Agenda and minutes

Councillors will elect a Chair for the meeting.

The Chair will introduce those present and make any necessary announcements.

The Chair and any other Councillors who are present will make any declarations as required by the Councillors’ Code of Conduct.

The Chair welcomed all present to the meeting.

The death of former Councillor Mo Chohan was acknowledged and the Chair introduced Councillor Chamund, who had been elected as a Ward Councillor in November 2018 following the death of Mo Chohan.

The Chair also advised the meeting that Paresh Patel, who had recently been reported missing, had sadly been found dead.

Councillor Sood declared an Other Disclosable Interest in the applications for funding from the Ward Community Budget, in that she was responsible for giving final approval to those applications in her role as Assistant City Mayor with responsibility for Communities and Equalities.  In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct, this interest was not considered so significant that it was likely to prejudice Councillor Sood’s judgement of the public interest.  She was not, therefore, required to withdraw from the meeting

Received from Councillor Thomas

The Action Log for the last meeting, held on 31 July 2018, is attached for information and discussion

Item 2

All to note that the minute silence was held for Mr Ramniklal Jogia (not Mr Rupai).

Item 10a)

All to note that facilities for face to face contact with the Police currently are not available at the Police offices in Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre on a trial basis, as there currently are not enough officers available for one to be able to stay in the office.  The Police apologise for the need to do this and hope that more beat surgeries can be held at the Neighbourhood Centre.

Police to consider ways in which this information can be made available in key locations across the Ward.

Police to provide the names and contact numbers for members of the neighbourhood team.

The Ward Councillors will provide an update on local ward issues

All to note:

·           A serious fire had occurred at the Belgrave commercial centre, but fortunately all customers and staff had been evacuated safely;

·           A fire on 21 January was thought to be the results of arson; and

·           Ward Councillors can be contacted via phone and e-mail.  Ward surgeries also are held.  All issues are followed up to ensure that an appropriate response has been received.

Ward Councillors to provide their contact details and the times of Ward surgeries.

Leicestershire Police will be at the meeting to discuss Neighbourhood Policing in the Ward

All to note:

·           Sgt Lyndsey Booth has a new job within the Police, so is moving on from the Ward;

·           Patch walks with the Police and Councillors are held, to enable them to visit different parts of the Ward and identify local issues.  Residents are welcome to join these;

·           A patch walk organised by the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office had been held on 15 January.  This had only been notified to Neighbourhood officers a few days beforehand;

·           Crime figures in both Belgrave North and Belgrave South were under control, but work was needed on motor vehicle crime;

·           The majority of reported vehicle crimes had been number plate thefts, so an operation was planned to provide screws that could not be removed.  However, a lot of people also left their vehicles open and with items on view;

·           Work was being done to address anti-social behaviour in the Stubbs Road area, as well as various other locations;

·           Chain snatches had reduced by 40% following an awareness campaign last summer;

·           Strict national crime recording standards were being introduced, which meant that all crimes arising from an incident would have to be recorded.  A dedicated decision-making team would then review every incident;

·           Every domestic incident that the Police attended was recorded, even if no assault had happened, as those records could be needed as evidence of escalation of incidents;

·           Work with the Police licensing team on licensed premises was ongoing;

·           Suggestions of locations for engagement and consultation events were welcome; and

·           Incidents could now be reported on-line.

Thanks were extended to Sgt Lyndsey Booth for her work in the Ward.  The thanks of Sgt Booth also were extended to the community and Ward Councillors for their support during her time working in the Ward.

All invited to suggest suitable locations for engagement and consultation events hosted by the Police.

The City Warden will be at the meeting to discuss environmental issues in the Ward

All to note:

·           Jethro Swift will be the new Warden for this Ward, as Mohammed Patel is changing job;

·           A successful multi-agency enforcement day had been held, targeting areas in the Belgrave and Rushey Mead wards where there had been incidents over previous months.  This had included involvement by Enforcement Officers, Parks Wardens, City Wardens, the DVLA and the Police, who had all issued penalty notices;

·           Evening patrols had been undertaken with the Police which had successfully identified issues.  Work on resolving these was ongoing;

·           Several local businesses had received fines for Duty of Care and fly-tipping offences and several residents had received Fixed Penalty Notices for fly-tipping and littering; and

·           Patrols continued to be made of hot spots.

