Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies from members unable to attend the meeting

Apologies were received from Councillors Sandford and Simons

At this point Members must declare whether they have a disclosable pecuniary interest, or other interest, in any of the items on the agenda, unless it is already entered in the register of members’ interests or is a “pending notification “ that has been disclosed to the Solicitor to the Council.

Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

There were no declarations of interest.

To agree the minutes of the last meeting and matters arising (including update from Neighbourhood Manager)

The minutes from the meeting held on 12 June 2012 were agreed as a true and accurate record.

The Neighbourhood Manager for Peterborough NW2 provided a brief overview on the matters arising and informed the committee that feedback was provided on the tables.

An opportunity for any member of the public, elected and co-opted members of the Area Committee to raise anything that affects your area and to suggest items for future meetings.

Attendees of the meeting were given the opportunity to ask questions and raise issues affecting the areas in which they lived. These included:

• The speeding limit road signs that had recently appeared in the Paston Riddings area had been present for a short period due to them being part of a mobile sign traffic calming scheme;
• Following concerns raised regarding a faulty CCTV camera located at the Chadburn Centre in Paston, the Neighbourhood Manager advised that work was being undertaken to remove a tree that had become badly damaged and was blocking the camera’s view;

• There had been problems experienced by Enterprise (EP) over the maintenance of grass and hedge trimming in the Peterborough area, due to the significant amount of rainfall that had been experienced over the summer months.  In addition, the Director of Enterprise Peterborough advised that the mowers and cutting machines in operation were only designed to cut short grass, however, extra resources were currently being deployed to resolve the issues with maintenance;
• The Committee were advised that the Council had recently allocated £577k in order to conduct a tree survey of Peterborough.  The tree stock survey was also aimed to record the appropriate maintenance solution for each tree;
• Residents were encouraged to report any incidents of tree obstruction of street lights to the EP helpdesk or through the Peterborough City Council (PCC) website;
• A resident raised issues regarding the grass height between Penine Way and Gunthorpe Road area; 
• Results of the tree stock survey, which would be published on the PCC website once completed;
• The Committee were advised by the Director of Enterprise Peterborough that as part of the five year tree stock survey programme, asset data would be collected and advice would be provided on the appropriate replanting scheme for trees that had to be removed due to safety issues;
• A residents raised concerns over the safety issues of the grass height at Werrington Meadows Stream and that there was a danger of the public falling into the inlets due to the obstruction; 
• A resident raised concerns over the recent proposal regarding a mural planned for the Fulbridge Road underpass and that consideration should be taken by the Frog Life project group to direct Ken Stimpson School to paint the mural in the school itself;
• Following clarification sought by Members regarding landscaping issues on private land the Director of Enterprise Peterborough advised that the land owner would be contacted in order to request that action was taken to clear the obstruction.  If there was a case of non compliance by the land owner, then enforcement action would be imposed.

Agreed Actions

It was agreed that:

• The Transport Planning and Infrastructure would consult residents following the meeting to discuss concerns raised regarding speeding limits in the Paston area;

• The Director of Enterprise Peterborough was to report back to the appropriate EP service area regarding any landscape maintenance issues and concerns that had been highlighted at the meeting;

• Councillor Fower would email the Neighbourhood Manager  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Proposals and voting for the allocation of the capital budget of

£25,000

The Committee received presentation of a report from the Neighbourhood Manager for Peterborough North Area Committee (NW2), which outlined the proposals for the Neighbourhood Committee capital budget allocation of £25,000 for 2012/2013.

The Committee was asked to:

1. Consider the proposals for allocation of the capital budget of £25,000 for 2012/13;
2. Approve the proposals which would receive an allocation of the budget;
3. Agree to a reduction in the individual allocations should the approved proposals exceed the £25,000 budget, to be determined by the Neighbourhood Manager; and
4. Agree that the Neighbourhood Manager would be responsible for determining the final detail of the project in consultation with Ward Councillors and other relevant parties.

Proposals which sought approval from Members were as follows:

• Werrington South Ward additional equipment for Welbourne Play Area – £12,500; and
• Paston Ward additional equipment for Honeyhill Play Area  - £12,500

Comments and responses to questions were as follows:

• Following clarification sought by Members over the budget allocation for the Welbourne play area, the Neighbourhood Manager advised that the activities planned, would consist of  a mini adventure trail for young ones, which would be installed alongside the gym equipment;
• Following clarification over the allocation of the £25k Neighbourhood budgets, Councillor John Fox advised that it had been decided at a previous meeting of Neighbourhood Committee for NW2, that the allocation would be more productive to split the allocation on a rolling basis across two wards instead four.  This year would see the turn of Werrington South and Paston Ward receiving the allocation and next year Walton and Werrington North would receive the 25k allocation;
• Members encouraged the Public to put forward their views on projects for the Neighbourhood Budget for next year.

The allocation of funding for the above projects was unanimously agreed by Members.

Following a vote the committee agreed:

1. The proposals for allocation of the capital budget of £25,000 for 2012/13;
2. The proposals that would receive an allocation of the budget;
3. To a reduction in the individual allocations should the approved proposals exceed the £25,000 budget, to be determined by the Neighbourhood Manager; and
4. That the Neighbourhood Manager would be responsible for determining the final detail of the project in consultation with ward councillors and other relevant parties.

The Committee approved following projects to receive the Neighbourhood Budget allocation:

• Werrington South Ward additional equipment for Welbourne Play Area – £12,500; and
• Paston Ward additional equipment for Honeyhill Play Area  - £12,500

Reasons for the decision:

The budget assigned to Neighbourhood Committees was assigned specifically to spend on projects which address priorities from the communities for each Neighbourhood Committee area.  To enable the £25K to be spent within this financial year Members were asked to bring forward capital spend projects which helped to meet some of these emerging priorities.  This active Member involvement ensures the money was spent on the most appropriate projects to benefit communities.

