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Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Town Hall, Town Hall Square, City Centre

Contact: Matthew Reeves/ Francis Connolly 

Items
No. Item

13.

ELECTION OF CHAIR

Councillors will elect a Chair for the meeting.

Minutes:

Councillor Kitterick was Chair for the meeting.

 

Councilllor Neil Clayton was introduced to the meeting as it was his first Community Meeting as a Councillor for the Castle Ward.

14.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence.

15.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

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.

 

 

Minutes:

Councillor Senior declared a general personal interest because her partner worked in the Highways and Transport Division at the Council, this was in case any highways matters arose in the meeting.

 

Councillor Senior also declared a personal interest in budget application B1, Queens Road Traders Association, as her employer had a shop premises on Queens Road.

16.

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING pdf icon PDF 522 KB

The minutes of the previous Castle Community Meeting, held on 22 July, are attached and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

 

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

that the minutes of the Castle Community Meeting held on Thursday 22 July were agreed as a correct record.

17.

REVIEW OF THE STATEMENT OF LICENSING POLICY CONSULTATION

Officers from Licensing and Pollution Control, Leicester City Council, will be in attendance to give details of a consultation in respect of licensing policy in Leicester.  Residents will have the opportunity to give views on the licensing arrangements in the Castle Ward.

Minutes:

Rachel Hall, Licensing Team Manager gave the meeting a presentation about the Council’s current review of licensing policy. Her presentation covered the following areas:-

 

-          What the licensing Policy covers – alcohol, entertainment, late night refreshment.

-          Details of the Council’s powers in relation to the 2003 Act.

-          An outline of the four licensing objectives, (prevention of crime, public safety, prevention of nuisance and protecting children from harm) which were the basis of all policy rules and decisions taken in relation to the policy.

-          Responsible authorities, who they were, (ie Police, Planning Authority) and their role.

-          Interested Parties, who they were, (ie local residents & business owners) and their role.

-          Some details about the licensing policy, how it could be altered and it’s limits.

-          The methods of consultation and what was being asked.

 

Residents could get further involved in the consultation in the following ways:-

 

- Filling in the consultation form at www.leicester.gov.uk/consultations

- Contacting the licensing team on 0116 252 8555 or by email licensing@leicester.gov.uk

- Writing to     Licensing

                        New Walk Centre

                        Welford Place

                        LE1 6ZG

 

Councillor Senior asked Rachel to explain the difference between the Licensing regime and the Planning regime.

 

Rachel explained that whilst they both dealt with the same issues, ie opening hours for a pub, they did it in different ways. Licensing focussed purely on the licensing objectives and Planning could look at wider issues ie the number of pubs in a street. There were separate enforcement procedures for both regimes. Rachel explained that it was a bit like driving a car, ie you need a driving license and road tax.

 

A resident enquired about enforcement powers in relation to opening hours.

 

Rachel explained that it wasn’t possible to zone an area so that all establishments closed at a specific time, each application would need to be considered separately on its merits. Once an establishment had it’s license in place, enforcement action could be taken if it broke the terms of its license, but clear evidence would be needed.

 

Councillor Kitterick asked Rachel to explain the ‘review’ process.

 

Rachel said that this was where one of the responsible authorities or interested parties could ask that the Council review the licenses of a premises. It was then advertised for 28 days, that this would be taking place, and after about 6 weeks a Licensing Hearing would take place. At this meeting, Councillors could decide to either: do nothing; modify the license, suspend the license, remove the designated premises supervisor or licensable activities, or revoke the license.

 

A resident enquired whether licensing powers could be used to encourage different types of establishments in different areas, ie some areas becoming more ‘café society’, perhaps this could be through the Best Bar None scheme.

 

Rachel said that this was being looked at as part of the policy review, but it wasn’t quite clear at the moment how it could be achieved. It was only possible to make suggestions or encouragement in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

18.

CITY WARDENS

The City Warden for Castle Ward will be present to give details of recent work undertaken in the Ward.

Minutes:

Craig Bodsworth, City Warden for the Castle Ward gave the meeting a brief presentation on the activities he and his colleagues were getting involved in.

 

-          He was now getting more assistance from his colleagues in Knighton as well as two city centre wardens.

-          The Bins on Streets project had now started, focussing on a couple of streets and it would be rolled out after fresher’s week.

-          He was getting involved in numerous events such as a tidy up on 23 September on Guildhall Lane with staff from HSBC bank, a community event for students at the Christchurch Rooms on Clarendon Park Road on Friday 1st October, the launch of a county wide dog fouling campaign on 20 September and various fresher’s week events.

