Agenda and draft minutes

An opportunity to talk to your ward councilors, local policing team and council officers. There will be information available on the future direction of York Libraries. Residents will be able to find out more about being on the planning panel.

Prior to the formal meeting, residents had the opportunity to speak to the Ward Councillors, Neighbourhood Manager, Head of Libraries, Information and Archives, Street Environment Officer and representatives of the Groves Area Neighbourhood Policing Team.

Cllr J Looker and Cllr B Watson jointly chairing the meeting welcomed everyone to the meeting, outlined the agenda and introduced the new model for neighbourhood working and the new look Residents Forums.  The minutes of the last formal Ward Committee were agreed.

Fiona Williams gave a presentation on the current thinking around being a cooperative council in relation to the future of  Yorks Libraries and Archives. There are many options in terms of ways to deliver such services and currently support from Cabinet Office to explore different business models. City of York Councils Cabinet has given the go ahead to explore different options with a report back to Cabinet in July 2013. The Libraries team is currently exploring forming an Industrial and Provident Society for the benefit of the community with charitable status. One of the key parts of this process is engagement with residents and encouraging interest and participation.

There followed a question and answer session regarding the future of the Libraries the following questions, responses and comments were noted:

Q Will Libraries still be free to use?

A Yes,  We could not delegate a statutory duty to provide Libraries. The Archives will remain within City of York Council as a city record. There is a strong commitment to working with communities to develop the vision for the future, as well as attendance at public meetings there have been focus groups and displays in libraries. We will know after the  2^nd July Cabinet whether we are to pursue the current proposal.

C There is a statutory responsibility to provide a library service but there is a risk that satellite services will close.

Q Is this the best way to deliver the archive service if this were delivered as a charity this would open up funding streams.

A It is a risk but is it one worth taking

C Surely the risk is that if it fails as a separate entity that the council has to pick both the archives and the Library service back up.

C Congratulations on the transformation of the Central Library, it has been extremely well done. However City of York Council has a history of giving services strange names such as the library example Explore, please drop it.

PC Steve Skeoch Beat Manager for the Groves Area gave an update on current initiatives and issues including:

Operation Brink

This is a current operation in the Groves and Union Terrace areas to address street drinking, drug use cycling on the pavements and other examples of antisocial behaviour.

Operation Buckaroo

Targeting vehicle crime, specifically identifying vulnerable vehicles in order to advise people to remove valuables for their car. So many people leave valuables such as laptops, i-pads, i–phones.

In addition regarding home security if doors are obviously open we’ll open the door to remind people that they are vulnerable to opportunistic burglary.

Crime figures

In general crime figures for the ward are down. However it is important for people to report crime or concerns as if it is not reported the police cant help.

Street Drinking

A discussion took place about the issue of street drinking in the Groves and Walmgate areas the following points were noted

There has been an increase in the number of applications for licensed premises.

Since September last year the number of calls to issues relating to Arclight have dropped significantly.

Resident Comments.

There are a number of outlets selling alcohol to street drinkers in the area.

There is a group who congregate outside the Job Centre plus and Monkgate Health Centre, whilst their behaviour is not bad it could be seen as intimidating to some which compounded by the fact that the Job centre security staff appear to push the group out onto the footway.

Crime Summit

Representatives of the Groves and navigation and Walmgate residents Associations commented that they had not been aware/invited to the recent crime summit.

Student Community

It was noted that students in Claremont Terrace had been given personal safety information and asked to be quiet considerate to their neighbours.

Working together with St Johns University, Higher York and student representatives is crucial to spread key messages and to support the student and wider community.

PC Skeoch also shared information on initiatives to support vulnerable adults and an initiative called Aware – No second night out which operates a referral process for rough sleepers for which there is a referral phone number 0300 500 0914

Key Issues

Neighbourhood Watch – this really does prevent crime and encourages people to know their area and neighbours better.

Keep reporting it is really important to help build intelligence and prioritise actions.

