Agenda and minutes

None.

Of the meeting held on 7 September 2016 (for confirmation).

The minutes of the meeting held on 7 September 2016 were confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair.

Alison Bingham, Director of Business and Enterprise, Bulwell Academy to deliver a  presentation.

Alison Bingham, Director of Business and Enterprise at Bulwell Academy, delivered a presentation on the work of the Academy to ensure young people are work/study ready by the time they leave school.

Partnered with the Thomas Telford group of schools (one of the top performing in the country), Bulwell Academy is a purpose built building which merged the former schools of Henry Mellish and River Leen and provides an environment which encourages learning with an approach to education which aims, and succeeds, in preparing its pupils for the working, studying and training environment and adult life.

The presentation, included within the agenda, outlined an extensive and comprehensive framework of activities, interventions, experiences, including work and interview experience, and tasks which help build the confidence, resilience and skills of pupils from when they first enter the Academy.

The success of the Academy in guiding and supporting pupils is proven in that every student who left the sixth form in the summer of 2016 is in employment, training or education.

Alison responded to the Committee’s questions as follows:

(a)  the Academy is very proud of the achievement of students which is now in line with, if not exceeding the national average, including the achievements of pupils with Special Educational Needs;

(b)  students are given advice on becoming self-employed if that is the route they wish to pursue. Development of business skills and entrepreneurship are encouraged  although it can be very helpful if pupils are employed and work within their chosen sector before becoming self-employed;

(c)  for pupils with specific and extreme behavioural issues there is alternative educational provision. Pupils are taken off-site and taught in small learning groups where they receive more focused attention;

(d)  the Academy is very strict and does not tolerate rudeness or bad behaviour. However, very occasionally a very small number of pupils may cause problems in neighbourhoods or the town but the Academy has a close relationship with PCSOs who work with the Academy to address such issues. If young people who can be clearly identified as students of the Academy are seen out of school during school hours, citizens are encouraged to contact the Academy with details of where, when and descriptions. Unfortunately the perception of poorly behaved students is mistakenly far greater than the reality;

(e)  the local Universities are actively engaging with interested pupils and are able to advise both pupils and parents of the support available if that is a chosen route;

(f)  every student is considered an individual so future pathways are very individual, ranging through all abilities and aptitudes.

Members of the Committee welcomed the positive work of the Academy and congratulated both the Academy and its pupils on the achievements to date and impressive progress.

RESOLVED to note the presentation and record the Committee’s thanks to Alison Bingham for attending.

Presentation at the meeting by Keith Kelly, Enterprise Car Club.

Keith Kelly, Enterprise Car Club, was accompanied by Jennie Maybury, Nottingham City Council Transport Strategy, and delivered a brief presentation which is to be circulated with the initial publication of the minutes. The Enterprise Car Club operates nationally and within the City in partnership with Nottingham City Council, including vehicles based around the City and at Bulwell Riverside.

Once registered, the Car Club enables members to rent cars for £5 per hour for short bookings, down to £2.50 per hour for longer bookings, with half and quarter hour increments. Membership of the Car Club has provided many members substantial savings when compared to owning and operating their own vehicle, particularly when cars are only occasionally required. Use of the Car Club not only reduces the need for car ownership, it encourages many members to walk/ cycle/ use public transport and generally only use a car when absolutely necessary, so the Club has a positive environmental impact too.

The presentation outlined the financial, time and convenience benefits of becoming a member of the Car Club, including 24 hour access to vehicles, seven days a week, the ability to reserve a vehicle online, a variety of membership and payment options.

A smart card opens the booked vehicle and a PIN allocated with the reservation is entered to start the car. Fuel is purchased through a car specific pre-paid fuel card but only the cost of fuel used is charged to the member.

The Committee’s questions were responded to as follows:

(a)  the Car Club has had vehicles based at Bulwell Riverside for the past year but with very little uptake from the area, despite offering a beneficial service, so the views of local community representatives are sought as to how to most effectively promote the Club;

(b)  car ownership costs between 18p and £1.20 per hour, every hour, so for the majority of people, being a member of the Car Club provides huge savings;

(c)  members of the Club can access cars across the UK but do need to return them to the place where they collected them. Membership also provides discounts for the Enterprise ‘Rent a Car’ company where there is more flexibility as to where cars can be left;

(d)  Enterprise has been operating a Car Club in Edinburgh since the year 2000 with increasing success as the culture of car clubs has proved very popular;

(e)  at the start of a booking, members are expected to check the vehicle for any damage and to and report it to the Club House Team to ensure that they are not held liable.

