Agenda and minutes

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.

Councillor Barton as Chair, welcomed everyone and introductions were given.

Apologies were received from Mr Peberdy, local resident, and officers from Highways.  The meeting also heard that Mr Carroll, a local resident had expressed disappointment that he had not received an invitation to the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chair reported that she intended the change the running order of the items of business and bring some of the invited speakers and officers presenting items, forward on the agenda.

The Ward Councillors will provide an update on the recent issues they have been dealing with.

Councillors provided feedback on issues they had been dealing with, during the discussion on the action log and other items as appropriate. There was therefore no separate feedback session.

The meeting will receive an update on highways and transportation issues that are relevant to the Western Ward.

Due to apologies submitted from officers in the Leicester City Council Highways team, there was no update on this item.

Joanne Plues, from Eurovia will be present to provide an update on the road works on Groby Road.

Joanne Plues, from Eurovia, provided an update on the road work improvements that were taking place in the ward. Attendees were asked to note:

·      Eurovia were scaling down their operation, and were carrying out some remedial work, which included work to address problems not caused by them.

·      Joanne and staff from Eurovia had been working with residents and local organisations on voluntary projects within the community. A variety of projects had been carried out, including helping to rebuild a resident’s garden wall, resurfacing a school car park, and donating and putting up a banner at a youth centre. A further project was in the planning stage.

·      The Eurovia team had reported that they had enjoyed working in the area and the community had been really good to work with.

The Chair thanked Joanne and said that the Councillors had noticed how well she had worked with the community and very positive comments had been received. The Chair added that there had been excellent customer liaison.

A police and crime update will be provided on issues relating to the Western Ward.

Attendees were asked to note an update on local policing issues:

·      Police Sergeant Andy Stevens had moved to Force Headquarters. Simon Walters was now the new Sergeant for the area.

·      There were ongoing issues with people riding motor bikes on the Western Park Golf Course. The Police had contacted the Council in order to have the golf course fences repaired, though this involved liaising with three difference departments, including Sports and Estates. Councillor Unsworth added that this was becoming a nuisance area and suggested that the ward councillors could bring this to the attention of the City Mayor.                                                                                                       

There will be an update on the Transforming Neighbourhood Services Programme within the Western Ward.

Hetha Copland, Area Development Manager gave an update on the Transforming Neighbourhood Services (TNS) programme. Attendees were asked to note the update which included the following points:

·      The New Parks Community Centre would be offered for Community Asset Transfer. The building would be advertised and a company could Locality would provide some assistance to help any interested parties prepare a business case for taking on the building.

·      The criteria for the successful bidder in the Community Asset Transfer process, was to involve community groups in the use of the facility.  The successful bidder would also need to be inclusive and also allow existing groups to continue to use the facility.

·      Customer Services would move from New Parks Centre. The library will have an on-line offer and free phone contacts for LCC services.  Councillors suggested that the Book Bus should be utilised whilst the library was closed temporarily. There would be an additional space for communities and Adult Learning classes would be delivered there.

·      Supporting Tenants and Residents (STAR) would be moving into the Housing Office which would become Self Service.

An attendee reported that many residents were very concerned about using computers and I.T. Councillors responded that they had talked about this and hoped that there would be some times when there was an officer there for residents to talk to.

·      A decision on whether to offer the Braunstone Frith Recreation Centre for Community Asset Transfer had not yet been made.

Councillor Unsworth raised a query regarding the use of the land at the rear of the New Parks Community Centre.

Action: Hetha Copland to ask the Head of Sports to email Councillor Unsworth regarding the above query, and also to attend the next meeting to provide a further update on the TNS programme.

An update will be provided on local housing issues.

Marie Murray, Area Manager for Housing was present at the meeting and gave an update on housing issues.  Attendees were asked to note:

·      Following the Housing Transformation Review, there were now three district managers. Marie did not yet know who would be responsible for the different areas in city. There was also a separation of Responsive Repairs and Tenancy Management Functions and repairs and maintenance would be carried out by a different team.

·      The Housing Office on Aikman Avenue would be closed temporarily for refurbishment and staff would probably be moving into the New Parks Community Centre while that work was carried out.

·      There had been a reduction in the number of Housing Officers in the city and from the end of October there would be a greater focus on vulnerable residents.

Councillor Unsworth requested an updated staffing list giving details of officers and their respective responsibilities.

Action: Marie Murray to circulate to Councillors information on staffing and responsibilities when those details become available.

The local City Warden will be present to provide an update on environmental works within the Ward.

