Agenda and minutes

Residents were invited to the informal drop in surgery at Burton Stone Lane. Residents visited the new youth space hub and talked to the local Ward Councillors.

1.       Welcome and introductions

2.       Agreement of Minutes of Clifton Ward Committee Annual Meeting 2015

The minutes of last year’s annual meeting, held 12 October 2015, were agreed. It was noted that the minutes were not widely circulated at the present meeting, but that they have been publically available on the CYC website for six months.

Counsellor Updates

We have been working hard over the last year. At the team meeting in February we established a list of priorities, these are:

·         Improving opportunities and facilities for young people

·         A greener cleaner Clifton

·         Engagement with residents for a more cohesive Clifton

·         Reducing social isolation for a more inclusive Clifton

If you have any ideas about groups and services which are needed, let us know, we can commission services to address local needs.

1.       Update from the Neighbourhood Enforcement Officer

The NEO is part of the Community Safety Group, we partner with mental health agencies, the police and others. Our focus is on environmental crime, noise nuisance, and low-level antisocial behaviour. Budget cuts mean we have only nine staff working across York, with three covering north York (including Clifton).

Particular problems we have noted in Clifton are: dog fouling, noisy neighbours, and fly-tipping. Dog fouling may be a seasonal problem. If we witness a fouling, then we can issue an on-the-spot fine, but it is very difficult to deal with unless we have witness statements. We do dog fouling patrols, and we can patrol areas at times when particular problems have been reported to occur, for instance doing 6am patrols. But the hours we spend on these patrols have to come off other work.

The biggest problem in Clifton has been noisy neighbours. We operate a noise patrol on Friday and Saturday evenings from 9pm to 3am, this can sometimes be very busy; for instance, we recently had twenty-eight calls in one night. We only have two people working between an office and a vehicle so sometimes callers will get through to an answer machine, but we always call them back.

We can approach noisy neighbours on behalf of callers, and issue warnings, and if necessary take further legal action to prevent reoccurrence of the nuisance. For instance, we were recently called to a loud Karaoke party late at night in Clifton, the complainant allowed us to measure the noise level in their property which meant that we were able to issue the offenders with a legal warning such that we could take them to court if they caused a noise nuisance again.

The other major issue in the area is fly-tipping and bags-out-early. We have had some problems with this since bags-out-early has been decriminalised, so to tackle fly-tipping we really need witness statements. We have a team rooting through tipped bags, but we need four pieces of evidence to identify offenders, and a witness statement to enforce the law. We are currently working out evidence on twenty-five addresses.

We can issue an on-the-spot fine for fly-tipping. The cost of prosecution previously made it unviable. We have only had the power to fine for four weeks but we have already issued two fines.

There is sometimes an issue with residents not knowing who they can complain to about fly-tipping – we are on the council website, but not everyone uses the web so we are trying to get out word about the service.

Part of the problem with fly-tipping may be the transient community in Clifton, although students are often unfairly blamed. There is also an issue with some of the terrace houses not having wheelie bins – they still use bags, and sometimes residents decide they don’t want the bags near their property. The refuse team are looking at transitioning the bag areas to wheelie bins, however there are some problems  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Update from North Yorkshire Police Safer Neighbourhoods Team

The neighbourhood team consists of an inspector, a sergeant, two PCs and twenty-four PCSOs; twelve of these PCSOs are applying to become PCs so there may be some changes of personnel in the team.

Two crime reduction operations have been running in York over the summer:

·         Operation Joypad, which involves officers checking residential door handles - where a door has proved to be unlocked and unattended officers have offered crime prevention advice; between May and July police officers tried the door handles of 21,463 residents in York.

·         Operation Liberty is an ongoing operation to address antisocial behaviour. Police officers are going into areas where antisocial behaviour has been known to occur, dispersing antisocial groups, and where vulnerable children are found to be involved, these are passed to partner agencies.

The local team is already planning ahead for bonfire Night, ‘Mischief Night’, and Christmas. Reported crime in the area is down from last year.

Floor: The crime prevention strategy has been really good, and the local team have been very accessible.

Inspector Pointer: We offer a community text messaging service, anyone can sign up on the police website to receive messages specific to their area; for instance, notifications about missing persons, or about an increase in a particular crime in an area.

