Agenda and minutes

Cllr. Scott, the meeting chair, welcomed everyone and invited them to inspect the minutes from the previous meeting, which were agreed and signed. Cllr. Scott explained that the representatives of the Nestlé site development could not attend due to the weather.

Young people from Canon Lee School Council will tell the meeting what they do and about their issues and ideas for the ward.

Samantha Holmes and Joe Pattison of Canon Lee School Council spoke to the meeting about the needs of young people in the ward and building a more positive attitude towards young people in the ward.

Many problems in the community are particularly associated with young people: litter, anti-social behaviour, and groups of people congregating in public areas. They explained that young people are visible in public spaces because they don’t have anywhere else to go. To remedy this, they suggest that suitable locations in the ward could offer reductions for young people so they have somewhere to go without spending a lot of money, for example, cinemas, bowling halls, etc. Especially in winter, they want to be out with their friends without being outside. They would like to make people aware of the benefits of having young people in the neighbourhood.

Q (Cllr Scott) The ward committee has money to spend on young people, how would you like it spent, especially during the holidays?

A. It could be used to help make young people aware of available activities.

Q. Does the school make their facilities available during the holidays?

A. That would be a good idea.

Q. Are there youth clubs in the area? There used to be youth clubs with good activities in the ward.

A. There is a youth club in Clifton Moor, but most people don’t know about it.

A. (resident) There is also a youth club at Burton Stone Community Centre and at Kingswater.

Q. (Cllr. King) What facilities do you really want? Do you not know about facilities or do you want something new?

A. In the case of the youth clubs, most people don’t know about them. But we would also like somewhere outside, somewhere sheltered where we can spend time with our friends. There is no space specifically allocated to young people.

Q. Could councillors have a forum with young people?

A. (Cllr. Scott) In the past we have had meetings with the entire Canon Lee School Council.

Q. A lot of kids use Water Lane and it leads to a big litter problem. Could you alert other pupils to the problem?

Q. There were problems with litter 50 years ago.

Q. There were fewer cars on the streets years ago, so space was available to young people. Kids now have to go to specific areas – how do you provide facilities for them? How do you provide 2,000 young people with entertainment once a week?

A. We spend a lot of time standing around in car parks, doing nothing.

Q. It is an enormous problem and won’t be resolved easily.

Q. (Cllr. Scott) What aspects of adult’s behaviour do you find interesting?

A. We were out with friends and there were complaints about noise.

Q. (Cllr. Scott) Do you think we fail to understand you?

A. Yes, one individual seemed almost selfish about public space.

Q. Do you find that people think you’re up to no good?

A. Yes, they generalise and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

You can find out what the Safer Neighbourhoods Team (from North Yorkshire Police), Street Environment Officer and Young People’s Service have been doing over the last few months.

Safer Neighbourhood Team

PC Shaun Page explained that Insp. Mark Khan could not attend as he is taking part in the police Mutual Aid programme in Hull. He informed the meeting that PC Corinne Green has moved to a different area of policing and she has been replaced on the team by PC Stuart Hodge.

Operation Bauble ran in the five week period before Christmas. This involved the issuing of warrants targeting drug use and stolen property. The information that led to the issuing of these warrants came from the community, showing that if the police get this kind of information they can disrupt criminal activity.

The Beat the Burglar campaign has been encouraging residents to take measures to prevent burglaries. There has been a slight increase in burglary. The increase is not substantial but burglary will be a focus for the Central Area Police.

The team has been focusing on the anti-social behaviour problem outside Crichton Avenue shops in an effort to reduce and combat it. The long-term solution to the problem of people congregating might be the creation of a dispersal zone, but this is only if the problem cannot be addressed by other means. The team secured an ASBO on a 15 year old who had been causing problems in the area. Punishment for breach of an ASBO is severe. In the case of one individual, the injunction has been very effective in curbing his behaviour.

Overall, crime is down by 12%. Police are working with partners and the community to maintain this downward trend. The team is also looking at new ways of engaging with young people.