Members of the Committee welcomed the Car Club as a benefit for local people but whilst having seen the cars in Bulwell Riverside carpark, commented that they had believed them to be City Council Pool cars due to the Council logo. Keith Kelly and Jennie Maybury welcomed this feedback. 

RESOLVED to note the Committee’s thanks to Keith Kelly for his interesting presentation.

Presentation by James Tilford, Park Development Officer.

James Tilford, Park Development Officer, delivered a presentation which updated the Committee on WREN (now Waste Recycling Environmental Ltd) grant funded environmental projects within the area which include:

(i)  Bulwell Park Landscape Improvement Plan;

(ii)  Hoewood Road Community Meadow;

(iii)  Green Flag improvements to Bulwell Hall Park, Bulwell Bogs and Bulwell Forest recreation Ground;

(iv)  Hucknall Walkway;

(v)  Moorbridge Pond;

(vi)  Springfield Corner;

(vii)  Rise Park Play Area.

With regard to some of the improvements, workshops will be held for community groups and schools to work with an artist to create locally inspired features. Details of the workshops will be available in the New Year.

It was noted that although Parks colleagues are aware of Nelson Park, investment priorities across the City have been considered for the limited funding and improvements have not been prioritised for this park in the 2016-18 schedule of works. One of the criteria for which funding is sought/allocated is citizen demand so if communities request park improvements and can illustrate use of the area, this may escalate work priority but does not guarantee improvements.

RESOLVED to note the positive update.

Colin Eley, Sport and Leisure Centres, to deliver a verbal presentation.

Colin Eley, Sport and Leisure Partnership Development Officer, informed the Committee of the ‘Get Out Get Active’ (GOGA) programme which supports disabled and non-disabled citizens to enjoy activity together. The City Council has secured £245,000 over 3 years from the ‘English Federation of Disabled Sport’ to engage disabled people in physical activity.

GOGA programme is focused on 3 areas within the City where health issues and disabilities have impacted on citizen’s ability to access activity;

1.  Bilborough, Aspley and Bulwell;

2.  St Ann’s and the Dales;

3.  Clifton North and South.

For the Bulwell and Bulwell Forest Area, disabled engagement is the theme priority but the broader theme is to encourage all citizens to become active and improve their overall health and wellbeing.

The first stage of the delivery plan is to identify the area specific needs and preferences of communities and work with them to adapt or develop existing or new exercise schemes or activities to best suit the needs of local people.

The range of potential activities can be broad but must be inclusive and accessible to disabled citizens, including: walking groups, cycling, running, swimming, table tennis, and archery.

The programme is still at the early stages of development but an engagement, consultation and information event will be held on 25 January at Harvey Hadden Sports Village between 2 and 4pm. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided on arrival.

A dedicated programme co-ordinator will be in post during January 2017, but until then, enquiries can be directed to the Community Support Manager,  Nikki Mottishaw at nikki.mottishaw@nottinghamcity.gov.uk,  0115 8761615 or 07932 552791.

The Committee’s questions were responded to as follows:

(a)  If there is local demand for ballroom dancing, then this could be considered as the programme’s objective is to encourage activity and isn’t limited to sports;

(b)  funding isn’t directly payable to groups to facilitate activity, instead GOGA colleagues work alongside groups and ensure that the activities meet the funding criteria. Support may be available for existing activities in addition to developing new activities;

(c)  Programme colleagues are working with Sport England and Nottingham Community Voluntary Services (NCVS) to identify third sector organisations and find out statistical information on the demographics of citizens who accesses their services. The results will contribute to targeting engagement;

(d)  a Gymnastics group operating from the Henry Mellish Sports Centre has already come forward to enquire about the programme;

(e)  activities can be provided for closed groups of citizens or be openly accessible to all, it depends on the agreed arrangements;

(f)  funding does not include transport to activity venues and as it is estimated that approximately 60% of the target participants do not have access to a car, where possible, activities will be provided in the local area.

