount of funding available for general purposes and Jerry asked for further details to be given to him after the meeting.

3)     A member of the public asked for details of the Ward boundaries and it was requested that a Ward Map be brought to the next Community Meeting,

The meeting closed at 7.50pm.