Minutes:
The Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP was invited to speak by the Ward Councillors.
He informed the meeting of the good work the Councillors did and reminded residents that being a councillor was not a full time position, so they relied on officers for support. He stated that Councillor Clair had been appointed as Assistant Mayor in the new Cabinet, Councillor Bhatti had been appointed to the Fire Authority and Councillor Willmott was Chair of the new Scrutiny arrangements. He recommended that the Council consider appointing one officer for each ward to deal with local issues.
He gave his thoughts about the GE site, stating that it had always been a concern of his that GE didn’t do what they should have with regard to clearing the site. He had discussed this with the Chairman of the company, but it was difficult to force private companies to do things. He asked the Council to raise it with the Environment Agency. Since the site had been sold to a developer, there had been good dialogue and co-operation. With regard to any potential undesirable planning application, he reminded residents that they had been successful in stopping the inappropriate location of Gateway College, so it proved that people did have the power to get things done.
He discussed Alderton Close and the concerns of residents regarding the proposed siting of a place of worship in the vicinity, with its resulting parking problems. He thanked residents for contacting him about the issue. He said that, if the development were to go ahead, the entrance to the park would have to be changed. Any plans would require people working together and the costs would have to be considered.
He expressed his concern that Leicestershire was one of 13 areas which had ben identified as not having done enough to tackle antisocial behaviour. He was pleased to announce that he had invited the Chief Constable to a hearing in London on the landscape of policing. He stated that Sergeant Nimblette had been very active in the area and went beyond his contract to help, but that a 20% budget reduction would lead to fewer police and an increase in crime.
He stated that there was insufficient communication with residents and he wanted to keep people informed. He asked for email addresses so that he could send out his newsletter. He asked the Council to do more on communication, as it was difficult to get hold of officers.
Councillor Willmott stated that the community meetings were a key method of keeping people informed and had been very successful, plus surgeries and the ward had a dedicated City Warden, although there was scope to do more to communicate. A resident suggested that a community notice board could be set up to display information, although the ward was quite large, so more than one would be required.
Residents were concerned that they often did not receive a response from ward councillors, and they were reminded that councillors were not full time and did not have administrative assistants. Keith Vaz asked for responses to be given to outstanding queries by the following Friday.
A resident stated that the budget cutbacks would be detrimental to services, but praised the STAR team who offered advice and support on a range of issues such as housing and domestic problems. It was agreed that they would be invited to the information fair of the next meeting.
A resident said that he was having problems with scrap dealers taking items from outside the front of his house and elsewhere on the street. Barbara Whitcombe, City Warden Manager, asked residents to pass on as much information as possible so that unlicensed traders could be pursued. Sergeant Nimblette advised that residents secure their property and not leave it on display to avoid becoming a victim.