Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chair for the meeting.

Councillor Blower was elected Chair for the meeting.

Councillors will say if there is anything on the programme which they have a personal interest in.

Councillor Porter disclosed a personal and prejudicial interest in the Budget Proposals circulated with the Agenda and stated that he would be leaving the meeting whilst the proposals were discussed.

Councillors will decide whether they agree that the record of the last meeting is correct.

RESOLVED:

that the record of the meeting held on Monday 2^nd July 2007was agreed as a correct record subject to the deletion of Councillors Keeling and Mrs. Chambers from those Present.

There will be a report back on the responses to questions raised by members of the public at the previous meeting.

Regarding Question 94 – Development of former Newry and Southfields Schools sites, it was stated that under the City Strategy certain areas had been highlighted that would have an Access Centre that would advertise jobs and offer advice provision, as well as offer a ‘one-stop’ facility for advice, Saffron had been identified as one of these areas.

RESOLVED:

                        that the responses be noted.

Stewart Doughty, Parks Manager, Recreation and Culture will be present to inform the meeting on what is happening in the area, in respect of recreation facilities, parks and open spaces.  There will also be an opportunity to ask Stewart questions on matters relating to these issues.

Stewart Doughty, Parks Manager, attended the meeting and reported that during 2007 the service had been reviewed and the Riverside Services had been incorporated.

Work had been undertaken to facilitate the spend, referred to within the Budget Proposals, to provide access signs for Aylestone Hall Gardens in conjunction with the Friends of Aylestone Hall. Parks Services had undertaken an amount of work leading to the award of a ‘Green Flag’ at Abbey Park in 2006, work to achieve ‘Green Flag’ status at Aylestone Hall was currently well advanced.

A series of events was staged each year to promote aspects of Parks Services work, locally these were staged at Riverside Meadows and Aylestone Hall, and a Tree Trail had been introduced at Aylestone Hall.

In January 2008 a Big Lottery bid was being submitted for £800k of play provision across the City. An area at Aylestone Meadows had been identified as an area of natural play, with sites at Saffron and Eyres Monsell being identified as casual play areas. As soon as the Big Lottery announced the award of funding, full consultation with the relevant communities would get underway.

The Area Committee was informed that Leicester was suffering a decline in people participating in sport, mostly due to a lack of investment in City sporting facilities. A process to develop a £14m bid to develop 8 new sites across the City that will offer a range of sporting facilities was being progressed, and Aylestone Playing Fields was one of these sites, with the burned out pavilion replaced. Should the bid be successful then full consultation would take place. Other works envisaged at Aylestone Playing Fields was the provision of a multi-grass pitch site and the re-location of the children’s play area and other improvements totalling some £2.5m. The principal aim of the bid was to bring new talent into sport locally.

Concerns were expressed that although the Aylestone area had been neglected for years with little in the way of equipment on the parks there were virtually no facilities for children on Eyres Monsell and it seemed that Eyres Monsell was being left out again. The Chair stated that the City Council were looking to allocate funding to deprived areas of the City but that it was down to priorities.

Dave Budd, the police community co-ordinator will be in attendance at the meeting to present an item on anti-social behaviour in the area.  Notes from a meeting between the police and councillors are attached at Appendix C.

General Crime Issues

Dave Budd, Police Community Co-ordinator, attended the meeting and outlined the principal areas of work of the Local Policing Unit that covered the Saffron, Eyres Monsell and Freemen areas, and of the various areas within the community where issues had been identified as follows: -

i)                   Domestic Violence – see below

ii)                 Police work in liaison with other agencies, including the City Council, and also rely on information and intelligence supplied by the public

iii)               Cricket Ground – Police no longer dealt with car parking issues, but would intervene when vehicles were causing an obstruction. City Council looking at permits for residents.

iv)                Southfields Library – Graffiti and damage to building during period of nearby roadworks and People arrested. The exercise highlighted a number of issues concerning the building and work to address these issues was now underway.

v)                  Drug Dealing/Use – Eyres Monsell area. Lot of work being carried out resulting from information received and the results of this work would be seen soon.

vi)                Anti-Social Behaviour – The Exchange/Pasley Road areas. Police working with Youth Services and other agencies to address this.

vii)              Velodrome, Saffron Lane – Facilities for young people within proposed new development felt to be inadequate. Police working with Youth Services to try and address this.

