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 Cole as Chair led the introductions and welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies were received from Wayne Gale of the Fire Service and Vice-Chair of the New Parks Community Panel Lindsay Perbedy.  

The Action Log from the meeting held on 11 September 2018 is attached for information and discussion.

The Action Log of the previous meeting held 11 September 2018 was confirmed as correct.

Councillors reported that:

• A consultation on a 20mph zone on Letchworth Road and Glenfield Road had been taking place.  A speed-gun had been borrowed to help demonstrate the need for traffic calming measures in the area.  Patch walks had been conducted to look at danger spots and identify where signs could be installed along Glenfield Road and Hinckley Road.

·         A reconfiguration of the junction on Westfield Road was being explored to slow down traffic.

• Councillors were looking at options with the Housing Team to help people who had been inappropriately housed.
• Councillors were looking at ways of bringing the eco-housing group into use using crowd funding under ‘Project Hive’ to try and raise funds.
• Councillor Unsworth noted that the New Parks Community Panel had been actively organising events and commended those involved providing support such as the Lunch Club. 
• Councillor Cole noted that there were no community groups in Kirby Frith and Braunstone Frith and that councillors were trying to develop that as projects in those parts of the ward could benefit from funding.  Councillor Dr Barton added that the tenants and residents’ association had been growing and that money had been put in to funded events.
• Work had been ongoing on Dupont Close and funding for housing projects in Braunstone Frith had been secured.
• The People Zone Initiative had been working with the council, the Fire Service and the Police, looking at how to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour.

·         Police had closed a premises that had been manufacturing drugs and the residents who had been enquiring about this had been informed.

The local Police Teams will be present to provide a Policing update.

PC Martin gave an update on local policing issues across the ward including:

• Sergeant Hastings would be taking over in the area and hoped to attend future meetings. 
• A new constable would be joining the team in February and those present were assured that the number of Constables and Police Community Support Officers would remain the same.
• As a result of a drugs warrant in New Parks 250 cannabis plants had been seized and one person deported to Albania.  People were urged to continue reporting issues and concerns to police.
• In an operation tackling knife crime areas of New Parks had been identified as knife crime hotspots and ‘Habitual Knife Crime Carriers’ had been identified.  Operations aimed at the prevention of knife crime had been implemented.
• Burglaries and motor theft had increased over the Christmas period.  Two suspects had been identified and reports of burglary and motor theft were reducing.
• An operation targeting cross-boundary organised crime had been implemented.

Concerns were raised about drug related crime.  PC Martin replied that the police were targeting drug hotspots but emphasised that it was important to look at the wider picture of drug crime in the area based on information and intelligence.

An update on Housing works in the Western ward will be given.

Marie Murray, District Manager, provided an update on housing issues which included the following:

• Environmental and Community projects for this financial year were almost complete.  Most project funding had been spent in the Braunstone Frith area to make the area attractive and address antisocial behaviour.
• Residents were invited to make suggestions on how to spend £46,000 on projects in the Western Ward.  It was noted that the main projects so far had been the internal painting of flats and the creation of parking bays. Possible future projects suggested included security and landscaping.
• Certain issues fell outside remits without direct assigned responsibility for them, these issues included grass growing between paving slabs, untidy garage areas and brambles.  These issues had now been identified as matters the ‘Leicester into Work’ scheme (in conjunction with Leicester College) could tackle.  The scheme was aimed at long-term unemployed people offering 6 months paid employment in order to tackle untidy areas. 

·         The Community Payback scheme had undertaken similar tidy-up work, councillors were assured that the two schemes would be complementary, and future work would be based on a programme rather than ad hoc.   

An update on Highways and Transport works in the Western ward will be given.

Robert Bateman from the Highways Team provided an update which included the following:

• Work ongoing in the ward on implementing a 20mph zone on Letchworth Road and Glenfield Road. 
• An exercise to measure traffic speed had been undertaken and collected data would be considered.
• Leicester City Council officers were working with Arcadis to develop plans to install physical features to reduce speed. 
• Consultation was ongoing and there have been a range of responses to the scheme, ranging from objection to total support. 
• An issue with short crossing times on a pedestrian crossing in the ward had been addressed to rectify crossing time to 7 seconds in line with Department for Transport standards.
• There were currently no waiting restrictions on Glenfield Road, which had caused parking problems especially at weekends.
• Works on Dupont Gardens layby and Glengarry Way were coming up.

