Agenda and minutes

Councillors will elect a Chair for the meeting.

Councillor Manish Sood was Chair for the meeting.

Councillor Manish Sood welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were given

Apologies were received from Councillor Wann.

The minutes of the meeting held on 7 May are attached and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

that the minutes of the meeting of the Fosse Community Meeting, held on 7 May 2008, be confirmed as a correct record.

The first main item on the programme is Declarations of Interest where Councillors have to say if there is anything in the programme they have a personal interest in. For example if a 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 have a personal interest in that.

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.

No declarations were made.

Adrian Russell, Environmental Services, will give a presentation of the Environmental Services work carried out in the Fosse ward and invite suggestions for the 10,000 Trees Project.

Adrian Russell, Service Director, Environmental Services gave a presentation on the work carried out by Environmental Services in the Fosse Ward between January and June 2008. There was also a newsletter distributed to everyone which provided further information

Adrian stated that there were a wide range of services offered in the following areas:

• Refuse Collection and Waste Recycling

There was currently a weekly kerbside collection operated which collected recyclables and residual waste and there was also a bulk collection service. Adrian reported that there had been 1, 564 missed bin collections citywide between January and June 2008, this was at an average of 71 per ward with the number of bins not collected in the Fosse ward being 58 which was lower than the average. Adrian mentioned that any missed bins should always be collected the next day.

Statistics were presented on how much waste was being recycled, composted and diverted from landfill between January and June 2008. Adrian commented that currently 33% of waste was being recycled and composted and 9% of waste was being recovered and used as fuel. This meant that currently 42% of waste was being diverted from the landfill. Adrian stated that the target was to divert 60% from the landfill and they hoped to achieve that target this year.

• Cleansing Services

Data was presented on Cleansing Services. Adrian reported that there had been 1,608 fly tipping incidents in the city which averaged out at 73 per ward. In the Fosse ward there had been 58 fly tipping incidents reported which was below the city wide average. There had been no reported abandoned vehicles in the Fosse Ward. A member of the public claimed they had witnessed an abandoned vehicle with four flat tyres outside Fosse Neighbourhood Centre. Adrian agreed to check this after the meeting. It was also mentioned that there had been 2 incidents reported of discarded needles and 6 incidents reported of Graffiti removal in the Fosse ward which were both below the city wide average.

• Street Cleaning

Street cleanliness inspections had found that the Fosse ward had above average cleanliness rates compared to citywide averages with regards to litter, graffiti, fly posting and fly tipping. Adrian commented that the inspections depended on how the streets chosen to be inspected looked on the day when the assessments were carried out.

Adrian commented that with regards to graffiti on the green cable boxes they had reached an agreement with Virgin Media who owned the boxes to provide some funding to help clear up the graffiti. However Virgin Media had stated that there were only 1,000 green boxes in the city whereas this figure was thought to be much higher.

• Rubbish & Litter on Private Land

Statistics were presented on incidents concerning rubbish and litter on private land, pest control and dog wardens and how the Fosse ward compared in all these areas compared to citywide from January to June 2008. There had been eight reported incidents of rubbish in alleyways and 13 reported incidents  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

Anita Patel, Member Support Officer, will present the findings from the Priority Cards that people were invited to fill in at the first meeting and will explain the next steps in producing the Ward Action Plan.

Anita Patel, Member Support Officer, presented information on the Ward priorities that had been agreed for the area following suggestions from the residents.

Anita stated that the top five priorities that had been agreed for the area were

• anti social behaviour
• street scene that included issues such as litter and dog mess
• security and CCTV
• youth provision
• derelict buildings

She added that other issues that had been identified by residents in the area included

• car parking and traffic management,
• planning issues such as the increasing number of planning applications for flats,
• partnership working and customer care,
• parks and open spaces
• public transport.

A member of the public queried what would be the next steps now that the priorities had been identified. Anita commented that over the next two or three Community Meetings the areas that needed to worked on from the priorities would be identified.

A member of the public raised concern that the gate to Rally park had been removed and it was now easy for people who were using mini motors to get into the park. Adrian commented that he would look into this.

Anita Patel, Member Support Officer, will introduce and explain the different funds available to the Community Meeting.

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.

Anita Patel, Member Support Officer, presented information on how the budget for the Community Meeting would be structured.

Anita commented that there were three types of funding available.

• Ward Priority Fund

The first was the Ward Priority Fund, which would be used to deal with the agreed ward priorities, and there was £6,700 available in this fund.

• Community Fund

The second was the Community fund, which would be used to fund Community projects in the area, and there would be £3,300 available in this fund.

• Community Cohesion Fund

The final fund was the Community Cohesion fund of which there was £2,000 available to spend on any Community Cohesion projects in the area.

Anita Patel, Member Support Officer, presented information on what the role of a Community Partner would be and how they would be involved in the Community Meeting.

Anita commented that the role of a Community Partner would be to act as a Link person between the public and the Councillors of the ward, be involved in ward action planning, be involved in sub groups of the Community Meetings, participate in activities such as patch walks in the area and help publicise the Community Meeting to get a greater number of people to attend as possible.

The skills required for someone to be a Community Partner included being keen, having a genuine interest in the area, capacity available to carry out the tasks, the ability to work effectively in a team, communicate effectively, have the ability to chair meetings when needed and have good problem solving skills.

A member of the public raised concern about the low number of people who had attended the meeting and stated that councillors should agree dates for advanced meetings to allow more people to be informed. He added that he distributed a leaflet for his group and would be happy to include the Community Meeting on there if he was informed in the required time.

A member of the public stated that the posters for the Community Meeting should be translated into polish and other languages to allow residents in the area who spoke different languages to attend the meetings. The Chair agreed that this was a good point and it should be looked into if this could be done.

The meeting closed at 7:11pm.