Agenda and minutes

INFORMATION FAIR

The following information stands were sited in the room. Members of the public visited the stands and were given an opportunity to meet Councillors, Council staff and the local Police and to bring enquiries and raise and issues.

          Ward Councillors and General Enquiries

Local Ward Councillors were at the meeting to discuss any local issues of concern.

          Housing and Housing Repairs

Officers were in attendance at the meeting to provide advice with local Council housing matters.

          Building Cleaning

Officers were available to discuss issues relating to the cleaning of communal areas in Council owned accommodation.

Grounds Maintenance

Officers responsible for the maintenance of hedges, grass verges and trees were in attendance.

Leicester Anti Social Behaviour Unit

Information was available about services which deal with anti social behaviour problems.

Domestic Violence

Officers were in attendance promoting awareness of domestic violence services.

Community and Healthy Living Centres

Information was provided about the facilities / services available in Community and Healthy Living Centres.

Police

Police Officers were present to discuss any issues of concern.

Youth Council

Representatives from the local Youth Council were present, giving information about the work that they do.

Leicester City Local Involvement Network (LINk)

Representatives were present to talk about the work of the Local Involvement Network, which sought to include more public involvement in the development of local health services.

          Sure Start

Details were available of the services provided by the local Sure Start.

Beaumont Sports Complex Consortium

Representatives were present to give details about the proposals for a range of new sports and leisure facilities in Beaumont Park.

At the conclusion of this informal session members of the public were invited to take their seats and take part in the formal session of the meeting.

Councillors will elect a Chair for the meeting.

Councillor Paul Westley was elected as Chair for the meeting.

There were apologies for absence from local resident, John Greasley.

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. 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 1972 applied to them.

There were no declarations.

The minutes of the meeting held on 17 September are attached to these agenda papers and Councillors will be asked to confirm them as a correct record following any comments that people may have.

The minutes of the meeting held on 17 September 2008 were attached to the agenda papers.

The Councilllors on the Committee were asked to approve them as a correct record.

They were approved.

The City Warden covering the Beaumont Leys Ward will be in attendance to detail the sort of services which will be provided.

The Chair welcomed Barbara Whitcombe, City Warden Manager to give the meeting a brief presentation about the work of City Wardens.

Barbara gave an outline of the activities of City Wardens.

- They would be based in the community, visible, patrolling on the street and would take a proactive approach to dealing with issues.

- They would have enforcement powers available to them, (litter, dog fouling, bins on streets) but preferred to educate people.

- They would report on progress to Community Meetings and can be given tasks at Meetings.

- They would also tackle issues like graffiti, litter, fly tipping, unauthorised commercial waste, fly posters, abandoned vehicles and waste in front gardens.

Nik Krneta, the Beaumont Leys City Warden was also in attendance. He gave some specific examples of issues that he had tackled. These included:-

- Fly tipping in Acer Close and Churchward Avenue and Upper Temple Walk.

- Beaumont Walk – parks cleaned up the children’s slide free of graffiti.

- A vehicle that was dumping tyres was tracked down.

- Closely liaising with the trolley collection service to tackle the problems.

- Attending a dog fouling problem in Glebelands at different hours of the day to try and track the perpetrator down.

Residents welcomed the news that they had a City Warden. A number of questions were asked at the meeting. Questions were asked around the following:-

- False personal details being given to the street warden. Nik said that no one had been aggressive in response to him, he wasn’t aware of being given any false information.

- Waste being left outside being left outside people’s homes to be picked up by ‘the yellow van’. Nik noted that in doing this they were actually fly tipping and it shouldn’t be done. Marie Murray, Area Housing Manager advised that the Council’s bulk collection service should be used instead.

- Litter problems at the Barleycroft shops after lunchtimes. Nik said that he would visit the shops on a regular basis to try and tackle the issues.

- The City Warden was invited to attend the Upper Temple Walk Tenants and Residents Association meeting.

- A resident commented that they supported litter fines and would support them for flyposting as well. It was also suggested that Tesco be fined for the trolleys littering the area.

- Residents welcomed the education initiatives, where officers went to schools to get the message across about not littering.

The Chair thanked Barbara and Nik for attending and wished them well in their efforts to clean up the area.

Steve Letten, Member Support Officer will give the meeting a briefing presentation on the development of the Ward Action Plan for Beaumont Leys.

Steve Letten, Member Support Officer introduced the Ward Action Plan.

The top five issues, which the plan would look to address were as follows:-

- Youth / Children’s Services

- Street cleaning / fly tipping / dog mess / graffiti

- Crime and ASB / policing

- Traffic / parking / roads / pavements

- Environment / parks and play areas / trees

A number of comments were made in agreement of these priorities.

It was suggested that the Old Barn should be utilised for youth provision.

Discussion then centred on specific tasks to be undertaken on the plan and the expenditure of the Community Meeting budget in relation to Ward Action Plan Priorities.

It was agreed to set up a Youth and Children’s Task Group to look at ways of addressing issues in this area and proposing suggestions for expenditure of the budget. Kim Thorington agreed to lead this group. Councillor Dempster suggested she knew some one else who would want to be involved.

It was also agreed to set up another Task Group to look into street cleaning issues, Dinesh Nagar agreed to lead on this group.

Councillor Westley also agreed to lead on issues relating to crime and anti social behaviour as he felt that the Joint Action Group could assist in this matter.

Councillors commented that they would encourage local residents to get involved in the task groups.

Steve Letten agreed to provide support to the task groups.

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

The meeting will consider the following budget applications:-

B1) Beaumont Lodge Neighbours Association and Local Residents, assisted by Parks Services – proposal for Environmental Improvements to Beaumont Lodge Grounds and Neighbouring Nature Garden, £1640 requested from the Ward Community Fund.

B2) Marie Murray (Area Housing Manager) – this item is to report that £400 was approved by Councillors as an urgent item to support the Football Fun Week from the Ward Community Cohesion fund.

B3) Christ the King Tuesday Friends – (NOT ATTACHED). Notification of an application has been given, (the paperwork wasn’t available at the time of agenda publication) for funding for two trips, Christmas Pantomime and a spring / summer excursion. Details will be available at the meeting.

Steve Letten, Member Support Officer introduced the community meeting budget item.

The following items of business were considered.

B1) Beaumont Lodge Neighbours Association and Local Residents, assisted by Parks Services – proposal for environmental improvements to Beaumont Lodge grounds and neighbouring nature garden. £1640 was requested from the Ward Community Fund.

This application was approved.

B2) Marie Murray (Area Housing Manager) – this item was to report that £400 was approved by Councillors as an urgent item to support the Football Fun Week from the Ward Community Cohesion fund.

Steve Letten noted that Councillors indicated that they would wish to support the Football Fun Week on a regular basis, but this was not possible under the current rules.

B3) Christ the King Tuesday Friends – proposal to send residents to Curve to have a Christmas treat and experience the city’s new landmark. £406 was requested from the Ward Community Fund.

This application was approved.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 10 March.

It was agreed to investigate the possibility of having the next meeting on a Saturday in March. If this was possible it would be held at Christ the King Church.

If this wasn’t possible, it was agreed to hold the meeting at 3.30pm during the winter months.

It was also requested that the ‘information fair’ session take place after the formal session.

Barleycroft Library

Carlym Sandringham thanked Councillors for the funding previously approved for books for Barleycroft Library. She noted that the official opening would be on January 17 and all were invited.