Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies from members unable to attend the meeting

No apologies for absence were received.

Members to declare any personal/personal prejudicial interests in any items on this agenda

No declaration of interests were declared

Approve the minutes of the meeting held on 5 March 2012

The minutes from the meeting held on 5 March 2012 were agreed as a true and accurate record.

The Neighbourhood Manager advised that updates and details of completed actions were provided on tables. 

An update was received from the Inspector of Cambridgeshire Police on the complaints made about the two licensed premises in Cromwell Road.  The Committee were also advised that there were plans underway to cut down trees in Cromwell Court and Cromwell Road in order to provide more effective monitoring by the police of Anti Social Behaviour in the area.

Following nominations for the role of Vice Chairman, Councillor Sharp was nominated and seconded.  No other nominations were received and Councillor Sharp was duly elected as Vice Chairman of the Central and North Neighbourhood Committee.

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. 

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

• Police Inspector Glazebrook informed the Committee about proposals to hold a Neighbourhood Panel on the same night as Neighbourhood Committee for Central and North.    A boundary review would be conducted by the police, which would ascertain which wards would be covered at each of the Neighbourhood Panels and would also reduce four panels to three.  The Committee also received an update about the proposed introduction of three Citizen Panels.

Comments and responses to questions included:

• The Neighbourhood Police Panel (NPP) would start at 6.30pm and would be followed by a Neighbourhood Committee. Pilots had been conducted at other Neighbourhood Committees and had been received favourably.  There had never been an issue of the NPP meeting running over its allotted time;
• The Chairman provided an update over proposals to create extra school places for the Gladstone area.  The Committee was advised that a feasibility study had been commissioned by the Cabinet and that residents and parents of the Gladstone area would be fully consulted throughout the process;
• Consideration should be given to extending the Gladstone Park School as apposed to building on the only green area on Bourges Boulevard;
• Concerns were raised over the need for the Council to conduct a feasibility study of the area in order to provide extra school places in the Gladstone area, when the thirteen million pound budget had already been allocated for the project.

Councillor Khan requested that the Council note the opinion expressed by the Central and North Neighbourhood Committee over the Council’s method of appointment of a Chairman and that the allocation of Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA), currently paid to the Chairman, should be directed to neighbourhood projects.

The Governance Officer advised the Committee that under Part 4, Section & paragraph 11.1 of the Council’s Constitution, the Neighbourhood Chairman would be appointed by Council each Municipal year and that there would be one chairman from the ward area of the Neighbourhood Committee.

The Committee was also advised that under Part 4, Section 8, 6.7, of the Council’s Constitution, the Committee can express its opinion to another Council body or outside organisation.

The Committee was further advised that a report was being drafted following similar requests received from other Neighbourhood Committees and that the expression of opinion on the appointment of Chairman and SRA allocation would be included in the Neighbourhood Committee for Central and North if Members were in agreement.

Following a vote, a majority of Members (4 out of 5) of the Central and North Neighbourhood Committee was in favour of the inclusion of the expression of opinion within the report to Council.

• Concerns were raised regarding the recent Triangle Road improvement scheme and that little improvement was apparent on its completion. 

Agreed Actions

It was agreed that the Assistant Neighbourhood Manager would feedback the comments made over the feasibility study to provided extra school spaces for the Gladstone area  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Council’s Licensing Manager gave a presentation on the  Licensing Act 2003.

Key points within the presentation were as follows:

• Changes to licensing law due to be introduced in October 2012, which would allow the Licensing Team to make representations for applications;
• Breach of conditions would be reported directly back to the Licensing Team;
• Working alongside partner bodies to extend licenses;
• Saturation policy for Councils;
• Things coming in:
  1. Late night levy – financial charge for premises that stay open after 1am, which would go to residents consultation; and
  2. Early morning restriction order to introduce blanket closure times.

Comments and responses to questions were as follows:

• A great deal of analytical data would need to be gathered in order to use the Saturation Policy, to prove that an area was a designated area;
• Licensed premises holders that had their licence revoked were entitled to appeal against the decision; however, the appeal would need to be submitted to the Magistrates Court within 21 days;
• Residents were hopeful that recent changes in the Licensing legislation would make a difference for the Central and North area; and
• Representations presented to Licensing Committee for consideration would rely on robust evidence in order to make a decision to revoke or refuse a licence.  Representation would need to be received by the Council within twenty eight days and would be reliant on residents putting forward their evidence and letters for and against applications. 

The Neighbourhood Committee received a presentation regarding the draft Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) from the Group Manager for Strategic Planning, Housing and the Environment.  The SCI was designed to guide communities through the options of developing their own local planning policies and action plans.  Once the consultation period was completed, and comments considered, the final SCI would form part of the Council’s planning policy document.

Comments and responses to questions were as follows:

• Communities can decide how to form their Neighbourhood Forum group and how it was made up;
• If a community prepared a ‘Neighbourhood Plan’ (as described in the SCI), it would be approved by conducting a referendum. If  approved at the referendum, it would form planning policy for that area;
• Neighbourhood planning documents incurred a lengthy process which would include costs for the community prior to approval;
• Rather than a Neighbourhood Plan, the community could help prepare jointly with the city council a supplementary planning document for their area - this process would be free to communities; and
• It was possible at any time to change plans after they had been adopted; however, they would need to go through the formal approval processes again to do so.

The Community Neighbourhood Action Plan was to be deferred to the next meeting.

The next meeting will be held on 13 September 2012 at Beeches School (to be confirmed).

The next meeting of the Central and North Neighbourhood Committee was to be held on 13 September 2012, at the Beeches School.