Agenda and draft minutes

Fishergate Ward Committee - Tuesday, 25 April 2017 6.30 pm

Venue: Steiner School, Danesmead, Fulford Cross, Fulford, York. YO10 4PB

Contact: Claire Taylor Community Involvement Officer

Items

No.

Item

6.30pm Welcome and Introductions

Minutes:

The meeting commenced at 6.30pm. The Chair, Jonathan Tyler made the introductions and welcomed residents to the meeting.

Update on proposed flood defence improvements

Representatives from the Environment Agency and the CYC Flood Risk Team will give an update on the proposed improvements and answer questions from residents.

Minutes:

Tom Paget and Ben Hughes from the Environment Agency gave a presentation and along with Steve Wragg, Flood Risk Officer from CYC took residents questions.

Ben explained his role with the Environment Agency was to deliver the York Five Year Plan. The formal consultation on the Plan would begin in late June or early July.

Tom gave a brief overview of the work that had been carried out over the last fifteen months and the next steps moving forward.

After the 2015 flood he had been heavily involved on work on the Foss Barrier. As a result of the increased funding the capacity of the barrier had increased to 40 tonnes per second. Work was ongoing to increase this to 50 tonnes per second by end of next year. The York Five Year Plan set out the options for delivering improvements in flood risk areas across the next five years. They had also committed to carrying out a longer term plan looking at a ‘catchment scale’ approach to dealing with flooding in the Dales and Pennines and storage options to reduce the risk to the City and complement the existing flood defences. Detailed discussions on this would take place after the General Election on 8^th June.

In respect to concerns expressed about people living downstream and how the increased capacity would affect them Tom said that they had commissioned a Foss Barrier Pumping Model study to show the worst case scenario of the potential implications of increasing the pumping capacity. These were as follows:

• Potential increase in water level of 8cm

• Only occurs with a major flood on Ouse and Foss combined

• Modelling informs the operation of the barrier to ensure flood risk is not increased until permanent mitigation is in place

• This information also feeds into our 5 Year Plan

This work enabled them to make operational decisions during a flood to avoid problems downstream. Using the £45M of government funding we will be better able to protect 2000 properties. York had been split into ten communities, which had been further broken down into detailed flood cells. This provided a more detailed understanding of different areas of the city with similar flooding mechanisms.

The next step was to give priority to the construction of new defences to areas that have previously been unprotected. The initial option outlined was to increase the height of the retaining walls by between 1 and 1.2 metres at Grange Garth and Alma Terrace running along New Walk and include 2 new flood gates.

Site investigation work would commence over the summer and meetings would be arranged with communities in these areas to help us identify viable options.

Over the Autumn and Winter a scheme could then be devised that all were happy with and consultation could then take place in 2018.

If anyone had any queries the email address is yorkfloodplan@environment-agency.gov.uk

A resident asked whether the scheme for the retaining wall was realistic.

Ben said they were ... view the full minutes text for item 2.

Ward Committee budgets

Ward councillors will give an end of year summary on how the 2016/17 ward budget was spent and further information on the budget for the 2017/18 financial year.

Minutes:

Cllr D’Agorne presented the ward budget update.

Ward Budget 2016/17

The total ward budget for 2016/17 was £51,740

This was made up of a carry over of £26,970 from 2015/16 and a further allocation of £24,770 in 2016/17. The following grants were issued to local community groups and organisations:

· £933 to Friends of Danesmead Wood for a petrol strimmer and working with TCV to design a management plan for the wood.

· £700 to Friends of Low Moor Allotments for repairs to the allotment path

· £3160 to Friends of Fishergate School to develop and improve the outdoor forest school.

· £1600 to York Bike Belles to start a walking book club.

· £1180 to YUMI to start a family gardening club at the YUMI allotment

· £8550 to Melbourne Centre:

- £3500 to repair the floor in the main hall

- £4800 for 10 sessions of a Green Woodworking and Natural Crafts Group

- £250 to fund transport for local people to attend the Christmas Eve lunch

· £350 to BAGNARA to purchase and plant six dwarf apple trees on Fenby Field.

· £1691 to Friends of York Cemetery to lay a path around the pond.

In addition:

· The ward paid £882 to cover the ground maintenance shortfall from 2015/16

· £1000 was allocated to support further community engagement in the ward. To date £747 had been spent on support for the Fishergate Summer Fair.

· £1500 was allocated for a feasibility study for a pedestrian refuge on Cemetery Road

· An allocation of £2843 was made for the solar lighting discs on Walmgate Stray.

A request had been made to carry over unspent funding into 2017/18 for the following potential projects:

· Improvements to the Cemetery Road Play Area (to be added to the £17K capital funding) and some adult fitness equipment on Millennium Field.

