Agenda and minutes

Councillor Shah will be chairing the meeting.

Councillor Shah was elected as Chair for the meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillor Mugglestone, Bhaljit Bains (Leicester City NHS), Sally Grieff (Netherhall Children’s Centre) and Alan Jones (Hamilton Residents Assn)

The first main item on theagenda is Declarations of Interest where Councillors have to say if there is anything on the agenda they have a personal interest in. For example if a meeting was due to discuss a budget application put forward by a community group and one of the Councillors was a member of that group, they would not be able to take part in the decision on that budget application.

Councillors are asked to declare any interest 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.

Councillor Potter disclosed a personal and non-prejudicial interest as a City Council tenant.

Councillor Shah disclosed a personal and non-prejudicial interest as a Governor of Gateway College.

The minutes of the previous Humberstone and Hamilton Community Meeting, held on 12^th August 2009, are attached and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 12^th August 2009 were confirmed and agreed as a correct record.

To receive a presentation on the newly completed Gateway Sixth Form College.

Nick Goffin, Principal of Gateway College, and Graham Gloverwick, Sports Development, Gateway College attended the meeting and outlined the work currently underway and that planned for the future.

Nick stated that an open morning would be held at the new facility on 21^st November. Liaison with Tesco and the local Police had been undertaken since the new College had opened at the start of the new school year. It was stated that marketing of the new facilities available would commence just prior to Christmas 2009 at Tesco’s. A member of the public questioned whether the previously reported issues around VAT had yet been resolved, allowing community use at the College. Nick stated that this was an ongoing issue and applied to the 94 colleges of this type across the country.

A member of the public questioned why students did not use the car park at Gateway and of the parking and litter problems at Lower Keyham Close. Nick responded by stating that an agreement had been reached with Tesco enabling students to park on their car park, within specified bays. Parking for disabled students was available on-site at Gateway. Nick stated that he was aware of the problems of students parking in Lower Keyham Close and stated that they had been encouraged to not park at this location, although the street in question was a public highway. The Police stated that they would speak to the relevant residents of Lower Keyham Close after the meeting on action that could be taken.

Nick stated that there were also issues around parents driving to the College to drop their children off and creating traffic hazards and of students causing over-crowding on local buses. Thurmaston Bus had recently introduced 2 new services into the City from Hamilton but Arriva were not prepared to put larger vehicles on their 58/58A services, despite ongoing discussions with Gateway. It was further stated that Arriva had also indicated that they would not be re-instating their former 18 route, despite it being used by a lot of people travelling to/from the City.

A member of the public questioned whether young people who were not pupils of Gateway could access facilities. Nick responded by stating that various facilities for youths and local clubs were to be provided at Gateway as there had been a lot of demand, these facilities would include a sensory garden.

Officers to give an update on Highways and Transportation issues raised at the previous meeting.

Ravi Mohankumar, Team Leader, Traffic Impact Team attended the meeting to provide an update on works requested.

i)            Speeding – Keyham Lane

Ravi stated that officers had met the lead petitioner and also representatives of the local school, who were prepared to donate a piece of land to help implement a comprehensive scheme at this location to help alleviate the problems.

ii)         Main Street Humberstone

A programme was being prepared to implement 20 mph zones across the whole City. The programme would be finalised by the end of December for consideration by Cabinet.

iii)            Adoption of Sandhills Avenue

            It was stated that, until all works on Sandhills Avenue had been             completed to the satisfaction of the City Council, the road would not be             adopted.

iv)            Speeding Hamilton Lane

            This was being looked into.

v)         Bus Stop – Sandhills Avenue

This would be erected after Christmas. A member of the public requested that a similar facility be provided for on Maidenwell Avenue. Ravi agreed to report back.

vi)            Maidenwell Avenue – Speeding Traffic

It was reported that a speed check had been carried out over a three-day period and the 85% percentile speed was in the region of 20 mph.

A further issue raised by the public was that of vehicles parking outside schools whilst dropping off or collecting pupils and it was recognised that this was common across the City. The Police stated that were aware of the problems caused and undertook random checks. On-street parking enforcement officers would be sent to the area to assess the situation.

A member of the public stated that Building Schools for the Future (BSF) works were soon to be carried out at Kestrels Field School and it was feared that the enhanced development would create additional traffic problems. Ravi stated that additional works would be required but that these could be planned and negotiated with the developer so that these could be provided as part of the planning process.

A member of the public questioned whether there were plans to put single/double yellow lines on the roads on Hamilton estate. Ravi responded by stating that there were no plans at the present time but he would report back.

RESOLVED;

                        that the information be noted.

The Local Policing Team to give an update on local policing issues.

