Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies from members unable to attend the meeting

Apologies were received from Councillors Thacker 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 made.

Approve the minutes of the meeting held on 4 October 2012

The minutes from the meeting held on 4 October 2013.

The minutes of the meeting held on 4 October 2013 were approved as a true and accurate record.

The Assistant Neighbourhood Manager advised that feedback on the actions arising from the previous meeting was provided on the ‘We said you did’ sheet.

Members requested feedback regarding the action on clearance of over hanging trees, which was raised as an issue at the previous meeting. 

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

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

These included:

• Grimy street signs;
• Safety concerns were raised over fallen leaves within the Werrington and Paston areas;
• Issues with overgrown trees on Church Street, Werrington and in the Churchyard;

In a discussion held over the recent tree survey being conducted by Enterprise Peterborough (EP) on behalf of PCC, representatives from EP responded to comments, questions on concerns raised by Councillors and residents.  In summary, the responses included:

• A detailed Council owned tree survey was provided on the Council’s website pertaining to the progress of the project and extent of work to be carried out;
• The recent colour coding placed onto trees during the survey had indicated the types of action required for that tree.  Necessary works may include operations of thinning out or removal and replacement as necessary; 
• Information regarding the tree survey had been supplied through various media facilities such as the local press, local television news channels and social media networks sites such as Twitter; 
• Signs would be placed on each Council owned tree in order to ensure that the public were aware of what action was required;
• It was vital to carry out the programme of works for Council owned trees in order to mitigate any further damage caused resulting in future claims to the Council;  and
• The tree survey conducted by EP was overseen by PCC in order to ensure that best practice was being followed.

In a discussion held regarding community organisations, the Neighbourhood Manager responded to comments and concerns raised by Councillors and residents.  In summary, responses included:

• The £25k budget capital budget allocation for N&W2, would only be directed to capital projects and that it was not possible to fund the running costs of Werrington Neighbourhood Committee;
• All appropriate options were being considered in order to meet the shortfall of £132 for the Welbourne project; and
• Enquiries were being raised regarding position of the closure of Paston Park Farm.

The Neighbourhood Committee received a presentation from the Neighbourhood Manager over the recent projects that had been funded by previous Neighbourhood Committee Capital funding of 25k.

Key points within the presentation were as follows:

• Small Grants funding;
• Purchase of CCTV equipment for the area in order to improve enforcement over fly tipping offences;

• Noise monitoring equipment;
• Winter salt bins sited - £3400;
• Grant pool for community grant groups and activities to apply for funding £400-4,000;
• Benches, installed on Fox Covert Road;
• Bunding measures introduced in order to deter encampment;
• Mobile speed activated signs which were being utilised in all wards - £10,000;
• Illegal occupation;
• Street arts board in unity park and skate park;
• Improvements to Welbourne play area 12,500;
• Honey Hill, improvement works for the area including adults and children’s gym which was to be the largest in the City.

Comments and responses to questions were as follows:

• Members thanked the Neighbourhood Manager for all the hard work in completing the projects;
• Members welcomed the Honey Hill improvements;
• Concerns were raised regarding the multi use of the football field at Honey Hill and that a condition over the use of the land had meant that it would be closed for certain times throughout  the day; 
• The N&W2 Community Action Plan (CAP) was being finalised and agreement would be sought from Cabinet and Council over its implementation.  Progress of the CAPS would be fed back to a Neighbourhood Committee in the New Year;
•  There was £500 remaining from the Small Grants funding;
• Concerns were raised over the size of the football pitch and the risk of dog fouling;
• Tesco’s had not identified a definite date for the approved Staniland Way roundabout installation.  If the Tesco’s junction improvements were delayed, PCC Officers may be required to submit a bid to implement junction improvements such as signage in order to mitigate further road traffic accidents.

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 13 March 2013.  Venue to be confirmed.

The next meeting of the 19 March 2013 venue was to be confirmed.