Cllr Myers: Last year there was a significant amount of antisocial behaviour around the boat house on Paddy’s Field, and in Ashton Park. Have there been any incidents in these areas this year?

Inspector Pointer: Last year we hit Paddy’s Field quite a lot and we met with representatives of the rowing club. There have been very few reports from those areas this year. The main concern in the area has been burglaries, so that has been our focus. But we can only act on what’s been reported to us, so we do ask that people please ring anything in.

Floor: We got a swift response when we had an incident in Ashton Park.

Cllr Myers: Will the restructuring mean that we lose some PCSOs?

Inspector Pointer: There has been a neighbourhood review. North Yorkshire Police’s strategic focus is on rural crime, and while they have committed to maintaining the same numbers of PCs and PCSOs overall, yes we might lose some from this area. In terms of how the team is allocated, a quarter are based in Clifton and a quarter are based in the Groves.

Allow residents to consult with the possible new buildings in Clifton. They can do this after the meeting.

Local Plan

There are a few areas being consulted on at the moment – the football ground, and Morrell House care home. Morrell House may be consulted on as part of the CYC older person’s homes transformation programme. We have also accepted a funding bid from an organisation called Musical Connections which provides musical activities for residents of Morrell House.

For anyone wanting to contribute comments to the local plan we have freepost envelopes available.

Floor: There has been a letter to residents of Lumley Road regarding the grass verges. We know something is being considered but we haven’t heard anything. There has been damage to the grass verges from TalkTalk laying fibre-optics and from cars parking to pick people up from St Peter’s. Can you tell us what is happening?

Cllr Myers: I’m disappointed with the wait; it is not off the agenda. The ward team meets every 6-8 weeks and Lumley Road comes up regularly. We did a morning walk up Lumley Road and met with the Head of St Peters and with the hospital car parking manager. The root of the problem is lack of public transport. We are going to get the traffic engineer to come out and find a time for all the residents of Lumley Road to meet.

Floor: Do the council recognise that it is a major problem?

Cllr Myers: They have done a survey, which they wouldn’t do unless they recognised there is a problem.

Floor: What was the response to the suggestions of reflective bollards?

Cllr Wells: A very high response.

Cllr Myers: So a traffic engineer will attend a public meeting.

Floor: Heron Foods appear to be opening a store at the Corner House. We are a bit concerned for our local businesses.

Cllr Myers: We invited a representative from Tesco to attend this meeting. We understand that the scaffolding on the Corner House last week was part of Tesco’s contractual obligation, the local media reported that it could be Heron moving in. It has been frustrating for us that the only information we have had has been from the media. So we then contacted Heron, they suggested they will be in the building from the end of November.

Floor: Concerns about parking and road safety - if there is increased traffic into the area to use the store – existing Heron customers may come to this store, bringing more cars into the area.

Cllr Myers: We really need to have a representative from Tesco here to answer some of these questions. So in their absence we will put these questions to Tesco and to Heron.

On the planning issue – the Corner House hasn’t been deemed to be a Building of Community Value, and this seems to be because the change of ownership went through very quickly. So they don’t need to do a change of use for the building, they can just begin operating. We will put together a media release about this and communicate with Tesco and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Ward Budget

We haven’t yet allocated the budget for this year, so far (since April) we have given Clifton Elderberries £200, they take people from various community centres for days-out. We have had a lot of bids, including the Canon Lee group -  Jonny’s youth club/lounge for provision for teenagers in Clifton.

The budget is £39,000. If that seems a lot it is because last year’s unspent funds were transferred across to this year. We have a further £25,000 ringfenced for highways improvements. So any ideas for services that are needed in the area, please do get in touch with us.

1.       Colourful Clifton
Urban Buzz is a wildlife charity delivering projects around York. They have funding from their national fund for a project in Clifton.

Over the years Kingsway North has been transformed from a car park/rubbish dump, this has largely been a success because of the work of the CRA and other groups. We want to build on this so we’ve invited Urban Buzz into the area. They will steward the funds while we provide volunteers. The schools in the area, Canon Lee, and the primary schools will be involved. We think it is a great opportunity to develop links between Clifton Green and Burton Green schools. The children will be participating in Planting Days on September 29^th and 30^th.

