Agenda and minutes

Councillor Ross Grant was elected as Chair and he welcomed everyone to the Knighton Community Meeting.

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the previous Knighton Community Meeting, held on 18 June 2012, are attached and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

Members were asked to agree the minutes of the previous Knighton Community Meeting held on 18 June 2012.

An amendment to minute item 170: Any Other Business - Friends of Knighton Park was requested to record that next year would mark the 60^th anniversary of Knighton Park and the 10^th Knighton Park Fun Day.

RESOLVED:

that the minutes of the Knighton Park Community Meeting held on 18 June 2012, subject to the above amendment, be confirmed as a correct record.

Information will be provided in relation to the Allendale Road Christmas Fair.

Mr Nigel Brady a local trader from the Allandale Road and Francis Street shopping area was present and addressed the community meeting on the plans for the 2012 Christmas Fair.  Mr Brady made the following points:

·         Previous Christmas Fairs had been successful and it was felt that there was more scope for an even bigger and better festival.

·         Funding was being sought from the Knighton Community Meeting budget for the 2012 Stoneygate Christmas Festival. (Funding had been granted in the past for this event).

·         A total of £7482 was requested. This included costs for the stalls, insurance, the Traffic Regulation Order (for the road closure), the Markets Licence, St John’s Ambulance, Security, entertainment, design and marketing and advertising.

·         The funding bid included a request for £2,000 for advertising. The advertising budget had increased as it was hoped to extend the publicity and attract people from the county as well as the city.

·         The theme of the Christmas Fair would be locally produced food and drink with artisan bakers, local cheese makers, brewers and farmers amongst the stallholders. There would also be art and crafts for sale.

·         The event was planned for Sunday 9 December, to take place between 11.00 am and 5.00 pm.

·         The 2011 Christmas Fair had been a successful community event, with a lovely atmosphere in spite of bad weather.

Councillors praised the previous Christmas Fair, in respect of both the produce on sale and the over-all event and thanks were given to Mr and Mrs Brady for organising the Fair. It was acknowledged that the event took a considerable amount of hard work.

Councillors added that in principle they were in favour of supporting the event, but the Community meeting budget totalled approximately £18,000 and the amount requested was therefore almost a third of the total budget. There were other requests for funding from the Community Meeting budget, including funding bids for financial help towards road safety projects because the Highways Section did not always have sufficient money to fund such projects.

There was some discussion as to how the estimated costs could be reduced and suggestions included:

·         Liaising with Councillor Kitterick and the Queen’s Road traders to seek advice on how they funded and managed their Christmas Fair. Mr and Mrs Brady commented that the Queen’s Road Christmas Fair had been running for several years and therefore they would not need to advertise so extensively, but acknowledged that such a meeting would be helpful.

·         Contacting local schools to ask them if they would include information about the Christmas Fair in their newsletter. All the contact details for schools were available on the Leicester City Council’s website.

·         Seeking the possibility of external sponsorship or asking the traders to match funding.  Mr and Mrs Brady advised that they had tried to do this before but in the current financial climate, this was becoming increasingly difficult.

Mr Brady also queried whether it might be possible to obtain discounted rates for advertising in the local media, though the City Council.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 176.

An update will be given on the work of the Friends of Knighton Park.

Helen Lang, Friends of Knighton Park addressed the meeting and gave a brief update on the park and the work of the Friends.  Helen made the following points:

·         There were about 15 members in the Friends of Knighton Park and an invitation was extended to members of the community to join the group. This did not commit members to work for the group, they just needed to have an interest in the park.

·         The Friends of Knighton Park had raised approximately £160,000 for the park. This included a grant of approximately £50,000 from the Lottery to fund the outdoor gym.

·         Next year would see the 60^th anniversary of Knighton Park and plans to celebrate the anniversary were already underway.

·         The group were in the process of planning basketball hoops. The group intended to apply to Biffa for funding for this.

·         The Knighton Park User Group had raised a concern over the park’s pitch and putt game. This had been adversely affected by the bad weather during 2012 and there had also been problems in staffing the amenity.  The pitch and putt was run by Sports on Parks but Helen appealed for help from the community to help maintain it as a park facility.

A member of the public congratulated Helen and the Council staff expressing her appreciation that there was now a swing on the park, designed for the disabled.

There was some discussion relating to Knighton Park, which as a very popular City amenity also attracted many users from the County. The Chair advised that it was not possible to compel other Councils to contribute financially towards the upkeep of the park.  The meeting was of the view that the park was very important to members of the community and a high priority within the Ward. The Chair added that the park was one of the best amenities in the City and this was in the main, thanks to the efforts of the Friends of Knighton Park.

Officers will be present to lead discussions on various highways and traffic related matters in the ward.

