Agenda and minutes

Councillor Westley in the Chair.

Everyone welcomed and introductions given.

There were no apologies for absence.

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 to be discussed.

Councillor Dempster and Councillor Westley both declared they were Board members of Ur Choice Project, who had placed an application for ward funding. The Members indicated they would view the application with an open mind.

The Action Log of the previous Beaumont Leys Community Meeting held on 1^st July 2014 is attached, and Members will be asked to confirm it as a correct record.

The action log of the previous Beaumont Leys Ward Community meeting held on 1^st July 2014 were agreed as a true record and noted.

The Chair agreed to take the following agenda item at the meeting.

The Team Leader for Sustainable Transport at Leicester City Council updated the meeting on recent consultation undertaken for views on improvements to the Beaumont Leys bus interchange, and outlined the plans on printouts at the meeting. Residents were asked to complete a short questionnaire for comments on the project.

The Community Meeting to receive an update on Local Policing.

Members welcomed back Inspector Helen Nurse to the area as Local Policing Commander.

PC Adam Woolman discussed the issues in the area.

All to note:

·         Recorded crime was down by 50 incidents.

·         For the same three month period in 2013, a significant increase in theft from vehicles over 100%.

·         A recent spike in vehicle crime coincided with people leaving prison or leaving drug rehabilitation programmes.

·         Students in the area would be given crime prevention information.

·         More warrants were used to target drug dealers and drug finds had increased significantly. A conservative estimate of £15k worth of drugs had been removed over the last three months.

·         Assets would be seized from profits due to crime.

·         Indecency rates were down.

·         15 motorbikes were seized, 9 of which had been reported stolen, and prosecutions were outstanding.

·         There was recent increase in wing mirrors from Vauxhall Astras as they had a sellable value. The police asked motorists to ID mark their vehicles.

·         The police were working in partnership with mental health professionals when working with identified persons with mental health issues.

Councillors and residents thanked the Police for taking part at a recent Beaumont Leys community fun day.

The Chair thanked the police for the update.

Councillors will provide an update on patch-walks in Beaumont Leys.

·         Ward Councillors were taking the car parking issue at Heathley Park forward, and had recently attended the AGM of Heathley Park residents. A request was people to become officers of the AGM.

·         The community fun day at Beaumont Lodge was well attended, and had received Community Meeting funding. Thanks were given again to the Police who had attended.

·         Alderman Richard Hallam School had also been given funding for an event, which was attended by Councillor Dempster on behalf of members, and was another well attended event.

Councillors are reminded that they will need to declare any interest they may have in budget applications.

(i)            Beaumont Town Football Club – Protective Pitch Barriers and Storage Container - £3,086

Safety barriers for pitches on Beaumont Park to protect children from mindless motorbike riders that frequent the park when training or match day. A metal storage container required to store goals and equipment on Beaumont Park.

Applications approved under the Fast Track Process:

(ii)          Beaumont Lodge Neighbourhood CIC – Family Fun Day - Flavours from across the globe - £300

A community Family Fun Day on 16/8/14 in the Beaumont Leys Ward, for families to have positive interaction, celebrating cultural diversity through food from different cultures, promoting community cohesion and encouraging camaraderie and friendship, raising awareness of services available to the community via the BLN CIC

Noted that the following grant applications had been approved by Councillors under the fast-track procedure (grants of £500 or less) since the last meeting:

Application 1148 – Beaumont Ldoge, Famility Fun Day - £300

Application 1177 – Barley Croft Sewing Circle - £400

Applications considered at the meeting

1162 – Beaumont Town Football Club – Protective Pitch Barriers and Storage Container. Application for £3,086. Members agreed to DEFER the application pending possible funding streams from other areas.

1182 – Ajmal Butt – Unity Boxing Gym. Application for £1,000. The application was SUPPORTED IN FULL for £1,000.

1185 – Ur Choice Young Peoples Project – Community Christmas Fair. Application for £1,200. The application was SUPPORTED IN FULL for £1,200.

1189 – Jonathan Weston – Beaumont Rangers. Application for £1,500. The application was SUPPORTED IN FULL for £1,500.

Other budget discussions:

·           Applicants present at the meeting said there was an issue for groups around sustainability due to the pitch fees that were charged.

ACTION:

i)             Officers to invite the Assistant Mayor for Culture, Leisure and Sport to provide an options paper on pitch fees.

ii)            Groups to contact Roy Cole, Beaumont Leys Leisure Centre, who will provide assistance in identifying other funding streams.

·         Councillors asked that contact be made with Christ the King Church and Barley Croft School to ask if they wished to make funding applications prior to the next Community Meeting.

ACTION:

i)             Officers to contact the venues.

·         Meeting attendees requested an action plan be developed for Beaumont Leys. The Chair asked Mr Cole to organise a meeting at the leisure centre and invite groups and Members. Also an agenda item on sport be included on the next Community Meeting agenda.

ACTION:

·         Sport be added as an agenda item at the next Community Meeting, and a presentation to be given from Mr Cole.

City Warden – an information leaflet contained the following information:

·         One Clean Leicester reports – 1 around Heacham Drive

·         22 Fly tipping complaints around the Strasbourg Drive, Anstey Lanes and Astill Lodge areas

·         1 dog fouling complaint around the Astill Lodge area.

·         6 reports of untidy land around the Astill Lodge area.

The meeting closed at 7.51pm.