Agenda and minutes

During the surgery residents will be offered a tour of the new Manor School. There will also be an opportunity to speak to local councillors, Sgt Andy Haigh, Safer Neighbourhoods Team, Michael Hawtin, Neighbourhood Management Officer, Angus Young, Street Environment, Brian Crosby, Head of Manor School, Mike Proctor and Penny Goff, York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Sarah Garbacz, York Libraries.

At the surgery the residents had the opportunity to have a guided tour of the newly built Manor (Church of England) School, by Brian Crosby, the Head teacher. 

Sarah Garbacz from Libraries was present to talk about the new Explore Central Library plans.

Penny Goff from the NHS Foundation Trust was present to talk to residents about the benefits of joining the Trust.

Angus Young, Street Environment Officer, was present instead of Michelle Watling.

Mora Scaife from the Neighbourhood Management Unit, CYC, was available to talk to residents about the Sustainable Communities Act.

PCSO Lou Scott,  PCSO Nigel Colley, and PC Anna Daniels were available to represent the Safer Neighbourhood Team in Rural West York.

Approximately 70 residents attended the surgery.

Cllr Healey welcomed everyone to the meeting.  55 residents were present at the meeting.

Brian Crosby, Head Teacher, will tell you about the new school and its facilities.

After his tour of the school, Brian Crosby took questions.

One resident wanted to express their congratulations to the Head teacher and the staff for the building of the new school.

One resident also commented that it would be a good idea to produce a booklet about the building to be distributed city-wide, so the rest of York gets to know about the facilities the school has.

Q: Do you have a list of prices for the facilities?

A: Yes, there is a business manager, Louise Johnson, who you can contact to make any bookings.  There are different prices for different groups.  Private use is more costly than community use, which has to be cheaper because it is part of their obligation to be a community school.

Sgt. Andy Haigh will explain about the North Yorkshire Policing Pledge, what it means and some of the targets. The Safer Neighbourhoods Team will also tell you what they have been doing in the ward.

PC Anna Daniels gave an update about crime in the area and spoke about the Policing Pledge.

1.      Last year crimes went up by 17% (73 crimes) but this was mostly due to a blip caused by a problem at Poppleton business park in the summer.  Someone was arrested concerning this.

2.      This year (since April) the area is down by 43% compared to the same period of five weeks last year.  This is 23 less crimes so far.

3.      PC Daniels offered residents the chance to contact her after the meeting or at the station if they wanted to find out the specific figures for the breakdown in each village.

4.      The Policing Pledge gives the police a number of aims:

·        It is trying to make the police more accountable and to show how they are helping the local people.

·        A fair number of the points link with the Safer Neighbourhood Team’s aims.

·        They aim to be more visible.  The PCSOs will be out and about in the area more often.

·        The main aim is to respond to any email within 24 hours of them receiving it.  This means the maximum time people should have to wait for a response is four days, taking into account the police rest days.

·        Posters of the police surgeries in the ward will be put up around all the villages.

5.      PC Daniels took questions from the residents.

Q:  There is a problem with bikes on pavements blocking the way, particularly around the Station Road area. This is a particular hazard for blind people.  

A:  If the police see anything they will move it.  This is something they will be aware of.

Find out about the Sustainable Communities Act.

Mora Scaife from the City of York Council’s Neighbourhood Management Unit gave a presentation about the Sustainable Communities Act.

There were no questions.

Mike Proctor will tell you how you can become a member of the Trust and explain what membership means.

Mike Proctor, Deputy Chief Executive of York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust gave a presentation about the purpose and aims of the Trust.  Forms were available on the seats for residents to apply to become members.

1.      The hospital was awarded Foundation Trust status in 2007.

2.      They employ more than 4,500 employees.  They want to recruit the best, and retain them, so they feel it is very important to look after them.

3.      As citizens, you have the right to choose any consultant in any hospital in the country.  They want to be the local people’s provider of choice.

4.      There was a 25% increase in emergency admissions this winter which was not planned for, but dealt with well.

5.      It would cost around £300m to rebuild the hospital.  Unfortunately this money is not available.  They have started to build up some areas, but there is still more to go.  In the next five to ten years they plan to concentrate on improving the ward block.

6.      In the last ten years waiting times have reduced massively.

7.      They have 18,000 members of the Trust so far, but they want to expand more.  It is free to be a member and you can benefit greatly from it.

The residents were given the choice to ask questions.

Q:  A neighbour of a resident had a heart problem but was then sent to Leeds hospital, which excels in this area of treatment.  Is the hospital making strides to compete with Leeds?

