Minutes

Councillors; Graeme Dawson, Neighbourhood Management Officer; Angus Young, Street Environment Officer; and PS Andy Haigh and PC Anna Tyldesley were available for residents to speak to in the Ward Team Surgery.

PS Andy Haigh and PC Anna Tyldesley attended the meeting. In the last month, crime is down on average. A fall of 20% was stated in ‘Your Ward’ however, this is now a fall of 10% because of an issue with shoplifting at the filling station at Poppleton Business Park. There has been a small issue of shed burglaries in Poppleton and lead thefts are an issue in the Ward. Cllr Gillies thanked PS Haigh and PC Tyldesley and welcomed the increased police profile thanks to PCSOs in the villages of the Ward.

The first Festival of Ideas was in 2003 to shape the Local Plan. The Festival of Ideas 2 is a chance to review this along with the Community Strategy. The consultation is taking place from 17 September to 31 October 2007.

Questions

Will the answers to the surveys be published?

A Statement of Community Involvement will be prepared, which will contain results.

Cllr Healey stated that one of the issues to be looked at as part of this process was housing development. He asked the meeting what they thought to be a fair definition of affordable housing:

Responses

·         2-3 bedroom semi-detached house, not flats

·         Council owned

·         Part-purchase or full-purchase

·         A home with decent insulation and decent facilities

·         It shouldn’t have to cost £200,000

Cllr Hudson asked who are the affordable homes for? Builders seem to cater for 1-2 person households, but there is a need for housing for sons/daughters moving out of the family home, people on the housing waiting list, and homeless people.

Rufforth Parish Council are working with the Yorkshire Rural Community Council’s Rural Housing Enabler, Carolyn Vaughan-Downes to look at affordable housing for young families wanting to stay in the area.

New developments over 15 houses in the city and over 2 houses in rural areas have to include an element of affordable housing. Cllr Gillies stated that at present in York, 60% of developments were flats and 40% were houses whereas the Housing Needs Assessment has shown demand for the opposite figures: 40% flats and 60% houses. Cllr Hudson said that fixing a threshold was very difficult; developments tend to be proposed at 1 home less than the threshold and so not oblige the developer to provide affordable housing.

Cllr Gillies made reference to the Future York Report. Findings there state that more people travel in to York than travel out, however, on the south side of the city there is ingress but on the west side, there is actually net travel out of York. There is therefore need to look at a regional transport strategy to get people into the city.

Concerns were raised by residents regarding the need to protect the character of York and its villages and also ‘garden-grabbing’ – the practice where gardens are treated as brownfield development sites and increasingly built upon.

Cllr Gillies stated the Ward budget to the meeting: the Capital budget being £11,470 and the Revenue budget being £21,370 subject to Full Council approval.

·         Nick Blitz, Secretary of the York and District Sports Federation, addressed the meeting in favour of scheme RW-08-23. He stated that Fund for the Gifted went to aspiring athletes aged 18 and under in grants of up to £150 for additional kit or additional training. He made the point that the money would not necessarily all come back to the Ward’s candidates and that in some years the percentage would be lower or higher than what each Ward contributed to the Fund. This year 2 of 18 awards have been to Rural West young sports people.

·         A representative from Age Concern addressed the meeting in support of scheme RW-08-05. Last year a similar scheme provided a community support worker for the Ward for 2-3 hours per week, which was found to be a valuable service.

Barry Otley of Wheatlands Community Woodland thanked the Ward Committee for the inclusion of the article promoting the Woodland Walks in the October Your Ward newsletter. The event was very successful with 27 adults and 5 children taking part.

A resident stated that untreated sewage had been discharged into the river at Nether Poppleton and that it was too hard to contact the Environment Agency regarding it.