Agenda and minutes

Residents were invited to talk to various services in the half hour prior to the meeting, including their Neighbourhood Manager, Police and Ward Councillors, and information was made available on Tour de France, ward boundary changes.

Cllr Gillies welcomed everyone to the meeting and stated that it is a Residents’ Forum meeting held for residents in the Rural West ward.  It is non-political in nature and chaired by the Ward Councillors.The minutes of the last annual meeting were accepted as a true record.

The meeting began with a report from PCSO Nigel Colley regarding recent crime figures in the ward.  A total of eight arrests in response to the recent spate of house burglaries were reported to have been made.  It was stated that bicycle theft had increased by 100% (rising from 5 reported incidents to 10).  A resident thanked the police saying it showed that the police visibility really helps with crime prevention.

Gill Cooper presented on the arrangements for the forthcoming Tour de France in July. She explained that York had never seen anything as big as the Tour de France before, and that while the event itself would only be in York for a short period, it would be very disruptive within that time.  The route itself would take four of the five bridges out, with the A64 being the only point of access left open.  The Tour de France is to start at the race course at 11:00 am on Sunday 6^th July, and will be preceded by around 180 specially constructed sponsor vehicles, which will leave at 09:00 am.  During the Tour de France, the only way into the south side of the city is going to be via Tadcaster Road.  A full list of all isolated and houses and streets will be published beforehand in The Press.  Prior to the race, the roads will be kept “sterile” through the efforts of volunteers.  It is currently unknown how long this will take, but the route will need to be handed across to the main TDF organisation at 08:00.  A test run is to take place in Leeds in May in order to give a sense of the required time.

It is expected to take only about thirty five minutes for the whole route to be completed.  However, in order not to endanger anyone on route it is important that traffic does not build up behind the cyclists, so the A59 will not be given the okay to re-open until roughly an hour later.  It will be re-opened as soon as possible.

The crowds drawn by the Tour de France tend to be huge, with the current predictions for the roadsides of Yorkshire being 1.6 million, and anywhere between 10,000 – 180,000 for York itself.   Traffic management and parking will be taken into account, as will the use of Park and Ride.

Questions were taken from the floor: 

Question: how long will the ring road be closed for. 

Response: Gill stated that it needed to be sterile from 08:00 am, which would mean at least a three hour closure.

Question: What kind of parking arrangements would be made if everybody came in at Millfield Lane. 

Response: Gill responded that the police would have their own feedback team, and that Traffic Management and the police would work on a solution. If emergency access is needed, then the race will be stopped.  Emergencies will be subject to approval by the police.

Question: How, given that the race will be taking place on a Sunday and will go past several churches, people will be able to access the churches on the day.  It was explained that there will still be pedestrian access, and that churches have been asked if they want to move their services to later in the day – the Minster, for example, will not be having its usual morning service on 6^th July, and it is understood  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Residents were invited to read the following summary position statement below from CYC/Rapleys:

Masterplanning layout options for the site were prepared by consultants on behalf of the applicant British Sugar Plc) in the autumn of last year. These were presented to the Community Forum group (set up for the site’s redevelopment) in November and at a public exhibition held on 2 days at the end of November at the former Manor School premises. All information was also made available on the applicant’s website for a 3 week pre-application consultation period, with links to this from the council website.

Responses to the options are now being considered by the applicant team and a preferred masterplan is being prepared. This will be taken to the next meeting of the Community Forum (date to be arranged) for discussion and comment. Following this meeting, we anticipate that a planning application will be submitted in the spring of this year and public consultation will take place on the submitted proposals.

David Carr (Chair of Copmanthorpe Parish Council) began by providing some background information on Copmanthorpe; the parish having a population of around 4500 residing in some 1750 households. The designation of the parish as a neighbourhood plan area was approved by City of York Council in January 2014. He described the content of the forthcoming Copmanthorpe Neighbourhood Plan, eg. the role and protection of the Green Belt, heritage and design guidance, community facilities and the provision of new housing and business space.  He also explained its relationship with CYC’s emerging draft Local Plan which had been made public in April 2013. 

The Local Plan had proposed, for the years 2015 to 2030, the development of some 560 new houses to be built on a swathe of Green Belt land to the west of the village, thereby increasing the size of Copmanthorpe by about a third. This proposal had been opposed by a substantial majority of residents and following a number of public meetings the Parish Council had submitted a letter of objection to CYC together with a petition of 781 signatures opposing development of the Green Belt.   

The Parish Council had organised two residents’ surveys as a basis for the Neighbourhood Plan; the first in the Summer of 2013 undertaken with the Methodist Church which was a general community audit seeking residents views on a range of social issues and community provision, as well as CYC’s development proposals. This had attracted 560 responses. The second survey carried out in late 2013 was a more detailed assessment of residents’ views on the amount and location of new housing and business space in Copmanthorpe. This had attracted 610 responses. In both cases these were very high response rates in a village the size of Copmanthorpe.

The survey results showed that most residents felt the amount of new housing should be substantially less than the level proposed in CYC’s Plan.  Residents were not against new housing development and accepted the need for additional homes in the village but they were very concerned about the scale and location of new development.  They wanted sustainable development; in other words, a smaller overall amount dispersed in a greater number of locations.  This would help to retain the character of Copmanthorpe and assist incremental provision of the necessary additional infrastructure.

Copmanthorpe Parish Council is in discussion with City of York Council to see if, and to what extent, the positions in the draft Local Plan and the Neighbourhood Plan can be reconciled since it would be better to have a mutually acceptable level of development. 

All submissions for the Local Plan are to be published online in April, with a formal response estimated to be finalised in the summer.  Cllr Steward informed the meeting that the Local Plan Working Group had not yet discussed sites or houses, and was currently behind schedule.

Cllr Gillies said it was imperative that a decision is reached before the local elections in order to prevent it from resting  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Each ward sets its Ward Priorities annually.  Cllr Ian Gillies stated that the Ward Priorities proposed for 2014-15 reflected a conscious decision to improve the lives of the young and the old, and to improve the environment.

The Ward Budget has been approved at £4,260, with the schemes being funded in 2013-14 consisting of the Poppleton Luncheon Club, Poppleton Youth Action Group, Rufforth Methodist Church and Copmanthorpe Methodist Church.  A breakdown of the funding totals for each of these was included on a hand-out which was distributed amongst attendees.

Question:            It was asked if the Park and Ride service had led to the reduction of the Number 10 Bus Service. 

In response:       Cllr Gillies stated that this was not the case.  The main Park and Ride service was going to consider going down Poppleton Road, but that the Number 10 service on Leeman Road could be considered as an alternative.

It was stated that the Smarter York Spring Clean, an initiative that works toward maintaining cleaner, more attractive communities in York, would be taking place in the ward 9^th, 10^th and 11^th April.

Question:            One resident reported having raised the issue with Russell Stone of weed spraying by the side of the roads in Poppleton, and was told it was done twice a year but he didn’t think that was the case.

In response:       Kay Bailey to follow up with Russell Stone.