Agenda and minutes

Councillors will elect a Chair for the meeting.

Councillor Baljit Singh was elected as Chair and welcomed everyone to the Evington Community Meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Nicole Powell the City Warden, Mrs McAlinden(TARA) and Bill from the Evington Youth Club.

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 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 may have in the business on the agenda, and / or indicate that Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applied to them.

 

No such declarations were made.

The minutes of the previous Evington Community Meeting, held on 15 March 2012 have been circulated and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 20 June 2012 be confirmed as a correct record.

Councillors will present an update on the issues that they have been dealing with since the previous meeting.

Councillors Baljit Singh and Deepak Bajaj presented their Ward Councillors’ report and the following points were made.

 

·         Linden Primary School Petition – Councillor Singh explained that he had received a complaint from residents that officers had not responded to their petition which had been submitted with over 600 signatures. Councillor Singh had requested that an urgent response be prepared, and, as an officer could not be present, it was intended to bring printed copies to circulate to attendees at the meeting. Unfortunately a hard copy of the officer response had been not been brought to the meeting, however Councillor Singh added that he had seen the response which he summarised as follows:

 

a)    Linden Road Primary School was in the process of negotiating a ‘walking bus’.

b)    There was a possibility of parking at the Evington Park car park, with the children walking under supervision to the school.

c)    The school entrance would be moved and a number of safety measures would be put into place including a Traffic Regulation and the replacement of yellow lines and zig zag lines.

 

(A copy of the officer response is attached at the back of the minutes).

 

Further to this, a member of the community expressed concern that there was a serious road safety situation on The Dell, where there was confusion as to who had the right of way. She felt that a stop sign was needed there.  The Chair asked the resident to talk to the Democratic Support Officer at the end of the meeting so that full details of the concern could be noted.

 

·         Councillor Singh added that he would be bringing a motion to a meeting of the full Council on 28 June, in support  of the Cardiac Service at the Glenfield Hospital. He stated that they provided an excellent service but there was a review on-going and there was a possibility that the service would be lost.

 

·         Councillor Bajaj gave thanks to Mr and Mrs O’ Brien, and Bill for their hard work at the Evington Youth Club. The car park had been resurfaced and there were now some very attractive plants there.

 

·         The Youth Council members were present and were welcomed to the meeting.  Councillor Singh explained that he had received representations from their members relating to bullying. He explained that he had spoken to the Principal at Judgemeadow Community College with a view to arranging a meeting with him and the Youth Council to consider the problem. In response to a suggestion as to whether it would be better to approach the Assistant Mayor, Children, Young People and Schools first, he advised members of the Youth Council that he thought it would be preferable to talk to the Principal initially as it would be very useful to seek his input.

Members of the community will receive a presentation on Domestic Violence and Community Safety, particularly in relation to the Evington Ward. Stephanie McBurney, Domestic Violence Co-ordinator and an officer from the Community Safety Team will be present.

Stephanie McBurney, Domestic Violence Co-ordinator and Nazira Vania from the Community Safety Team gave a presentation on domestic violence and community safety.

 

Stephanie explained that the Domestic Violence team were based within Community Safety and that she worked alongside Nazira. Stephanie then outlined how the domestic violence services were changing in Leicester and attendees heard that the Vision for Leicester was:

 

“To work together to prevent domestic violence and to provide support and protection to anyone who has been affected by domestic violence, based on equality, partnership working and knowledge of what works”.

 

The meeting heard that changes would be made to the current provision to provide support for people who wanted to change their abusive behaviour, and there would also be increased support for children and families. Statistics were given for domestic violence cases in Leicester and in Evington, which Stephanie explained, had one of the lowest reported incidences of domestic violence in the city. Stephanie cautioned however, that where there were low numbers of reported cases of domestic violence, it might be that people tended not to talk about the problem.  Members of the community were asked to consider whether any of their friends or members of their families might be victims of domestic violence.

 

In response to a question from a member of the community, Stephanie explained that the Domestic Violence helpline telephone number was 0116 2555004.

 

A copy of Stephanie’s presentation is attached at the back of these minutes. 

 

Nazira then addressed the meeting and attendees heard that she worked in 5 wards and was a local presence in the community.  Nazira made the following points:

 

·         Community safety generally involved issues that made people feel safe and could include various incidents such as anti-social behaviour, burglaries and cars being broken into.

 

·         The Community Safety team attended local residents’ meetings.

 

·         She worked with the Police for 2 to 3 half days per week. The rest of the time she was based at the African Caribbean Centre.

 

·         The team raised awareness of community safety issues.

 

·         The team tacked anti- social behaviour through problem solving plans.

 

·         They provided help and support to victims and helped members of the community to keep their homes secure.