PCSO Pennistone informed the meeting about a new initiative to engage young girls. Lots of activities tend to be aimed at boys but the Safer Neighbourhoods Team finds that girls are spending a lot of time on the street. For this reason they have secured funding from Safer York Partnership and City of York Council for a majorette band for all girls over 7 years of age, but particularly targeted at teenage girls.

PCSO Pennistone also informed the meeting about the planned Party in the Park, involving the army, navy and university. There will be a battle of the bands and the different organisations present will be showing what different careers and courses are like. This will be taking place on Sunday, 3 May at Canon Lee School field.

Q. Where will it be held?

A. At Canon Lee School field.

Q (Cllr. Scott) That is on the far edge of the ward.

A. We needed to find somewhere big enough to cater for the army, etc.

Q. (Cllr. Scott) What about Ashton Park or Burton Stone primary?

A. These areas aren’t big enough and we also wanted to aim it at children from the school so it makes sense to hold it there.

PC Page also informed the meeting that the Safer Neighbourhoods Team is still focused on the resident’s policing priorities. He also drew attention to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

A presentation on the trust’s first year and how you can become a member and what that would mean.

Mike Proctor, deputy chief executive of the York NHS Foundation Trust spoke to encourage membership of the trust and introduced Penny Goff, Membership Manager of the trust and Alan Rose, non-executive director of the trust.

York NHS became a Foundation Trust two years ago, giving the trust more freedom from the Department of Health and, as it is based on having a membership, introducing an element of local democracy into the NHS. So far, York NHS Foundation Trust has around 18,000 members, who play a variety of roles in the trust. They can sit on the board of governors or shape the board of governors, as over 50% of the board is elected by the Foundation Trust. As the hospital is located in Clifton ward, it is one of the most important wards to the trust.

The NHS Foundation Trust employs 5,000, operates on 70,000 people and treats 65,000 people in accident and emergency every year. The hospital affects everyone’s life, either directly or indirectly, so everyone has a vested interest in having a good hospital.

To improve services at the hospital, they are working to involve the local community, focus on patient safety and improve performance. In addition to measuring performance by national standards, they want to consult the community on the criteria they use in measuring performance. One recent important development in healthcare is that patients can now choose to be treated at any hospital in the country. The NHS Foundation Trust would like patients to choose York because it offers the best service rather than because of the location. In efforts to improve services at the hospital they are exploring ways to develop the site. The ward block needs capital investment, and parking facilities need to be developed.

Some of the specific improvements at the hospital involve increasing capacity – they increased bed numbers by 60 this year – and increasing staffing levels; evidence shows that the number and quality of nursing staff is the factor with the single greatest impact on the quality of care that people receive when they are in hospital. Though they have one of the best records in infection control in the country, infection control is a continuing priority for the hospital. Another ongoing priority is a reduction in waiting times for treatment. As a result of investment since 1997, waiting time targets have been reduced from a maximum of 18 months in 1997 to a maximum of 18 weeks at present. York hospital has become a regional leader in the areas of diabetic retinal screening, the treatment of macular degeneration with Lucentis and the delivery of vascular services.

Overall, the Foundation Trust will allow the hospital to listen more to the needs of the community, get more people involved in the Trust as members, governors or electing governors, and help to ease the boundary between different services.

Q. With regard to the development of the site, there will be a perennial problem with parking. Would you consider moving the hospital to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

There will be an open discussion and presentation about how it is proposed that the budget for 09/10 will be allocated. We will ask for the meeting’s approval of the proposed budget/schemes list.

Cllr. Scott introduced the ward committee budget for 2009-10.

The ward committee budget comes before the council budget is decided, so the overall budget is an estimate. We are therefore working on the possibility that it might be cut slightly, so a figure of £36,000.

We have divided the schemes by ward ambition. The York Pride budget also offers potential funding to projects in the ward, and although the ward has no say over the budget we can cooperate with Street Environment to get best value for the ward. We also need to plan for contingencies, especially as there is a time lapse between suggestions for schemes and grants, voting, and budget allocation. We also find that the ward committee budget sometimes functions as an enabler, encouraging funding to come from other sources and therefore allowing some funds to come back to the ward committee. Ward committee funding can have a multiplier effect on the money provided. So the alley-gating schemes have been completed with the police and Safer York Partnership and complete street-lighting schemes have been rather than just improve patches.

