Agenda and minutes

Councillor Dawood was elected Chair for the meeting.

Apologies were received from Ayub Sotta.

There were no declarations made at this time.

The minutes of the previous Spinney Hills Community Meeting, held on 19 September 2011, are attached and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

that the minutes of the meeting of Spinney Hills Community Meeting held on 19^th September 2011, as previously circulated, be agreed as a correct record.

The Community Meeting was informed that a 25 year contract to improve and extend the current Leicester District Heating Scheme had recently been awarded to COFELY District Energy. This company would be responsible for the design, build and maintenance of the Leicester District Heating Scheme. The system worked on the principal of an engine producing energy and then heat was gathered from the energy to provide heat that was then pumped through a network of pipes to houses on the system.

Representatives from COFELY District energy, based locally at 4 De Montfort Street, attended the meeting and stated that the company, formed in 2009, was owned by GDF Suez, the largest utility company in the world. COFELY District Energy now operated four major district heating schemes across the country, Southampton, Birmingham, Olympics site and now Leicester. Southampton had had an operational scheme for 25 years, Birmingham 5 years and the Olympics site and the Westfield Centre had just gone live.

COFELY had invested some £15 in the Leicester scheme to provide new pipework to connect new and existing systems and to link into the existing system. There were plans to connect Leicester Prison, the Tigers Stadium, and Leicester Royal Infirmary to the existing District Heating Scheme, as well as connecting the City Council buildings and the University. The aim was to have a big central heating system across the City. The whole City System was due to be commissioned by November 2012.

On a local level there were plans to connect the current systems for St. Matthews and St. Marks together, expected to be complete by February 2012, and this would involve various trenches to be dug to install the necessary pipework and lasting until after Christmas. A pilot metering scheme was due to start locally in January whereby 23 individual properties had already been selected to enable an assessment to be made of energy use prior to the new scheme starting, these properties represented a mix of the properties found locally. The results of this metering would enable comparisons to be made with results already gathered from other areas.

Overall the system was a reliable and sustainable system and COFELY were working with the City Council to agree the cost of heating to residents and a local Energy Improvement Manager would be appointed shortly.

At this point members of the public present raised a number of questions and comments, summarised as follows: -

A member of the public stated that adequate information on the changes to the District Heating Scheme had not been made available. In response it was stated that every tenant had been sent a letter from the City Council’s Housing Department and two public meetings had also been held locally, both of which had been well attended.

It was stated that the scheme had not been presented well and clarification was sought as to whether COFELY were going to be operating the existing systems until such time as the new equipment and pipework had been completed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59.

The Community Meeting will consider the following key issues within the St Matthews Area of the Ward:

1.    Highways and Traffic

2.    State of the Roads

3.    Residents Parking Scheme

4.    District Heating

Relevant Council officers and representatives will be in attendance to provide an overview of each of the above, and will then answer questions relating to each issue.

Officers from the City Council attended the meeting in response to a request for feedback on the following topics: -

·         Highways and Traffic

·         State of the Roads

·         Residents Parking Scheme

Residents Parking

It was reported that in response to resident’s concerns No Waiting restrictions had been implemented on four separate roads on St. Matthews, including Manitoba Road and Chester Close. Parking enforcement on these roads were covered by Traffic Enforcement Officers.

Requests had now been received to introduce similar restrictions to Edmonton Road, Malabar Road, Lethbridge Close and Ontario Close.

Officers stated that an experimental residents Parking Scheme was currently operating in part of the South Highfields area and a similar scheme would be considered for St. Matthews as it would not be possible to construct sufficient laybys to make a difference on the estate. At the present time certain residents had asked for a Residents Parking Scheme but the areas where they lived did not link up. The City Council would be prepared to consider introducing a Scheme in an arc across the estate but this would depend on residents. Should the stage be reached whereby a Residents Parking Scheme was drawn up a ballot of residents in the area of the scheme would take place. If, as a result of the ballot, the majority of residents responding opposed the Scheme then it would not be implemented. Should the residents Parking Scheme be supported then it would be possible to tailor it to meet the needs of residents. A fee of £25 would be imposed as an admin fee on all residents. All objections to a proposed Scheme would be reported to Cabinet and then, as soon as they had been successfully addressed, could the signs and necessary lines be provided.

Discussion took place around Residents Parking in general and of the view that the £25 fee should not apply to Blue Badge holders, together with the recipients of disability benefits.

A member of the public questioned how space was allocated for residents/cars. Officers stated that the Council did not allocate space and in areas, such as St. Matthews, where the number of residents vehicles exceeded the number of spaces available, then a Residents Parking Scheme would be unable to address the problems outlined, but only as far as preventing commuter parking. Permits for visitors were available and the other major issue was the effect on local businesses, although the City Council tried to provide laybys in streets not covered by the Residents Parking Scheme.

A member of the public questioned what provision would be made for workers that came to the estate to work. Officers responded by stating that the City Council would only try and prevent commuters and shoppers from parking on the estate, but it would not be possible to restrict motorists with a permit from parking within the Scheme area.

It was further reported that the holder of a permit would not be guaranteed a parking space outside their house, or even within the Scheme  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.

Representatives from the City Wardens service will be in attendance to provide an update on their work.  Updates will also be provided in relation to policing and community safety issues.