All asked to keep the City Warden informed of environmental problems in the Ward.

There will be an update on highways and transport matters within the Ward

All to note:

·           There are very defined levels of intervention for pothole repairs.  82 potholes were repaired in the Ward last year and so far this year the figure is 108;

·           An objection has been received to the Doncaster Road one-way traffic proposal.  The objection will need to be considered by the Planning and Development Control Committee before a decision is made;

·           Officers are engaging with schools to try and change the way children are taken to and from school, (for example, introducing safe cycling schemes);

·           The culvert under the Loughborough Road bridge is open for cyclists to use, although landscaping works remain to be completed;

·           Manual control of traffic lights has been allowed to control the traffic flow on Catherine Street while an old water main is repaired; and

·           Highways officers comment on planning applications, to provide an assessment of the impact of a development on roads local to it.

City Warden asked to investigate what can be done to improve the condition of the site of the former Sainsbury’s store.

Ward and Community Engagement Officer asked to arrange for Planning officers to attend a future meeting to discuss how developers are proposing to use the site of the former Sainsbury’s store.

Highways officers asked to investigate (with emergency services representatives if possible) what impact parking is having in streets, particularly those containing venues open to the public but which appear to have insufficient parking on site for the number of visitors received, in view of concerns at this meeting that emergency services will be unable to get past parked vehicles in those roads.

Highways officers asked to consider using temporary messaging signs to warn drivers not to use Catherine Street while the water main is being repaired there and to liaise with the Traffic Operations team to review the timing of the temporary traffic controls on Catherine Street, as they currently do not give sufficient time for vehicles to move.

The Community Outreach Lead will provide an overview on the work of Healthwatch Leicester and Leicestershire

All to note:

·           Leicester and Leicestershire Healthwatch is part of a national network;

·           Healthwatch is an independent body that investigates and champions consumer interests of those using health and social care services across the city and county and helps them receive the best possible health services;

·           Funding for Healthwatch is provided by the Department for Health to local authorities, which then commission the service.  Locally, a limited company has been set up, to maintain Healthwatch’s independence;

·           The small team of staff goes out in to the community to identify issues of concern, (although it is unable to look in to individual complaints);

·           Healthwatch undertakes its own reviews of services, such as that recently done on access to dental services, which led to the establishment of urgent care dental centres;

·           A survey had been undertaken on access to appointments at GP practices and alternative health care professionals based at surgeries, (for example, practice nurses, or paramedics).  This had included concerns about people having to discuss at reception why they wanted to see a doctor; and

·           Volunteers to assist Healthwatch with its work were always welcome.

Councillors are reminded that under the Council’s Code of Conduct they should declare any interest they may have in budget applications.

An update will be given on the Belgrave Ward Community Budget

All to note:

·           19 applications for funding have been received since the last meeting, of which nine have been processed and ten are being assessed; and

·           £9,332 remains in the budget for the current financial year.

a)     Role of Ward Councillors in Reporting Ward Issues

Ward Councillors asked to play a greater role in reporting issues to the Police and this Ward Meeting, in view of their knowledge of issues in the Ward.

b)     Connectivity between Council Services

Officers asked to take account of concerns that services are not sufficiently “joined up”, resulting in, for example, people with mental health issues not being given appropriate council housing accommodation or support when in that accommodation, as rectifying this could result in savings to the Council, (for example, with less work having to be done to repair properties vacated).

Housing officers to update the Ward Councillors on what can be done to address this.

c)     Housing Patch Walk

All invited to the forthcoming Housing patch walk in the Bath Street area.  Anyone interested in attending to contact Housing officers for details.

d)   Responsibility for Gardens at Council-owned Properties

Ward Councillors to find out if a consultation is to be held on whether Council tenants should become responsible for the maintenance of gardens at properties rented from the Council.

The meeting closed at 8.17 pm