 

The following questions and comments were raised:

 

·         Are there any ‘safe houses’ in Leicester?

 

The meeting heard that there were refuges for women and children in the city.

 

·         The government definition of the age limit for domestic violence victims should take into account the fact that children may also be affected and become victims. Some children or young people might believe that such violence was normal and others might become withdrawn.

 

Stephanie concurred and added that the service aimed to increase their support to children affected by domestic violence. The collateral damage to children and young people in such situations was recognised.

 

·         What happens if domestic violence is inflicted against a family member by a young person? In such cases, action should be taken to stop the abusive behaviour as soon as possible.

 

Stephanie explained  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63.

An officer from Highways Maintenance will be present and will provide an update on road resurfacing in Evington.

The Chair explained that it had not been possible for an officer from Highways to attend the meeting, but an update on road surfacing in Evington had been provided. This update was read out to attendees:

 

From the works programme for 2012 / 2013, the following work was planned:

 

Footway Work:

 

Downing Drive (Chorley Road to Uppingham Road), slabbed footway relay and associated work.

 

Carriageway Work:

 

Shady Lane Surface Dressing                                                                  £15, 000

 

Stoughton Lane Surface Dressing                                                          £5,000

 

Uppingham Road Surface Dressing                                                       £20,000

 

Spencefield Lane from Goodwood Road to St Deny’s Road

(Carriageway Crack and Seat plus future surfacing)                            £97,000

 

Davenport Road from Goodwood Road to Gamel Road

(Carriageway Crack and Seat plus future surfacing)                            £150,000

 

Wicklow Drive Junction with Goodwood Road (major patching)        £25,000

 

St Denys Road, odd concrete bay repairs                                               £5,000

 

A member of the community commented that she lived on a cul-de-sac on Downing Drive and a request was made that the footway work should include the cul-de-sac because currently the existing footway was an eye-sore.

 

A query was made relating to the roundabout in Evington Village and Councillors confirmed that the work to improve the roundabout had been completed approximately 8 months ago.

Luke Crown, Service Development Officer from Waste Management, and a representative from Biffa will provide an update on recycling and the roll out of the scheme to flats.

Kimberley Stones from Biffa provided an update on recycling and explained that the new scheme to extend recycling to flats was currently being introduced. She had a list of those flats which were currently part of the recycling scheme and would be happy to provide more specific details at the end of the meeting.

 

Kimberley also made the following points:

 

·         The orange bags had now been revised for the third time in response to comments from members of the public. The new bags would be slightly larger than the previous issue of orange bags but would still have the ‘bunny ears’ for ease of tying.

 

·         Leicester was unique in that 80% of everything that went into the black refuse bin would still be recycled. If people were therefore unsure as to whether an item should be put into an orange bag or not, they were advised to place it into the wheely bin.

 

·         Members of the community were reminded that there were still bulk waste collections and up to 15 bags of green waste or 5 items could be collected free of charge every 2 months.  People were asked to try to keep the waste items dry,

 

Kimberley was thanked for attending the meeting.

The City Warden will provide an update on street scene enforcement issues in the Evington Ward.

The Chair explained that Nicole, the City Warden had submitted her apologies as she was unable to attend the meeting.  However, members of the community were asked to note that there would be a local litter pick on 11 July.

Representatives from the Local Policing Unit will be present to provide an update on policing in the local area.

Police Constable Rob Evans presented an update on policing issues in the Evington Ward. Pc Evans made the following points:

 

·         PC Ellis would be returning to the team from her maternity leave and Pc Clare Jackson would be moving onto the Coleman Ward.

 

·         Ps Eveleigh had moved to a new area of the city and Ps David Cleaver was now the Police Sergeant for the Evington and Coleman area.

 

During the previous month there had been:

 

23 burglaries

3 robberies

7 thefts from stores

19 thefts from motor vehicles

14 cases of damage to motor vehicles

 

·         The Police were putting a considerable amount of resources into acquisitive crime and this was part of a local and a national strategy.

 

·         Local policing priorities included acquisitive crime and anti-social behaviour.

 

·         Members of the community were asked to be vigilant, to look after their property and premises, and to contact the Police if they had concerns.

 

The following queries and comments were raised:

 

·         What are the police doing about drug dealing?

 

Pc Evans responded that drug dealing was not a priority of the local police and this was not a major problem in Evington.

 

·         What new projects are the Police introducing to reduce crime?

 

Pc Evans explained that the Police carried out ‘operations’ which were confidential. Where there was a problem area, patrols would be increased and offenders would be visited. The Police also worked on intelligence gained. However there was no money for any new projects but he spent a considerable amount of time working with students in schools, including students receiving behaviour support discussing what was right and wrong.