Inspector Bill Knopp opened by introducing the St. Matthews Local Policing Team.

In St. Matthews there had been a small increase in crime overall of 2%, but a reduction in vehicle crime of 30%. Burglaries had increased slightly and local residents were being urged to leave lights on if they were going to be out after dark as this would create the impression that the property was occupied. Robberies were also slightly up with young people being targeted , particularly for mobile phones.

Operation Lake was underway that was targeted at drug dealing and street dealing. The operation had been running for just one week and 3 arrests had been made. The operation was open ended and it was important for any information from local residents that could possibly help investigations to be forwarded.

A member of the public stated that since the shop outside the Sports Centre had gone to 24 hour operation crime had increased. Insp. Knopp stated that the police would look into this and gather information.

It was reported that, following an incident the previous night, that the fences at the rear of properties in Malabar Road were to be removed to dissuade the ‘working girls’ that frequent the area. It was also hoped that additional CCTV cameras would be installed in the area.

Nazira Vanja, Community Safety Team stated that the team were working to help tackle community safety issues across the City.

Darren Evans, City Warden stated that he would give a full presentation at the next meeting, but in the meantime he was happy to deal with any problems that were within his remit.

RESOLVED:

                        that the information be noted.

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.

Anita Patel, Members Support Officer, will provide an overview of the current position of the Spinney Hills Ward budget.  The following applications will be considered:

Application 1

Applicant:      Leicester United Sports and Culture

Amount:         £500

Proposal:       Workshops for young people.

Summary:    

We have chosen a vague section in the work that needs to be done to enhance the young people’s mind in our community. However our proposal is to bring nothing but positivity to their minds. This will then reflect on the community and make it a better place to live in.

This is to take away and remove the idea that the young people need to be in a gang to be socially secure in their neighbourhoods. This has been the case for over my time in St Matthews and this is the problem everywhere. Which is why unemployment is on the increase and have resulted in things such as the riots and other gang related activities

How we are going to tackle this?

What we are going to do is to hold various workshops, sporting activities for the young people in all different types of areas but our main focus point for now is St Matthews. So when we get them together is to get them talking and get them doing what they do in their own time, but this time together with opposing people. Our idea is to bring other people from various other backgrounds and ethnic backgrounds.

Our proposal will be successful because it integrates all the young people together and they’ll do what is beneficial for

Application 2

Applicant:      Shubaan Youth Group

Amount:         £1,000

Proposal:       Hire Charges for Highfields Centre

Summary:    

We are a youth group form Spinney Hill that has been operating since 2003, working with young people of ages 10 – 18. Through education, sport, life skills, charity and interfaith work we have empowered our young people and helped them in there development to be better citizens of this country.

We operate on a weekly basis at Highfields Centre where through the medium of sport we attract our young people. This then enables our volunteers to carry out substantial youth work for the betterment of our users. Through, support a rapport is cultivated which enables us to work on issues like extremism, drugs and substance misuse and educational underachievement. Moreover, we also look at ways of celebrating achievements made by young people.

Therefore, we would like to apply for funding that will enable us to pay for hire charges at Highfields Centre. As well as providing sporting activities we envisage to hold a seminar on the recent riots and get the thoughts of young people of Spinney Hill. Moreover, we will be inviting in successful local people to discuss there achievements in our monthly role model event.

Application 3

Applicant:      St  ...  view the full agenda text for item 62.

Anita Patel, Member Support Officer gave an update on the Community Meeting Budget and reported that the Budget for the year had been £15,000, and to date £7,313 had been spent, leaving a remaining balance of £7,687.

Anita explained that four funding applications had been received and were included on the agenda. Councillors had considered the applications in detail prior to the meeting.

1)    Leicester United Sports and Culture                            £500

Removing ‘Gang Mind’ of the Young

Generation within our Community

            RESOLVED:

that the funding application be supported to the value of £370.

2)    Shubaan                                                                               £1,000

Seeking funding to pay hire charges at Highfields Centre to enable sporting activities to be held as well as a seminar on the recent riots and get the thoughts of young people of Spinney Hills.

RESOLVED:

that the funding application be supported to the value of £1,000.

3)    St. Matthews Tenants Association                                £500

Seeking funding to establish a small tool bank of equipment including spades, forks, rakes and a battery lawn mower for residents to maintain their gardens or cultivate the areas of land allocated to grow vegetables.

            RESOLVED:

That the funding application be supported to the value of £500.

4)    Resident representative from                                         £200

Mahatma Gandhi House, Sabarmati House

and Azad House

Seeking funding to hold a multi-faith cohesion function.

RESOLVED:

that the funding application be supported to the value of £1,000.

Anita reported that a late application had been received as summarised below:

5)    Spinney Hills Police/Community Safety                      £1,200

Seeking funding for a Burglary hardening Scheme in the area, involving the purchase and delivery to recent and potential victims of burglary of window locks and timer switches. The funding would enable some 120 properties to be covered.

RESOLVED:

that the funding application be supported to the value of £500 at this meeting, the balance to be considered at the next meeting.

The next meeting will take place at 6pm on Monday 12 March 2012.

It was noted that the next meeting would be held at 6.00pm on Monday 12^th March 2012, venue to be confirmed.

The Chair declared the meeting closed at 8.13pm.