Agenda for Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton, Radford and Park Area Committee on Wednesday, 23rd November, 2016, 5.30 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Ground Floor Committee Room - Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3NG. View directions

Contact: Zena West  Email: zena.west@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

24.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Jeanine Broomball

Wayne Hobbs

Maya Fletcher

Melanie Futer

June Perry

Tim Preston

25.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

None.

26.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 292 KB

Previous meeting held 21 September 2016

Minutes:

The Committee confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 21 September 2016 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

27.

Nottingham City Homes Report pdf icon PDF 142 KB

Report of Nottingham City Homes

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Paul Howard, Tenancy and Estate Manager, Nottingham City Homes (NCH),

introduced the report providing summary updates on the following key themes:

· Capital Programme and major work;

· area regeneration and environmental issues;

· key messages from the Tenant and Leasehold Congress;

· Tenant and Residents Associations updates;

· area performance;

· good news stories and positive publicity.

 

 

(a)  The lift replacement works at Ash View, Oak View and Elm View continues. Engineers are working to get the remaining lift at Oak View in working order. Replacements of lifts at Willow and Pine View are due to start in the next financial year;

 

(b)  The Grander designs project is continuing through to April 2017. This will include the installation of a scooter store;

 

(c)  Sample checks of water systems have taken place in tenant homes across the city. This is to confirm that water stored in tanks and pipes is clean and hygienic;

 

(d)  Surveys on stock condition and energy performance continue across the city. This information will help plan future works programmes including a programme to maintain decency which continues across the city replacing doors, windows, kitchens and bathrooms where needed;

 

(e)  In Arboretum Nottingham City Homes is planning further fencing works subject to funding to be secured at the next area committee meeting;

 

(f)  In Dunkirk and Lenton the Willoughby Fencing Project is due to start in November. There has been a high proportion of private properties signed up to this scheme. It is predicted that the outcome of this project will be very positive. Nottingham City Homes are also completing work to visually improve the green space on Maxwell Close within the Willoughby Street Estate;

 

(g)  A fencing upgrade project has been successfully delivered in the Norton Street area as part of the Decent Neighbourhood Programme. The area has been significantly improved by this work and the impact on the area already noticeable;

 

(h)  Nottingham City Homes has achieved Landlord accreditation from the Tenant Participation Advisory Service in resident involvement. NCH is now recognised as leading nationally on keeping tenants involved;

 

(i)  Tenant and Leaseholder Awards 2017 nominations are now open. These include 8 categories open to the wider community to nominate projects that have gone the extra mile for members of the community. Closing dates for nominations is 6 January 2017;

 

(j)  Residents from Ash View, Elm View, Pine View , Oak View and Willow View met on 11 October 2016. Various issues were discussed including the better use of Pine View Community meeting room. It was suggested that guest speakers could be invited to discuss different issues. Residents at Woodlands High Rise Blocks have held a further meeting and are considering setting up a tenants and residents association. There is a further meeting on 6December 2016;

 

(k)  Nottingham City Homes continues to offer reduced rate fitness for tenants at Nottingham City Council fitness centres eg Swim or Fit for £1 and the Tenant academy continues to offer a range of free courses to tenants and groups.

 

Following discussion and questions  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

28.

The Housing and Planning Act pdf icon PDF 130 KB

Presentation from Nottingham City Homes

Minutes:

Paul Howard, Tenancy and Estate Manager, Nottingham City Homes, gave a presentation on the Housing and Planning Act 2016. He highlighted the following points:

 

(a)  the act became law in 2015 but as yet there are no regulations or guidelines published. There is currently no target date set for these to be written;

 

(b)  the first main change that comes into force in April 2017 is around fixed term tenancies.

a.  All new tenants will be given a fixed term tenancy.

b.  This change will not affect current tenants unless they move, or create a new tenancy ie a married couple with a joint tenancy split up and go on to a sole tenancy – this would switch to a fixed term tenancy;

 

(c)  Tenancies will be assessed at the end of the fixed term and if nothing has significantly change a further fixed term tenancy will be offered;

 

(d)  If a new tenancy is not offered there will be a chance for review, and Nottingham City Homes will offer housing advise or assistance for them to find their own accommodation;