-           In the last 2 years in the Ward, the following fines or fixed penalty notices had been handed out – 1 for dog issues, 35 for bins on streets, 31 for flyers, 1 for duty of care, 5 for flyposting and 522 for litter.

 

Francis Connolly updated the meeting about the issue of barbecues on Victoria Park. Using them on the park was contrary to local bylaws and officers were aware of the problems. A proposal to set aside an area where they would be allowed was raised with the friends of the park and was generally not favoured. This was currently done at Watermead Park, a report was being prepared on the results of this initiative. Extra patrols and other measures had been undertaken to tackle the issue at Victoria Park.

 

A resident commented that she couldn’t see the problem with bins on streets. It was often difficult to manoeuvre bins down narrow alleys between houses and it restricted the use of back yards. Craig explained that generally, public opinion was opposed to bins on streets, also that bins were a hazard to blind people. Further he commented that where bins were set alight, as often happened, they could be dangerously close to gas pipes. Senior City Warden Andrew Moyse said that City Warden’s did try to help solve difficult issues wherever possible. Councillor Kitterick asked the resident to speak to Craig and Andrew to see if there were any workable solutions.

 

In response to a question Craig confirmed that commercial premises were also looked into where bins were left on streets.

 

Action

Officer Identified

Deadline

Liaise with resident with regard to difficulties with getting bin in and out of her garden.

Craig Bodsworth / Andrew Moyse

October 2010

 

19.

BUDGET pdf icon PDF 294 KB

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.

 

Francis Connolly, Member Support Officer will give a brief overview on the current position with regard to the Community Meeting budgets for the current financial year.

The following applications have been received for consideration at this meeting:-

B1) Queens Road Traders Association– request for £3,800 for installation of Christmas trees and decorative lighting.

 

B2) Leicester Sikh Centre Lunch Club–request for £2,000 to support the provision of lunches.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Kitterick, referred to an application for an autumn fair which was approved at the last meeting. He informed the meeting that this would now be a Christmas fair, being held on 5 December.

 

Francis Connolly, Member Support Officer updated the meeting on the current position with regard to the budget. There was £17,000 at the beginning of the year, there was now £11,000 left. The following applications had previously been approved:-

 

£2168 – Lighting in St. Georges

£3000 – Queens Road Autumn Fair (now Christmas Fair)

£1000 – towards the Highfields area plan

 

The following applications were considered at this meeting:-

 

Queens Road Traders Association – request for £3800 for the installation of Christmas trees and decorative lighting.

 

A resident commented that a similar request was received last year and she felt that the decorations should be retained from one year to the next.

 

RESOLVED:

that the application be supported and a sum of £3800 be allocated from the Ward Action Plan budget, subject to final approval from the Cabinet Lead for Front Line Service Improvement and Neighbourhoods and the Leader of the Council.

 

Leicester Sikh Centre Lunch Club – request for £2000 to support the provision of lunches.

 

It was noted that the club was open to all sections of the community, but it would be South Asian food that was served.

 

A resident commented that other lunch clubs had been refused funding from the Council and as this lunch club had received funding, it was suggested that they receive £1000. Councillors considered this suggestion.

 

RESOLVED:

that the application be supported and a sum of £1000 be allocated from the Ward Community Fund budget, subject to final approval from the Cabinet Lead for Front Line Service Improvement and Neighbourhoods and the Leader of the Council.

 

The Centre Project – request for £3000 for building repairs, redecoration and improved facilities.

 

Eric Waneru from the project was at the meeting. He explained that the Centre project was a place where people who were isolated could get support, counselling and a hot meal.

 

Councillor Senior explained that the Councillors welcomed the work that the project did and felt that it was very worthwhile. They did however note that it was one of many worthwhile projects which were based in the ward, some of which had been turned down for funding. With projects such as this, it was often difficult to quantify how many residents from the ward were being supported by the project.

 

Councillors originally proposed to support the project at £400, but increased this to £500 and with a promise to consider a further application at the end of the financial year if there were remaining funds.

 

John Coster suggested that CitizensEye, the community news reporting website could put a message out to seek further funding for the project.

 

RESOLVED:

(1)   that the application be supported and a sum of £500 be allocated from the Ward Community Fund budget, subject to final approval from the Cabinet Lead for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

20.

CLOSE OF MEETING

Minutes:

The meeting closed at 8.40pm.