Crossgate Community Partnership: Minutes

Minutes of the meeting 3rd July 2012

1. Attendance:: Present: Roger Cornwell, Jan Harwood, Carole Reeves, Jean Rogers, Councillor Grenville Holland, Mike Costello, Dick Fong, Odile Fong, Janet Bayat, PSCO Debbie Sadler-Watson, PC Paul Williams
2. Apologies for absence:: were received from Lesley Aers, Malgorzata Bialek, Ann Evans, Janie Bickersteth, Leesa Bennison (Durham Police, City beat team), Councillor Nigel Martin, John Murphy (Durham AAP), Simon Squires.
3. Roger Cornwell took the chair, and welcomed those present to the meeting.
4. PACT (Police And Communities Together) session: a) A written report had been received from Leesa Bennison; Debbie Sadler-Watson circulated a supplementary report.; b) Traffic jumping lights at the foot of the Peth: the police were unable to identify the cars shown jumping the lights in Roger's video, but the video established that there is a problem, and an officer has been patrolling, in a marked car - despite which, at least one fixed penalty notice has been issued. It has also been referred to Maxine Stubbs, Traffic Management, and her response is awaited.
Grenville Holland had raised with Phil Smith at County Hall the prevalence of jumping these light; also the timing and sequencing of the phases. He has received no reply, but will remind him.; c) Dumping of refuse behind Iceland has been raised with the Streets Warden. Debbie Sadler-Watson undertook to ensure that the supervisor of the Streets Wardens is aware of our meetings, and can send a report.
Roger had spoken to the Streets Warden on the phone, and had been told that 22 tonnes of rubbish had been collected from Crossgate the previous day.; d) Carole Reeves asked about setting up Community Speedwatch in Margery Lane; she will meet with Debbie and co-ordinate volunteers to implement this.; e) Boxers pub in Crossgate: it was noted that a number of incidents of rowdiness reported by the police were associated with this new venue (formerly a Japanese restaurant). People expressed surprise that this change of use had happened without anyone present being aware of it: Grenville will alert the licensing authority to the fact that local residents are concerned. Tim Robson, Licensing Sergeant, is the police officer to whom specific complaints should be reported; he can be reached via the 101 non-emergency phone number.; f) The police had received a number of reports from people concerned about door to door sellers: investigation had confirmed that the scheme was a genuine one (though it could not, of course, establish whether unknown individuals were genuine participants in that scheme). The police would in any case generally advise people not to buy at the door.; g) Frequency and format of PACT meetings: these were generally felt to be very useful, and it was agreed that they should continue to be held monthly, but that we should try to restrict the duration to half an hour. To this end, reports should be circulated in advance of the meeting.; h) The priority set by the meeting was traffic speed in Margery Lane.
5 AAP report: John Murphy had sent in notice of an AAP Forum meeting on July 17th in Sherburn.
6. Streets Warden's Report: In the absence of the Streets Warden, agenda item a) (dumping of refuse behind Iceland) had been dealt with within the PACT meeting;; Rubbish and recycling b) the new scheme seemed to be working so far. c) End of term cleanup had been faster than last year; Mike Costello will write to Keith Parkinson on behalf of the CCP, saying we appreciate the effort his team have put into this. The University had distributed recycling bags, but many recyclable items were still being dumped - had these bags arrived too late?; Grenville argued that the council should pursue landlord liability, treating and charging the landlords as businesses; he would raise this with Terry Collins; Mike would suggest this strategy to the HMO lobby.; Dick Fong had observed bags of rubbish outside Wetherspoons and the adjacent charity shop in the North Road; Mike pointed out that the student lets above shops in the North Road have nowhere to keep rubbish bins.
7. The minutes of the previous meeting: were agreed as a correct record.
8. Matters arising: a) Play equipment removed from Allergate Park: The e-petition for its return had closed with 280 signatures. Grenville had had a meeting with Steve Howells, who refuses to act on this single play area until there is a county-wide plan; Grenville is not satisfied with this, and will return to the issue.; b) Warning lights on Margery Lane: the council are still refusing to install warning lights, and proposing a raised platform as a traffic calming measure.; c) Reinstallation of the handrail in Crossgate: Grenville had tried but failed to find the marks left by the previous fitting; he will visit again with Janet Bayat.
9. Ice Rink site development: Carole had been to the consultation session, and circulated the documents she had collected there (also available from the Durham Riverside Renewal website). Comments are invited, and members who do comment are requested also to circulate their comments to the Crossgate Mailing list.
10. Local Councillors' reports: Grenville reported that the proposed Local Plan will be considered by Cabinet at their meeting on July 23rd; the papers should be available from July 16th.
11. Date of the next meeting: Monday 6th August 2012.