Agenda and minutes

Councillors will elect a Chair for the meeting.

Councillor Vi Dempster was elected as Chair for the meeting.

There were no apologies for absence.

Veena James from the Clockwise Credit Union gave the meeting a brief presentation about the services her organisation could offer.

- The aim was to give an alternative to expensive doorstep lenders, based on not for profit co-operative principles.

- The interest rates on loans were much lower than doorstep lenders, a top rate of 30%, compared to a possible 365%.

- Veena welcomed people who worked with tenants to contact her to see if some service provision could be developed.

- Loans could be arranged from £50 up to £7500, paid back through a variety of means and these could be extended if necessary.

- A dividend of 1.5% was currently paid on savings and a 3% cash ISA was available.

- The maximum amount that could be saved with the credit union was currently £14,500.

An offer was made to Clockwise to provide services from the Christ the King Church. Veena thanked for the offer and would look into it.

Veena also informed the meeting that a pilot exercise for community provision would be running in Beaumont Leys. Details would be circulated in the planned Community Magazine.

The Chair thanked Veena for attending.

Carlym Sandringham, Manager of the Barleycroft Healthy Living Centre informed the meeting of details of a community magazine, One Neighbourhood.

-     The magazine would be circulated to all properties in the Beaumont Leys and Abbey Wards.

-     It would contain details of service providers operating in the area, Councillors’ surgeries, community meetings, faith groups and voluntary groups.

-     It would be circulated with the Link magazine, quarterly.

The Chair commented to the meeting that this was a good way for all organisations, which were active in the area to link up and provide information in one useful booklet.  It also made sense from a financial perspective to produce one booklet rather than a number of different ones.

Following the presentation at the last meeting and the issues raised, details will be provided to the meeting about plans to address the issues.

15 minutes has been allocated for the above item.

Ravi Mohankumar, Acting Team Leader, Traffic Impact outlined details of progress and actions taken in response to the issues raised at the previous meeting.

Overhanging Vegetation on Bennion Road

Ravi stated that letters had been written to owners of properties where this was an issue and that Council staff from Property Services would definitely be taking action on land that they had control over.

Roundabout at Bennion Road / Heatherbrook Road

With regard to the comment about this roundabout being dangerous, Ravi commented that a study on traffic calming in that area was being undertaken and its findings would be reported to Councillors for a decision. Changes to the roundabout could be included in this study.

A resident felt that the roundabout itself wasn’t the problem, but the speed and style of driving by the public was the main issue. He felt that there was a particular problem in the morning and with taxi drivers. In response Ravi stated that a speed survey would be undertaken on Bennion Road, this would be ongoing 24 hours a day, for 7 days.

The Chair asked if the Police could look into exploring this issue with the resident to see if patrols could take place at times when there were particular problems. PC Martin Birch agreed to look into this and if the survey showed particular problems, the traffic camera van could be utilised.

Ashton Green

With regard to extra traffic arising from the development at Ashton Green, Ravi said that transport officers were waiting for more details before the traffic impact issues could be assessed.

On the wider issue of the Ashton Green development, the Chair said that a ‘visioning’ exercise was currently being undertaken. This meant, plans were being made for what could go where, including road layouts. When these were finalised there would be large amounts of consultation, to get the views of the public.

Chicanes on Bennion Road

Ravi commented that he was unaware of proposals for traffic calming on Bennion Road. Further details would be sought with regard to the landscaping ‘bund’ (mounds of land which often had trees and shrubs planted on them) which had been introduced.

Satisfaction with Bus Services

Ravi pointed out that the latest Mori survey for the Audit Commission showed a 74% satisfaction rate. The Council continues to raise issues with bus companies, but as they are a commercial organisation decisions about routes, timetables and fares a determined by the operator.

Gypsy Camping off Bennion Road

Ravi noted that landscaping bunds were being introduced along Bennion Road. He also noted that a new multi agency group based at County Hall were able to take swift action in relation to illegal gypsy encampments throughout Leicestershire. Councillor Westley noted that with the most recent encampment there were particular issues with one family. Due to compassionate grounds it wasn’t possible to move them on as quickly as was hoped for. He further commented that there were no permanent stopping sites in the city and he felt  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

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 previous Beaumont Leys Community Meeting, held on 2 June 2009, are attached and Councillors are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

5 minutes has been allocated for the above items.

The minutes of the previous meeting were noted.

The Police and the Council will give an update on the measures being undertaken to address the improper use of motorbikes.

15 minutes has been allocated for the above item.

Councillor Dempster introduced this item.

-     A patchwalk was previously held on Osprey Road. 

-     Some measures were put in place which seemed to work for a while, but more complaints have been received recently.

-     Beaumont Leys Councillors would raise the issue with the Cabinet Lead Member for Regeneration and Transport.

-     A full public meeting was now planned on 7/14 October at Heatherbrook Primary School.

-     Full leafleting of the local area would take place.

-     All relevant officers from different agencies would be present to be able to respond to resident’s concerns.

The following comments were made as part of the discussion.

-     A resident noted that there weren’t really any problems at Cross Hedges anymore. PC Martin Birch welcomed this as hard work had gone in to addressing the problems in the area.

