MINUTES OF THE COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON 4th FEBRUARY 2009

PRESENT: Chair Karen Leakey, Secretary Kevin Leakey, John Phillips, John and Vi Clark, Karen Coulthard, Stella Edwards, John and Pam Freegard, Tim French and Katherine, Kate Johnson, Alan Jones, Cluniford Mason, Rebecca McIntosh, Sue Osbaldstone, Val Purvis, Derek and Madge Sutton, Ros Timlin, David Webb

ALSO PRESENT: John Taylor Broadgreen Community Plan, Doctor Richard Carter – Whalebridge Practice, Councillor Derique Montaut, Dan Collins and Helena Lachowycz - Eastcott Community Council.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE: Vice Chair and Treasurer Richard Coates, John Banville, Celia Cotton, Kath Cridland, Elizabeth Grady, Evelyn Mason, Pam Montgomery, Mike and Lindsay Ponting, PC Paul Crouch, PCSO’s Stuart Bird and Rees Turner, PC Sophia McIntyre
Brian Jones, Kath Jones, Nazma Ramruttun BOND representative

CONFIRMATION OF THE MINUTES – 7th January 2009 meeting.
These Minutes were confirmed and signed a true record. Proposed Pam Freegard and seconded by Derek Sutton

MATTERS ARISING FROM THE JANUARY MINUTES:
With regards to the Mosque parking problems. Last Friday (30 January) there was a very heavy Police presence in and around Broad Street, cars were being driven around and around being unable to park on the double yellow lines nor in residents parking bays, although 7 cars did manage to park in the alleyways after the Police had left the area. There has never been a Police presence for parking problems like this before.
Councillor Montaut said that the situation with the Police created some problems, the initial issues raised about parking in residents parking spaces and the enforcement that local Councillors had asked for, to be applied equally without any privileges for anybody, amounted to an email being sent to Councillor Ali informing him that the Police would be out in some force. When they did come out in some force he didn’t know what the objective of so many Police was for. There are two factors, resolve this within the community in a way that meets everybody’s needs and from the enforcement aspect the Councillors have asked the Enforcement Officers to apply it rigidly but fairly. From what Councillor Montaut can gather there was an overwhelming presence of Police, taking away limited resources from other areas and he wondered what the value of the exercise was.
Although he didn’t know how many Police were involved, Cllr. Ali had raised an issue with the Leader of the Council because of the overpowering presence of the Police in the area, as representations had been made to him from within the Mosque concerning a feeling of intimidation and that there was some type of terrorist threat. A resident informed him that the ‘overwhelming Police presence’ actually only consisted of 1 police car, 2 Police Officers and 2 PCSO’s. As far as residents are concerned the Councillors position on the enforcement aspect of this is totally unchanged.
It was pointed out that Councillor Montaut has been suggesting that it was a recent problem with residents complaining about the misuse of resident parking, but the record needs to be made clear, residents have infact been complaining for many years about inconsiderate parking in the area, which includes illegal parking in the residents parking bays, yellow line parking, pavement parking and parking on corners. It is a shame that Azim Khan didn’t turn up tonight, as he had agreed to do, to explain to the BSACC what was/is the Mosques position and what they would like to see.
A letter written to the Mosque in 2002 from the BSACC was read to the meeting, in it concerns were relayed about how some of the visitors to the mosque abused the parking restrictions and it requested that if only for reasons of safety, users be more considerate to residents that are neighbours to the Mosque. It shows that these are long-term problems that the BSACC has tried unsuccessfully to address in the past.
The law needs to be exercised fairly for everybody - residents parking is for residents, yellow lines are not parking for anybody, pavements are not parking for anybody and causing obstruction by parking on corners is not acceptable.
In the past, a deal was struck with ‘The Range’ by the Police to allow Mosque users to park in their car park and all they had to do was put a small notice in their cars to say they were attending Mosque, but nobody took up the offer. The Chair has contacted the Manager of ‘The Range’ and they are happy to discuss the possibility of this arrangement once again.
Councillor Montaut spoke this week to the Leader of the Council about the parking issues and the need to get the users of the Mosque and the Muslim community to respect the current regulations, and he is quite happy to join the Councillors and BSACC Officers and meet with the Mosque Leaders to discuss this. Nobody is talking about privileges being given to anybody. The Chair, with the meetings approval, said that the BSACC would organise a meeting to include all people concerned, to discuss what has become an intolerable situation.


