Minutes:
i) Community Centre
In response to comments from the public present it was reported that the Ward Councillors had been working behind the scenes lobbying for community facilities to be provided in Hamilton, as well as a re-build of the Community Centre at Netherhall. Progress would be reported back.
ii) New Shoots Gardening Club
It was reported that this club, recently in receipt of funding from the Community Meeting, had received a Certificate of Merit at a recent award ceremony in Nottingham. Persimmon, the house builders, were sponsoring a bulb planting in Hamilton on 22nd November 2009.
The Club indicated that they would be looking to apply for funding in Summer 2010 to provide a facility to store equipment. The club were encouraged to submit a further funding proposal.
iii) Social Housing – Manor Farm
Neil Evans, Investment and Development Manager, Leicester City Council attended the meeting and outlined the proposal to provide affordable housing on an area north of Manor Farm, off Thurmaston Lane, identified as being for residential use on the Local Plan.
Jim Packman and Purnima Wilkinson representing East Midlands Housing Association (EMHA) attended the meeting and stated that EMHA had been operating for about 60 years and had been working in Leicester for over 25 years in conjunction with the City Council. The land in question north of Manor Farm already had outline planning permission for housing and the City Council had expressed the need for more affordable housing within the development proposed. EMHA were working in response to a brief in accordance with the needs of the City.
Nick Williams, JSP Architects, based in Leicester, attended and stated that his company had been engaged by EMHA to draw up plans. Nick outlined the layout of the site and stated that the City Council had set a planning brief for the site to include a mixture of sizes of properties, some for rent and others for supported housing. Trees currently on the site would be retained and the road access to/from the site would be off the old part of Humberstone Lane. Plans available at the meeting showed a mix of 2, 3 and 4 bedroomed houses, the family houses complete with front and rear gardens. The aim of the development was to achieve Sustainable Homes Standard 3 with certain levels of insulation and energy efficiency, although it might be possible to achieve Level 4.
Cathy Bourassa, Housing Development Officer, Leicester City Council stated that funding had recently been made available for this development, hence the reason why this proposal had been brought this quickly. Under this funding the houses were required to be built by March 2011, the City currently had a massive shortfall of some 700 properties to meet the need of tenants. EMHA, to meet the deadlines imposed were wanting to be on site by March 2010.
A member of the public questioned whether ‘brown field’ sites had been looked at. Neil stated that a number of ‘brown field’ sites had been looked at, but due to ownership and/or access problems, these would not have fitted with the available timescale. This site selected had met the necessary criteria and had already got outline planning permission.
A member of the public questioned whether the land in question was safe to develop ecologically. Jim stated that site surveys had been carried out and an archaeological survey commissioned.
A request was made for the relevant officers to come back to a future meeting to seek suggestions for street names from local people, this was agreed.
iv) Swimming Pool
A member of the public stated that there was not a public swimming pool in the area. It was stated that the Ward Councillors were aware of the lack of community facilities in the area and were raising their concerns at every available opportunity.
v) Brompton Road - Lighting
It was stated that there was no street lighting on this road and it was therefore dangerous at night.
Peter Cozens stated that he would forward this concern as a Community Meeting Enquiry.