Crossgate Community Partnership: Minutes

Minutes of the meeting 1st March 2011

Attendance:
David Ramsden, (Cllr) Grenville Holland, Dick Fong, Odile Fong, Simon Squires, Terry Collins (DCC Director of Neighbourhood Services), Dave Wilcox (DCC Strategic Highways Manager), Keith Parkinson (DCC Streetscene), John Hitchman, Desmond Evans, Ann Evans, Kirsty Thomas (St Nicholas Community Forum), Kasper Peeters, Mike Costello, John Halliday (Neighbourhood Warden), Jackie Levitas, Roger Cornwell, Jean Rogers
Apologies for absence:
were received from Colin Green (Treasurer), (Cllr) Nigel Martin, Paul Harwood, Jeff Young, Simon James and Carole Reeves.
Roger Cornwell chaired the meeting.
Report of the Neighbourhood Warden:
John Halliday reported that he has attended a number of training sessions this month; however he is about to send out a letter about bins to the residents of Nevilledale Terrace.
There was some discussion of the problems of requiring residents in Nevilledale and Briarville to take in their bins after collection, as this may involve pulling them up steps which people are physically unable to do. John had raised the general issue of refuse collectors not returning bins to where they find them; this is simply not part of kerbside collection.
Green Waste collection starts on April 4th. Terry urged people to look for this sort of information on the DCC website, whose database is being improved.
Police Report:
No representative was present from the police, but Mike Costello reported that he had taken up the query about anomalies in the statistics with Paul Anderson, who will look into it.
He had had no reply on the issue of flyposting (stickers on lampposts) by Student Home Zone.
Discussion with Terry Collins
of outstanding issues in the Viaduct area (see register of problems)
Tourist Information Centre
This is currently part of Terry's remit; he has no information that it is to be closed. The basis for the reports to this effect was discussed.
The minutes of the last meeting
were approved as a correct record.
Matters Arising from the minutes of the previous meeting
In addition to items listed on the agenda, the following matters arose:
  1. Area Action Partnership (AAP): John Murphy (AAP Co-ordinator) had not yet provided the background information he spoke of, and Roger Cornwell will pursue this. Mike Costello expressed reservations about the AAP / consultation structure, and it was agreed that more discussion of the AAP would be useful at a future date.
  2. Town Council: Grenville Holland reported that Mary Hawgood's petition has now gathered the required number of signatures.
  3. Meeting at Framwellgate Moor: despite the unpopularity of DCC's identification of sites for housing, the Council seemed determined to proceed. Kirsty Thomas reported on the progress of the closure of Aykley Heads Sports Centre. Roger Cornwell explained the process of submitting the County Plan to an Examination in Public, and the status of the Inspector's report. Jackie Levitas asked if there is a national body to protect Green Belt land? She will research this and report back.
  4. Clean-up of Peskies Park: Paul Burgess from King's Church had suggested March 12th, which was not a convenient date for us. Mike Costello will talk to him about future dates, although he may not now be able to offer anything before mid-June.
Councillors' Reports
Grenville Holland will oppose the closure of leisure centres.
Article 4 directives
Jackie Levitas gave the background to the issue of Article 4 protection for Viaduct & Western Hill area, which residents had believed to be already in force. It was the view of the meeting that the Article 4 protection for this area should now be implemented without delay, since the preparatory work had already been done. Roger Cornwell will write to Stuart Timmiss and inform him that this was the view of the meeting.
Date of next meeting
Tuesday 5th April; Dick Fong suggested that we should reconsider the practice of holding all our meetings on Tuesdays, since this made it difficult for some members to attend, and agreed to investigate alternative dates.