RESOLVED to note the presentation and record the Committee’s thanks.

Darryl Paxford, Community Protection  to present.

Darryl Paxford, Senior Community Protection Officer, presented the Cluster Report Response item which provided an outline description of the structure, aims, expected outcomes and responsibilities of Community Protection within the City.

The appendix to the report addressed comments, concerns and questions raised by Ward Councillors across the City at Area ‘Cluster meetings’.

Within the Bulwell and Bulwell Forest Area, Councillors identified the main areas of concern to be addressed by Community Protection Officers (CPOs) were:

(i)  reporting and following up unsightly gardens;

(ii)  cycling on pavements, particularly on Highbury Road and in the Market Place;

(iii)  speeding.

Darry highlighted and made the following points:

(a)  with regard to cycling on the pavements, this is an on-going issue and officers do try to educate culprits, but there is an opportunity to issue a traffic offence report which can lead to a £30 fine;

(b)  the responsibilities of CPOs includes working with colleagues such as Dog Wardens to ensure dogs are identity chipped, owners walking dogs carry dog foul bags, and removing ill-treated animals from their owners;

(c)  CPO activity is monitored but whilst issuing of Fixed Penalty Notices can be easily recorded, officers are encouraged to take a more educational and preventative approach and first issue warnings. When issues are resolved following a warning, there isn’t a mechanism for recording this so not all the work of the CPOs is captured within statistics;

(d)  CPOs and the Cleansing Teams work closely together. If Cleansing colleagues find a fly tip where the originator can be identified, they contact CPOs who can then pursue that information;

(e)  CPOs undertake specialist operations to address /prevent/ monitor ASB, including noise complaints;

(f)  CPOs aim to spend 80% of their 8 hour shift patrolling but this is not always possible as responding to citizen phone calls and email messages is also necessary;

(g)  nuisance motorbike riding is a City-wide problem and very hard to address as it’s difficult to catch the culprits so very hard to prosecute. The majority of valuable information identifying nuisance riders, including where they live and when they are active, comes from local people.

RESOLVED to note the report and thank Darryl Paxford for his attendance.

Acting Police Inspector Christine Busuttil to provide a verbal update.

Police Sergeant Nev McGeehan verbally updated the Committee with the crime statistics for the Area compared to the same September-November period last year:

(a)  all crime has risen by 10%;

(b)  during the past 6 weeks an audit has been carried out, including consideration of some older incidents and how they were recorded. There is now a new approach where reported incidents are record as crimes prior to investigation. Although in some areas of reporting there may appear to be a significant increase in crime, this will drop as the statistics come full circle and are compared against the figures of the previous year;

(c)  violence is up by 6.6% but domestic violence has dropped by 7%;

(d)  dwelling burglaries have dropped by 21% but are predicted to rise during the pre-Christmas period;

(e)  theft of vehicles has risen by 2 incidents whilst thefts from vehicles has risen by 19 incidents but there does not appear to be any patterns to the rise;

(f)  drug related crime has dropped by 7% to 22 incidents;

(g)  arson has decreased by 32% with 13 fewer incidents;

(h)  public order offences have increased by 24 although this rise is partly due to how crimes are recorded;

(i)  there has been an increase of sexual crimes as a result of the audit and changes in methods of recording crime.

A community representative was concerned at the length of time between a citizen calling 999 and the Police attending. Sergeant McGeehan assured the Committee that the 999 Control Centre Staff are very thorough and would have assessed the level of risk to the caller and advised Police officers accordingly. It was not possible to comment on the specifics of the case.

RESOLVED to record the Committee’s thanks to Sergeant Nev McGeehan for his attendance and update.

Report of Nottingham City Homes Chief Executive.

Due to the unavoidable absence of Tenancy and Estate Manger Elira Mano, Celia Knight, Neighbourhood Development Officer, presented the report of the Chief Executive of Nottingham City Homes (NCH), which updates the Committee with a list of community activity in the area including NCH involvement with community groups, an overall performance report and a request approval for an environmental scheme.

