Minutes

Residents had the opportunity to talk to Cllr. Janet Looker, Cllr Brian Watson, Iain Dunn, street environment officer, Suzanne Prance, street environment officer, Jaquie Jackson, Neighbourhood Management Unit about the Capable Guardian project and Michael Hawtin, neighbourhood management officer. They also had the chance to talk to Martin Grainger about houses of multiple occupation, Leigh Hankinson, student union president, Joanne Piddington student night marshall manager, Jake Furby, student night marshall, Tom Waring from St Nicholas’ Fields about recycling and representatives from Age Concern, the York Youth Council and York St Johns University.

Cllr Janet Looker and Cllr Brian Watson welcomed residents to the meeting. The minutes were agreed and signed.

Professor David Fleming welcomed residents to the university. He explained about some of the recent changes and went through some of the possibilities of the future of the university with the possibility of the removal of all government funding. He told the meeting that the university is one of the smallest in the country with just over 5,000 student. The university is mainly centred on the liberal arts and humanities. It is very well placed in the market place and their balance sheet is strong. The future is bright for the university but challenging.

Unfortunately the police were unable to attend as the date had to be changed to fit in with the availability at the university and the date fell on a rest day for the Guildhall Safer Neighbourhood Team. Inspector Mark Henderson has sent a presentation over which was shown during the meeting as well as at the surgery. The figures are shown below.

There were also slides detailing several of the operations that the team is currently involved in including, Operation Spoke to reduce cycle theft, Operation Discount to tackle theft from shops, Operation Style to concentrate on issues around Union Terrace, Operation Image to work on cycling offences, Operation Feijoa to target communters flouting traffic signs and by laws. There was also some information on general crime reduction as part of the Light Up – Lock Up campaing.

The teams contact details are as follows;

Tel: 0845 60 60 247

Leigh Hankinson introduced himself as the new student union president. He also introduced Joanne Piddington who volunteers as a manager of the night marshall project and Jake Furby the Guildhall night marshall.

He told the meeting that the union has 400 registered volunteers amounting to £229,660 if we calculated minimum wage  multiplied by the amount of hours per week! They volunteer for local projects and to support charities.

Joanne Piddington explained that the night marshall scheme works with the local safer neighbourhood team and marshals are employed for 5 hours a week to help make sure that students walk home quietly between the hours of 10pm and 4am. All marshals have been trained and licenced.

The students union also runs a ‘Freecycle’ event to cut back on the amount of rubbish and waste that students leave. Next year they hope to expand the scheme to include collections form everyone in the community not just student properties.

Leigh said that £48,000 has been raise by students for charity.

Student  union community representatives work five hours a week and are managed by opportunities co-ordinator Jo Piddington. Leigh asked that if residents experience any problems with student to contact him and gave out leaflets with contact details. They are 07847 573088 or e-mail: noise@yorksj.ac.uk.

One resident mentioned the Royal British Legion as a good charity to consider. It is the oldest charity in the UK.

Jeremy Jones form Arc Light began by telling the residents that he was worried about the amount of alcohol being sold cheaply in supermarkets and that one supermarket is applying for a licence to start selling alcohol at 6am. He explained that Arc Light positively support Operation Style and work with the safer neighbourhood team to reduce the number of alcohol-related incidents of anti-social behaviour. Unfortunately two residents have been asked to leave Arc Light because of problems they have caused. There is an Alcohol Exclusion Zone in the Groves as well as the dispersal zone which will also help to cut down on anti-social behaviour. He urged people to call all incidents of anti-social behaviour to the safer neighbourhood team.

Jeremy then went on to talk about the history of Arc Light, what the homeless situation was like twelve years ago and what it’s like now. 250 homeless people are accommodated each night in York. Arc Light is a nationally recognised facility and uses co-ordianted multi-agency response to tackle homelessness. It has 39 bed accommodation but will take in more people in bad weather as ‘crash pads’. Peasholme Green is a 22 bed en-suite facility with a training room and IT suite.

The facilities in York offer support all the way through the resettlement process from intensive 24 hour support to ‘floating’ support when required.

To contact Jeremy Jones call Arc Light on (01904) 630 500 or e-mail: Jeremy.jones@york-arclight.co.uk. The website is www.york-arclight.co.uk.

Schemes 3 and 4 had been discussed as part of Leigh Hankinson’s presentation.

Scheme 20 – The Grant to York Youth Council. Alice and Shin form the Youth Council told the meeting that York Youth Council exists to make sure that young people are heard in the city. It had been identified that one project that young people wanted was a safe place to meet in the centre of the city. A building has been identified and already £74,000 raised. They still need to raise a further £71,000. Young people are raising the money by nominating York Young People’s trust as the charity to benefit form school non-uniform days and other ways. They are asking all wards to contribute as it will benefit all young people in the city as the centre is where most meet due to the bus network.

Scheme 23 – York Citizens Advice Bureau has helped identify £42,000 in unclaimed benefits and make sure that the people entitled to them get them. As a charity they are totally dependent on funding and feel that the money would make a high return for residents in the ward.

Scheme 25 – York Older People’s Assembly would like support to raise and publicise the issues affecting people over 50 in the ward and to help run an event to do this.

It was mentioned that there was no provision on the list for additional salt-bins. The councillors explained that this was due to the limited budget but that it could be considered as part of the contingency fund.

Residents didn’t have any other issues during the meeting. Cllr Brian Watson and Cllr Janet Looker explained that if anyone had anything they wanted to bring up or any suggestions for agenda items or meeting venues they could connect them or Michael Hawtin.

There were a couple of issues that couldn’t raised during the meeting as a resident had to leave for a taxi at 9.pm.

One resident wanted to thank the councillors for their work in clearing up the towpath along the River Foss of grafitti. Children and noisy neighbours are proving to be a problem in St Margarets Terrace. The plans for a hotel on Walmgate will cause an increase in problems including with the road surface and increased risk to pedestrians due to the increase in the amount of traffic.  She also wanted to remind people to register about the Post Office One Stop York to make sure it opens.

Another issue that was raised was students around the cashpoint in the Londis shop in the Groves. The night marshals are not doing anything when they see issues there. This has been reported to Joanne Piddington the co-ordinator of the night marshals.