Twitter accounts:

@snayorknorth

@snayorkcityandeast

The Groves Residents Association

Joanna Ingerson the Groves Residents Association gave an update on the residents association. The Groves Residents Association is made up of a council estate and private housing. The residents association is keen to work with and support everyone in the area of benefit. The association is keen to facilitate the sharing of information to local residents e.g. recently they have been involved in and promoted initiatives around energy savings and the Library forum. The residents association works closely with Door 84 which provides a community hub for the Groves and with the closure of Space 109 an important community resource for the whole of the ward. As well as regular committee meetings the committee organises regular coffee mornings. Everyone with an interest in the area is welcome.

Cllr J Looker thanked Joanna for the update and added that the residents association had been reborn and revitalised by its current members,  both ward councillors are keen to support community groups and  further that the loss of Space 109 as a community venue was very sad.

Chris Edghill who has been the clerk to the Guildhall planning panel for some time introduced this item giving an update on the panel how it functions and what it is all about. There had been a number of expressions of interest in becoming a member of the panel some from existing members and some new requests, additional requests to be considered for membership were received at the meeting. All interested parties were asked to introduce themselves and say a little about their background/experience and why they were interested in being a planning panel member. It was noted that there is a broad depth and range of experience amongst those expressing an interest and as the terms of reference for the panel suggest up to 12 members and there were 12 ‘candidates’ it was agreed that all 12 named below  be elected to the panel. 

Chris Edghill

Roger Pierce

Alan Filby

Ann Petherick

Vivien Irish

Louise Elliot

Gill Pratt

Tony Martin

Dr David Medio

Joana Ingerson

Andrew Finch

Gwen  Swinburn                                                                                                                                                    

Cllr J Looker Introduced the new look Residents Forums as a sounding board for local residents  and the issues and comments raised by residents would support the population of a community contract for the ward, through the contract be shared with partners so that resident intelligence could be used to shape services in the form of local priorities. Also these priorities would inform the residents Forum Budget spend. This year the budget for Guildhall Ward is £2,760.

The three existing ward priories are:

·        Create a user friendly city centre for residents and businesses

·        Create a cleaner, greener, safer  ward

·        Create more inclusive city centre communities.

In essence all of this contributes to a more inclusive city. Input from residents and businesses are welcome. The Student Community Partnership is specifically mentioned.

A discussion took place around issues and priorities in the ward the following points were noted:

·        The importance of community relations with the student community in the ward and the role of the student community partnership.

·        The vulnerability of students and other young people who may be away from home for the first time accessing the night time economy especially related to alcohol and keeping themselves safe.

·        City centre residents and the night time economy.

Resident Comments

·        The Groves Residents Association has held extensive discussions on local priorities to the Groves area and have 3 key recommendations: A safer environment specifically targeting anti social behaviour and graffiti, A common standard of cleanliness for Guildhall, supporting community facilities

·        A resident of the Groves area stated that they did not feel that they lived in the city centre and would like it to be clear in the community contract priorities that they are for the ward as a whole.

Ward Budget 2013/14

Ward members proposed that an amount of £760.00 be used to support Door 84 to further implement their development action plan and that the £2,000 be open to applications from community groups.

This was agreed

Residents were encouraged to raise any issues or concerns they had in respect of the ward, and the following points were raised:

Concerns were raised about the number of student properties in Claremont Terrace (10 out of 34 properties) especially in light of a property which was converted early last year for which there had been no application submitted.

Q Has the removal of an area of shrubbery on graveyard site been a money saving exercise?

A Response was given that it was part of spaces more open.

Q Residents asked whether there was a specific reason for leaving such a long gap in the collection of green bins over the winter months.

The point was raised that there are not many children’s facilities in Guildhall Ward, there are Clarence Gardens but there is a lovely children’s play area in the grounds of Park Grove school which is used informally, could this be a formalised arrangement as a community space by talking to the new Head teacher?

Comment was made about the gradual deterioration of the edifice of the Bulmers building and a request was made that this was brought up with the planning department.

There being no other business, the  ward members  thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.