COMMUNITY POLICE REPORT: No Police were present at the meeting. Apologies were given.


GUEST SPEAKER: Doctor Richard Carter, GP at the Whalebridge Practice, Carfax Street. Dr. Carter thanked everyone for the invitation to speak about the Government named ‘GP led health Centres’ better known as a polyclinics. This new idea has come from one used in Germany where they have clinics that are open between 8am to 8pm - 7 days a week, people would go along and see a Doctor and be told to come back when ever they needed to, when they did go back they would have see another Doctor, which people didn’t like, so they now publish the times each Doctor will be available to be seen, just like GP surgeries operate now! A Health Minister called Lord Darzi is now taking the idea forward, and whilst he is a specialist surgeon, he never actually trained in the UK and has never worked within the NHS, and yet he is the person redesigning General Practice.
The idea behind this is to improve access, which is something that everyone wants when it comes to health care. It would appear that people want greater access when they want it, which seems to be a little bit different from what some Doctors are saying – there should be more access when it is needed
The WB Practice works by saying if anybody needs anything, it’s given, which can be difficult but basically people are offered the first available routine appointment and if they cannot wait until then, they will be fitted in on the day, meaning that on some days they may have more work than on others.
What has been decided is that money will be taken away from every surgery in Swindon and use it to set up a clinic in the centre of the town. The new service will begin on the 1st of April and will be down stairs in the Health Centre in Carfax Street. The Walk in Centre and the Primary Care trusts (PCT) own surgeries are to be amalgamated and it would appear that all of Doctor Shad’s patients are to be amalgamated into it as well.
The Whalebridge Practice has known for a long time this was coming, and over the last year they have tried to find out more information about what is happening. They are also very grateful to some of their patients and residents who have also tried to find out more. Doctor Carter has himself met with the local MP and the Swindon PCT but has managed to get very little concrete information out of them.
With regards to the Whalebridge Practice, they are not planning to leave the centre of Swindon, they envisage staying where they area, although they are aware of plans to relocate the Health Centre to the old Police Station site. They have tried to also talk to the New Swindon Company about this, but they have not been very forthcoming with a time scale or info about this.
They were invited to put in a tender to provide the polyclinic, they told the PCT they would be prepared to open 8am to 8pm - 7 days a week, manned by doctors with support from Nurses, but it was rejected as the PCT has decided to run it with their own staff which will be mainly nurses, this has never been tried before. Doctor Carter is very interested in hearing from anybody that is willing to talk to the PCT and MP’s about putting the case forward to how this project might be expanded in the future, because although it’s too late to do anything about the new service starting on April 1st, if it turns out to be a disaster there could very well be a strong case for the Whalebridge Practice to take it over and improve upon it.
A number of questions were then put to Doctor Carter:
People become comfortable seeing their own Doctor, one of the rumours about Polyclinics has been that you would have to see any Doctor that was available rather than your own Doctor, who knows all of your medical history. If the Whalebridge Practice took over the running of the Polyclinic, would this be the case?
The WB Practice is completely separate from the Walk In Centre, but they have had students and Doctors work with them, who have also worked at the Walk In Centre. They have said that the staff there have found it difficult having to start each patient they see, with a blank sheet of paper. If you are coming to the WB Practice then things will remain the same, but if the surgery is open 8 until 8, 7 days a week it would be very difficult for any individual Doctor to be available for all of these times. This is the difficulty with Polyclinics; you will not be able to see the same Doctor time and time again.
Will the Polyclinic be open to anyone that cannot see a Doctor at their own surgery straight away?
The idea behind this is to improve access for people to see somebody; they will have registered patients from Doctor Shad and the existing Daniel Gooch Practice, which belongs to the PCT and also be available to see anybody from across Swindon either as an emergency or booking ahead and people will also be invited to register there as well. It may work out extremely well and everybody from Swindon wants to go there, flooding the place with patients.
Will a Polyclinic be offering what is basically a GP surgery, or will they be offering a service that you would have originally gone to a Hospital for? If it is going to be so great, could it affect the WB Practice?
It’s about access, if it provides what people want, then it is likely to do very well. But it would seem unlikely that they would be able to provide the sort of service a GP surgery can provide now. You are however not likely to see a GP and whilst there are plenty of other Health Professionals that can do some of the things GPs do, but what has been discovered is that with walk in centres and other practitioners seeing patients, things are being duplicated. The health economics seem to show that a consultation with NHS Direct or at a walk in, costs anything up to £30 per one contact/health issue but with a GP It’s under £25 and they often have more time to deal with more than one problem in the allocated 10 minutes. There is a trend now, that if you go to the hospital they seem to be doing less and less and you will be told to go and see your doctor. This has a knock on effect because access to the surgery is reduced because it is being taking up by people that should have been dealt with elsewhere. When the new building is built, possibly 2013 (old Police Station site) there are grand plans for lots of services to be included, it is unclear exactly what this might be, but a guess would be some sort of Hospital Clinics, for example you would go there for dermatology rather than the hospital.
The WB Practice has been looking at a vacant premises in the Town Centre, upstairs next to Boots, with a view to possibly relocate the Practice there and move away from the new proposed clinic. It would be bigger, offer more services and have better access, but to do this financial resources will be required. Unfortunately it would appear that instead of supporting practices in Swindon, money is being held back and being put into the Polyclinics instead. They would however welcome any comments on this possible move and are seeking permission to explore it further. Residents that were at the meeting and go to the WB Practice felt that it would still be within easy walking distance and had no objections.
. The WB Practice is the longest established surgery in the Town Centre and they try and base the service on what has been provided in that time, i.e. you book an appointment to see the Doctor that you know.
These were Doctor Carter’s own personal opinions and he was not necessarily talking on behalf of the other partners at his Practice, although he felt that most of his partners would agree with what he had said.

