Crossgate Community Partnership: Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting 4th December 2017

1. Attendance

Present: Roger Cornwell (in the Chair), Lesley Aers, Ann Evans, John Knowles, Sheila Knowles, David Miller, Simon Priestley, Jean Rogers
Cllr Liz Brown, Cllr Richard Ormerod

2. Apologies for absence

were received from: Alan Doig, David Ramsden, Carole Reeves, Simon Squires, Ann Stokes, Sarah Wilkinson
Cllr Elizabeth Scott

3. Minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as a correct record.

4. Regulation 7 (report back from Cabinet)

Roger Cornwell had attended Cabinet on November 15th, and had asked what progress had been made towards Regulation 7 control of letting boards. He had already circulated the reply from County Councillor Carl Marshall, of which the brief version is "I now expect proposals to be put forward early in the New Year." It was agreed that Roger should write in January, asking what the timetable is, so that the reply could be considered at our February meeting.

5. Neighbourhood Plan

The summary of the Plan, as well as the Plan itself, was now available for comment. Roger encouraged people to feel free to comment on individual sections, and not to feel obliged to comment on the Plan as a whole. Comments already received were improving the Plan by pointing out gaps, and suggesting how they could be filled. David Miller remarked that the legitimacy of the Plan ultimately depends on the number of responses received.
The meeting discussed whether we should submit comments as the CCP: it was agreed that a simple statement welcoming the Plan, and encouraging people to attend the remaining consultation events / submit their own comments, would suffice.

6. November PACT meeting

Ann Evans had attended the meeting, and had already circulated a written report. Cllr Liz Brown remarked that she was concerned at how few police officers were on patrol in Durham; officers had been brought in from Cleveland to deal with the party described in Ann's report. The University was offering to fund half a designated PCSO, but a contribution to police overtime would be a more appropriate way to contribute to the additional costs attributable to policing students.
Ann will continue to attend meetings, and to keep us informed.

7. Proposal to site an electricity substation on Waddington Street (ref DM/17/00974/VOC)

Work now seems to have started on the substation as included in the original planning application; there was no objection to this.

8. Durham Tenants' Union - workshop invitation

An invitation sent to the AAP had been passed on to residents' groups. Durham Students' Union has partnered with Acorn, a national tenants' union and anti-poverty group, to hold a training workshop working towards forming a Tenants Union that would involve students and local residents working together. At very short notice, no-one was able to attend, but Roger was asked to reply inviting the organisers to keep in touch.

9. North Road "Bus Gate"

At the CCP's request, Cllr Richard Ormerod had asked the Council whether they found the new North Road signage (the "bus gate") effective in deterring traffic from the North Road. He had been given figures for parking offences since May, which did not answer the question, and was told that the question of vehicles accessing the area during restricted hours would usually be dealt with by the Police. He would seek information from the police, but did not expect them to be putting resources into gathering this information. Ann would also try asking the question at the PACT meeting.

10. Retrospective application for planning permission: 30 Nevilledale Terrace (ref DM/17/03035/FPA)

This application was refused, and the applicant has appealed. The meeting saw no need to reiterate our objections to the initial application, but we could write to say that our objection still stands. In addition, the Neighbourhood Plan will now begin to carry weight.

Liz added that refusals of consent for uPVC windows on n^os 37, 38 and 51 Hawthorn Terrace had also been received, presumably because 2, Crossgate had won their appeal. It was likely that a similar appeal would follow on 11, Brierville (ref DM/17/03034/FPA). The same letter would apply to all of these.

11. Reports from local Councillors

a) Richard sought opinions on the request of St Godric's church for two disabled (blue badge) parking bays on Tenter Terrace. Roger expressed the desire to protect the loading bays on Tenter Terrace, which were needed when delivering / collecting from North Road shops, but with this proviso, the meeting was broadly supportive.

Liz reported that there was a proposal to video Council meetings. if people were in favour of this, would they please say so when the Council consults.
She had been making enquiries about the Landlord Accreditation scheme, and would pass on her findings to the group.

12. Date of next meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday 9th January (date now confirmed).