Agenda and minutes

You will have an opportunity to talk to:

• Cllr Steve Galloway
• Cllr Sue Galloway
• Cllr Andrew Waller
• Michelle Watling, Street Environment Officer
• Your Safer Neighbourhoods Policing Team
• Your Recycling Team
• A representative from Group Response
• Cindy Benton, Neighbourhood Management Officer

Residents were able to talk to their ward councillors and the Neighbourhood Policing Team, also to report any street environment or other ward-based issues. 

• York Fire Service Review

Alan Bell, Fire Station Manager, will tell you about the York Fire Service Provision Review        

• Police

An update from your Neighbourhood Policing Team on ward issues and your chance to ask questions and raise concerns.

• Flooding issues in the ward

Have your say on the flooding issues in your area and hear what City of York Council and Yorkshire Water are doing to alleviate the problem.

• Ward Schemes 2009/2010

Find out more about the ward schemes in your area, and have your say.  There will be an opportunity for groups who have made a grant request to speak about their project.

• Have Your Say

Your opportunity to discuss concerns on local issues within the ward.

• Welcome and introductions by Cllr Steve Galloway

Alan Bell (Station Manager, York & North Yorkshire Fire Service) gave a brief update on the review of all the fire stations in York and in particular the main issues.

·        The Fire Service are seeking the views of residents & businesses.

·        Proposals are to be made regarding the relocation of fire stations within the city and the residents of York will be asked for their opinions about these proposals.

·        There will be consultation papers all over the city in the next few weeks.

·        Community facilities will be put in to any new station in the City.

·        The Clifford Street site is not adequate as it is.  One option is to redevelop the site and keep one engine there and build a smaller station in the south east of the city.

Questions and issues raised by residents were;

·        A Brownie visit to Clifford Street proved very popular and they loved it.

·        If your hoping to retain the rescue team for the river etc then would it have to stay in the city centre?

Majority of the time it will be used for the river area but is available for the rest of the county. But there is a commitment to keep it in or around the City area.  The preferred option would be to keep it at Clifford Street.

Sgt Shaun Sutcliffe & PC Andy Easterby (Westfield Neighbourhood Policing Team) gave a brief ward update.

·        Shaun is quite new to this area and he is looking forward to working with the rest of the team to make the area better.

·        Shaun encouraged residents to tell the police what their priorities are for the area.

·        In Westfield Burglary figures have gone up in the past year but the latest monthly figures show a reduction.

·        Assaults and auto crime is going down

·        We are getting another PC next week

The following issues were raised;

·        When can we get the police on the phone as we get passed from different switchboards all the time?

o       This is being addressed.

·        When does Acomb Police Station Close down?

o       It is not closing down, it is used for training and meetings.  We re the only team in the City that is actually based in the ward that we patrol.

·        What is your policy with youths and drink?  Smashing the bottles after they have drunk them?

o       We have no tolerance regarding youths drinking in the streets.  But when it is phoned through this is not always graded as an emergency.  If there is broken glass then the council need to know also.

o       The problem with nuisance youths is that if we disperse them then they will just congregate somewhere else.  They need to go somewhere and this should be away from any built up area.

·        There are key times in the evenings where there are no community police on the streets and this is when they are mostly needed,

o       The PCSO’s shifts will be changing soon and they will be working longer hours, until midnight.

·        Don’t you think there should be some facilities for young people?

o       Yes but it is not the responsibility of the Police.  We do attend youth clubs on a regular basis to try and interact with the young people.  The youth service has just started a drop in session at Foxwood from 4 to 6pm on a Thursday.

·        Is there a law against kids playing football in the street?

o       This is a by law.  It can be a minor offence.  It is only anti social if the ball starts hitting buildings and causing damage to people or property.

Police to look at reports of young people buying alcohol from Sommerfields.

The Police were thanked for attending.

Chris Pinder from CYC and 4 reps from Yorkshire Water were in attendance. 

Cllr Galloway updated residents on events so far;

Heavy flooding on 6^th August.  Foxwood was very badly hit.  It was the rain 2 weeks later that did the main damage to properties.

Gary Collins, Service Recovery Engineer for Yorkshire Water gave an update of events and work in progress.

o       Yorkshire Water are aware of the issues in Foxwood Lane and Rogers Court

o       On the 17^th August one of the pumps at the pumping station on Foxwood Lane burnt out.  When one pump fails then one of the other pumps should come on. On this occasion the mechanism failed.  This issue has now been addressed and measures put in place for this not to happen again.

o       This pump station does not have an alarm system that most sites have.  So our headquarters in Bradford were unaware of the problem.  We will now put an alarm system in there.

o       Regarding the foul sewage.  With the heavy rain it was all going in the combined sewer.  It was very difficult to pinpoint where along the system the problem is. Yorkshire Water has cleaned parts of it and we will continue to look at that length of the sewer and address all problems.

o       We are planning a cycle to clean the length of sewer on Foxwood Lane and we will periodically check with cameras when it needs cleaning.

o       There have been issues with fat in this sewer.  We are going to be approaching the take aways in the area and look at how they are getting rid of their waste.

Residents then had the opportunity to ask questions and raise any further issues.

·        Wouldn’t a more powerful pump solve the problem?

o       The problem was not about the pumps unable to do their job, they had just burnt out.

·        There are a lot more houses in the area now than when the pump was first built, so maybe it is unable to cope with the extra demand?

o       It is not over loaded.

·        You need to get to the bottom of the problem as it has got worse over the years.  We have been promised things that have not been happening.  More money needs to be invested in the pipework.

o       Cllrs always seek advice from Yorkshire Water whenever a new development or buildings are going up.

o       It seems that it is fat and silt that are blocking the pipes

·        I never got an adequate response to the problems.  Toilet backs up and I cannot use it for days at a time.  There are a lot of properties in Foxwood that do not report things as they think nothing will be done about it.

·        All residents should report it.  If we do need to work on the pipes we will need capital funding, so the more complaints and reports we have the more we can justify the cost.

Cllr Galloway asked what  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Applicants were given the opportunity to speak about the ward schemes for 2009/2010, and also to raise any questions or queries about the schemes on the ballot list.

The following schemes were represented at the meeting;

• Chapelfields & District After School Club
• Active York – Funds for the Gifted

Street Sport York were here in the ward surgery to talk to residents.

• It appears that all deliveries that come to the flats are just dumped at the bottom of the stairs.  We are left with bundles of paper clogging up the stairs and it is a fire hazard.
• Only one of them is a Council leaflet, this will be fed back.
• Will the humps outside the present York High School be removed when the school goes?
• All residents in that area will be balloted about the road humps.  This will be done when the school is relocated.

Next Meeting 11^th February 2009