Agenda and minutes

Councillors will elect a Chair for the meeting.

Councillor Byrne was elected as Chair for the meeting.

A member of the public gave apologies for absence on behalf of residents on Kinley Road. He asked for these apologies to be recorded and expressed concern that the residents there had not been notified of the meeting. The Editor of the ‘One Neighbourhood’ magazine stated that the magazine, with details of the meeting had been delivered to houses and flats on Kinley Road.

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.

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

Councillor Marriott declared a personal and prejudicial interest in agenda item 10, Community Meeting Budget and in particular relating to the funding application for the Community Trust Library, as his wife was on the committee of the library. Councillor Marriott undertook to leave the meeting during the consideration of this funding application.

The minutes of the previous Abbey Community Meeting, held on 18 March 2010, are attached and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

The minutes of the Abbey Community Meeting held on 18 March 2010 were circulated and Members were asked to approve them as a correct record.

A member of the public stated that at that meeting he had submitted apologies on behalf of the residents of Kinley Road, who had not been notified of the meeting, but these apologies had been omitted from the minutes.

RESOLVED:

that the minutes of the above meeting, subject to the above amendment, be approved as a correct record.

Police Officers will update on community safety work in the area.

Sergeant Michelle Zakoscielny gave a short presentation on policing issues in the Abbey Ward. Sergeant Zakoscielny made the following points:

·        There was a new system of recording anti-social behaviour whereby each incident would be recorded as a crime, rather than just being listed on the incident log. This also meant that there would be a record of the Police response to that incident.

·        There had been 43 incidents of anti-social behaviour in the Abbey Ward since the last Ward meeting on 18 March 2010.

·        There was now a police car on patrol every night, designated to respond exclusively to incidents of anti-social behaviour.

·        Crime Reduction Officers had carried out a patch walk in the area and volunteers had delivered leaflets at addresses where it was noticed that windows had been left open.

·        There had been a number of car crimes around Abbey Park, most of which had taken place between 10.00pm and 1.00am and Police shift patterns had been changed to accommodate the need for extra cover at that time. This appeared to be helping to reduce crime.

·        Members of the public were asked to call the police on 0116 222 2222 if they saw any problems, or to dial 999 in the case of an emergency.

Counciilor Byrne will give feedback on the anti-burglary coffee mornings held to date.

The Chair explained that there had been two ‘Anti-Burglary’ coffee morning events in the Abbey Ward and it was hoped that a third event would take place within the next few weeks at St Patrick’s Church, Beaumont Leys Lane.

The new City Warden will give an update.  This is a chance for you to suggest environmental priorities for the area.

Jessica Phillips, the Senior City Warden, Hughie Blair, Graffiti Team Manager and Kimberley Stones, the new City Warden for the Abbey Ward were present to talk about environmental issues within the Abbey Ward and the new city warden scheme. Residents were given an opportunity to ask questions and raise general queries relating to environmental issues.

Kimberley explained that she would be dealing with a variety of issues, including:

• dog fouling

• graffiti – the city wardens worked closely with Hughie Blair and the Graffiti team

• nuisance parking – where people parked more than one vehicle for sale, outside their home

• litter

• fixed penalty notices

• education  - the city wardens worked with schools on education programmes

Hughie Blair made the following points:

• A new city wide campaign to crack down on graffiti would be launched on Tuesday 22 June.

• Graffiti was classed as a crime and residents were urged to contact the Police if they saw anyone defacing property.

• There were more complaints about graffiti on cable boxes, than anything else and one employee went around the city just to paint over the boxes.

• Target zones would be set up in July, which would involve the removal of graffiti from factory walls and the setting up of CCTV in order to catch culprits.

The following questions and concerns were raised:

• We have graffiti problems on Parker Drive, but the culprits never seem to get caught.

Hughie requested that members of the public contacted the Police if they saw anyone defacing property.

• Do the city wardens visit local schools and give presentations?

The meeting heard that letters had been sent to schools advising them that the city wardens would be happy to visit as part of the education programme. The city wardens however could only work with the schools where they were invited.

• Have their been any graffiti prosecutions?

Jessica explained that there had been about 4 fixed penalty tickets issued during the previous 2 weeks for fly posting. Prosecutions could be heard in court and when the council applied for costs they would take into account the damage caused to property (such as lampposts) if the removal of the poster resulted in any damage to paintwork.

Thanks were given to Jessica, Kimberley and Hughie for their presentation.

An update will be given on road and grass verge maintenance.

Steve Letten, Member Support Officer explained that Alan Adcock, Head of Highways and Management was unable to attend the community meeting.  However, an update on highways had been given to Steve and the meeting heard that:

• Since January 2010, the Regeneration, Highways and Transportation Division had responded to 104 reports from members of the public concerning highway defects.

• As a result of these reports, 212 work orders had been raised to address the urgent defects that met the safety intervention criteria.