GUEST SPEAKER: Mr. Azim Khan from the Broad Street Mosque was given an invitation at the Tasking Group meeting to attend tonight’s meeting and he agreed to come along and talk about the problems the Mosque users are facing with parking arrangements. Unfortunately despite being reminded about this meeting, Mr. Khan did not turn up and sent no apologies. It was felt that his non-appearance showed a complete disregard to the community as a whole.

CORRESPONDENCE:

Sent
To Breakfast Club, DHI and Threshold Housing informing them of the problems outside St. Luke’s hall, brought up at last months meeting.
Email sent to Breakfast Club, DHI and Threshold Housing informing them of the problems outside St. Luke’s hall brought up at last months meeting. – Action to improve on the problems was taken by these groups and Mrs. Jones reported back to the Tasking Group that things were now much improved.

Received
Thank you reply from Steve Harcourt for the gift and best wishes we sent to him.
SBC Planners are updating the Access for All policy and are looking for people’s thoughts and ideas on inclusive design (Inclusive Design is about making places that everyone can access). Set up an ‘Inclusive Design Access for All’ Workshop – Thurs. 26 Feb. 2009 10 am –12.15 pm. At Haydon Centre – Haydon Wick.
Received the latest ‘regeneration news’ from Carol Heneghan of the New Swindon Company.
Concerning the dog being allowed to run free at the BG Centre, Mr Eamus the dog warden has been spoken to and he will send a letter to the resident concerned, stating that people have been complaining for a while and point out that the dog should be properly looked after when in a public place. Usually this method works - if not Mr Eamus will further investigate and heavily patrol the area - if there is enough evidence a control order can be obtained.
With regards to a dog poo bin, we can have one but in the present climate it’s not very likely. It costs £20K to maintain the bins in the Borough about 300 of them and all are being used at this moment in time. Broadgreen will be put on the waiting list and they will be monitoring the situation.

