Agenda and minutes

You will have an opportunity to talk to:

• Cllr Tracey Simpson-Laing
• Cllr David Horton
• Cindy Benton, Neighbourhood Management Officer
• Your Street Environment Officer
• The Safer Neighbourhoods Policing Team

PLUS:

Find out more about the Sustainable Communities Act.

1.1     Residents had the opportunity to speak to Cllr Tracey Simpson-Laing, Cllr David Horton, Cindy Benton (Neighbourhood Management), Andy Williams (Street Environment) and the Safer Neighbourhoods Policing team.  

1.2     Residents also had the opportunity to speak to Mora Scaife, Principal Neighbourhood Management Officer about the Sustainable Communities Act.

2.1    Cllr Tracey Simpson-Laing welcomed residents to the meeting.  

2.2    The minutes of the last meeting were agreed and signed.

An update from your Neighbourhood Policing Team on ward issues.

PC Graham Cooper gave an update on Crime and Community Safety issues in the ward.  The following points were noted:

3.1        There was a week of Action in the Ward at the end of March.  This included initiatives to help prevent auto crime.  We warned motorists of leaving items on display in the car and worked with the DVLA on various vehicle checks.

3.2        We have 3 PCSO’s at the moment who are focusing on crime reduction and speed enforcement.

3.3        The major concerns at the moment are over the Manor School site and over the level of burglaries in March.  There has been one arrest for the thefts.

3.4        The mobile Police Office will be in the ward more regularly.

The following questions were asked to the Police;

Q)        Is chalking on the pavement classed as vandalism?

A)        Not really as it comes off in the rain

Q)        What is the situation with the cycling on pavements?

A)        We did an operation in January on Boroughbridge Road and we did issues fixed penalty notices.

The Police do actively discourage cycling on pavements and do give fines where necessary.

Find out more information about the proposals for the British Sugar site.

Sue Houghton – Eco-District Development

There have been emerging proposals for an eco development on the British Sugar Site.

We need about 3 million new homes in the UK by 2021 and the British Sugar site could be a trailblazer.  There would be an emphasis on sustainable development and affordable Housing.

Sue gave a presentation on the development and examples of an Eco development and how it can be sustainable and the benefits to the community.

Residents asked the following questions;

Q)                What is a wind cowel?

A)                  It is something to do with ventilation, like non mechanical air conditioning.

Q)       What are the plans for access to the site?

A)        There are no definite proposals for access yet as we are still looking at this.

Q)        The principal of an eco-town is for everything to be contained in one area. Does this still apply?

A)            Trying to keep to this as much as we can.

The Council are doing a huge amount of work on community facilities/leisure/ education

Sarah Garbacz, Strategic Manager of Library Services will be presenting the new plans for the development of the central library.

Alison Jones, Strategic Manager for York Libraries gave a presentation on the library services across the city and plans for turning the central library into an explore centre.  The following points were noted:

5.1     There are 14 libraries across the city, 1 mobile library and a home library service.

5.2     The services offered by the library are books, access to the internet, an enquiry service, CD’s and DVD’s, information on family and local history and IT training.

5.3     80,000 people visit a York library every month with over 1 million books being lent out a year.

5.4     York library is to be turned into an explore centre along the same lines as Acomb library.

5.5     Phase one of the work is to refurbish the ground floor and will start in September lasting for 2-3 months.  The work will be mainly cosmetic with the aim of bringing back the existing beauty of the building and freeing up the space to make it much more accessible.  A café and learning rooms will be new features of the library.  £100,000 will be invested in new books, increasing the book stock from 70,000 to 100,000.  Self service is to be introduced which will free up staff for giving help and advice.  

5.6     The entire library will be closed whilst this work is ongoing – a necessity on the grounds of health and safety. 

5.7     The library service will be holding a number of consultation days for residents to view the plans and make any comments.  These are likely to be held in May; dates will be publicised nearer the time.

5.8     The opening times will be changing once the library re-opens; the late night openings will be changing and the library will also be starting to open on Sundays. 

5.9     The long term plan is to move York archives into the central library to be housed with the reference library.  This plan will be looked at in more detail next year.

Your opportunity to discuss local issues and concerns with your local councillors.

Residents raised the following issues and questions.

The traffic lights at Sovereign Park need to be looked at as the sequence is not right.

The drainage needs to be looked at on Beckfield Lane at the Boroughbridge Road end as the water is not draining away.   – Cllrs to report it

Q)                Why is the No1 bus so erratic?

A)               Please make a  complaint to First or direct to the Cllrs and this gives them more strength to correct the service.

Q)                Is there any of the bus management for First in Tanner Row?

A)                No they have moved to Leeds.

Q)              Why is there tactile pavement down Beckfield Lane?

A)       Cllrs will go an take a look but it could be to  slow the cyclists down.