• The main focus was dealing with roads that were in the worst condition and which carried a significant volume of traffic.

• Major carriageway works to Abbey Lane were due to commence in July.

• Resurfacing works to Avebury Avenue outside the Alderman Richard Hallam Primary School had recently been completed.

The following questions and concerns were raised:

• My grass verge was damaged by vehicles parking on the grass, and it took four years for the council to rectify the damage.

Steve explained that if the council knew who had caused the damage they would try to recover the costs of repair, but where this was not possible, there may have not been sufficient funds to deal with it.

• I have complained about a neighbour who regularly parks his vehicle on a grass verge. The Highway’s Officer requested evidence and I produced photographs, but no action has been taken.

The Chair requested details and a copy of the photograph and stated that she would raise this problem with the relevant officers.

An officer will be present to consult on the Environmental Works Budget.

Neville Senior, Neighbourhood Housing Manager at the Mowmacre Neighbourhood Housing Office (NHO) explained that the city council had a Capital Receipts Initiative fund of £220,000 to be shared city wide and also an environmental budget of £142,000 to be shared between the Abbey and Beaumont Leys Wards. Council house tenants and owner occupiers could bid for money to make improvements to their homes. Successful bids would be agreed by a panel of tenants and Neville warned that the budgets were usually over subscribed. Further details could be obtained through the housing offices or tenants’ associations.

Neville also explained that he would be leaving his post on 5 July 2010 and John Thomson would be taking over as the new Neighbourhood Housing Manager at Mowmacre NHO.

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.

Steve Letten, Member Support Officer, will give a brief update on the current budget positions.

The meeting will consider the following budget applications:

B1) Community Trust Library

B2) ‘5 a day’ promotion

B3) Tuesday Group Trip to Skegness

B4) Day of Music

B5) Senior Community Society – Guru Nanak Birthday Celebration

B6) The Good Old Days Club – Abbey’s Got Talent

B7) Unity Boxing Club

B8) Leicester City Colts FC

Steve Letten, the Member Support Officer to the meeting explained that the following budget applications had been received:

B1 – Community Trust Library

Councillor Marriott, having declared a personal and prejudicial interest in the Community Trust Library, withdrew from the meeting and took no part in the discussion or vote on this item.

A funding application for £2000 had been received for the purchase of 4 CD players and a selection of CD books for members of the community who were visually or physically impaired. Steve was asked to investigate as to whether the Leicester City Council had any surplus stock available, which could be used by the Community Library.

RESOLVED:

                        that the funding application to the value of £2000 be supported

Councillor Marriott returned to the meeting at this point.

B2 – Five a Day Promotion

A funding application for £1097 had been received from Carlym Sandringham from the Healthy Living Centre, for the purchase of a portable oven to cook jacket potatoes for community events.

The need for health and safety training for safe use of the portable oven was noted.

RESOLVED:

                        that the funding application to the value of £1097 be supported

B3 Day trip to Skegness

A funding application for £250 had been received from the Tuesday Social Bingo Group for a day trip to Skegness.

Members agreed to support this particular bid, but stated that future bids of this nature from the Group, would not be supported as they wanted to ensure that other community groups would also benefit from the community meeting budget.

RESOLVED:

                        that the funding application to the value of £250 be supported

B4 – Come together

A funding application for £500 had been received from Danielle Williams, Event Co-ordinator, for a free music event in Abbey Park.  Steve explained that because the event was scheduled to take place on 27 June 2010, Members had already agreed to support this funding bid as a decision had been needed. Members of the public were therefore asked to note the decision.

RESOLVED:

that it be noted that the funding application to the value of £500 had been supported

B5 – Guru Nanak Birthday Celebration

A funding application for£1350 had been received from the Senior Community Society for an event at Holy Bones Community Centre on 2 November 2010.

The meeting heard that the organisation had received funding in 2009 for a similar event and Members agreed to support the funding bid to the value of £675 and the organisation was informed that funding would not be granted for the event in 2011. A representative from the Senior Community Society queried why only half of the bid had been supported and it was explained that there was a desire by Members, not to repeat funding for projects. The meeting also heard that there were other groups that the community meeting wanted to support and groups needed to carry out some fund raising for themselves.

RESOLVED:

                        that the funding bid to the value of £675 be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 92.

The meeting heard that there would be a Sky Ride event in Leicester on Sunday 29 August. This would be based in Abbey Park and proposals for the route around the city were currently still being drafted.

Jessica thanked the community meeting for providing the funding for the ‘litter pickers’ and explained that these were available if people wished to borrow them.

A resident referred to the community meeting budget process and questioned who made the decision on budget applications.  The Chair responded that Members listened to the views of the residents as everyone was entitled to an opinion. In the end however, it was the Leader of the Council and the Cabinet Lead for Front Line Service Improvement and Neighbourhoods who made the final decision on all the budget applications.

The meeting closed at 8.20 pm