-     A representative of Beaumont Leys Flying Club said that he’d noticed a drop off in problems.

-     Councillor Westley said that the Police and the Housing Office had been receiving good information about where motorbikes were being stored. They were then able to act on this information. He also felt that measures needed to be taken, such as removing long runs on pathways.

-     It was agreed that barriers on pathways could be looked at. Councillor Dempster agreed to raise this with the Cabinet Lead.

-     It was requested that Tesco be invited to the public meeting. It was felt that they could play a part with regard to restricting the sale of petrol.

A number of patch walks have taken place in the ward over recent weeks and months. Steve Letten, Member Support Officer will give an update on the issues raised.

15 minutes has been allocated for the above item.

Councillor Dempster introduced this item.

-     A number of patchwalks had taken place in recent months in areas such as Osprey Road, Bradgate Heights, Heathley Park.

-     Residents can approach Councillors about holding a patchwalk in their area.

-     The area is leafletted, the patchwalk takes place and issues are noted.

-     The issues are either responded to at the patchwalk or they are taken back to the Council, Police or partner organisation for action or response as appropriate.

-       Councillors were happy to have further requests for patchwalks.

A resident commented that they didn’t get to hear of events such as this as the notice board close to their home was regularly vandalised. The Chair asked that the Neighbourhood Housing Manager speak to the resident about the details of the problem.

A resident queried whether Councillors were invited to housing association patchwalks? The Councillors said that they weren’t. A resident volunteered to provide details of the East Midlands Housing Association patchwalks.

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.

No budget applications had been received prior to the meeting.

Steve Letten, Member Support Officer will give the meeting an update on the current position of expenditure of the budget.

This will include details of two fast-tracked applications as follows:-

- Police Litterpicking scheme

- Additional planting in the Beaumont Lodge area

10 minutes has been allocated for the above item.

Steve Letten, Member Support Officer gave the meeting an update on the current position with the budget.

-     Overall there was £18,237 to distribute between the three funds at the beginning of the year.

-     There was now £14,292 available to distribute.

-     Dog mess bins had now been installed at Bennion Pools following a previous application. Environmental Services would be emptying them on a regular basis.

-     Two previously ‘fast track’ applications were noted: Police litter picking scheme, £300 and Beaumont Lodge shops planting scheme, £500.

-     Stefan Cabaniuk from Parks Services noted that the planting scheme was about to start its second phase and he gave details of what was involved.

The chair noted that a late application had been received from Barleycroft Evergreen Club. The application was to cover the room hire charge for the group to meet for one year. There were no comments from the meeting on this application. Councillors approved the application for £512.50.

Kim Thorrington, Youth Worker, Widening Participation gave the meeting details of youth projects which he was now putting forward formal requests for funding. This was as part of the £5620 that was approved last year to support youth projects.

Musical performance project - £500

Residential trip for young people with mental health difficulties - £400

Education materials for a sexual health project - £500

Football strip and footballs for a new football team - £300

Educational materials for friendship group for young people with mental health difficulties - £300

The Chair welcomed Kim’s approach to this, to let the young people decide their priorities for spending the money. Councillors approved the expenditure on the youth projects.

Beaumont Leys Flying Club

A representative from the Flying Club told the meeting about plans to develop a project to work with young people at Babington Community College. Facilities would be available to use at the school, including flying space and a teacher would be involved. The application would be for £800 to provide for materials to help the young people build their own planes. Councillors indicated that they were minded to support this project when plans came forward.

Please note that future meetings will be held on:-

3 December 2009

1 March 2010

It is currently planned to hold the meetings at 3.30pm in Christ the King Church.

It was noted that future meetings would be taking place on:-

Thursday 3 December 2009

Monday 1 March 2009.

Councillors have requested that any urgent business must be forwarded on the day prior to the meeting. Please forward it to Steve Letten or Matthew Reeves (contact details below).

Update on Speedway Sports Complex

David Hemsley from S&P Architects gave the meeting an update on progress with the speedway complex development.

-     Planning approval had now been given.

-     A legal agreement was now being finalised with the Council – Cabinet approval was expected in October.

-     It was hoped that work would start on site soon after.

-       Representatives from ‘Complete Football’ were getting involved with the development. This was an organisation aiming to work with young people to develop their football skills.

-     It would cost £1.30 for young people to access the football facilities.

A representative from the Flying Club asked to be informed when builders would move onto the site.

A resident expressed concern that residents hadn’t had leaflets put through their doors. She felt that people had only just become aware of this development, now that it had been approved. She said that a number of residents had concerns about the noise that would be generated from the speedway. Mr. Hemsley explained that a lengthy consultation process, using a wide variety of methods, including leafleting houses had taken place. He also explained that various noise reduction controls had to be put in place as part of the planning application and that Pollution Control were happy with the plans. The Councillors agreed that a lot of consultation had taken place and previously there had been a great deal of support from residents in favour of the proposals.

Choice Based Lettings

Councillor Westley requested that there be an agenda item on Choice Based Lettings at the next meeting.

The meeting closed at 5.45pm.