Agenda and minutes

During the surgery residents talked to the Safer Neighbourhood Team, the Councillors and City of York officers. Residents were also consulted on their ideas for priorities for the Safer Neighbourhood Team.

Cllr. Janet Looker started the meeting by mentioning that Cllr. Brian Watson is the Lord Mayor designate for next year. She also asked residents to complete the evaluation forms for the meeting.

Your opportunity to let the Neighbourhood Police Team know your concerns and issues to help them target their resources.

Sgt. Colin Sutherland told the meeting that the purpose of this ‘Safer Neighbourhood Team Update’ was to consult with residents to find the priorities they wanted the team to focus on. They had identified 5 possible priorites and they were written on flip-chart paper. There was also a blank one for people to write their own suggestions on. The five identified by face-to-face meetings with the public and from previous meetings were;

• Criminal Damage
• Drugs & Violent Crime
• Anti-Social Behaviour
• Theft
• Begging

Sgt. Sutherland said that they would continue to concentrate on all the issues but would pay special attention to the issues prioritised. He asked people to write their suggestions on the sheets and they would go through them all and come up with priorities. He went on to talk about some successes in the ward when the community and police work together.

Mr Edgehill read out a statement;

“Ladies & gentlemen, The city centre of York is rife with minor crimes & misdemeanours.  I have been trying for at least five years to persuade the police with little success to prosecute the perpetrators of these offences begging, cycling offences, urinating in the streets, littering and general antisocial behaviour, I strongly believe that if a zero tolerance policy was adopted that there would be a reduction in most types crime  I also believe that this would really give the criminal element no where to hide as the suspicious characters caught breaking the law could be searched for weapons drugs and contraband inconveniencing them  and slowing down their escape. 

It would also seem that the police can target the motorist with great gusto but whilst other types of law breaking are ignored, this as we all know is revenue collection exercise that is relatively easy to police.

Every year we have to pay above inflation rises for policing whilst it seams the service deteriorates.

Gillygate/Bootham  is one of the busiest  junctions for abuse in York yet I can only once recall a police presence at this junction for the purpose of traffic violations carried out by cyclists. Exhibition Sq. and the surrounding area are regular places for beggars, rough sleepers, street drinking and antisocial behaviour, around the back of the Kings Manor is a regular place for teenagers drinking making nuisance and  littering.  The area around the City Archives is also being used as a public toilet by certain factions of the community.

In closing I would like to say that over the last few weeks the begging situation has improved by what would see an initiave taken by the PCSOs Chris and Nikki and I say a big thank you to them. Long may it continue.

Thank you for your patience”

Sgt. Sutherland finished by introducing the team. The PCs Kelly McTigh and Ray Milligan and the PCSOs Martin, Mike, Jenny, Chris and Nicky.

Q. Do your team go onto the bar walls

A. Yes the do patrol them. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

An update of the process. Should York be on the list of World Heritage Sites?

John Oxley introduced himself and told the meeting that the consultation period was coming to an end. The steering group have produced a leaflet and would like everyone to have a chance to have their say. The leaflet was designed so that people can let us know if they support the proposal or if they don’t. He explained that the area which would be covered would be inside (and including) the city walls.

They are waiting for guidelines from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport on how sites should present their bids. How sites are put forward is in the hands of central government.

The sale of the garage on Lord Mayor’s Walk was mentioned, it is just outside the walls but if houses are build there it may spoil the view of the Minster.

Cllr. Looker told the meeting that she had objected to the sale of the land. Cllr. Watson took no part in the discussion.

A resident told the meeting that he had worked for UNESCO years ago. York is a unique in the UK, a city of 200,000 and the Minster from all over the city. It is the 2^nd most visited city in the UK.

It was asked if is it expected that if York gets World Heritage Site Status that the numbers of tourists will increase. The response was that the process is not about encouraging visitors to the city, but it might improve the quality of visitors and encourage people to stay for longer and visit the whole area rather than just one attraction.