RESOLVED to:

(1)  note the update and performance information in Appendices 1 and 2 to the report;

(2)  note the allocation of  funds as follows:

(3)  to approve the Area Capital Programme funding request as follows:

Report of  the Director of Neighbourhood Services

Neighbourhood Development Officers Celia Knight and Suki Shergill, introduced the Area Capital Report which proposes Area Capital and Public Realm (Local Transport Plan –LTP) funded schemes within each ward.

It is noted that no new Local Transport Plan schemes are proposed at this time for Bulwell nor Bulwell Forest Wards and that there has not been any de-commitment of funding for Bulwell Ward.

RESOLVED

(1)  to approve the following Bulwell Ward Public Realm funded scheme:

(2)  to note the financial position of Bulwell Ward as follows:

(3)  to approve the following Bulwell Forest Ward Public Realm funded scheme:

(4)  to approve the following de-commitment of funding for Bulwell Forest schemes:

(5)  to note the financial position of Bulwell Forest Ward as follows:

Report of Director Neighbourhood Services

Neighbourhood Development Officer Celia Knight presented the report which informs the Committee of the financial position of Ward Member Budgets and the actions agreed by the Director of Neighbourhood Services as a result of Ward Member funding requests.

It is noted that further schemes and events have received Councillor support in principal but that the formal approval process is yet to be completed.

There have been no further Bulwell Ward allocations since the last report.

RESOLVED to note:

(a)  the Ward Councillor budget position for Bulwell Ward Councillors:

(b)  the following Bulwell Forest Ward allocations:

(c)  the Ward Councillor budget position for Bulwell Forest Ward Councillors:

Report of Director of Neighbourhood Services

Suki Shergill and Celia Knight, Neighbourhood Development Officers for Bulwell and Bulwell Forest Wards respectively, presented the report which outlines the current ward priorities and issues within the wards and identifies the lead organisation or City Council Department for addressing those issues.

RESOLVED to note:

(i)  the current ward priorities for Bulwell Ward as follows;

(i)  Safer Nottingham

anti-social behaviour and criminal damage

  White Ribbon Campaign

(ii)  Neighbourhood Nottingham

dog fouling/fly tipping reduction

(iii)  Families Nottingham

Small Steps Big Changes

(iv)  Health Nottingham

Increase take up of flu jabs

(v)  Working Nottingham

maximising employment opportunities for local people

(b)  the current ward priorities for Bulwell Forest  Ward as follows;

(i)  Safer Nottingham

anti-social behaviour and criminal damage

Cycling on pavements

(ii)  Neighbourhood Nottingham

Increased tenant/resident engagement particularly around the Deptford crescent area Neighbourhood

Management of vacant sites

Development of Parks and Open Spaces

Dog fouling

Tree Planting

(iii)  Health Nottingham

promotion of energy advice

provision of support to carers

(iv)  Working Nottingham

increase access to awareness about training and employment opportunities.

(c)  the current ward issues as follows:

(i)  Bulwell Ward

town centre upgrade and development

implementing parking schemes

anti-social behaviour;

(ii)  Bulwell Forest Ward

nuisance bikes

management of derelict sites

deliberate fires

(d)  the forthcoming community and partner events and engagement  listed in Appendix 3 to the report.

The opportunity for Community Representatives to suggest future agenda items.

This is an opportunity for Community Representatives to suggest future agenda items for consideration by the Committee. Any suggestions needed to be presented at least six weeks before the meeting date to either:

Suki Shergill, Neighbourhood Development Officer for Bulwell Ward, or

Celia Knight, Neighbourhood Development Officer for Bulwell Forest Ward.

An opportunity for Community Group Representatives and City Council Colleagues to highlight forthcoming events and activities.

The Bulwell Christmas Festival is to be held on Monday 5 December 2016 with stalls and activities, including a visit from Santa, taking place between 9.30am and 12.30pm at Bulwell Riverside, and between 3.30and 5.30pm in Bulwell Market Place, including the Christmas Lights Switch on at 5pm.

On 21 January 2017, the Rise Park Action Group will be holding a ‘Post-Christmas Blues’ quiz evening from 7.30pm. Teams should consist of no more than 6 members and with a £2 charge per team member. All proceeds to go to Nottinghamshire Hospice.