 

A representative from the Community Football Academy added that the academy worked with children and young people in Evington and other wards and the Police joined in with their workshops.  Nazira also responded that the Community Safety Team also worked on crime prevention projects.

 

Pc Evans and Ds Cleaver were thanked for attending the meeting.

Chrissie Field, Area Manager, Housing will be present to talk about the Environmental and Communal Improvement Budget.

Chrissie Field, Area Manager, Housing addressed the meeting and explained that the funding for the Environmental and Communal Improvement Budget  came from the sale of housing stock and from Leicester City Council home rents. The budget for the Evington Ward was £26,000 and the budget is mainly there to assist council tenants and consultations were held with tenants on how this money was spent.

 

These consultations included carrying out patchwalks, surveys, questionnaires, meetings with Councillors, Tenants and Residents Associations (TARA’s) and attendance at Community Meetings.

 

The proposed improvements included work to the railings at Gisborne Court, which would be completed by the end of August.  There had also been a few accidents at the flats, where residents had fallen over and work was being carried out on the steps to make them ‘anti-slip’.

 

In respect of the Ethel Road flats, there was a variety of work to be carried out including refurbishments to four courtyards, an extensive painting programme and the replacement of soffits and fascias. The estimated cost of the courtyard improvements were £25,000 and as the budget was limited, work on the courtyard around the flats numbered 698 – 718, which was the most in need of improvement, would be carried out first.

 

Chrissie added that the Evington Environmental and Communal Improvement Budget had been increased as there was some unspent money from the budget from other wards, and she had obtained approval for this unspent money to be allocated to the Evington Ward.

 

A resident of the Ethel Road flats commented that some tidying up work needed to be carried out there and questioned whether the Community Payback Team could help out with the work. Chrissie responded that the Community Payback Team had already been approached but they were currently very much in demand.

 

Chrissie added that at the previous meeting it had been agreed that the unspent community meeting budget from 2011-2012, estimated to be £66 would be allocated for hanging baskets for the Ethel Road flats, but nothing had materialised from this yet.

 

Ps Cleaver commented that the Police would have an office based at the Evington Park House and he requested that the community meeting budget funded a computer for the Police to use there. He estimated the cost of the equipment to be approximately £1,000. The Chair responded that it was planned to have a community centre at the Evington Park House and it was crucial part of the plans for the Police to be located there as well. He asked Ps Cleaver to submit a funding application.

 

A member of the community raised a query over an empty property and commented that such properties were not properly monitored. The resident was asked to provide further details to the Democratic Support Officer in order that the specific query could be raised with the relevant section at the Council.

Mrs Helen Pettman will provide an update on the Evington in Bloom Project.

Mrs Helen Pettman provided an overview of the Evington in Bloom project and made the following points:

 

·         The competition judges would be coming to Evington on 12 July.

 

·         The judges would be looking at numerous different projects around Evington including Piggy Hollow, Evington Village and Evington Park.

 

·         Nicole Powell, City Warden would be carrying out a check on the planned route on 11 July, to ensure that the area was free of litter and graffiti.

 

·         Many people had worked very hard on the Evington in Bloom project and she was very grateful to Jan, Scott and everyone involved.

 

·         Photographs were available for everyone to see which showed the achievements of the young people who had also worked hard on Evington in Bloom.

 

·         There would also be a celebration event on Wednesday 27 June at Evington Library to which everyone was welcome.

 

Mrs Pettman was thanked for attending the meeting and providing an update on Evington in Bloom.

Members of the public will receive an update on the Evington Community Meeting budget.

 

The following funding applications have been fast tracked and approved for payment:

 

Westmeath Avenue Jubilee Street Party

 

Submitted by Sahera Waka

 

Amount requested: £500

 

Details of the funding application:

 

Funding was requested for a Diamond Jubilee Street Party on 3 June, for the residents of Westmeath Avenue.  The object of the party was to bring together as many residents together as possible to promote and strengthen community ties. It was estimated that there would be between 40 and 60 participants.

 

The residents of Ellwood Close – party for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

 

Submitted by Harshad Solanki

 

Amount requested: £500

 

Details of the funding application:

 

Funding was requested for a Street Jubilee party to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Ellwood Close is a cul-de-sac with about 15 houses; residents include a mixture of elderly people, parents and children.  The street party would be a rare chance to meet all the neighbours and for the children to play together in a traffic free street. The party would include food and activities for children.

 

Evington Echo Advertising

 

Submitted by DPW Gillain

 

Amount requested:£234

 

Details of the funding application.

 

To publicise the Evington Community Meeting – six advertisements to be placed in the Evington Echo.

 

 

The following applications will be considered at the meeting:

 

Art in the Park (Craft and Chat)- Art and Craft cupboard and contents

 

Submitted by Miss Betty Hunter.

