Agenda and minutes

Councillors will elect a Chair for the meeting.

Councillor Russell was elected as Chair for the meeting.

Apologies were received from Reverend Canon Barry Naylor from St Andrew’s Church, Reverend Jenny Few from Robert Hall Babtist Church and Reverend David Cundill from Church of the Martyrs.

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

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 given.

The meeting will discuss the impact of the student community in the area, with a view to promoting cohesion between communities in term time and fulltime.  Representatives will be available from De Montfort University and the City Wardens.

The Chair explained that the meeting was to discuss the impact of the student community in the Westcotes Ward and part of the Castle Ward.  She invited attendees to input their queries, concerns or comments.  These were then responded to by Ward Councillors for Castle and Westcotes, local police, representatives from De Montfort University (DMU), and Council Officers from Environmental Services. 

Waste and Street Cleaning

Residents discussed a number of concerns relating to wheelie bins on pavements, litter, fly tipping, end of term house clear outs and vermin.  A member of the public also expressed concern that litter was blown into the estate from the Leicester Royal Infirmary and noted that Councillor Kitterick had already complained to the hospital regarding this.

• In response Adrian Russell, Service Director Environmental Services, reported that:

·        The City Wardens and DMU had carried out an initiative to inform students of the procedures with waste when leaving a premises.

Student Houses/ Landlords

Concern was expressed that some student landlords did not keep up maintenance on their properties, building waste was left on the street and ‘To Let’ signs were in front of the properties. 

• Adrian Russell noted that if the location of the building waste, left on the pavement was reported to him it could be removed.
• Jit Pandya, DMU Community Liaison Officer,stated that noise complaints could be directed to the noise team at the City Council.  If the people responsible were found to be students it would be reported to the university and the students could be fined.
• Members discussed the problems of ‘To Let’ signs and suggested that these should be removed.  Agencies had previously been contacted but seemed reluctant to remove the boards as they were free advertising.  Concern was expressed that the boards advertised the contents of the property and could attract burglaries.
• It was stated that any premises with two or more tenants were classed as a multiple occupancy and premises with three storeys or more than five rooms were subject to a licence.  There were problems with overcrowding in houses (not exclusive to students), which could be investigated to try and limit the numbers.

Bede Island/ Castle Park

It was noted that there had been reports of people on Bede  ...  view the full minutes text for item 46.

The meeting closed at 9.10pm