Under Safer Communities, we are going to try to address the anti-social behaviour problem at Wigginton Terrace, improve street lighting based on the cost of the Hambleton Terrace scheme, continue alley-gating and try to secure other sources of funding for it, and create a home safety fund. We are looking for ideas about how we can improve home safety and if none are forthcoming we can redirect the funds elsewhere.

Q. Why weren’t all of these on the ballot?

A. Because we have more money than we expected.

Q. Is there money available from elsewhere for street lighting? Should street lighting be coming out of the ward committee budget?

A. York Council is leading the way in participatory budgeting and other councils are following.

Q. The council only maintain existing street lighting, the budget for new lighting is with the ward committees.

A. Yes

Under a cleaner environment, we are funding preventative measures against dog-fouling. We have had requests for skips, etc. and so we have an environment fund to cover this. We are also looking for ideas about recycling and at the possibility of having a Smart Meter loan scheme within Clifton.

Q. Aren’t the libraries offering a Smart Meter loan scheme?

A. Yes, but there are only four. This one would possibly be based at Clifton library.

We have a young people’s fund so that we can respond to their wants and needs. We will also fund Global for a five day event, contribute towards Young People’s Service and the Fund for the Gifted.

Under an inclusive ward, we will provide grants to Clifton and Bootham Out and About Club, Arts Action York and Older Citizen’s Advocacy York. We will also provide funding to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, CARS Fun Day and the Clifton Planning Panel.

Cllr. King and Cllr. Douglas also sit on the Planning Panel (Committee?)

Q. (GW) Shouldn’t the planning panel be dealt  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Planning Panel will ask for new members and it will be elected at the meeting by a show of hands.

Councillor Scott pointed out that the planning panel already has between 8 and 12 members.

Geoffrey Williams, Clerk of the planning panel, paid tribute to Maureen Knaggs, who sat on the Planning Panel for many years. He also noted that there is currently no one from the Haxby and Wigginton Road areas.

Cllr. Scott asked if those present were happy with the current members, to which everyone responded positively. It was agreed by the meeting that the planning panel would continue with its current members. He also asked if anyone else would like to join the planning panel, but there were no volunteers forthcoming at the meeting.

Q. Can we ask for volunteers from the Groves area, perhaps using Your Ward?

A. Yes, and we would be happy to have the next meeting on that side of the ward.

Your opportunity to discuss local issues and concerns.

Q. There is money left aside for street lighting – how do you decide where to allocate it?

A. We ask for suggestions and work from the current list.

Q. Can you provide lighting where there is currently none?

A. (MH) Most of the funds for street lighting come from the ward committee.

A. (Cllr Scott) You could encourage residents to sign a petition.

Cllr Scott The petition can also be presented to full council. It may be that the ward committee will fund all of it, or the ward committee may fund part of it.

Q. What do you do if there is a problem with existing lights?

A. If it’s a maintenance issue, contact the council (551551).

Q. Surely a housing development should include street lighting? Why wasn’t it included in Grosvenor Road?

A. (Resident) It wasn’t required because they haven’t interfered with the road, junction, etc.

Q. Recent reports suggest a council employee was asked to leave his post and that the terms were kept secret. Is there anything we can do to make this process fair and transparent?

A. It will be debated at council budget discussions.

Q. Can you do anything about it in the future?

A. A petition signed by 1,000 residents would lead to a debate at full council.

A. (Cllr. King) The ward committee meeting is not a forum for political discussion.

A resident asked for a resolution from the meeting asking for greater transparency from the council. Another resident pointed out that taxpayers can also put questions to the district auditors.

Q. Bearing in mind the budget cycle, Clifton Methodist Church centenary will be held this year and stewards would like to install a plaque to commemorate it. Can we bid for ward committee funding for this? I’m happy to provide more details.

The ward committee and the meeting indicated that they would be happy to fund this, subject to details.