 

(e)  Pay to Stay was the second significant change bought in by the Housing and Planning Act 2016.  However this part of the act was voluntary measure encouraging tenants on more than £31,000 per year per household to pay increased or market rate rents. Nottingham City Homes had already stated that they were not planning on introducing this measure;

 

(f)  Sale of higher value homes is the third change bought about by the Housing and Planning Act 2016. Again there has been no guidance issued;

 

(g)  Nottingham City Homes will potentially have to sell some of the higher value stock as it becomes vacant with the money then being reinvested in replacing stock lost through Right to Buy;

 

(h)  It may be that this part of the act is more London centric and it is unclear what it currently means for Nottingham;

 

(i)  “Higher Value” has not been quantified.

 

Following discussion and questions from the committee the further points were made:

 

(j)  Tenants have been made aware of the changes, briefing sheets have been delivered to house and tenants have made their dissatisfaction known. Unfortunately it is not something that Nottingham City Homes can alter;

 

(k)  Right to Buy is unaffected by the changes;

 

(l)  Nottingham City Homes is looking at offering longer fixed terms for stable tenants;

 

(m)The length of terms is currently undecided. There has been no guidance received and the changes have not yet been introduced by Nottingham City homes. The average for those who have is 5 years;

 

(n)  Sometimes Nottingham City Homes has to sell properties if there is very little stock in some areas. It is more about harmonising management and is decided by a committee based on lots of considerations;

 

(o)  Nottingham City Homes has issues with low stock of larger houses for bigger families, those along with bungalows and adapted houses may be considered higher value.

 

RESOLVED to

 

(1)  thank  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

29.

Appointment of Additional Community Rep

Minutes:

The Committee appointed Christina Jensen-Bates as community representative for Nottingham Park Estates Ltd.

 

RESOLVED to confirm the appointment of Christina Jensen-Bates as Community Representatives from the Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton and Radford and Park wards to the Area Committee for the 2016/17 municipal year.

30.

Area Committee - improving the health of citizens pdf icon PDF 309 KB

Report of the Director of Public Health

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Alison Challenger, Director of Public Health presented a report on Improving the Health of Citizens. She highlighted the following key points:

 

(a)  key local health issues identified as part of the Area Cluster Review process include; lack of awareness of drug and alcohol services, health needs of the homeless, health needs of students, and emerging communities;

 

(b)  contracts are now out to tender for services for the community and the input from previous meeting with this committee and other area groups has helped to steer that process.

 

Following discussion and questions from the committee these additional points were made:

 

(c)  ward health profiles have been produces and are available on the Nottingham Insight website  https://nottinghaminsight.org.uk/f/96676/Library/Public-Health/ . There is also a summary document comparing each area committee;

 

(d)  fuel poverty and excess winter deaths continue to be a concern for the committee;

 

(e)  child poverty is an issue in Nottingham East, particularly in the Arboretum. Poor nourishment and poor housing is also an issue to be addressed. There is a new housing and health strategic group which aims to established what will help at a population level as well as what will help individuals;

 

(f)  services available to help physical issues relating to stress need to be advertised to the community more effectively and services could improve their joined up working;

 

(g)  air quality is an ongoing issue which requires multi agency work and individual involvement. There is a chapter in the joint strategic needs assessment that shows the link between air quality and respiratory illness and what this means for Nottingham. There are planned traffic changes in the next 18 months around the Broadmarsh development which means that less traffic is anticipated around that route. 

 

RESOLVED to note the approach and work undertaken so far by Public Health team.

31.

Police Update

Verbal update from Nottinghamshire Police

Minutes:

Inspector Andy Townsend and Inspector Robert Wilson, Nottinghamshire Police gave a verbal report updating the committee on Community Protection. These key points were highlighted:

 

(a)  For Arboretum ward the total number of crimes reported to the end of September was 1371, this is an increase of 6 on the previous year. Violent crimes have increased by 8, burglaries reduced by 44, vehicle crime reduces by 22 and anti-social behaviour reduced by 74. There has been an increase in shop theft and public order offences.  Nottinghamshire Police are in the process of auditing the calls to establish if all calls should have been recorded as a crime;

 

