Crossgate Community Partnership: Minutes

Minutes of the General Meeting 2nd June 2014

1. Attendance:

Present: Lesley Aers, Steven Bell, Ruth Chambers, Roger Cornwell, Mike Costello, Alan Doig, Ann Evans, Sheila Knowles, Jackie Levitas, Ann Lockhart, Cllr. Richard Ormerod, Barbara Ravelhoffer, Mary Sales, Clare Wright
PCSO Steve Corr, PCSO Tom Strawbridge

2. Apologies for absence:

had been received from Drew Agnew, PCSO Steven Bell, Cllr Grenville Holland, Dick Fong, Odile Fong, Cllr Nigel Martin, David Ramsden, Carol Reeves, Jean Rogers, Simon Squires.

3. PACT (Police And Communities Together) Session

a) A crime report had been circulated.

b) Review of Priorities: Cycle thefts continued to be an issue. As anticipated, now that University exams were over, there was an increase in noisy parties. It was therefore agreed to keep the following priorities: noisy parties, Bicycle thefts and obstructive parking.

c) In addition, because of the residents' difficulties during the building works, and the expected increase in vehicles once the Unit on the Fred Henderson Site opened, it was agreed that the CCP would request Residents' Parking Only for Waddington Street and Mowbray Street.

4. The minutes of the previous meeting

were were agreed as a correct record.

5. Matters arising

a) 51 The Avenue: There was no information on the outstanding application for conversion to HMO status. It was agreed that the CCP would send a letter of objection and individual members were encouraged to do so as well.

b) Application for a variation of the existing license of the Bishop Langley (Framwelgate Bridge): at the licensing hearing, the application for recorded music on the outside terrace was withdrawn. The application to serve alcohol from a bar on the terrace was allowed subject to conditions: the bar to close at 22.30, all customers to leave the terrace by 23.00 and the terrace area to be cleared and tidied by 23.15. Members were reminded that if they saw any infringements of these conditions, this should be reported to the Alcohol Harm reduction Unit.

c) Work continues at Neville's Cross Social Club, without planning permission for conversion to students accommodation. No date had been set for a hearing.

d) The next meeting of the University / City liaison had been called by the Police and Crime Commissioner, Ron Hogg, for 11th June at the Arthur Holmes Lecture Theatre on the University Science Site. There were a number of outstanding issues from the previous meeting. A number of CCP members would attend and press for action.

e) A number of CCP members had attended the meeting in the Town Hall called by Roberta Blackman Woods MP, which immediately preceded the present meeting. A model of the County Hospital proposals, together with posters of the Bus Station proposals, were on view for two hours before that meeting.
The County Hospital proposals would be considered by the County Planning Committee and there was no date set for that meeting. The Town Hall meeting had been unanimously opposed to the development, mainly because of the lack of quality of the design and the poor quality of the materials proposed. There was also concern that the developers had tried to set aside the views of the University.
It was agreed that that the proliferation of plans for purpose-built student accommodation without any policy on the part of the University or the Durham County Council posed a serious problem and that the University should be asked to address this issue. There would be a request from the CCP to put it on the agenda at the 11th June meeting of the CLG. There was also discussion of obtaining media publicity for the problem of the lack of pastoral care for students living out in this accommodation.

f) The North Road Regeneration scheme had also been discussed at the Town Hall meeting. Gavin Scott did not in fact speak the City of Durham Trust on this matter because the whole plan was now to be fundamentally re-considered by the County Council. Ruth Chambers agreed to write to the Council setting out the CCP's views on the project..

6. State of back lanes etc.

Ann Evans reported that she had been approached by a resident of Nevilledale Terrace on the state of the road at the back of the terrace which is the only vehicular access for residents of Nevilledale, Briarville and Beech Crest. The surface is in a very poor state and nothing has been done about it despite complaints dating back more than 2 years. It was agreed to follow up the verbal report made to Dave Wafer of the Highways Department at the Town Hall, and also to try to arrange better maintenance for the large number of back lanes in the Crossgate area.
Roger Cornwell reported that he had been asked if the CCP would contribute to remedial work on the upper part of Crossgate Peth. He had advised that a solution would be to ask the DCC to adopt the upper part of this road. It was agreed that this would be discussed (with the help of a map on the website) at the next meeting.

7. Green Move Out

It was generally agreed that the University plans for the Green Move Out were welcome but full implementation from 23rd June was somewhat late, as some students were already leaving Durham and the increased use of rubbish bin was already apparent. It was agreed to contact Michelle Crawford, the University Environment Bursar and ask her to bring forward the use of street wardens.

8. Proposed Fighting Fund

Alan Doig had e-mailed the CCP to propose a fighting fund to be used to obtain legal advice in the increasing number of cases where the DCC was not prepared to take enforcement action. He proposed a fund of about £5000.
There was some discussion as to whether this should be treated as a city wide problem. It was decided that this should be discussed more fully at the next meeting.

9. Reports from local councillors

Councillor Richard Ormerod reported that bollards are now in place at the backs of New Street, Mitchell Street, and East Atherton Street. The system would be monitored. It was suggested that part of the parking problem might well move elsewhere. There was no information on the Government's plans for the regulation of street video cameras.

10. Date of the next meeting

Tuesday 1st July 2014
at the usual starting time of 7.45 pm.