P.c.Martin Smeath, Local Beat Officer attended the meeting and gave an update of issues in the area.

A member of the public stated that they regularly saw young people in the area selling drugs and questioned what action they should take. It was stated that the Police should be contacted, giving a general description, including age of the youths, together with details of any car that may be connected. The public were urged not to endanger themselves whilst collecting details.

A member of the public stated that on a recent television programme it had been made apparent that a number of cases were not referred to magistrates to reduce the workload for the Police who were being encouraged to issue cautions. It was stated that a ‘gatekeeper’ made decisions on which cases were referred to the Crown Prosecution Service, who then decided whether a particular case was heard in court.

Leicestershire Constabulary were about to align their policing beats with City Council Ward Boundaries.

A request was made for crime statistics to be made available at future meetings of the Community Meeting.

RESOLVED:

                        that the information be noted.

Councillors are reminded that they will need to declare any interest they may have in budget applications, and/or indicate that Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

Peter Cozens, Members Support Officer will present the following funding proposal: -

Community Fund

Hamilton Highlanders Basketball Club                           £495

Cost of Court Hire at Hamilton Community College

The views of the Community Meeting are sought.

Peter Cozens, Members Support reported on the Community Meeting Budget. It was reported that one bid had been received since the last meeting as follows: -

Ward Community Cohesion Fund                                                    £

Hamilton Highlanders Basketball Club                                                    495

10 weeks Court Hire at Hamilton Community College.

It was reported that the club did not yet exist and the funding applied for was to secure the basketball court at Hamilton Community College for an initial period. The club would be targeting local people.

It was suggested that support be given to the funding application, subject to the funding being for the benefit of Humberstone and Hamilton residents only. The applicant stated that a record of membership would be kept and feedback provided to the Community Meeting.

RESOLVED:

                        that the funding proposal be supported, subject to approval by                Councillor Mugglestone, and on the proviso that the Community                 meeting funding is for the benefit of Humberstone and Hamilton                         residents only.

i)            Community Centre

In response to comments from the public present it was reported that the Ward Councillors had been working behind the scenes lobbying for community facilities to be provided in Hamilton, as well as a re-build of the Community Centre at Netherhall. Progress would be reported back.

ii)         New Shoots Gardening Club

It was reported that this club, recently in receipt of funding from the Community Meeting, had received a Certificate of Merit at a recent award ceremony in Nottingham. Persimmon, the house builders, were sponsoring a bulb planting in Hamilton on 22^nd November 2009.

The Club indicated that they would be looking to apply for funding in Summer 2010 to provide a facility to store equipment. The club were encouraged to submit a further funding proposal.

iii)        Social Housing – Manor Farm

            Neil Evans, Investment and Development Manager, Leicester City             Council attended the meeting and outlined the proposal to provide             affordable housing on an area north of Manor Farm, off Thurmaston             Lane, identified as being for residential use on the Local Plan.

            Jim Packman and Purnima Wilkinson representing East Midlands             Housing Association (EMHA) attended the meeting and stated that             EMHA had been operating for about 60 years and had been working in             Leicester for over 25 years in conjunction with the City Council. The             land in question north of Manor Farm already had outline planning             permission for housing and the City Council had expressed the need             for more affordable housing within the development proposed. EMHA             were working in response to a brief in accordance with the needs of the             City.

            Nick Williams, JSP Architects, based in Leicester, attended and stated             that his company had been engaged by EMHA to draw up plans. Nick             outlined the layout of the site and stated that the City Council had set a             planning brief for the site to include a mixture of sizes of properties,             some for rent and others for supported housing. Trees currently on the       site would be retained and the road access to/from the site would be off        the old part of Humberstone Lane. Plans available at the meeting             showed a mix of 2, 3 and 4 bedroomed houses, the family houses             complete with front and rear gardens. The aim of the development was     to achieve Sustainable Homes Standard 3 with certain levels of             insulation and energy efficiency, although it might be possible to             achieve Level 4.

            Cathy Bourassa, Housing Development Officer, Leicester City Council stated that funding had recently been made available for this development, hence the reason why this proposal had been brought this quickly. Under this funding the houses were required to be built by March 2011, the City currently had a massive shortfall of some 700 properties to meet the need of tenants. EMHA, to meet the deadlines imposed were wanting to be on site by March 2010.

            A member of the public questioned whether ‘brown field’ sites had been looked at. Neil stated that a number of ‘brown field’ sites had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.

It was reported that the next meeting of the Humberstone and Hamilton Community Meeting would be held at 6.00 pm on Wednesday 17^th February 2010 at Danbury Gardens.

The meeting closed at 8.16 pm.