(b)  For Radford and Park the total number of crimes reported to the end of September is 663, this is an increase of 6 this year. Violent offences remain the same at 108. Robbery numbers are low at 9 but have increased by 4. There are ongoing issues with car crime especially motorbikes with 8 additional cars broken in to particularly around the industrial estate. There has been a good reduction of burglaries with 41 offences being committed;

 

(c)  For Dunkirk and Lenton the total crimes reported to the end of September is 1056, an increase of 37.Violent offences have increased by 43, which is concerning, but often there is a minor injury or no injury in these cases. There has been significant reduction in robbery, 17 offences, down by 12. Car crime has also seen a good reduction, 14 fewer offences with a total of 114. There has also been a good reduction in burglaries, 40 fewer offences to 50 in total;

 

(d)  There will be further police recruitment starting in 2017 and work continues to help the police force reflect the community, with a variety of events and adverts panned and in place to encourage under-represented groups to apply;

 

(e)  Work continues to reduce young people noise in the Lenton and Radford areas;

 

(f)  Nottinghamshire Police continue execute warrants looking at the supply of drugs, either from residential addresses or business premises.

 

After discussion and questions from the committee Inspector Andy Townsend and Inspector Robert Wilson gave the following additional information:

 

(g)  Nottinghamshire Police review on an ongoing basis what is effective and what is not so effective at reducing burglaries. They have burglary prevention, response and investigation strategies and regularly review how they communicate with communities and partners. A significant amount of burglaries are down to people not locking their doors or windows so Nottinghamshire Police continue to push this prevention strategy and numbers of burglaries are reducing;

 

(h)  Nottingham City Homes properties have good standards of security. There has been a significant investment to upgrade windows and doors over the decades so they are much more difficult to burgle than they were 20 years ago, continued investment is always welcomes as is support in getting the message to residents to lock doors and windows;

 

(i)  Knife crime in Arboretum is still a serious issue. Residents held a public meeting  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

32.

Community Protection - Area Cluster Feedback pdf icon PDF 270 KB

Report of Nottinghamshire Police and Nottingham City Council Community Protection

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Nicky Burns, Senior Community Protection Officer, gave a presentation giving an overview of areas cluster feedback. The following key points were highlighted:

 

(a)  Community Protection Officers work a basic shift pattern of 2 separate shifts. Those shifts can be flexible depending on the issues an area is currently facing, eg there has recently been an increase in instances of dog fouling and so shift times have been altered to try and catch early morning dog walkers;

 

(b)  the Senior Community Protection Officer for each area will send Councillors an up to date beat allocation list. Changes to this are inevitable but Councillors will be kept updated as changes happen;

 

(c)  current priority issues facing the area are: street drinking, fly tipping, bins on streets, trade waste, noise around student premises and dog fouling.

 

After questions and discussion with the committee the following points were made:

 

(d)  the Community Protection Team should advertise the figures around the work that they do to allow citizens to see that issues are being tackles eg in 3 areas alone there have been 156 community protection orders issues, predominantly around noise, and only 2 have gone on to the next stage;

 

(e)  the weekly report is useful for the Councillors to receive, eg it is helpful to let citizens know when charges have been bought;

 

(f)  0115 9152020 is the anti-social behaviour hot line and is available throughout office hours. Dialling 101 is also available and the Community protection team still encourages people to dial 101 in non-emergency situations.

 

RESOLVED to thank Nicky Burns for the report and to note the content.

33.

Issues / Good News Stories from Community Representatives

Minutes:

The following good news stories were reported by Community representatives:

 

(a)  the fair at Lenton and Dunkirk went well. The community came together, worked hard to put the fair on and it was a great success. Residents are looking forward to planning the event again next year. Thanks were given to everyone involved;

 

(b)  a council grant has been received to enable local workshops to be held at monthly markets helping people to understand what can and cannot be recycled. It is also hoped that funding will be secured in order to plant edible plant species in borders at the park;

 

(c)  the Partnership Council is closing in at the end of December, however the Skills Exchange has been retained as a member organisation and will buy some software to keep it going. The Fuel poverty project is also at risk and funding and support has been rejected by 3 charities so far. They have managed to revive group that was active in the 1990’s developing training for volunteers. This has proved very popular, thanks were given to the Neighbourhood Development Officers for publicising the scheme;

 

(d)  it was noted that it is was encouraging to see so many new people and organisations at the committee.