PLANNING APPLICATIONS:
S/LBC/08/2392 - Former Paragon Laundry, Aylesbury Street - Partial demolition of buildings and making good of resultant openings, to include new roller shutter door. - Application Pending Consideration
S/09/0117 - 76 Manchester Road - Installation of new shop front - Application Pending Consideration
S/08/2142 - Signal Point, Station Road - Change of use of part of ground floor from office (class B1) and cafe ancillary to the office use to cafe (class A3)/Retail (class A1) - Application Granted
S/LDE/08/2204 - 32 Manchester Road - Lawful Development Certificate (Existing) for the use of dwelling as 2 no. flats - Application Granted


TREASURERS REPORT: There was no treasurers report this month, apologies were sent by the Treasurer. It should be noted that we are still holding £2000 pending the reinstatement of the Broad Street CommunityTrust.


CHAIR REPORT: The Chair welcomed Dan and Helena, Chair and Secretary of the recently formed Eastcott Community Council www.eastcottcc.btik.com
Greatest news probably of the year John Taylor has offered to be Project Manager for the Broadgreen Community Plan.
Have a meeting at the Fire Station with Graham Wellar regarding community working together.
Met with Mark Feeney last Friday to explain how we spent the Community Grant last year.
Met with David Wetherall from Innerflame who are doing empowerment courses for young people.
Lifestyle unit gentle exercise and walking group training?
Attended a ‘Cohesion Masterclass’ on 27/1/09 called ‘How does belonging to a place enhance community cohesion’ it included a presentation by Beverly Taylor from Manchester Council. It was really interesting, with lots of ideas to improve things. There is to be one more Cohesion Masterclass and it is titled ‘semtex or superglue’.
Attended community safety consultation group last Wednesday – thanked Mr Howlett for meeting with us and giving us a dedicated vice officer.
Recently there was a meeting at Drove School about what was believed to be their plans for a Youth Club, but it would seem that they now want to set up a charity-funding group, separate from the school itself. They want people to be on the committee who can look for funding, they will then hold the monies and decide whom to give it out to. The original idea and meeting last year was about providing youth provision and it now seems to be going off at a completely different tangent. Councillor Montaut asked that people looked back to the origins of the project, citing the aftermath of the hammer attack and the need to address the problems as the starting point. Nick Capstick then brought some of the issues together as a project looking to see how best to get funding locally, the scheme now being proposed is considerably larger than he originally anticipated where it was localised issues meeting localised needs, it now incorporates a lot of schools in a much larger catchment area, If it is to work children will need to bussed there and back. He thinks the idea is a sound one if problems and issues of practicality can be sorted out, but he does have reservations although he isn’t opposed to the idea. The Chair felt that at the first meeting last year, the media were fully involved and the problems surrounding the hammer attack and problems in Broadgreen were shamelessly used in the promotion of the ‘good’ Drove School could do. She did not expect to turn up to a meeting that was supposedly held to help with the problems in this area, and find tv cameras there and also reports on the radio and in newspaper. It was also pointed out that at the initial meeting, Nick Capstick did say he wanted a music room and various other things for his school out of this, so he was upfront about things in some way. Nick Capstick has been invited to Skeetz to talk to the young people and see what they want and also to a BSACC meeting to tell us what is going on, but he has never consulted with the young people, which is surely the most important thing to do if you want to provide youth provision, nor come to one of our meetings.
On May 16th we will be holding our annual Broadgreen Community Festival/event. There will be a committee meeting shortly.
We are re-asking if anyone has any music from other cultures and countries that we could add our collection, which is growing.
Swindon Federation of Community Organisations meeting – the Chair has become a trustee to make sure Broadgreen has a fair say - they are holding a conference on 14/2/9 at the Health Hydro, concerning Real People/Real Power.
The Children Fete at Faringdon Rd Park and the Caribbean carnival are taking place once again this year. Anybody wishing to help will be most welcome.
The Tasking meeting on 10/01/09 was attended by John Phillips, who has offered to sit on the group on behalf of the Community Council. Mrs Jones and Pam Freegard also attended – many thanks for that.
Attended SCF last night @ Steam – we-organising the group !!
On Saturday 28/3/09 we are having a Broadgreen Community Engagement morning 10am to midday. There will be a small History project exhibition; the Police will be in attendance with state of the art equipment to survey people on the prostitution problems. We will also be launching some community initiatives – street ambassadors etc. A tabletop sale is also planned to make some money for the Community event on 16th May. Volunteers and bric-a-brac are required.
It is our intention to set up an editorial team. We already have good links and training opportunities with Swindon 105.5 radio and Swindon Advertiser. Volunteer are needed for this.
Community payback – Offenders doing work in the community - can we use any help in community – perhaps re-visit in future.
Bail Hostels on your doorstep – a report from a newspaper. The Government intends to put bail hostels in lots of areas, SN1 being one of them. Councils, the Police and Probation Officers must be told if one is to be set up, but Councils will have no right to refuse planning permission unless they breach planning regulations. This could be of great concern to this area, as we have already fought off the one proposed for the old White House pub site a number of years ago.
The Selecta DNA kits are to be delivered by the Police from the 2nd March and street signage and cctv signs are to be put up along County Road, and the Crime and Safety Partnership are hoping to introduce Neighbourhood Watch into that area.
Race coalition event – The Community Council asked for some tickets but we were refused because the BSACC is not a BME group, despite being in the most diverse area of Swindon! It was requested that Councillor Montaut take to take back to the Council, that the older white people of Broadgreen have become a minority group in the area, and minority groups are not just different colours and cultures. – The Chair asked for permission to highlight this issue as and when it is appropriate.

