Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies from members unable to attend the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Ash and Shabbir.

None

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 11 December 2012.

The minutes from the meeting held on 11 December 2012 were agreed as a true and accurate record.

The Locality Partnership Co-ordinator advised that updates and details of completed actions were provided on the seats.

The Chairman advised that the comments made at the last meeting in respect of the proposed surgery at Newark Court had been forwarded to the Planning and Environmental Protection Committee for their consideration, where they had refused the application.  The applicants had taken on board the comments made about traffic and parking and were likely to resubmit the application.

a)         Enterprise Peterborough - an opportunity to ask questions about services provided in the area.

Enterprise Peterborough

Richard Oldfield from Enterprise Peterborough gave an introduction to Enterprise Peterborough and the services they provided. 

Comments and responses to questions included:

·         A question was asked as to why a number of trees on Park Road had been cut down.  In response, Richard advised that they would have been identified as part of a survey of diseased trees so would have been cut down immediately. 

·         Inspector Dominic Glazebrook advised that a question had been raised at the Neighbourhood Panel about whether the trees at the back of this building were on private land.  Also, wood was being taken out of the wooded area around the centre for peoples own use.  Richard stated that if the land was private then Enterprise Peterborough would not maintain it.  Ownership of the trees around the centre would need to be checked and that Enterprise Peterborough may need to work with enforcement.

·         Cross Keys Homes advised that they had received feedback on the food waste bins that on collection days the bins were blowing on the road after being emptied.  Could a hook be attached to the main bins so the food waste bins could be hung on them?  Richard advised that they had received a number of complaints about bins being blown around in the wind and the collectors did try to put them close to the main bins to protect them.

·         Richard advised that the bins had been very well received and were proving to be very successful.  2,000 tonnes of food waste had been collected since they had been introduced in November 2012 and this amounted to significant savings in landfill tax.

·         Councillor Kreling advised that the organisers of the fun day at the New England Recreation Ground in June had been told by Enterprise Peterborough that they had to pay £70 to use the recreation ground.  Richard stated that management of licensing of events on open spaces had transferred to Enterprise Peterborough and unfortunately it was necessary to make a charge.

·         The Chairman advised that councillors still got complaints about litter and that there was a general feeling that there was more litter around.  The Council had now agreed to put extra money into the budget for Enterprise Peterborough and what would that enable them to do?  Richard stated that there were a number of hotspots in the city and the extra money would be used to identify with the Council which were the priority areas.  There were issues around enforcement and Enterprise Peterborough and the enforcement team would be working together to highlight that littering was not acceptable.

·         Would Enterprise Peterborough be looking to put in any more litter bins in the city?  Richard advised that extra bins had been installed during the winter.  Six crews emptied the bins on a two weekly schedule and the crews had GIS devices to plot the bins and the data would be used to compare the location of litter bins to hotspots.

·         A manual sweeper had not been seen on the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

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

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

These included:

·        Councillor Shearman advised that there were issues around verge parking in Grange Avenue.  In February 2011, Norman Baker MP stated that powers were open to councils to put up special no parking signs and asked whether the powers had been taken up by the Council.  When graffiti was put on the Town Hall immediate action was taken but any damage to public property was a serious offence.

·        Inspector Glazebrook advised that damage to verges, such as digging them up, would be criminal damage.  In parking cases each case would need to be looked at individually but could be dealt with as criminal damage; however he was not aware of anybody being prosecuted.

·        There was damage being done to the shrubs in Garton End Road but it was difficult to make residents responsible for their upkeep.

·        If low level bushes were parked on would the police consider that as criminal damage?  Inspector Glazebrook advised that each case would need to be looked at individually but if they were deliberately parked then that was likely to be criminal damage.  If there was sufficient evidence the police would take necessary action and they were also ready to engage with people to give advice.

·        If someone was prosecuted, what could the courts do?  The courts had the power to award compensation.  Other options included a police caution with reparation and restorative justice with reparation, which was probably the better option.

No future Neighbourhood Committee meetings are to be scheduled.

This was the last meeting of the Neighbourhood Committee and no further meetings would be arranged.

The Neighbourhood Panel meetings would still be going ahead and Inspector Glazebrook advised that those meetings could have the facility to consider some issues that would have been considered by the Neighbourhood Committees.  The Panel meetings would likely move back to a 7pm start time.