A:  Not in that particular service, as there is not an availability of these specialists at York.  This service is only provided in a few very specialist hospitals.  Our goal is to provide good after-care treatment for heart problems.

Q: The representative for LINk asked about the priority of the closure of the neurological ward.  This was a concern and she asked what the strategic vision was.

A:  The hospital used to have 12 neurology beds.  They are currently and consistently looking at bed allocation.  In the future we will need to look at where neurology beds can go.  

Mike Proctor encouraged the LINk representative to get involved in the Trust as the organisation could play an important part.  The representative said she was already a member.

A member of the Copmanthorpe Carnival team will tell you about the event.

Martin Pickard, the Chair of Copmanthorpe Carnival gave a short presentation to publicise this year’s event. 

1.         The Carnival began in the 60’s to raise money to establish a recreation centre in Copmanthorpe. Now the carnival is the only fundraising event they do each year.

2.         The local music festival started three years ago.  This year they have quality music, which ahs even been featured in a national magazine.  There will also be a fairground, a slide, a football festival and 30-40 stalls.

3.         It costs £4 on the day, or £2.50 if you buy a programme from any village shop.  Kids will get in for free.

Carol Newman, Head of Fundraising from Poppleton Tigers, will tell the meeting about planned developments at the club and what they hope to do this year.

Carol Newman, Head of Fundraising, gave a presentation about the Poppleton Tigers Football Club.

1.      They moved to Millfield Lane 4 years ago.

2.      Their current project is to build a new clubhouse.  They need to raise £100,000. 

3.      Carol Newman encouraged residents to come down on Saturday mornings, when they have drinks and bacon butties for sale.  This raises around £50-100 each weekend.  

4.      She also encouraged them to come to the girls’ tournament on the 14^th June.  This year there are 90 teams participating.  There will be a bar available on the day.

5.      They are holding regular discos to raise money, and there will be an adults one too.  They should be starting to sell tickets soon.

Residents had the opportunity to ask questions.

Q:  The resident noticed that McDonalds were featured on the slide show and asked how much money McDonalds were giving the club.

A:  Carol Newman said that she worked for McDonalds and each year they have done a kit. This year it was the under 7s.  They pay for the posters each year.  Unfortunately the publicity rules for McDonalds means that they are no longer allowed to sponsor children’s activities because of the worry that it encourages obesity. 

Q:  How many meeting rooms will there be?

A:  The plans have not yet been finalised, as they are waiting for planning permission. They are currently looking at only one meeting room.

Q:  A resident expressed concerns that the building might be two stories high and another questioned the planned 550% increase in parking.

A: Alan ? who also represented the club, stated that the meeting room was necessary, as well as a classroom, in order to provide an environment on-site in which they could enable more coaches to take qualifications.

Q:  A resident questioned why a meeting room and pitches needed to be built at the club when there were adequate facilities at the Manor School which they could use.

A:  The facilities will be needed for the club’s own use.

Cllr Healey mentioned that the proposals would be going to plan, and there would be opportunities then to express any concerns.  If you give 24 hours’ notice you are able to go to the planning committee meeting and speak for up to three minutes about any concerns you may have.

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

Residents were given the chance to have their say about issues in the ward.

• One resident commented that the Poppleton Football Club was very impressive, but wondered why there was no cricket club in the area.

A:  Another resident responded by saying that anyone volunteering to set one up would be greatly welcomed.

Cllr Hudson mentioned that the Head teacher of Manor School had previously said that he was keen to build a cricket pitch and pavilion at the school in the future.

• Cllr Gillies told residents that if anyone wanted to put anything in the next Your Ward newsletter, they should let Michael Hawtin, the Neighbourhood Management Officer, know.  He also offered his thanks to Michael and the Neighbourhood Management team for the effort that was put in to the last Your Ward edition, commenting that it was a vast improvement on previous ones.

• Q: A resident asked if anyone knew the update on the Askham Bar Park and Ride consultation?

A:  No dates have been arranged yet, but the councillors expected it to be in the autumn.  Once the dates come in the councillors will ensure the information is put out across the villages and in the Your Ward newsletter.

• Q:  A resident asked how the water would be drained from the Park and Ride site.

A:  The councillors said they were not experts on this and the time to      address this would be at the consultation.

• Q:  There is a problem with speeding in the villages.

A: A Parish Council representative stated that signs will be being put up to say ‘Children Crossing’, in the problem spots.

Cllr Hudson encouraged the resident to speak to the police if they had particular concerns.

• Q:  In the same area there is a problem with a footpath over a playground???????

A:  The councillors said they would look into this.

• Q:  There was a query with a line in the previous meeting’s minutes, which the councillors promised to edit.