YOUTH REPORT: There was no report given this month.

COMMUNITY PLAN: John Taylor has volunteered to become the project manager, this will ensure that all the paper work and documents are on the Leader of the Councils desk by the end of October, because it is important that people do not think the work done over the last year is wasted, and to also now engage with all of the people that want to be engaged. A steering group has now been formed with Stella Edwards, Tim French, Karen Leakey, Kevin Leakey, Kay Malko, Peter Newson, John Phillips, Derek Sutton, John Taylor and Ros Timlin forming the group, and a series of meetings will now be held to make use of the work done with Holly Huber over the last year. Councillor Montaut has also agreed to be on the group as a Ward Councillor, giving us a voice within the Council. We will have to work closer with the Council, Police and Fire Service. It will also be important to work with the New Swindon Company because they have got plans for the Union Square development and it is important that we know about them in as much detail and as early as possible. One of the longer-term aims is also for greater traffic control in the wider Broadgreen Area. A scheme is currently running in Carlisle at the moment called ’20 is plenty’ this would be a good phrase to adopt in the Broadgreen Area.
If people were wondering why is all this necessary, John read out a paragraph from a 1983 Thamesdown Council community planning report ‘relating to environmental standards set in other residential areas of the borough, the Broad Street Area has been neglected. An upgrade in the physical environment in combination with other forms of assistance might help the apathetic acceptance of the existing limitations of the area’ He sees no apathy in Broadgreen now, and that is because changes and improvements have been made thanks to the drive of the community council and others. It is very important that we have a strategic plan to guide this area into the future.
The Chair thanked John for coming forward and offering to be the project manager, and asked the community council if the BSACC could use £300 of the bottle bank money to give an initial boost towards room hire and printing etc. It was agreed that £300 should be made available towards the project.


