Agenda item

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.