The Chair explained that the meeting was to discuss the
impact of the student community in the Westcotes Ward and part of
the Castle Ward. She invited attendees
to input their queries, concerns or comments. These were then responded to by Ward Councillors
for Castle and Westcotes, local police, representatives from De
Montfort University (DMU), and Council Officers from Environmental
Services.
Waste and Street Cleaning
Residents discussed a number of concerns relating to
wheelie bins on pavements, litter, fly tipping, end of term house
clear outs and vermin. A member of the
public also expressed concern that litter was blown into the estate
from the Leicester Royal Infirmary and noted that Councillor
Kitterick had already complained to the hospital regarding
this.
- In response Adrian Russell, Service Director
Environmental Services, reported that:
- since November City Wardens had been employed to
handle a number of environmental issues. The Wardens had the power to enforce fines, which
included the removal of wheelie bins on the street. He noted that the Council also now had the powers
to have rubbish removed from private land.
- the removal of rats was a free
service. The removal of mice (which
mostly lived indoors) incurred a charge. He noted that services in place such as city
cleansing and city wardens aimed to stop litter being dropped and
therefore discourage vermin.
- if rubbish was left on the street by refuse
collectors, he could trace the crew responsible through
Biffa.
- if a person or vehicle responsible for fly tipping
was identified this should be reported and action would be
taken.
·
The City Wardens and
DMU had carried out an initiative to inform students of the
procedures with waste when leaving a premises.
Student Houses/ Landlords
Concern was expressed that some student landlords did not
keep up maintenance on their properties, building waste was left on
the street and ‘To Let’ signs were in front of the
properties.
- Adrian Russell noted that if the location of the
building waste, left on the pavement was reported to him it could
be removed.
- Jit Pandya, DMU Community Liaison Officer,stated
that noise complaints could be directed to the noise team at the
City Council. If the people responsible
were found to be students it would be reported to the university
and the students could be fined.
- Members discussed the problems of ‘To
Let’ signs and suggested that these should be
removed. Agencies had previously been
contacted but seemed reluctant to remove the boards as they were
free advertising. Concern was expressed
that the boards advertised the contents of the property and could
attract burglaries.
- It was stated that any premises with two or more
tenants were classed as a multiple occupancy and premises with
three storeys or more than five rooms were subject to a
licence. There were problems with
overcrowding in houses (not exclusive to students), which could be
investigated to try and limit the numbers.
Bede Island/ Castle Park
It was noted that there had been reports of people on Bede
Island late at night, creating noise and disturbing the
residents. Litter on Bede Island was
also a big problem.
- The Chair reported that substantial work was being
carried out in regard to Bede Island.
This included co-ordinated working with the University, Cleansing
Team, Police and the Street Pastors.
- A representative from the Street Pastors explained
that they walked around the area in the evening at weekends
monitoring problems. They worked with
the police and noted the time of any noise problems. She reported that in their records people other
than students often caused these problems.
- A Member stated that funding had been authorised
and additional bins installed in the park.
- It was noted that there were problems with people
being attracted to the play area at night. Possible options were being investigated by the
Council to help alleviate the problem, however it was felt these
might cause other issues.
- Sgt Steve Hutchings, Riverside Team, reported that
they were considering implementing a drinking ban on Bede
Park. Drinking on the park had
encouraged people to stay late and cause anti-social
behaviour. In addition small barbeques
on the park in the summer had led to larger ones and
fires. These could cause potential
hazards, especially to children, when left unattended. It was intended that no barbeques would be allowed
on the park in future.
- It was noted that not all the foot traffic through
Bede Island was from students.
A
Member of the Public queried if Castle Park had similar
problems.
- In response it was reported that there were people
who drank in Castle park, however there had been no complaints
about their behaviour. There was a
fixed gardener in attendance at the park and the established
drinkers often reported other problems to the police.
Anti-Social Behaviour
- PC Gail Warden, designated officer to DMU,
reported that she had not had many reports of anti-social behaviour
with students.
- Students that were caught involved in anti-social
behaviour would receive up to two warnings before being reported to
the disciplinary service at the university. CCTV was in surveillance across the university and
could be reported to the police if there were any
problems.
Halls of Residence
Residents expressed concerns that students from the halls
of residence were throwing rubbish from their windows (and on one
occasion glass had been thrown), holding parties until the early
hours of the morning and that the old car park on Filbert Street
was been illegally used and was full of litter.
- PC Gail Warden reported that each of the halls had
a designated police officer. If
problems of items being thrown from windows were reported then the
flats would be identified and the occupants spoken to by the police
and DMU. She had not been notified of
glass being thrown from the windows and requested that any
incidents be reported.
- A Member stated that there were hoardings around
the former Filbert Street car park, which were regularly broken for
people to access the car park for free.
If these hoardings were not in place it should be reported to the
City Warden or police who could action this. Sgt Steve Hutchings noted that the police
regularly had the owners of the property in Filbert Street
reinstall the hoardings. PC Gail Warden
agreed to ask for the hoardings to be fixed and noted that weekend
visitors to the students halls exacerbates the parking
issues. Problems with illegal parking
had arisen, as there were no parking facilities for students in the
halls of residence. The streets around
the halls were subject to a residents parking scheme and students
were informed not to bring cars. It was
suggested that information could be provided to the students to try
and prevent this problem.
Road Humps
A
member of the public queried why there were speed humps on Lineker
Road, but not on Filbert Street.
- It was explained that the road humps were
constructed at the same time that Lineker Road was
installed. Road humps were only
installed on existing roads if there were regular problems and a
ranking system was given to prioritise roads. If speeding was thought to be a problem on Filbert
Street it would need to be investigated.
Summary
The Chair stated that a subsequent meeting should involve
landlords, especially from halls of residence. This could focus on housing repairs, action that
could be taken and action that had been taken around the
country.
Residents acknowledged that by no means all the problems in
the area related to students.
It was agreed that an article in respect of the meeting
would be included in the Link magazine together with requests for
reader responses.
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Action
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Officer / Councillor
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Deadline
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Next meeting focus on Halls of Residents and
Landlords
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Kate Owen, Members Support Officer.
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Date of the next Joint Community Meeting.
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Article in the Link about the meeting/ request
responses.
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Kate Owen, Members Support Officer.
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Before the next meeting
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Follow-up concerns about Hoardings around Filbert Street
Car Park
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PC Gail Warden
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Not determined
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Follow-up concerns over bricks left in Street
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Adrian Russell
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Not determined
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