In concluding the Area Committee were informed that the Local Policing Unit arranged and attended a number of community meetings and frequently made use of the mobile Police Station that was available to enable closer liaison to take place between the wider community and the police.

Dave Budd informed the Area Committee that the 101 reporting line now no longer existed, as the government funding for the project had not been renewed. Local residents were urged to continue to report incidents to the Police on 222 2222.

Domestic Violence

Sgt. Graham Thompson, Local Policing Unit Commander, attended the meeting.

Sgt. Thompson stated that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men would be a victim of domestic violence. 89% of sufferers subjected to 4 or more incidents were women. Countrywide 12.9 million domestic violence incidents against women were reported in 2004, compared to 2.5 million incidents against men. An average of 2 people per week were killed due to domestic violence.

Sgt. Thompson stated that a lot of work around domestic violence had been carried out and this area of work could not be blamed on drugs, alcohol ormental health. Experience had shown that relationships could be quite well established before domestic violence started, often 12 months or more.

Locally there had been 150 cases of actual bodily harm, 90 incidents of common assault and 30 harassment incidents, although it was emphasised the figures were decreasing.

It was stated that the Police now took positive action in each of the incidents referred to above and took control by often arresting one or both of the parties involved, and where possible court action was taken. The Police were trying to get the message across that they  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82.

Jerry Connolly, Member Support Officer to the Committee will give an update on the current position of the Area Committee budget. The budget report is attached at Appendix D. Details of current budget requests are also attached as follows:

D1 – Aylestone Gardens interpretation board

D2 – Aylestone Gardens football tournament

D3 – Halloween event

D4 – Northfield panto event

D5 – Groundwork clearance project

D6 – Nature reserve fencing

D7 – Rookeries Allotment Society Solar Panels

D8 – Crime reduction initiative

D9 – Aylestone Park Residents Group x 2

Note:

Councillor Porter disclosed a personal and prejudicial interest in the Budget Proposals reported and left the meeting whilst the proposals were discussed.

Jerry Connolly, Members Support Officer, was in attendance to discuss eight bids that had already been submitted and sought the views of the Area Committee as to a late application.

            Kingfisher Centre – Football (Freemen Ward)  - £805.01

The late application was accepted as an item of urgent business on the grounds that this was likely to be the last meeting of the Area Committee.

                                                                                                                           £

D1)            Interpretation Boards for Aylestone Hall Gardens                    1,965

It was reported that since the Proposal had been submitted Parks Services had been approached and had agreed to fund half of the project.

Agreed: that the proposal be supported by £1,000 funded from the Aylestone budget and £1,000 from Parks Services budget.

D2)            Aylestone Summer Soccer Scheme                                             1,250

Agreed: that the proposal be supported by £1,250 from the Aylestone budget

D3)            Halloween Fun Day at the Glen Pub and on                                   1,000

            Hillsborough Road park.

It was reported that delegated approval had previously been obtained in respect of this proposal and the funding had been allocated and spent.

Agreed: that it be confirmed that the proposal be supported by £1,000 from the Eyres Monsell budget.

D4)            Pantomime – Northfields Play Association                          580

It was reported that the proposal would benefit children in Eyres Monsell and Freemen wards.

Agreed: that the proposal be supported by £290 from the Eyres Monsell budget and £290 from the Freemen budget.

D5)            Groundwork clearance and tree work -                                    3,000

            Her Ladyships Covert/Alexandra Clump

It was reported that the funding applied for was to start the project and that funding for the remainder of the works would be sourced frome elsewhere.

Agreed: that the proposal be supported by £3,000 from the Eyres Monsell budget.

