Crossgate Community Partnership: Minutes

Minutes of the meeting Monday 6th June 2016

1. Attendance

Present: Roger Cornwell (in the Chair), Liz Brown, Ann Evans, Brendan McKeown, Jean Rogers, Kevin Turrington, Clare Wright
Cllr Grenville Holland, Cllr Richard Ormerod,
PCSO Steven Bell, PCSO Rebecca Carey

2. Apologies for absence:

were received from Mike Costello, Alan Doig, Odile Fong, Richard Fong, Jackie Levitas, David Ramsden, Barbara Ravelhofer, Carole Reeves, Simon Squires
Cllr Nigel Martin
Roger Cornwell informed the meeting that Richard Fong was still in poor health; Jackie Levitas felt too stressed by issues relating to the County Hospital, plus noisy end of term parties, to attend the meeting.

3. PACT (Police And Communities Together) Session

a) PCSO Steve Bell gave his report;
there had been one cycle theft in Crossgate in the last month, of a bike secured to a lamppost;
No burglaries had been reported, though there had been two thefts from motor vehicles (of satnav devices from cars parked at Durham School);
The Durham City Beat Team are continuing to issue Community Protection Notice Warnings and Notices to buskers creating a nuisance and beggars sitting in doorways. A similar approach is now being adopted with rough sleepers. Police emphasised that where rough sleepers were actually homeless, they would intervene to try to find accommodation - the CPN system was only invoked where people did have an alternative. Action on buskers was taken at the request of Durham City BID: police would prefer this to be dealt with by a Council Licensing system.
On the evening of Wednesday June 1st, six members of Durham City Beat Team worked an 8.00 pm - 4.00 am shift: there were no noisy parties, but several students were told to make less noise while walking home around 2.00 am, there were around a dozen alcohol seizures, and three tickets were issues for littering (i.e. urinating or vomiting).

b) Members are welcome to attend the Durham City PACT meeting, which encompasses all of the City: the next one is Wednesday 29th June at 6pm in the Elvet Riverside Building, New Elvet (opposite Durham City Police Station).

c) PCSO Rebecca Carey reported that in the past month:

9 Community Protection Warning Notices had been issued (including one in Whinny Hill)
One Community Protection Notice had been issued (in Whinny Hill)
Tickets handed out for littering - 2 urinating, 1 vomiting and one actual littering
One warning had been issued with respect to a vehicle, a parked convertible whose driver was listening to loud music in the small hours.

This brought the total for the year to 78 Community Protection Warning Notices and 10 Community Protection Notices. No-one had yet needed to be taken to court for breach of a Community Protection Notice.

d) Students had been bussed to Hardwick for a champagne ball; it had required heavy resourcing from the police to ensure that they all got home safely from the point where they were dropped off. The police would be opposing the licensing of any similar event next year.

e) The Green Move Out was due to start the following Monday (13th June): there would be three extra Street Wardens in the City for the following three weeks. The meeting felt that once again this was later than was ideal, and Rebecca agreed, but pointed out that coverage was only available for three weeks.

f) Priorities: dangerous cycling and student behaviour remain unchanged as priorities;
Motorists (including HG drivers) using mobile phones at the Neville's Cross traffic lights is not something on which PCSOs can act, but they agreed to refer it to the police Sleuth system, and the meeting agreed to maintain the issue as a priority in the interim.

g) Issues relating to parking (parking on pavements in the North Road, obstructive parking by Domino's Pizza delivery vans outside the shop) are managed by NSL on behalf of the County Council. PCSO Steve Bell provided the NSL contact number, which is 0191 384 6633.

h) Future of PACT meetings: Sergeant Kay Howarth plans to attend the July CCP meeting, and it was agreed to defer this item until then.

4. The minutes of the previous meeting

were agreed as a correct record.

5. Licensing application, Basement, 29 Neville Street

Ann Evans spoke to the letter of objection previously circulated. The application will be heard on 21st June, and the following motion was passed by the meeting:
This meeting approves the written objection to the licensing application in respect of Basement Bar, 29 Neville Street and authorises Ann Evans (reserve Liz Brown) to speak to this objection at the meeting of the Licensing Committee on 21st June. (moved Jean Rogers, seconded Kevin Turrington).
Roger will write to the Licensing Officer to confirm that Ann and Liz formally represent the Partnership.

6. County Hospital

a) It was agreed that Roberta Blackman-Woods MP had taken her complaint against the Planning Inspector as far as was practical, and that although there were issues outstanding, there was nothing to be gained from pursuing them via the Parliamentary Ombudsman or a Judicial Review.

b) Roger read the meeting the letter Roberta had received from Stuart Timmiss is response to her complaints about the Council's handling of the case. This was generally felt to be unsatisfactory. Kevin Turrington is interested in pursuing a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman, and Roger will put him in touch with Nick Rippin.

7. No Parking Bollards on Waddington Street / John Street

Kevin has spoken with Danny Harland (County Council Highways officer) who thinks three bollards will be needed, and that these should be funded by local councillors through the Members' Initiative. Cllr Grenville Holland agreed to talk to Danny Harland on behalf of local councillors.

8. University / Community issues

a) The most recent DURF meeting had been told that the University was now minded to talk to selected developers of PBSAs. One of their criteria would be proximity to (and therefore potential for co-ordinating with) existing colleges.

Items b) - Green Move Out - and c) ongoing issues with students as local residents - were felt to have been adequately covered in the course of the PACT meeting.

9. Reports from Local Councillors

a) Grenville had nothing to add to what had already been discussed.

b) Cllr Richard Ormerod reported that Friday's meeting of the Highways Committee would be discussing making Grape Lane a separate parking zone.
The Grape Lane Gardening Society had funding from the Civic Pride team, and planned a planting day on 20th June (weather permitting; otherwise 23rd June) to which volunteers were invited.

10. Date of next meeting

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 5th July 2016.