Minutes

Residents were given the opportunity to find out about:

·        Youth provision in the ward.

·        Street Sports Bus activities and sessions in the ward

·        The work of St Clement’s Hall Preservation Trust.

Residents could speak directly to:

·        Their elected ward councillors.

·        Members of the Neighbourhood Policing Team about policing issues in the ward.

·        The Street Environment Officer for the ward.

·        The Neighbourhood Management Officer for the ward.

·        Officers to give their views on the York Northwest Area Action Plan.

The July 2007 minutes were agreed with the proviso that Cllr Julie Gunnell’s name replaced Cllr Dave Evans and that thanks were recorded to PC Dave White.

Pauline Buchanan from the St Clement’s Preservation Trust informed residents that the Trust had received a letter from the corporate landlord (City of York Council) that they are willing to grant a long lease to the Trust or similar community group to manage the Hall providing that appropriate planning permission is granted. The Trust have been given the opportunity to apply for a Community Asset Transfer Fund that is now available following recent Government legislation. The application is subject to agreement by CYC members on 23^rd October 2008.

To reinforce the application, the Trust are hosting a meeting at York CVS on 15^th October 2007, 5.30pm to ascertain exactly what the end-users of the building would need to be fed into the design brief. If the application is successful, then it is likely to take approximately two years for the building to be up and running. If the application is unsuccessful, then the Trust are well placed to submit bids to other funding streams.

Sgt Ann Brannan gave an outline on current Neighbourhood Policing provision in the ward and informed residents that the Neighbourhood Policing Team are currently reviewing the five policing priorities for the ward and would like to feed residents views into this process. As a result of working in the ward, the Policing team feel that the following issues are of most importance to residents:

1. Anti-social behaviour
2. Race-days
3. Drugs

Residents were invited to give their views and ask questions:

·        A resident informed the meeting that speeding along Scarcroft Road, Bishopthorpe Road and adjacent to the Knavesmire is a greater problem than anti-social behaviour. ACTION: Sgt Brannan will look into this problem to see if work can be targeted to tackle it.

·        A resident enquired as to what financial involvement does the racecourse have with regards to policing on race days. A) Sgt Brannan informed the meeting that they are only financially responsible for policing within the racecourse itself. Policing outside their grounds have to be dealt with separately. High visibility policing between the racecourse and the city walls was trialled at the last Ebor meeting. The Police are looking to build on this trial and identify suitable routes into town from the course.

·        A resident offered his support to the priority of anti-social behaviour.

Residents were asked to fill in forms on chairs and submit to PC Jackie Scott at the end of the meeting with any further comments and suggestions.

Andy Chase, Micklegate Planning Panel Clerk outlined the work of the Panel, asked for new member, particularly from the Southbank area and fed back on a recent public meeting held to scrutinise the Terry’s planning application. The Panel received written comments from 20 residents on various aspects of the application.

Cllr Merrett informed the meeting that the application would go before the November Planning Committee and it was important for local residents to send in their written comments in order for them to be taken into account. CYC’s Traffic Engineers have agreed with the developers the traffic generation figures for the site. This is of paramount importance to the Campleshon Road / Bishopthorpe Road junction and Knavesmire junction.

The Ward Committee will be hosting elections for the Micklegate Planning Panel at the next meeting on 31^st January 2008. Residents will be encouraged to get involved.

Roger Ranson, Assistant Director – Economic Development & Partnerships gave an introduction to the ‘Festival of Ideas II’. Festival of Ideas II is a questionnaire that asks how people think York as a city should develop over the next 20 years. It is a consultation exercise which will guide strategies. Residents were asked to complete the questionnaire on the internet, from the insert in ‘Your Ward’ or from questionnaires stocked at Tesco and B&Q.

Residents were given the opportunity to speak for or against, or ask questions about, the possible local improvement schemes for ward committee funding in 2008/09.  A scheme to install a bench along the river path past the Millenium Bridge was put to residents as it had been missed off the list.

ACTION: remove MK-08-21 as this scheme is already being done this year.

Q. How do we attract young people to participate in the democratic process.

A. Cllr Gunnell agreed that we need to make further progress in this area.

A.     Cllr Fraser informed the meeting that the ward committee were planning to host a young people’s ward committee event in April 2007 to build on previous events targeting young people.

ACTION: Kristina Davey to publish future ward committee dates in Your Ward.