· Funding for a range of signage in the wards

· Purchase and installation of ‘toast rack’ style cycle racks at Broadway shops

· Repaint of lighting columns on walkway from Broadway West to the river

· Funding for Fishergate Summer Fair 2017

· Grant to York CVS for a project to support residents at risk of flooding

· Funding for repainting of cycle barriers at the end of the cycle route from Hospital Field Road to New Walk Terrace/Millennium Bridge

· Feasibility study to look at options for cycle/pedestrian safety improvement to Fulford Road end of Broadway

· Refresh anti-skid and 20 mph zone markings outside St Georges School.

Decisions on carry over funding will be made by the Executive in June

Highways fund

The total ward highways budget for 2016/17 was £23,580 for highway improvements in the ward.

This is made up of £11790 carried over from 2015/16 and a further allocation of £11790 in 2016/17.

This was allocated as follows:

· Contribution of £18K for the resurfacing of a section of New Walk Terrace. This work was scheduled for April but no further details as yet

· £4K for works to refresh the local safety zone features at Broadway Shops

· £1045 for work on the Fulford Cross allotment track.

Ward ... view the full minutes text for item 3.

Fishergate, Fulford and Heslington Local History Society

Minutes:

Chris Ranger updated residents on the leaflet they had produced “A Walk Along Main Street’ showing the history of the buildings, families and working life of the village. The trail was based on research into the history of Main Street and the village of Fulford.

They were also holding a York Festival of Ideas Conference again this year. This year’s event was “The Historic Mystery of Old St Oswald’s Fulford”. It is being held from 10.00am to 3.00pm in St Oswald’s Church Hall of Saturday 10^th June. For more information on this event call 01904 632098 or email ffhyork.localhistory@gmail.com, website: ffhyork.weebly.com.

Fishergate Planning Panel

An update from the Planning Panel and ‘re-selection’ of the panel for a further year.

Minutes:

Pat Wills updated the meeting on the work of the ward planning panel. She said that the panel looked at proposed planning applications within the ward, which they received electronically. They met once a month to share ideas and approve or disapprove applications and flag up local concerns to the CYC planning panel who take into account the ward’s views when making decisions.

There were currently four members on the panel but they were always looking for new members and if anyone was interested in joining them please let her or the Cllrs know.

Cllr Taylor said it was a very valuable service and people towards the south of the ward were particularly needed.

The Meeting approved the reappointment of the following planning panel members for the coming year:

Mike Wills (Clerk), Pam Wills, Steve Burton, Amanda Mason-Jones.

Millennium Field Summer Fair 2017

An update on the plans for the Summer Fair on 2^nd July 2017

Minutes:

Cllr D’Agorne updated the meeting on the planning of the summer Millennium Fair which was sponsored by the Fishergate Ward. The aim of the Fair was to promote voluntary groups within the ward and give them the opportunity to recruit and engage with residents. The primary focus was to create a sense of community. It was hoped to make this an annual event.

The fair had been arranged for the afternoon of Sunday 2^nd July, on the Millennium Field. If anyone would like to volunteer to help plan the event please speak to him after the meeting. One planning meeting had been held so far.

Last year’s event had been managed by the Council which had required all the finances to go through the Council financial procedures. This year it was hoped to form a Committee and manage the finances themselves which would give them more freedom to manage the process. He had asked Claire Taylor to put together figures from last year’s event so that the Committee could make a bid for the same amount of funding.

Have Your Say

An opportunity to raise issues of interest or concern.

Minutes:

Could the trench/pothole in the centre of the cycle lane at the junction of Fishergate/Cemetery Road but included in this year’s budget?

Cllr Taylor said he would look into it. Residents are entitled to put in proposals on how to spend the £11,790 allocation.

A resident said that the process of repairing potholes was ‘terrible’. There was no proper preparation of the hole so consequently the repair only had a limited lifespan.

Cllr Taylor agreed that the process was not ideal and noted that the Council now had more funding in the budget to deal with potholes.

Recycling: A resident noted that on the day of the first green bin collection this year there had been four separate occasions when the lorry collected different types of waste in her road. This must have an impact on clean air.

Another resident noted that on Sandringham Street all three types of waste had been put into the same container.

Cllr Taylor noted that there had been multiple collections on his street also and he had assumed it was because the lorry had been full. He further noted that there had been changes to the system and there were concerns about how it would work.

A resident asked for an update on the Post Office ramp.

Cllr D’Agorne said that it appeared that the ramp did not need planning permission after all as the structure was not sufficiently large. However planning permission for a ramp and a handrail had been approved. Unfortunately the shutters did need planning permission and the Post Office had been advised to apply for this permission retrospectively – this had then been refused.

As regards the ramp, a Post Office user who needed it needed to make a complaint as it was the responsibility of the Post Office. He said he had contacted Post Office Counters directly to apply pressure on the Post Office but had had no response.

A resident thanked the ward committee on behalf of Broadway Area Neighbours and Friends for the completion of the local safety zone at Broadway shops.

Parking Issues around Danesmead Road update: A residents’ petition has now been presented. A report will be written and a consultation process put in place about Autumn. Fulford Cross residents agreed to meet next week to discuss how this might impact on them.

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

No date has yet been set for the next meeting.