Cllr Wells: We’ve given the project to the children – they chose the name ‘Colourful Clifton’, so we are trying to make it really colourful on those days – please join in – it’s called ‘yarn bombing’ – we’re asking people to knit colour squares and pompoms to decorate the area, it will make a real difference for the children. The Royal Horticultural Society is also involved.

Floor: We have a creative-sensory group here at Burton Community Centre – we do things like make bunting.

Cllr Wells: Yes that’s perfect. We already have something like seventy colour squares and triangles made up. We have those launch dates, but there will be ongoing community days. Any groups wanting to get involved please contact the Community Involvement Officer.

Thanks very much to the ward team for keeping Colourful Clifton on the agenda and getting it off the ground.

Youth Provision Update

Jonny Price, Youth and Children’s Leader for Clifton Parish Churches, is leading the development of youth provision in the ward. Volunteers are currently painting the downstairs room at Burton Community Centre for use as a Friday night club/drop-in lounge for 11-18 year olds. Materials for decorating the room have been sponsored by Jewson; a number of other groups which have been successful in engaging with young people in York, including Rock Church, have also been involved in the project.

The project is building on the results of research into the social engagement of Canon Lee students which found that 28% of respondents were involved in only one or no outside school activity per week. The reasons for this were identified as either that there were no activities within a mile, or that the young people did not have information about activities that were available.

Cllr Myers: At the ward annual meeting last year, we set out to address the lack of youth provision in the area, and we are delighted that the work of Jonny and his team has already surpassed our initial aspirations as expressed in the minutes of last year’s meeting. Thanks very much to Jonny and his team.

Play area provision consultation

Ashton Park has had investment from the CRA so this is probably not the best area for the play area bid. We are considering Crombie Avenue or possibly putting something on Kingsway North, although not a traditional play area. Please take a form from the display at the back and tell us what you think. We are also getting feedback from children and young people.

Update from Clifton Residents Association
The CRA has a budget, we meet to decide what to spend this on. We have more noticeboards than any other ward. We are entirely voluntary – everything we do is done by volunteers, including managing the noticeboards.  A noticeboard near the hospital has recently been damaged. We would be grateful if anyone witnessing any damage to the noticeboards would report it.

We’ve secured funds for several projects: for planting more trees, for painting in the park (sponsored by Aviva), and for benches on Kingsway. But we have less money coming in now. We also no longer receive administrative support from CYC, so we are looking for a secretary to produce letters, and for volunteers. Our AGM is 22 September 18:30 at Burton Community Centre, we invite everyone to attend.

Floor: has the CRA area been extended?

Margaret Sharp: No, our area ends at Kingsway, it doesn’t extend to Clifton Green.

Cllr Myers: The CYC funding that that goes to CRA comes from the Estate Improvement Grant which restricts the area in which it can be spent. The work of the CRA over the years has been brilliant and it helps to keep funding coming into the area – whilst we have an active CRA we can argue for the continuation of the Estate Improvement Grant.

Margaret Sharp: We know Clifton very well, so supporting the CRA ensures that money is spent well in the area.

Floor: Wonderful trees along Kingsway

Cllr Myers: Thanks to the CRA

European Community Growth Funding

CYC is putting a bid together for ECG Funding. This is a substantial fund which will make a difference in this ward if we get it. It is volunteer led - less public sector, more third sector, with a focus on deprived areas. There is a pre-submission event tomorrow at West Offices. Please take a form from the back of the room and join in.

Thanks to Phil from York City Football Club (in attendance), he’s providing coaching for kids in Clifton.

Floor: The theme of the meeting has been that you will listen to us, if we ask. But regarding the Clifton Green notice boards nothing seems to happen.

Cllr Myers: We are doing what we can but we are struggling to get some things through the council, for instance with the Clifton Bridge Plaque – this has been going on for more than two years – we’ve done all the leg work and secured the funding, the bottleneck is that there is only one person in the council responsible for bridges and their workload is such that they need to prioritise the safety of the bridges and getting the plaque up just hasn’t been a priority.

Floor: We could suggest that we will take direct action – get a private contractor to put it up then get permission after the fact?

Cllr Myers: We have suggested this and it did get a response - the council asked us to give them  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.