Agenda and minutes

The drop-in surgery gives you the opportunity to talk with your councilors, street environment officer, safer neighbourhood team, neighbourhood management officer and visiting speakers in an informal setting.

During the drop-in surgery residents had the opportunity to speak to councillors, the Safer Neighbourhood Team, the Street Environment Officer and Neighbourhood Management Officer.

Cllr. Watt introduced the meeting and the minutes of the previous meeting were agreed and signed.

Roy Grant, Head of IT, will explain how the state-of-the-art fibre optic network will benefit schools etc in the area.

Roy Grant, Head of ICT at City of York Council, explained about the Dark Fibre Network. (It is called ‘dark fibre’ because it is a fibre-optic network for superfast broadband. The fibre-optic cables light up when in use and are ‘dark’ when being laid to create the network.)

City of York Council has created a 94km network called ‘Fibre Zone’ which links 105 sites using 5 hubs across the city. This will link all schools, council buildings and libraries. The first phase was completed in July and the whole network will be completed in January 2011.

This has been done at no additional cost to the council and was completed after going through an EEC tendering process to an eight year contract (with an option of two additional years) offering best value.

It will mean that all schools, libraries and council offices have equal access to high speed broadband internet connection. Some of the additional benefits could be; video conferencing facilities, CCTV monitoring, traffic light system control and electronic sign control.

Fibre City is an exciting potential scheme. The project could connect every home and business to the system and offer a subscription to access the services. The project would have to check that the service is fair and open and the Council are currently negotiating with other potential providers including but not restricted to BT and Virgin Media.

This should help to make York an attractive place to businesses and has the potential of connecting some of the rural areas to high speed broadband.

Residents asked questions about what the service could mean to them. Roy explained that the network could enable more services to be done on-line and improve communications and partnership working with the Police, security and health authorities. It could mean that tele-medicine  (access to doctors surgeries from home through a range of devices such as television or computer.

The Safer Neighbourhood Policing Team will give you an update on their operations in the area and answer any questions.

PC Ian Richardson introduced himself and PCSO Dave Ellison. He explained that his contribution would have to be short as they were duty.

He told the meeting that the levels of anti-social behaviour in the ward are low. This was due to several problem solving plans that have been in place to tackle the issue.

There has been a slight increase in the level of burglary over the last month. Eight people have been arrested over the last couple of weeks which should lead to a reduction in burglaries.

Crime rates are very good and the team work hard to reduce levels of crime by offering  crime reduction advice, information on cycle tagging and reducing burglaries. The team have been giving out timers to give the impression that there’s someone home. These were available at the meeting.

If any residents wanted their cycles tagging or any information or advice they should contact he team on 0845 60 60 247.

The team have been patrolling areas to reduce incidents. A resident asked about the length of time it has taken to reduce the levels of anti-social behaviour in his area. Ian noted the details and times that the incidents happened and will investigate solutions.

One remaining problem in the ward and across the city is cycle theft. There is a problem solving plan for this issue. There are specific cycle theft hot-spots in the city centre and at Canon Lee School.  Operation Spoke is in place to tackle this issue. Ian told the meeting that Safer York Partnership also has some high quality cycle locks that it is selling at cost price and told residents that Safer York is on Lower Friargate. Cycle racks have also got signs on them advising that it is safer to use two locks to secure bikes.

A resident mentioned that a group of young people were going to Rawcliffe Country Park on Friday evenings between 10pm and 10.30pm. Ian noted the details but told the resident that if the young people are moved from the Country Park they may move onto a more populated area and cause more disturbance.

He closed by telling the meeting that there is a new PCSO for the area – Joanne Lane, who will have responsibility for Skelton.

This is your chance to tell people about any schemes you have suggested an to get more information about schemes you support. The deadline for letting us know which schemes you support is 28^th October.

Scheme 1 –  At the moment there is fencing around 7/8 of the village green and the grant will complete the fencing which is designed to reduce the encroachment of vehicles on the village green.

Scheme 3 – It was explained that there is no Stop sign on the exit of Gillingwood Road. This is a new development and it is not clear who has the right of way. There is a play area adjacent to the junction and this has been suggested to make sure that the play area is safe.

Scheme 5 - Carl Shepherd, Street Sports York, told the meeting that they have £4,000 to do £50,000 worth of work which is why they are requesting a grant from the Ward Committee. They can offer ten sessions for £1,980. The sessions can be either mobile sports, a skate park or the 7 metre high climbing wall. They have added archery onto the list of sports they train which included football and cricket.

Clifton Without Parish Council has paid for some sessions and these are very well attended.

Scheme 8 – York Youth Council was begun last October and has been going for about a year. When it was set up young people were asked about their issues. The two most important ones were somewhere safe for young people to meet and to hold a festival to show young people in a positive light.

They held the festival in June and have been campaigning to get a building. A building has been identified on Fossgate which isn’t on a pub crawl and will be safe. The Youth Council has already raised £74,000 but they need to raise another £71,000 which is why they’ve applied to all Ward Committees for funding. Because of the way the bus system works, most young people meet their friends in the city centre so it will benefit young people from every ward. They are also trying to raise the money themselves through things like being the nominated charity for school non-uniform days.  Rawcliffe Parish Council has already pledged £500.

The building will be run by a full-time manager with a team of volunteers who will all be trained and CRB checked.

The young people of York have wanted a place to meet for a long time – there was a youth café on the site that Oscars now uses and it was always well attended and there were never any complaints form locals about the young people.

Scheme 12 – There used to be a seat on the corner of Alwyne Drive but this was so badly vandalized that it had to be removed for safety reasons. It has been resubmitted by Rawcliffe Parish Council on behalf of residents who would like a seat there.

Scheme 14 – This scheme is for the bus stop on the A19 rather than in front of the Mitre Pub. This is for residents waiting for buses from Easingwiold to the city centre.

Scheme 15  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Your chance to ask questions about local issues and concerns.

A resident asked about the land behind Greystoke Road. Young people are gathering there using it for bonfires and it is becoming damaged and unhygienic. Rawcliffe Recreation Association will take over control of the area. As part of the scheme the bridge over Blue Beck will be widened and there will be a footpath from the bridge to the back of the new school.

The surface the cycle path along the A19 form the Ramada Jarvis was mentioned, it is in a bad state with pot holes and the surface is uneven.

Is there anywhere that young people can do adventurous play in the ward? There is the Rawcliffe Country Park but if the council gives permission, or encourages young people to use the area, for adventurous play and someone is injured they can be held responsible for it.

It was mentioned that there was no scheme suggestion in for Kids Klub, this has been checked and unfortunately one was never received.

The ward boundary change was mentioned again. Cllr. Moore said that it was the same answer that he has given before. Boundary changes come into effect at elections and the precept was based on the ward boundaries at the time it is calculated. He will ask Electoral Services to confirm the details as soon as he can.

A Parish Councillor asked the members to chase up when they would get their Double Taxation claim.