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City of York Council |
Committee Minutes |
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MEETING |
Dringhouses and Woodthorpe Ward Committee (Please contact the Communities Team for further information) |
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DATE |
16 March 2026 |
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PRESENT |
COUNCILLORS Fenton, Mason and Widdowson |
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APOLOGIES |
COUNCILLORS |
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10. 6:15pm Drop-in
Speakers: H Moon – The Launch Pad; N Cook, St James the Deacon; S Gatus, St Edwards; P Bickle, GLL (Energise).
Cllr S Fenton opened the meeting.
Councillor S Fenton opened the meeting and thanked people for attending. He introduced councillor A Mason, councillor P Widdowson, and Catherine Claudius Cole as the Community Officer and taker of minutes.
Cllr S Fenton reminded the residents that this was a non-political meeting; there were no alarms planned and therefore if a fire alarm went off, we would need to evacuate the building; he indicated where the toilets were and stated that the meeting would finish at 8:30 PM
11. 6.45pm - Selection of the Dringhouses & Woodthorpe Planning Panel
Planning Panel
Margaret Silcock from the planning panel was invited to speak about the work of the panel and was hoping to recruit some new volunteers. The panel meet on the third Thursday of the month at Askham Bar Tesco's community room. They discuss planning applications; other members of the planning panel are Fiona Barclay, Marion Croft, Judith Gresty, Clive Hibbert and Julie Ainsworth. Julie is acting as a clerk her role is to receive the planning applications and prepare a paper outlining the applications. These can be whole developments, for example a housing development. One such development was submitted in the Moor Lane area but this was rejected. Applications could be as simple as an extension on a house, new windows, a change of use of premises or the panel can discuss Tree Protection Orders. These are often referred back to the tree officers in the council.
The panel discuss the applications and opinions and information is sent to City of York Council to the planning department. When possible Cllr Stephen Fenton also joins the panel. Cllr S Fenton reminded the meeting that the panel allows residents to express their opinion on planning applications in the area as part of local democracy. Margaret Silcock also stated that the Panel had been offered training to help with the decision-making so any new volunteers who are concerned about their level of skills and knowledge can access his training. Cllr S Fenton reminded the meeting that residents can't reject applications on the basis that it could reduce the value of their property.
If anyone was interested in joining the panel Cllr S Fenton invited them to contact him and thanked all existing panel members for their work on the panel as it was greatly appreciated.
12.
7.00pm -
Discussion – supporting children, young people and families
in the ward / Guest Speakers
Councillor Stephen Fenton then introduced the next subject to the speakers which was the good work going on in the ward for families and young people.
St James the Deacon
Nicola Cook outlined the work that is being carried out by Saint James the Deacon, in particular the provision for families. Please see the attached PowerPoint. Following the presentation questions were asked about fundraising and Nicola outlined a new scheme that they're hoping to introduce that would allow the church to gather more funding to carry on the family work.
A resident asked about age restrictions and if there's anything specifically for teenagers. Nicola stated that there's nothing specifically for teenagers currently although some older siblings do join groups.
St Edwards
Sally Gatus stated that she had worked with young people and children for over 25 years. She outlined the provision that St Edwards provide in the community for children and families.
St Ed’s run groups for children from the age of 0 to 18 and 18-25 years.
Promise on a Sunday is for young children to listen to a bible story, engage in crafts and games and have a simple service.
Little Teds meets on a Monday for 0-5 years and provides free snacks, play and a simple service.
Seeds group was of particular interest to Sally as her daughter was non verbal until the age of five and Sally herself had health problems. She took her daughter to the Seeds group and the interaction greatly helped her daughter’s development. Again this group provides crafts, snacks and a simple service.
There is a youth group that meets straight after school and a youth group that meets on a Wednesday evening, ages 11-18 years. They have quizzes, softball and discussions. Following this they can access food left over from Pret. Some members of this group have gone off to university but have returned to volunteer. Currently they have four volunteers and one of these volunteers wants to work towards his Duke of Edinburgh Award so also helps out with the seeds group.
Sally mentioned that the problem seems to be that when children reach the age of 16 there is no provision, so they run a group that is 18 plus and after their activities on Wednesday they can access the Pret food (the church has a group of volunteers who go and collect expired food from the designer outlet Pret) and they're able to stay behind and chat and eat the spare food and take it away to have the following day.
The church has also started a model railway group the youngest members of which are 25 years old and they are still looking for new members. Sally also writes an article for the Porch magazine and events are advertised on Mumbler. Although they do learn Bible stories they try to do it in a more innovative way.
