James Dymond  - Parks Development Manager

Luke Wilen

Maja Fletcher

Ellie Mitchel

Jamie Dickinson

Peter Beynon

Zenn Athar

Jenna Hubball

Kate Loewenthal

None.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held 20 September 2017

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 September 2017 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Community Representatives gave a brief update on the activities of their organisations and current issues including:

(a)  Nottingham Green Festival will take place on Sunday 16^th September 2018. There will be lots of activities on offer for the whole community to come and enjoy. A leaflet was handed out around those present and is appended to these minutes;

(b)  the Thomas Helwys Baptist Church is enjoying be a part of community events. A thank you was offered to the NDO for pulling the community together and continued hard work;

(c)  Primary Arts have a busy programme focused on the neighbourhood. There are numerous activities taking place with Mellors Primary School which has recently opened almost double the school places;

RESOLVED to note the update from the Community Representatives and to thank them for their attendance.

Inspector Andy Townsend and Inspector Robert Wilson presented a verbal update on policing in the Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton, and Radford and Park wards. They highlighted the following information:

(a)  Recruitment has started and will be run in phases through the coming year. There have been over 600 applications already  with 12% of those being from the BME community. Nottinghamshire Police continue to drive for the force to be reflective of the community it serves;

(b)  following a stabbing on Albert Grove that left one person hospitalised  in a very serious condition, one person arrested and charged;

(c)  in Arboretum in particular there was a spike in burglaries that coincided with the start of term for students of the universities. Work continues to take place to make crime prevention a priority for students;

(d)  anti-social behaviour involving fireworks peaked around bonfire night but has since fallen.

The Committee asked a number of questions and raised a number of issues, the following information was given in response:

(e)  Crime levels continue to be higher than the same period last year. Nottinghamshire Police attribute this to the change in recording policy discussed in previous meetings. There has also been a campaign to encourage more reporting of Domestic Violence which had had a good response causing violent crime figures to rise;

(f)  work with the Universities continues to raise awareness with students in their first years around crime prevention and around being considerate neighbours. This work continues into subsequent years and there is a collaboration between Police, the University, Community Protection, Housing and the Neighbourhood Action Teams;

(g)  anti-social behaviour reports remain consistent around noise and disturbances associated with student parties. Feedback from the community suggests that this issue remains at a similar level as previously reported;

(h)  concerns raised by Councillors regarding responses to residents complaints from 101 operators will be investigated and fed back;

(i)  current staffing levels are challenging and Nottinghamshire Police have to allocate resources according to priorities. The current recruitment drive will increase the number of officers available to deal with incidents reported;

(j)  there is an issue with drugs paraphernalia on the forest recreation ground. Nottinghamshire Police are working with business owners to ensure that bin stores and toilets are secured and not used for drug taking. Patrol times and routes are being varied to discourage drug users using public spaces for taking drugs.

RESOLVED to thank Inspectors Andy Townsend and Robert Wilson for their attendance and to note the content of their report.

There was no representation for Community protection and so this item was withdrawn.

Summer Programme report from Castle Cavendish

Van Henry, Area Partnerships Manager at Castle Cavendish, gave a presentation on the Summer in the City Programme funded by Castle Cavendish as lead organisation for the Area Based Grant:

(a)  There are year round activities funded through the Area Based Grant but during the 5 weeks of the summer holidays there is additional provision in the form of smaller grants for a wide variety of voluntary and community run groups;

(b)  13 partners were given grants for summer provision and were chosen by a board of trustees who looked for value for money, and provision that reflected the very varied community. Some provision was from existing partners and some were from smaller developing groups;

(c)  there was provision within the community every weekday of the summer holidays and 471 hours in total was delivered;

(d)  almost all of the activities were free to the young people accessing them, and over 1030 young people from the area accesses the provision;

(e)  young people age 8 to 14 most commonly accessed the activities but young people of all ages were involved;

(f)  the more popular activities were the Ideea Romanian Society trip to Skegness, the Primary Arts activity day based around skill sharing and brining the community together to learn from one another, the Sikh youth and community services who put on activities at the Monty Hind centre aimed at single parent and low income Sikh families, and the A* Sports who provided a variety of different sports to try out from archery to lacrosse. 

Following questions and comments from the Committee the following information was highlighted:

(g)  the provision was based in Area 4 as well as Wollaton. There were no partners offering activities in Dunkirk, but young people from that area accessed the activities in the neighbouring areas; 

(h)  the Sikh community event was based in Area 4 but there were a large number of families who attended from outside the area. The grant they received was reflective of this;

(i)  the A* sports provision looked very ambitious for a young/developing group at the selection stage. Their activities reached over 240 young people and the feedback was very positive;

RESOLVED to thank Van Henry for his attendance and to note the content of his presentation on the Summer in the City programme.

Report of the Corporate Director of Commercial & Operations and the Director of Sport & Culture

As apologies had been received from James Dymond the report was taken as read. The Councillors were in agreement with the proposed allocation of Section 106 funds. A question was raised by the Community Representatives who wanted to know whether consideration had been given to improving lighting around the multi sports area.