Richard Sutton, City Warden for the Western Ward gave an update on the local issues he had been involved in. Attendees were asked to note:

·         A gang were selling used cars on New Parks Boulevard; investigations into this were hopefully drawing to a conclusion.

·         It was anticipated that now the schools were open again, there would be more problems with littering. This was less of an issue in the school holidays.

·         Richard had been serving notices on businesses where they were failing to take responsibility for staff and customers littering outside their premises.

·         There was an increasing use of Community Protection Notices. These notices, issued by City Wardens, applied on a long term basis rather than to one-off incidents and were therefore a better enforcement tool.

·         The City Wardens took action on ‘low level’ issues which, if not dealt with, affected the mental wellbeing of residents.  Where on-going behaviour was corrected, people’s lives were much improved. 

Information relating to the Public Consultation on Dog Control Enforcement will be provided.

Richard Sutton, City Warden, reported on the Public Consultation on Dog Control Enforcement. Attendees were asked to note that views had been sought on the Council’s proposal to continue to enforce responsible dog ownership by adopting a city-wide Public Spaces Protection Order. The consultation closed that evening; however to date a positive response had been received in favour of adopting the protection order.

The Chair added that if the protection order was adopted, dogs would not be allowed into play areas. Richard stated that not all play areas were fenced off and was asked to identify if possible, those areas which were unfenced.

Action: Richard Sutton, to identify, if possible, any unfenced play areas.

The Action Log from the meeting held on 22 March 2016 is attached for information and discussion.

The Action Log from the meeting held on 22 March 2016 was agreed as a correct record.

Attendees were asked to note the progress on actions as identified in the Action Log as follows:

·      Councillors had met twice with the City Mayor regarding traffic issues around Western Park, and action to be taken had been added to work programme. A new pedestrian crossing had been installed on Glenfield Road near Christ the King Catholic Primary School.

Councillors reported that the Number 13 bus had been withdrawn by First Bus which was causing considerable disruption to residents in Kirby Frith, as well as increasing traffic on Aikman Avenue. They had made representations to First Bus and also spoken to the City Mayor and would continue to do so. An attendee commented that there were numerous buses going through New Parks on an hourly basis and suggested that First Bus be asked to adjust the timetable to reduce those buses slightly in order that people in Kirby Frith could have one or two buses per hour.

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

Information on the Community Ward Budget will be provided.

Feedback from successful funding application from last year’s budget will also be presented verbally by the applicant, or a written update will be read out by an officer.

Randeep Singh Mattu – Ward Community Engagement Officer (WCEO) gave an update on the Ward Community Budget. Attendees were asked to note that five budget applications had been approved as follows:

Western Park Freeride Club had requested £650 for ‘Summer Jam’, a cycling festival. £500 had been approved.

Anna McAuley had requested £400 for the Westfield Road Street Party. £320 had been approved.

Yonnel Fashion UK had requested £1000 for a fashion show at the All Nations Church, Frog Island. £450 had been approved.

Purple Patch Crafts had requested £500 to teach arts and crafts to adults within the community. £500 had been agreed.

Soccer School had requested £500 in order to provide opportunities for local children to play sports during school holidays. £500 was approved.

The total balance remaining in the budget was £15780.

There were three applications to be considered; two more for the Soccer School and an application from the Western Park Beer Festival.

Attendees expressed concerns that none of the applicants had come to the meeting to present their bid. Randeep explained that ward budgets were dealt with differently now with decisions being made before the meeting. However applicants needed to provide feedback on their bid and failure to do so, would disqualify them from future funding. It was noted that Brian Hookway (Soccer School) had attended the previous meeting to present his funding bid.

An attendee commented that he would like to submit a bid to improve the toilets in the Boys’ Club by replacing the existing trough. Councillors asked him to provide a plan or sketch of the proposed improvement.

Action: The attendee to submit a plan/sketch of the intended improvements relating to the Boys’ Club toilets. Randeep Singh Mattu to help with the funding application process if required.

Future Western Ward Community Meetings have been arranged as follows:

Wednesday 7 December 2016 at 7.15pm  - St Anne’s Church, Letchworth Road, Western Park, Leicester. Please note that the meeting will be held in the Church and not the hall.

Tuesday 11 April 2017 at 7.00 pm. Venue to be confirmed.

Attendees were asked to note the dates of future meetings as detailed in the agenda; namely

Wednesday 7 December 2016 at 7.00pm in St Anne’s Church, Letchworth Road (meeting to be in the Church rather than the Hall)

Tuesday 11 April 2017 – venue to be confirmed.

Concern was raised at the low attendance at the meeting and a request made for future meetings not to be held immediately following a bank holiday.

The meeting closed at 8.50pm.