Residents were invited to ask questions. A resident asked if they could advertise their events in schools. Sally mentioned that the church run many holiday clubs for 5 to 11 year olds. She is going to start running groups for teenagers and expressed concern about the pressure around exams and pressure that young people feel from peers, from parents and schools. This can lead to mental health problems and substance misuse and reiterated the importance of providing support and the last year of primary school seemed a critical year.
Heidi Moon - The Launchpad
The next presentation was given by Heidi Moon regarding her new project called the Launchpad. See attached presentation. Heidi is launching a not-for-profit play cafe focusing on connection cafe for parents citing evidence of loneliness and isolation experienced by many mothers and caregivers. Heidi stated that she is having problems agreeing the lease of the building but is working very well with Nimbus Care to develop the project. Heidi is hoping to agree the lease of a building at the former Askham Bar Park & Ride site with York Council as soon as possible, otherwise she may need to look for other premises. The local councillors offered help to Heidi to explore the problems that she's having with the lease and she was encouraged to liaise with Cllr P Widdowson following the meeting.
Paul Bickle – Better Leisure (Energise)
Paul outlined the provision available at Energise; they have all ages using the centre ranging from 0 to 90 years old. They have a diverse workforce; the gym has recently been invested in and they do have an area utilised by GP exercise referral schemes, which is being expanded. £35,000 has been spent on replacing lights on the astro pitches. These are also used for Hockey. They have recently applied for Combined Authority funding for a sensory room. They provide junior gym sessions, climbing, racket sports.
Cllr P Widdowson asked how the hockey pitches could be promoted more widely. Paul stated he could work with the sports community officer to promote clubs more.
13. 7.50pm - Discussion – future management of Chapmans Pond with Stu Small – CYC Environment & Communities Officer, plus Ste Hart – Railway Pond
Chapman’s Pond
Councillor S Fenton gave a brief overview of the history of the pond and the group who used to manage it as a CIC. They took the lease on from the council to manage the site but handed it back a year ago due to concerns regarding volunteers’ safety as the behaviour of some young people was becoming quite threatening.
The fishing remains unregulated and licences are not checked so many issues remain for example young people fishing using barbed hooks and bread which attracts rats and discarded line which damage / harm wildlife.
Stu Small is the Eco officer who is now responsible for the site and has gathered some volunteers to help make improvements, but issues of lack of proactive management still remain; night fishing, some drug dealing and substance misuse in the area and lack of police presence.
Councillor S Fenton introduced Craig who is one of the volunteers who manage Railway Pond as a good model for management of places by volunteers.
There is not currently a Portaloo on the Chapmans Pond site and maybe this could be reinstalled to prevent ‘human waste’.
There was discussion around how the fish stock could be managed. Cllr S Fenton discussed the idea of removing the Carp as a disincentive for many people to fish there. Craig commented that if you relocate the fish it also means removing algae. A virus killed many fish in previous years. The issue remains that they need somebody or a group of people to run the pond and they need expertise around fishing so it may not necessarily sit with CYC. However, groups are really reluctant to explore the option of volunteering due to the risk posed by some young people.
Residents from the surrounding houses need to be consulted about what they want to see happen on the site. Cllr S Fenton mentioned there's a whole range of issues such as trees not being managed.
A resident suggested that people were not engaging with the pond due to various issues, so suggested that we could make the pond more visible, advertise it more and make it to be more visible and may reduce antisocial behaviour.
There have been consistent concerns expressed regarding the parking in the car park next to the new cafe The Nook. The amount of cars that are there for fishing is impeding the business and local residents also stated that parking is causing visibility issues when pulling in and out of their property. A suggestion was made to explore the option of making use of the land next to 19 Moor Lane, which had been used as a temporary compound during recent Yorkshire Water works. Cllr S Fenton stated that he would follow this up.
One resident mentioned the site needs managing on a daily basis, stating the police used to make regular visits, however they do not visit the site anymore.
There was a discussion as to whether there needed to be more leadership from CYC. Councillor A Mason suggested closing the site every evening, however it was noted that it was a large size and to enclose it and to manage the opening closing the site would potentially be problematic.
Cllr P Widdowson questioned who should be approached regarding the council management of the site and accountability. It was agreed that she would speak directly to Dave Meigh.
Cllr S Fenton stated that a specific resident’s meeting would be required to gather views from residents.
14. 8.20pm Have Your Say
AOB
A resident asked where the minutes of meetings are published. They are available on Agenda for Dringhouses and Woodthorpe Ward Committee on Wednesday, 25 June 2025, 6.30 pm
A resident queried why some bus shelters were designed to provide a glass barrier from the road to protect from traffic fumes, whilst others were open.
Cllrs were unsure of why designs were different.
Cllr S Fenton thanked people for attendance and closed the meeting.
15. 8.30pm Meeting closes
, Chair
[The meeting started at Time Not Specifiedand finished at Time Not Specified].