Agenda and minutes

Councillors will elect a Chair for the meeting.

Councillor Russell was elected as Chair for the meeting.

The Chair opened the meeting with a one minute silence as a mark of respect for June Wiggins from the Manor House Neighbourhood Centre and long standing resident of the Westcotes Ward.

The Chair explained that she was pleased to announce to the Community Meeting that extra funding to the value of £71,500 had been secured to help residents in the Westcotes Ward. This would be spent on door entry systems on Norfolk Walk.

Apologies for absence were received from Sarah Prema, Assistant Director for Project Implementation, Leicester City NHS. 

The first main item on the agenda 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.

Councillors were asked to declare any interests they may have in the business on the agenda, and/or indicate that Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applied to them.

Councillor Russell declared that both she and Councillor Connolly lived within the consultation area of the Residents Parking Zone.

The minutes of the previous Westcotes Community Meeting, held on 8 September 2009 have been circulated.  Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

that the minutes of the meeting held on 8 September 2009 be confirmed as a correct record.

The City Warden will be present to give an update on recent environmental initiatives in the area

The Chair introduced Graham Smith, City Warden and Barbara Whitcombe, City Warden Manager to the Community Meeting.

Barbara asked residents to give their views on the ‘hotspots’ in the Westcotes Ward, and the following problems were identified:

• Wheely bins were left out on pavements in Luther Street, Livingstone Street, Walton Street and Ridley Street.
• Commercial bins on Briton Street.
• Fly tipping by the library on Celt Street.
• Dog fouling on the Great Central Way, Bede Park, Luther Street, Shaftesbury Road and the footpath to the canal.
• Problems arising from the night-time economy – urinating on Braunstone Gate.

Barbara explained that the Council were presently working with businesses on Narborough Road, to make sure that waste carriers (who were paid by local businesses to remove their waste) were licensed.

Barbara explained that the City Warden scheme was being ‘rolled out’ across the City, and recruitment would be starting soon so that every ward in Leicester would have a City Warden.

Bernard Greaves, of the Leicestershire Police Authority, will be present to talk about the work of the Authority.

In addition, a local Beat Officer will be present to give an update on local police issues.

Bernard Greaves from the Leicestershire Police Authority was introduced to the meeting and he explained that he had come to the meeting in order to hear the views of residents regarding policing in the area. The aim was that the Police would learn more about the issues that concerned the residents in order that they could respond to those concerns.  Bernard added that it was a joint responsibility of the Council and the Police to address anti-social behaviour.

Bernard explained that the Police Authority existed to be the voice of local people and they held the police into account and kept “tabs” on their performance. 

Questionnaires had been given out for people to complete and Bernard asked residents to talk about the issues that they thought the Police should be addressing in the area, in order that the Police could prioritise their work.

A resident commented that the Police sometimes took too long time to respond to a call, which meant that by the time they had arrived, it was too late, because the perpetrator had left the scene.

Bernard responded that the Police were trying to improve their call out times, but the call centres on average received 6000 calls a day. He added that the 101 Service had taken a considerable amount of pressure off the Police, but the Home Office had withdrawn their funding so the service was closed.

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 be providing an update on the 2009/10 Community Meeting budget.

The following budget application has been received:

·              Angie Beale / Jit Pandya  – Community Allotment Project - £3,963 divided between Castle Ward / Westcotes Ward / Braunstone Park & Rowley Fields Ward

Appendix A1

Peter Cozens, Members Support Officer to the Westcotes Community Meeting, presented a budget application that had been received for the Community Allotment Project.  Peter explained that funding had been requested equally from Castle Ward, Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields Ward and Westcotes Ward, with £1321 being requested from the Westcotes Community Fund.

RESOLVED:

that it be agreed that the funding application for the Community Allotment Project be supported to the value of £1321

There were two additional items, as previously notified to everyone who was on the Westcotes Community Meeting Distribution List.

RESULTS OF THE RECENT CONSULATION ON THE RESIDENTS’ PARKING SCHEME.

Andrew Thomas, Head of Traffic Management, gave a presentation on the consultation vote on parking in Westcotes, and his presentation is attached.

Residents heard that, of the 1995 properties surveyed in the consultation area, to the west of Narborough Road, the majority of residents who had responded had voted against having a residents’ parking scheme. There would therefore be no residents parking scheme implemented there.  Although within the Harrow Road area, some residents on certain streets were in favour of the scheme, overall the majority indicated they did not want a residents’ parking scheme.

However, in the area to the East of Narborough Road, residents had indicated by 81 votes to 41, that they were in favour of a residents parking scheme. Of 668 properties surveyed, 126 votes were returned. A scheme was therefore viable there.

Residents made the following points:

• By having a residents parking scheme on the East of Narborough Road, the parking problem will be transferred elsewhere. Why does the Council not invest in better bus services?

Andrew explained that a new park and ride service was being provided which would help ease the traffic. The bus services were however de-regulated and therefore the Council were not allowed to invest in the bus services.

• I live on Harrow Road and went from house to house talking to people and they said that they did not want a residents’ parking scheme. You indicate that they do. The Council should knock on doors to do a proper survey and also they should provide people with passes for cheap bus travel.

Councillor Connelly stated that some people in Harrow Road were in favour of the residents parking scheme but overall the majority in the area voted against the scheme. He added that residents were given an opportunity to make the decision and it was important that the Council respected their views.

• On the whole, only a small percentage of the population voted on the parking scheme. You are making a decision on a result where only 19% of the population voted. In Aylestone, I heard that the residents’ parking scheme was cancelled because insufficient people voted.

The Chair responded that the Council had stated that the residents would be given the chance to vote on the parking scheme but they could not make it compulsory to vote.

Andy Thomas also replied that in Aylestone, a large area was surveyed and overall there was no support, which was why the residents parking scheme was not implemented.

• What would the Council’s solution be where a property has two or more vehicles?

Andy Thomas responded that Officers were considering a number of possibilities, which included looking at the design of parking bays and how they were controlled, visitor permits and experimental traffic regulation orders. Officers would work with Councillors Connelly and Russell to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The meeting closed at 9.22 pm