 

RESOLVED to thank Community Representatives for their updates.

34.

Ward Report pdf icon PDF 138 KB

Report of Director of Neighbourhood Services

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Linda Wright, Neighbourhood Development Officer, presented the reports focussing on current priorities and issues facing the Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton, and Radford and Park wards. Linda highlighted the following:

 

(a)  one of the key issues in the Arboretum ward continues to be reducing street drinking and paraphernalia especially in local parks and public spaces;

 

(b)  one of the key issues in the Dunkirk and Lenton ward is tackling the waste issue, including bins in streets, trade waste, fly tips, graffiti and contamination;

 

(c)  one of the key issues in the Radford and Park ward is the development of a maintenance schedule for the area around Argyle, Clifford and Independent Street, to improve cleanliness and reduce fly tipping in Clifford Street.

 

Following questions and discussion from the committee Linda Wright gave the following further information:

 

(d)  there has been an increase in homelessness within the Area 4 wards recently. Nottingham City Council has always had a “no second night out” policy and outreach teams are trying to engage those affected. The Council has just received funding over and above the usual extra winter provision and continues to work to reduce the issue;

 

(e)  there are no current plans in place for the building that burnt down in September on Alfreton Road. However the area is part of the regeneration plan;

 

(f)  a Christmas events flier was distributed to the committee illustrating the Christmas at Canning event.

 

RESOLVED to note the priorities, current issues and supporting information for the Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton and Radford and Park wards

35.

Area Capital Report pdf icon PDF 214 KB

Report of Director of Neighbourhood Services

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Iffat Iqbal, Neighbourhood Development Officer, presented the report detailing the latest allocation for the Local Transport Plan (LTP) element under the Area Capital Fund for highways and footways. It also highlights schemes which have been recently prioritised by Ward Councillors for approval by the Area Committee in accordance with the City Council’s constitution.

 

RESOLVED to:

 

(1)  note the monies available to Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton and Radford and Park wards, as outlined below:

Arboretum Ward: £66,875

Dunkirk and Lenton Ward: £36,065

Radford and Park Ward: £113,807

 

(2)  approve new schemes prioritised by Ward Councillors since the last Area Committee meeting, as detailed below:

Arboretum Public Realm Schemes

Location

Type

Councillor Prioritised

Estimate

Details

Hyson Green Area

Gating

Approved by October 2016

£4,750

Installation of fencing and gating in identified areas to reduce ASB - lead service: Streetscene

Dunkirk and Lenton LTP schemes

Location

Type

Councillor Prioritised

Estimate

Details

Lenton Boulevard

Cycling

Prioritised 4 November 2016

£300

Provision of cycle stand on Lenton Boulevard/Hart Street

junction

 

36.

Actions Taken Under Delegated Authority pdf icon PDF 120 KB

Report of Director of Neighbourhood Services

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Iffat Iqbal, Neighbourhood Development Officer, presented the report advising the Committee on the use of delegated authority by the Corporate Director for Commercial and Operations for the financial year 2016/17, and the Ward Councillors’ revenue budget allocation for 2016/17. The committee noted that the Christmas lights were approved in May.

 

RESOLVED to

 

(1)  note the actions agreed by the Corporate Director for Commercial and Operations in respect of projects and schemes in the Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton, and Radford and Park wards, as detailed below:

Scheme

Ward

Councillors

Amount

Date

Christmas Lights Switch-On at Canning Circus

Arboretum

Merlita Bryan and Azad Choudhury

£200.00

29/09/16

Lenton Planters Maintenance Project

Dunkirk& Lenton

Sarah Piper and David Trimble

£1,500.00

22/09/16

Christmas Lights Switch-On at Canning Circus

£200.00

29/09/16

Kemet Radio – Security Guard Training

Radford & Park

Liaquat Ali and Anne Peach

£1,500.00

22/06/16

African Caribbean Coal Miners Event

£160.00

22/06/16

 

(2)  note the individual Ward Councillors Revenue Budget allocation of £5,000 for 2016/17