Alternative options considered:

Not to spend the money.  This would lead to proposed local projects not receiving funding resulting in no benefit to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Discussion and Presentation on the Community Infrastructure Levy, which is a new levy that local authorities in England and Wales can choose to charge on new developments in their area. The money can be used to support development by funding infrastructure that the council, local community and neighbourhoods want.

The Neighbourhood Committee received a presentation from the Strategic Planning Officer on the Community Infrastructure Levy, which was a new levy that Local Authorities in England and Wales had chosen to impose charge on new developments in their area. The Committee was also advised the money generated through CIL would be used to support development by funding infrastructure that the Council, local community and neighbourhoods wanted.

Key points within the presentation were as follows:

• Incorporating the Preliminary Draft Charging Schedule;
• Detailed rules and regulations have been set down by government as to how a CIL would be adopted;
• The levy was charged per square metre of the net additional floor space on most types of development (although there were some exceptions);
• The government was to change the way they had traditionally sought to mitigate for the impacts of development using the planning system;
• The existing Planning Obligations Implementation Scheme (POIS) system would become unlawful from April 2014;
• The use/‘pooling’ of S106 Planning Obligations will become more limited too;
• A CIL would become the primary mechanism for securing contributions to fund infrastructure considered critical to our growth needs;
• The CIL was not an additional burden; it was part of a revised approach to securing developer contributions;
• Proposal being drafted by PCC over adoption of CIL;
• Viability modelling was complete;
• ‘User Friendly Guide’ prepared;
• Infrastructure Schedule and cost estimates were sufficiently complete to demonstrate a ‘funding gap’;
• Preliminary Draft Charging Schedule approved and ready for public consultation;
• Greater control for local communities;
• Split equally across each area;
• 5% of annual CIL revenue; estimated at around £30K per ward area;
• Spending through Community Action Plans;
• Address additional pressures brought about by new housing growth;
• Further details at national level may emerge shortly; and
• Public consultation underway with completion and formal adoption by Council expected around Autumn / Winter 2013.

Comments and responses to questions were as follows:

• The Neighbourhood Manager  confirmed that although the Werrington Neighbourhood Council’s CAP had been developed, work was currently under way to complete CAPs for other ward areas;
• The Consultation process that was undertaken for CAPs in other ward areas had varied and that it was important to note that each CAP would evolve overtime for each area;
• Following clarification sought by Members regarding the annual 5% CIL revenue, the Strategic Planning Officer advised that each ward would receive a funding allocation which would be distributed on a demographic basis;
• Following concerns raised by Members over the loss of growth and development caused by introducing CIL, the Strategic Planning Officer advised that rates were to be set within a range of affordability reasonable to developers.
• The CIL scheme and charges would be applied to planning applications for developments as soon as the Council had officially adopted the scheme;
• A consultation in the East of England had seen most Local Authorities recommend a rate of CIL at 5%;
• Cabinet had approved the recommendation of 5% to be put forward at the consultation stage;
• The Neighbourhood Manager confirmed that  the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6a

Agenda item requested by Cllr Lane & Cllr Fox (Werrington North on the latest developments for upgrading the Staniland Way junction after a high number of road accidents

The Neighbourhood Committee received a presentation from the Transport and Infrastructure Planning Manager regarding the developments for the proposed improvements of the Staniland Way junction and David’s Lane.

Key points within the presentation were as follows:

• Funding is prioritised and targeted  where accidents rates are highest;
• Proposals to reduce the speeding limit for the bottom  end of David’s Lane to 30 miles on the bends;
• A consultation was underway;
• Lines and hatching are expected to be in place by November 2012;
• A future capacity bid would be applied for where the main area of accidents were occurring, should the proposed Tesco roundabout scheme did not go ahead.
• Improvements would be made to signage with the aim to remind drivers on the use of indicators;
• Full junction improvements were estimated to cost around £500-800k;
• It is anticipated, that a Section 278 condition would be applied on Tesco to contribute to the installation of a roundabout on Staniland Junction if required as part of the planning process.

Comments and responses to questions were as follows:

• Members raised concerns that the Staniland Junction had been an accident black spot for a number of years and that the statistics being produced had not truly reflected the dangers of the Junction as many accidents are not reported; 
• Following clarification sought from Members regarding the capacity bid for improvements, the Transport and Infrastructure Planning Manager advised that there was no guarantee that the Staniland improvement scheme would qualify for capacity funding;
• Following comments regarding a recent announcement that  Tesco’s Werrington were proposing to revamp their existing internal stores, the Transport Planning and Infrastructure Manager advised the Committee that they would be kept informed of the outcome of the recent planning application for the Tesco Werrington store extension; 
• Following comments regarding the Staniland Way improvements and the proposals of the installation of a roundabout, the Transport Planning and Infrastructure informed Members that PCC were liaising with Tesco’s with the aim to reiterate the store’s responsibility of the highway implications, that their extension would impose; and
• Following comments from a resident regarding whether consideration should be given to closing Staniland Way to redirect the traffic down Hodgeson Lane and Goodwin Walk, the Transport Planning and Infrastructure and Members advised that such a redirection would not be suitable due to the impact on local residents.

The Committee noted the report.

The next meeting will be on the 17 December 2012 and the venue will be confirmed.

The next meeting of the Peterborough North Area Committee was to be held on 17 December 2012 at Paston Ridings School from 7.30pm.