D6)            Fencing around Nature Reserve (Freemen Ward)             1,911.07

Agreed: that the proposal be supported by £1,911 from the Freeman budget.

D7)            Community Allotment leisure scheme -                               3,000

            Rookeries Allotment Society

It was reported that the bid could be supported to a significant degree from other sources of revenue and therefore it was suggested that £1,500 be the level of support offered by the Area Committee.

Agreed: that the proposal be supported by £1,500 from the Aylestone budget.

D8)      Crime reduction initiative across all 3 Wards                        2,500

            Aylestone, Eyres Monsell and Freemen

It was reported that since the proposal had been submitted the initiative was being re-shaped. It was further stated that police funding might help support an application of some of the balance of funding (£755 possibly) towards the cost of 3 bicycles, one for each ward, for community officers. This funding, together with support from police funding would bring the level of police funding to £1,000, leaving a commitment of £585 per ward for a crime reduction initiative.

Agreed: that the proposal be supported by £585 from the Aylestone budget, £585 from the Eyres Monsell budget  ...  view the full minutes text for item 83.

Dave Budd, Police Community Co-ordinator, attended the meeting and reported that all Local Policing Units within Leicester had a Joint Action Group (JAG). One of the purposes of the JAG was to focus the attention of people to local priorities that had been raised by local people. The local lead topics were currently Domestic Violence and issues around Southfields Library, recently moved up to the City Council’s Action Group for action. The local JAG had an annual budget of £8,000 to fund local initiatives. The local JAG met every 6 weeks ant the next meeting was scheduled for Saturday 6^th January 2008.

Members of the public will be invited to ask questions about local issues. The purpose of this session is to collect and clearly record the questions.

The Committee administrator will write the questions down. If we know the answer we will give a response immediately, but in most cases we will need to take the question to a relevant officer after the meeting for a full response. You can get more information about how to submit questions and what will happen to them from Your guide to Area Committees.

The following questions were either asked at the meeting or submitted on question forms during the meeting. Discussions that took place about these questions are outlined underneath the questions below. It was explained that any questions that could not be answered in full at the meeting would be submitted to the relevant departments for response.

101)                    When is the Saffron Lane Velodrome site going to be sold by the             City Council to developers. When is building work going to             commence?

102)                    Which organisations funded the 101 reporting line service?

Councillor Palmer stated that the 101 service had been funded on a pilot basis by the Home Office. The funding had now been withdrawn.

How much funding was made available locally to fund 101 and had the City Council given consideration to funding 101?

103)          It has been noted by local residents that the interior lights at the new Samworth Academy are left on until late at night, is this actually necessary?      

104)          How can signs be obtained to be displayed at the end of certain streets stating ‘No Cold Callers’?

                  It was stated that the local Tenants Association had access to some funding for such signs and that an approach should be made to them.

105)          How much input would the Council or government put into the local area and the local school (Knighton Fields) as it is a failing school on the Ofsted reports on 2 occasions, and it seems that there is likely to be more houses built in the Freemen Ward?    

106)          Why is it that the City Council can spend more money on Spinney Hill Park in Leicester yet in Aylestone the play facilities are severely lacking in any kind of play equipment?

107)          As the residents of Aylestone who suffer with the cricket parking, particularly during the 20/20 matches, what is going to happen in the meantime while the City Council drags its feet on residents parking, becauselast year the plans were put in place that didn’t work for the residents of Aylestone?

Members of the public will be invited to present petitions to the committee on local problems.

You can get more information about how to submit petitions and what will happen to them from Your guide to Area Committees.

No petitions were submitted.

Members of the public and Councillors will announce any forthcoming events in the area.

It was reported that the following events were to take place: -

            Sunday 16^th December 2007

            4.30pm – Carol Concert in Aylestone Hall Gardens

            6.00pm – Carol Concert at Samworth Academy.

Volunteers were also sought to help out at the annual produce show, held at Eyres Monsell Community Centre.

The Chair declared the meeting closed at 7.40 pm.