Jayesh Parmar, Team Leader from Traffic Management and Bona Matturi, Senior Engineer from Transport Strategy were present to provide an overview of highways and traffic issues in the Knighton Ward.

During the discussion, the following points were made:

·         Craighill Road – the Council were looking to install children shaped bollards with the aim that these would be a deterrent to speeding drivers. The cost of supply and installation would be £400/500 per bollard.

·         The junction of Welford Road / Aberdale Road – a scheme to assist right turners was now complete and would be under maintenance for the next 52 weeks.

·         The junction of Welford Road / Chapel Lane: options and proposals were under discussion but presently no funds were available for this project.

·         The junction of London Road / Guildford Road: there were concerns relating to difficulties entering London Road at peak times. Engineers would investigate a number of options and a report back would be brought to the next Knighton Community Meeting.

·         Knighton Church Road / Carisbrooke Road: concerns were raised regarding speeding traffic.

·         Aberdale Road: concerns were raised relating to the surface of the road and parking on pavements.

There was some discussion relating to the Tesco store on Aberdale Road.  Members of the community expressed concern that when Tesco received deliveries, it was very difficult for pedestrians to negotiate the pavements because the delivery lorries partially blocked the pavement.  It was suggested that Tesco should close off the car park to customers when a delivery was due, so the lorry could use the car park and there would be less disruption to local residents. Further suggestions were made that there should be restrictions on the size of the delivery lorry and delivery times. In addition, concerns were raised over youths climbing over the fence in the Tesco grounds in order to gain access into neighbours’ gardens.

Councillors responded that they would arrange a meeting with Tesco and raise these concerns with them.

·         Allandale Road / Francis Street. Jayesh explained that following requests from retailers, the City Mayor had been briefed about the possibility of re-introducing Pay and Display machines and re-organising parking bays. A petition had been received and would be addressed. Jayesh added that a wide variety of possible outcomes were being considered, each with their advantages and disadvantages. A decision on the best way forward would be made shortly.

The meeting was informed that some traders would welcome the introduction of parking meters but some would be opposed. It was also reported that bad parking was a factor in exacerbating the problem around the shops as there could be a considerable amount of wasted space and this problem would be alleviated if there were designated parking bays. It was also stated that parking should be policed to prevent commuters using Allandale Road / Francis Street as a park and ride.  Jayesh explained that parking bays could not be introduced without a Traffic Regulation Order and the Chair added that Chevron parking was not a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 178.

There will be a policing update for the area.

Police Constable Jim Mungovin gave an update on local policing issues.  PC Mungovin provided some crime statistics for the previous 60 days:

·         There had been 15 burglaries – mostly affecting properties which did not have burglar alarms.

·         2 vehicles had been stolen

·         6 pedal cycles had been stolen.

·         There had been no robberies.

·         In relation to anti-social behaviour, there were no particular trends but little ‘pockets’ where anti-social behaviour had taken place.

A member of the community commented that he had seen two officers in area on pedal bicycles and PC Mungovin explained that there were Police Constables and were regularly  using bicycles to patrol the area.

The City Warden for the Knighton ward will be present to provide an update on environmental issues for the area. 

The Chair introduced to the meeting Christopher Bramley-Brown, the new City Warden for the Knighton Ward.

Christopher explained that he was an experienced City Warden and had previously worked in the Belgrave and Latimer Ward, and the Castle Ward. Part of his duties was to educate and to carry out enforcement on issues such as dog fouling and littering.

A member of the public informed Christopher of a street litter bin that was damaged and Chris responded that he would report this to the relevant officer.

A member of the public also reported that a number of trees had been chopped down on Knighton Church Road and he questioned whether the Council were allowed to do this.

The Chair explained that some trees were protected by a Tree Preservation Order, but many trees were not protected and could be removed. He had asked the City Mayor about the replacement of trees and had been informed that where trees had been removed they would be replaced. A member of the community questioned whether trees could be replaced ‘like for like’ as previously some cherry trees had been removed and replaced by some other trees which were not as attractive.  Chris explained that sometimes the trees were replaced by others which did not leave so much mess.

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.

The Members Support Officer will introduce the Knighton Ward budget.

There were no additional items to consider under the community meeting budget.

The Chair explained that the meeting had been held for the first time at Sir Jonathan North Community College and he asked whether people were generally pleased with the venue.

A request was made for the pedestrian entrance to be opened for any future meetings. A representative from the College who was present advised that it had been necessary to secure part of the site in order to make it easier to manage. A request was made that in future, there be more information given, to indicate in which part of the college the meeting was being held and also for better signage.

Concerns were also expressed that the publicity had arrived late and that members of the public had insufficient notice that the meeting was taking place.

The meeting closed at 8.21 pm.