RESOLVED to note the proposed allocation of £184,842.25 Section 106 open space contribution secured from the agreement linked to planning application reference 15/01889/PVAR3 as below:

Karla Banfield, Market and Business Partnership Manager gave a presentation on the LiON (Local Information Online Nottingham) website. She highlighted the following information:

(a)  LiON is a new online information system that was developed following the Care Act which states that all information on care services must be bought into one place;

(b)  LiON is jointly funded by Nottingham City Council (NCC) and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG);

(c)  the online portal doesn’t just include information about care services, it has been expanded to include information on activities and groups within the community, both commissioned by NCC and/or the CCG but also local community run groups;

The Committee made comments and asked questions and the following points were made:

(d)  There will be a large social media campaign to promote LiON and to spread the LiON branding;

(e)  when a community group adds information they will be prompted by email at certain intervals to update the information and if no update has been receive after a certain amount of time the page will be deleted. This will ensure that only active groups show up on the page;

(f)  for groups that have regulatory bodies there will be links to the most recent reports/inspection and ratings/outcomes posted on the record. However for smaller groups this would not apply. It is hoped that in as the customer base grows there will be a user rating that will allow users to rate the group;

(g)  there are links to other websites and helpful information, so instead of replicating information LiON will also be a useful signposting tool;

RESOLVED to thank Karla Banfield for her attendance at the Committee meeting and to note the content of her presentation on LiON.

Report of the Chief Executive of Nottingham City Homes

Paul Howard, Area Housing Manager, introduced the Nottingham City Homes Update report. In an amendment to the appendix 3 circulated with the agenda there was an additional scheme on Randal Gardens as detailed below. He highlighted the following information:

(a)  An internal risk assessment has taken place to establish with high-rise property within the area has sprinklers installed first. It was decided that Woodlands would be the first property and then the other properties would be updated within a two year period;

(b)  work has begun on the passenger lifts at Pine View. Some of the work is noisy and may cause a disturbance, however the work is unavoidable. Contractors will try and keep disruptive work to a minimum. Residents have been informed of the work;

(c)  the Dear Housing Minister event planned for 23November was cancelled by the minister at short notice;

(d)  the slight drop in performance figures around repairs is due to larger jobs, such as roofing repairs, window replacements etc. which requires longer time to complete;

(e)  1700 residents replied to the STAR survey this year. 48% felt that their neighbourhood had improved in the last year and the best bit about where they lived was by far their neighbours. Recurrent themes of dissatisfaction included, parking, littering, noise, pets and drug using;

(f)  in addition to the scheme publish in appendix 3 of the report there was an addition scheme for the Committee to consider. An amended version of appendix 3 was circulated to Committee members at the meeting, a copy of which is appended to these minutes;

RESOLVED to

(1)  Note the update and performance information in appendices 1 and 2 of the report; and

(2)  Note the allocation of funds for 2017/18:

(3)  Approve the Area Capital funding requests distributed to committee members at the meeting:

Report of the Director of Neighbourhood Services

Linda Wright, Neighbourhood Development Officer introduced the Ward Report which focuses on current priorities facing Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton, and Radford and Park Wards. She outlined the action taking place in each ward as detailed in the appendices to the report and then highlighted the following information:

(a)  Priorities highlighted by the Neighbourhood Action Team Review meeting in the Arboretum are the reduction of street drinking and the associated paraphernalia, raising awareness of domestic violence and abuse and increase recycling/encourage residents to remove bins from streets;

(b)  Current issues highlighted for the Dunkirk and Lenton ward include noise from parties, managing waste in houses of multiple occupancy and ongoing parking issues in a number of streets within the ward;

(c)  Issues identified within the Radford and Park ward include waste issues such as fly-tipping and bins on street, parking issues and traffic management, improving community cohesion between students and existing residents and concerns recently raise about young people congregating and intimidating residents in the Garfield Road area, John Carrol Centre and the Woodlands. 

RESOLVED to:

(1)  Note the progress on Ward Priorities and other supporting information including the issues being addressed by each Neighbourhood Action Team; and

(2)  Note the progress made against the Council Plan. 

Report of the Director of Neighbourhood Services

Iffat Iqbal, Neighbourhood Development Officer introduced the report on Area Capital Fund. In an amendment to the appendix circulated with the agenda there was an additional scheme in Arboretum Ward. A copy of the amended appendix is appended to these minutes.

RESOLVED to:

(1)  To approve the Area Capital Fund programme schemes for Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton and Radford and Park wars set out below:

Arboretum LTP Schemes

Arboretum Public Realm Schemes

Dunkirk and Lenton LTP Schemes

Dunkirk and Lenton Public Realm Schemes

Radford and Park LTP Schemes

Radford and Park Public Realm Schemes

Radford and Park Withdrawn Schemes

(2)  Note the commitment of funs in Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton, and Radford and Park as set out below:

Arboretum

Dunkirk and Lenton

Report of the Director of Neighbourhood Services

Deborah Wilson, Neighbourhood Development Officer, introduced the Ward Councillors Report detailing the use of delegated authority for projects funded by Ward Councillor Budgets. She noted that the Canning Christmas light switch on has been funded jointly by all of the Area 4 Councillors and the University of Nottingham and Students Union.

RESOLVED to note the actions agreed by the Director of Neighbourhood Services in respect of project and schemes within the Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton, Radford and Park wards detailed below:

Arboretum:

Dunkirk and Lenton

Radford and Park