Agenda and minutes

The drop in surgery gives you the opportunity to talk to your ward councillors, ward team and visiting speakers informally before the meeting.

Residents had the opportunity to discuss issues with the Ward Councillors, Street Environment Officer, Safer Neighbourhood Team and Neighbourhood Management Officer in an informal setting.

Cllr S Burton welcomed everyone to the meeting.

The minutes of the meeting held on 12^th October 2011 were agreed to be a true record.  They were duly signed by Cllr Burton.

PC Colin Park will update us on Policing in Westfield

Beat Manager Colin Park gave an update on activity in the ward, including the following points:

Total crime has reduced by 16% with antisocial behaviour reduced by a similar amount.

Burglaries continue to be low but as the nights become lighter PC Park reminded residents to make sure they keep doors and windows locked to deter sneak thefts.

In the last few weeks the PCSO’s have moved patch.  This is to ensure there is PCSO coverage between 8.00am and 12 midnight for 7 days a week.

Please use the new 101 number for all non-emergency calls to the Police.  This number replaces the previous 0845 number.  999 continues to be the number to ring for emergencies.

Operation Immobilise is a system whereby residents can record the serial numbers of property on the North Yorkshire Police website.  This aids the Police to reunite residents with any stolen property when they recover the property.  PC Park encouraged residents to add the serial numbers of their property if they have access to the internet.  The Police are currently investigating ways of helping those who do not have access to the internet.

The following questions were raised:

Q.        Have there been any reported incidents of antisocial behaviour on Chesney Fields recently?

A.        No incidents have been reported recently, this could be due, in part,  to the cold weather.

Q.        There are scooters being ridden round the snickets in Foxwood creating a race track.

A.        PC Park will ask his team to patrol the snickets more regularly when they are on duty.

Street Environment Officer, Jackie Armitage will let us know what is happening with this new initiative.

Street Environment Officer, Jackie Armitage updated the meeting on current work in the ward including the following points:

Community Payback are undertaking the clean up of the graffiti on Acomb roundabout.

She is working in partnership with the schools to address litter issues

The Friends of Bachelor hill has been set up.  This group undertake regular litter picks of the open space.

Love Where You Live is a new initiative which will run for a three year period.  The aim of it is to encourage positive behaviour and for residents to take a pride in the area they live.  In Westfield it was launched by a litter pick around Hob Moor and the Acorn Rugby Club.

Westfield school pupils have replanted the planters of Front Street and have adopted Grange Lane Park where they regularly litter pick.

The following comments were made:

The bus shelter and shop area on Foxwood Lane suffer from litter and debris from the fast food outlets.  It is particularly bad early morning.  Jackie Armitage will discuss options with the shops.

Dog fouling continues to be an issue.  This happens at all times of day but is made worse by some residents letting their dogs out first thing in a morning.  Jackie and the dog warden have been undertaking patrols, unfortunately this has not resulted in identifying any irresponsible owners.  They will continue to patrol.

Francesca Clair, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust will give information on this new initiative.  It is a Lottery funded, three year project which is working in five Wards within York.

The project uses green spaces which are underused with the aim of working with the local community to set up a community garden.  Cornlands Road park is the area identified as an appropriate site.

Francesca gave residents leaflets detailing the programme for the next few weeks.

The project includes training for residents some of which has been arranged for February.  Basic growing food will be delivered on February 20^th and February 27^th (two hours each day) by British Trust for Conservation and Volunteering.  The venue is yet to be confirmed.

It was noted that the project can be advertised through the Ward notice boards, libraries and community centres.

Find out how this group can help with debt problems

Jackie Adie gave  presentation on the work undertaken by Christians Against Poverty (CAP).

If someone finds themselves in financial difficulties they can ring CAP on  0800 328 006.  This is the number to the head office, through this number an appointment can be made with the local CAP service. 

Jackie (for York residents) will then contact them and visit them at home.  She will work with the residents to work out a budget and will write to all the debtors on behalf of the resident.  The budget includes a small amount for clothing and future needs e.g. birthdays and Christmas.

Once a budget is agreed the resident will pay the agreed amount into a bank account from which CAP will pay the debts.  CAP work with the resident until they are debt free.

For further information please contact CAP on 0800 328 0006

Find out more about the schemes which have been proposed and let us know what you think about a possible community ranger service.

The company who delivered the community ranger service was taken over in early spring of 2011.  After approx. a month the new company showed no evidence of making regular patrols around the ward, not patrolling the areas we had requested, they were not locking or opening parks or sending reports.  The contact number given was not always answered giving a very poor service.  The contract was broken as no service was being delivered.

The contract was reviewed to ensure it would deliver an appropriate service after which it was put out to tender.  Two responses have been received which are currently being considered.

The following comment were received:

The community rangers were never seen in certain areas in the ward.  Before they were taken over, if there were issues they would not attend.  They seemed to be afraid of confrontation. 

Your opportunity to let us know about issues in Westfield

The following questions were raised:

Q.        Street lighting is an issue at the moment.  Street lights have been cut down, the light has been changed from yellow to white which seems to have reduced visibility and they have been dimmed so that the are lit is reduced.

A.        There has been a safety audit of all the street lights which found that 580 of the lights were unsafe.  There was no budget to replace the lights but a budget has now been identified to replace them all.  This work will start within the next few weeks.

White lights have been used as this light is more effective in the prevention of crime.  CCTV cameras can pick up the images much more easily for the use in criminal investigations.

The feedback in regards to dimming the lights is very helpful, Cllr Williams will feed this back to the relevant department.

Q.        The bumps on Foxwood Lane continue to cause vibration within properties when heavy lorries/busses pass by

A.        Cllr Williams will follow this up.

Q.        What is happening with Cornlands and Lowfields residents group

A.        This group are meeting once more before their Annual General Meeting.  Their next meeting is on Wednesday 22^nd February and the AGM is on Wednesday 28^th March.  Both meetings are at York High School, all welcome.

Q.        Will there be some ward funding next year?

A.       There will be some funding although the amount will not be known until later in the spring.

There is no date for the next Ward Committee meeting as yet due to the review of Neighbourhood Management.

The meeting closed at 19.45pm