SHRIVENHAM ROAD REPORT: There are still problems with overgrowing at the County Ground (Stratton Bank). Councillor Montaut said that the last time he got an officer to look at the problem, they said there was not an issue, so they accepted no liability for it.

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH REPORT: In the icy weather, the yellow coloured paving slabs on the street corners become extremely dangerous and slippery but they are not gritted. Councillor Montaut said this was a general problem, the council could be chased up about it, but they are not gritting paths. 7 to 11 shop in Broad Street are still storing fish in ice, in open polystyrene boxes on the floor next to the pavement on Saturdays, this is causing quite a bad smell and the oil etc is leaking out across the path making them slippery, it has also been witnessed that dogs are sniffing around the boxes. It is understood that food like this has to be stored at least 18” off of the floor. – Richard Palacio has dealt with this once before, he will be contacted again.

WARD COUNCILLORS REPORT: Had previously been asked to see if the old S4L office could be used by the BSACC but it is going to be used by a community development worker. Chris Hunt and the Leader of the Council Rod Bluh are aware of the need for an office. It was identified that a buildings list is available for voluntary action of Swindon and we have been put on a community assets list for when facilities do come up, so it is now on the agenda and things are being discussed.
Connecting People Connecting Places, Central Swindon and Eastcott will be in one cluster. Little is known yet about how it is going to work, but a lot of people have applied for the Cluster Director jobs, it will be a 2 day per week job, where all the problems in an area can be sorted out without councillors having to do anything!! Councillor Montaut is involved in the appointment panel for the Director jobs and the interviews will take 3 days. If there were meaningful engagement and empowerment to people, then Councillor Montaut would be prepared to go and sell it to communities.
It is probable that the Park and Ride scheme is going to be closed after the Council Budget, the impact this could have on this community is of concern, because it could mean hundreds of extra cars driving through this area daily, which would have quite an environmental impact. Councillor Montaut believes that as some of the bus services to new housing estates are already subsidised by 106 monies, could the Park and Ride not also be subsidised in the same way? What he has established is that there are £millions in the 106 pot, so at the next council meeting he will ask what is the total amount of 106 money, what has been identified at an expenditure level and how much has been identified to go to the Central Area?

B.O.N.D:There was no report given this month, apologies were given.


ANY OTHER BUSINESS: Problem with the old Scorpion Garage site in Station Road has started again. It has become a valeting service, the cars are being cleaned inside the building but are taken into the road for the outside to be washed. In the recent cold weather the water is turning to ice, making the road and paths very dangerous to use. The cars are also being parked in residents parking spaces.
The shop on the corner of Lagos and Corporation and Lagos Street has damaged guttering and when it rains, water pours over pedestrians.
With regards to the S4L area and Community Garden, John Freegard met with Gary Hewitt and passed on some of the outstanding problems to him, unfinished paving, unfinished fencing and cars parking or driving on the new garden. With regards to the paving, there have been sub-contractors working for Thames Water and they have not finished the stonework properly nor put back the double yellow lines.
The fencing is finished, open as it is, allowing dogs to wander around the play area.
The sand laid down in the garden is going to blow everywhere in the summer, and already children are digging it up! Apparently it has been put down to allow water to soak down to the tree roots. Last week a car was even driven around the trees.
John Taylor suggested that the Community Garden could be designated as a memorial to both Les Horn and Matt McCue, with an official opening on the Cohesion Day by the Mayor if possible, with plaques placed upon the benches. The meeting approved it.
The hedge in Gladstone Street along side the education centre has still not been cut
Dan from the Eastcott Community Council thanked us for allowing them to attend our meeting, they learnt a lot about what we are doing here and it was interesting to see both areas have similar issues and they were very interested in the 20 is plenty idea, which is something that could also be done in their area. They hoped they would be able to come to another meeting and learn some more.



Date of next meeting: Wednesday 04 March 2009 Meeting closed at 9.35 pm.