 

Amount requested: £160

 

Details of the funding application, as submitted by the applicant:

 

To put a procurement cupboard in the corner of the Beech Room in Evington Park House for the storage of craft materials. The cupboard is likely to be free but will need repairs.

 

Art in the Park has been established for 6 years and Craft and Chat is a sub group of Art in the Park, and started 4 months ago.  We need shared materials to be viable as a group which can be sustainable after this initial input.

 

Funding is requested for the repair of the cupboard and for shared materials to include a kettle, cups and craft materials (including buttons, scissors and knitting needles).

 

The application states that the organisation does not have audited accounts, but it does have a constitution.

 

 

Pink Lizard Cohesion Project (Bring young people together).

 

Submitted by Pink Lizard developing youth / community/ Magpie

 

Amount requested £3225 between Evington, Freeman and Eyres Monsell Wards.

 

Details of the funding application, as submitted by the applicant.

 

Pink Lizard developing youth and community  proposal is to deliver a community cohesion,  Arts project.  The project will work with young people from 3 different communities.  Evington, Freemans and Eyres Monsell.  

 

The young people have attended community ward meetings and have expressed their need for a project that support s their development, interest and passion in the Arts.  

 

Through course of the  the project the young people will gain an accreditaion qualification and take away skills in music production using pro logic  ...  view the full agenda text for item 70.

The Chair presented the Community Meeting budget.

 

The following funding applications had been fast tracked and approved prior to the meeting:

 

Westmeath Avenue Jubilee Street Party

 

Submitted by Sahera Waka

 

Amount requested and supported: £500

 

The residents of Ellwood Close – party for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

 

Submitted by Harshad Solanki

 

Amount requested and supported £500

 

Evington Echo Advertising

 

Submitted by DPW Gillain

 

Amount requested and supported £234.

 

RESOLVED:

that it be noted that the above funding applications had been fast tracked and approved for payment.

 

The following applications were considered at the meeting:

 

Art in the Park (Craft and Chat)- Art and Craft cupboard and contents

 

Submitted by Miss Betty Hunter.

 

Amount requested: £160

 

The Chair explained that funding application was deferred at the request of the applicant.

 

RESOLVED:

that the funding application for Art in the Park (Craft and Chat) be deferred at the request of the applicant.

 

Pink Lizard Cohesion Project (Bring young people together).

 

Submitted by Pink Lizard developing youth / community/ Magpie

 

Amount requested £3225 between Evington, Freeman and Eyres Monsell Wards.

 

The applicant, Adrian Hinds and representatives from Pink Lizard were present and Adrian explained that the Pink Lizard project had been set up in response to a request from Dave Budd (Community Safety) who had stated that the young people needed more support.  Councillors expressed some concern about supporting the bid as the project was based outside the Evington Ward. Adrian explained that there were approximately 12 – 14 young people from Evington who participated in the project.

 

The Chair asked that feedback as to how the project was progressing was provided to the Community Meeting and it was suggested that the young people in Pink Lizard could stage a show in Evington Village. Councillors and  Adrian agreed that this was a good idea.  Councillors agreed to partially support the funding application to the value of £500.

 

RESOLVED:

                        that the application be partially supported to the value of £500

 

Get Together Jubilee Event

 

Submitted by Sikh Community Centre

 

Amount requested: £1000 from the Evington Ward Budget.  Funding also requested from Spinney Hill, Humberstone and Hamilton, Charnwood, Coleman and Stoneygate Wards (£5021 requested in total).

 

The Chair explained that the councillors had agreed not to support this bid because they felt that it was outside the criteria they believed appropriate for a Jubilee Street Party celebration.

 

RESOLVED:

                        that the funding application be not supported.

 

Funding bids submitted by Shanti Chauhan:

 

Indian Music and Dance Group

 

Amount requested: £2500

 

Evington Asian Gardeners Group

 

Amount requested: £1500

 

The Chair explained that Shanti Chauhan was a magistrate who had applied for funds for two projects as a way of supporting minority groups in the local community. Councillors agreed that there was a need for such projects and agreed to support both funding applications in full.

 

RESOLVED:

that the funding applications be supported in full to the value of £2500 and £1500 respectively

 

Opening Evening and Presentation

 

Submitted by Community Football Academy

 

Amount requested: £275 from various wards.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70.

FERAL CATS

 

A member of the community asked people to be cautious about feeding feral cats, but to think rather about giving them a proper home.  Recently a stray cat had had kittens and the RSPCA had been approached but they could not take the kittens and help them be re-homed because of the pressure the charity was already under. Continuing to feeding stray cats would exacerbate the problem.

The meeting closed at 8.20 pm.