Councillor Unsworth indicated that improvements on Dupont Gardens and Glengarry Way were not yet evident and requested a completion date. Robert Bateman replied that according to the information he had it would be completed by February.

Action: Robert Bateman to make further enquiries.

• Work was being instigated on ‘Keep Clear’ markings outside schools to aid enforcement.  It was emphasised that keep clear zones were not drop-off zones.
• Fencing in the form of wooden knee-rails have been installed outside Glenfield Football Club in order to deter people from parking on the verges.
• Potholes on Liberty Road continued to be an issue, however, resurfacing the road was not currently programmed as £200,000 would be needed for the project, so planning was needed in order to allocate a budget.

Councillor Unsworth commented that he had reported a pothole which was tarred-over shortly afterwards and expressed gratitude for such a quick response.

There was a brief discussion about HGVs using Brex Rise.  Robert Bateman replied that he had communicated with the Co Op store and their vehicles had been told to avoid Brex Rise.

Action: Robert Bateman to investigate ‘No HGV’ signage.

Regarding plans for the 20mph zone it was enquired whether road plans would be exhibited and when consultation meetings were.  Robert Bateman indicated that it was intended to hold consultation meetings over two evenings and confirmed that the plans would be on display. 

Concerns were raised about signs and equipment causing a hazard on Oswald Road where the water works were. 

Action: Robert Batemanto investigate.

Concerns were raised about near misses on Dillon Way and Kemp Road.

Action: Robert Bateman to investigate.

The local City Warden will present information on environmental works within the Western Ward.

Matthew Davinson, City Warden, gave an update on issues across the ward:

• There had been 34 complaints in the ward, 20 of which were about fly tipping, mostly around Cuffling Drive.  Signs had been put up warning against fly tipping.  These signs had since been taken down by an unknown party, but it was noted that the signs had been effective while they were there.
• The Love Leicester App had received 6 reports, mostly from on Braunstone Frith area.
• There had been 8 reports so far of untidy land (i.e. front gardens).  Letters to owners had generally been successful.  Warnings had generally been sufficient, and it was unusual that they had to be followed up with a fixed penalty notice.

Concern was raised that responses were not being received to issues that had been raised.  Matthew Davinson stated that if an email was sent then the Warden should respond but warned that issues sometimes took a long time to address.

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

Information on the Ward Community Budget will be provided.

Punum Patel gave an update on the Community Meeting budget and noted that nine funding applications had been supported as follows:

• Gaylian Osbourne New Parks Children’s Centre for the White Post Farm visit. £500
• New Parks Network for the New Parks Winter Extravaganza. £750
• Team Troupers Dance Academy Cic for Halloween events. £300
• New Parks Community Panel for Christmas Panto Family Tickets. £400
• New Parks Community Panel- Lunch Club and Umbrella Groups for New Parks Lunch Club, Thunder Hammers Blue Army Craft group.  £3,935
• Father J C Nwalozie/African Catholic Chaplaincy Leicestershire for the summer trip to Buxton Museum and Art Gallery in Derbyshire. £100
• Western Park Beer Festival. £334
• Glenfield Road Allotment Society for the provision of a small wooden shed on new starter/small plots. £200
• Monday Morning Coffee Club for the Monday Morning Coffee Club Christmas Social. £500

A balance of £6,681 remained in the budget and there were five applications in the assessment process.

Punum Patel drew attention to how to apply for funding online on the Leicester City Council website.

Councillor Cole noted that groups who were approved for funding were expected to produce reports on events.  Punum Patel added that an evaluation form was needed after the event and added that all underspends needed to be paid back as all monies needed to be accountable.

Concern was raised that people who had received funding had not been attending ward meetings to feedback about how the money had been used.  Councillor Barton replied that individuals and groups had attended meetings in the past and expressed confusion as to why this was no longer the case.  Councillor Cole suggested that the requirement for groups and individuals to attend meetings needed to be enforced more rigorously.

Councillor Unsworth drew attention to the New Parks ‘What’s On’ leaflet which was a community initiative and helpful to vulnerable people.  He urged people to take leaflets and also to pass them on.