One resident mentioned that there had been enough building in York and that every scrap of land has been built on. They also objected to the possibility of tall buildings being built hiding the countryside and decent buildings.

Peter Davison told the meeting that kerbside recycling has to be introduced city wide by December 2010. Because there will be difficulties (access and participation problems) of providing facilities in terraces and flats and doing it within budgets the Groves has been selected for the first trial. The trial will also help to decide what sort of vehicles are used and ways to collect recycling and refuse effectively. It will also help to guide how to persuade people to participate in the recycling and refuse collection. The timescales will be finalised after the budgets have been approved.

There will be a series of small trials to concentrate on each area and different types of houses. It is thought that in flats where there are rubbish-chutes these will be blocked off. The areas will be leafleted and door-knocked to promote new containers and new systems. Once the trials have shown which ways work best the next step will be to take the trial over the whole of the Groves area. The first streets will be; Waverly Street, Lockwood Street, Fern Street, Dudley Court and Dudley Mews. There will also be Schools, Old People’s Homes and flats above commercial properties.

The key is to keep it simple so that it is easy for residents to keep to dates. It is expected that all residential properties will have a collection on alternate weeks. It is thought that the collections would be food & domestic waste one week and recycling the next. It has been found that if food is double-wrapped there is no noticeable additional smell.

There are boxes, bags and bins to trial. The example Peter brought to the meeting was a sectioned wheelie-bin. The top section for glass. The middle for paper and the bottom for refuse. Each of theses would effectively be £50 each.

It was mentioned that it would be difficult in flats and trying to get everyone to take part. It was also mentioned that improved recycling facilities in public areas might help too.

A resident stated that the Groves is being increasingly taken over by students and this is a recipe for disaster. It was also suggested that it might pose a public health risk, and asked if a risk analysis had been done. Another resident objected to having to take wheelie-bins or bags of refuse through their house to the front street. Peter said that these are the reasons for the mini-trials and extra support. He told the meeting that the City was duty-bound to do recycling and the penalties for not reaching targets are excessive.

One resident did congratulate the city on the level of recycling we have already achieved.

A brief discussion of the 2008/09 local scheme suggestions for the Neighbourhood Action PLan that were submitted and voted on by you.

The Councillors announced the budget decision. All suggested schemes were agreed with the exception of;

No. 3 in Your Ward (Notice boards on Lowther Street/Townend Street) due to the confusion over who would manage the information and updating of the boards and whether it was a Residents’ Association function.

No. 12 in Your Ward because most of that function is already being done by other departments.

All schemes were accepted subject to feasibility, legality and budget availability.

It was mentioned by a resident that a vote of congratulations and a letter be sent to Jo Pullar for her work on getting Space 109 off the ground.

A question was asked about the recycling of aluminium foil but no one knew of anywhere that could do it or of any collections.

It was also mentioned about the chewing-gum on the streets. There is a big machine for cleaning it off but this was out-of-action for 9 months and had problems when it was re-started and on cold mornings. It can’t be used on all streets due to the pressure of the water. Once it has been done the pale marks soon go to the same colour as the rest of the pavement but more chewing-gum is dropped straight away.

The hand-rail in King’s Square was praised. Litter bins were mentioned, it was suggested that people who would use the bins, if they can’t find one, they will take the rubbish away with them. But people who don’t just drop their litter anyway. The only way to counteract littering is to have a litter enforcement officer for every person.

The Planning Panel stood up and introduced themselves, they said that if anyone else was interested in being on the panel to contact them.

A resident mentioned the tree containers along Foss Islands Road.

A question was asked about the change in the role of parking attendants on the 1^st April, again no one had any information about it. But the parking on Agar Street was mentioned. Its an access only Street just of Monkgate. When Monkgate got a residents’ only parking scheme Agar street opted out. This seems to mean that people are now parking in Agar Street where there aren’t the same restrictions.