Broad Street Area Community Council meeting minutes 1st July 2009

PRESENT: Chair Karen Leakey, Vice-Chair Derek Sutton, Secretary and Archivist Kevin Leakey, John and Vi Clark, Karen Coulthard, Stella Edwards, John and Pam Freegard, Kate Johnson, Alan Jones, Cluniford Mason, Pam Montgomery, Val Purvis, Madge Sutton

ALSO PRESENT: John Taylor - Broadgreen Community Plan, Councillor Derique Montaut, PC Diffin, Tim French and Katherine.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE: Treasurer John Phillips, John Banville, Celia Cotton, Kath Cridland, Elizabeth Grady, Kath Jones, Mike and Lindsay Ponting, Rebecca McIntosh, Evelyn Mason, Jean Norris, Sue Osbaldstone, Ros Timlin, Roy Townsend, David Webb. PC McIntyre, PC Sheikh

CONFIRMATION OF THE MINUTES – 3rd June 2009 meeting.
These Minutes were confirmed and signed a true record. Proposed Pam Freegard and seconded by Val Purvis.

MATTERS ARISING FROM THE JUNE MINUTES: None.

COMMUNITY POLICE REPORT - PC Diffin: The Police have been working with the proprietors of the Shop at 147 Manchester Road, because of the drinking problems that seem to have been connected with the shop. As a result of this, in the last two weeks they have increased their price of alcohol and are also refusing to serve drunken persons. The alleyway behind the shop that has for a long time been a focal area for street drinkers is now clear of the associated rubbish and the drinkers have moved on to another area of Swindon to do their drinking. The bus stop in Corporation Street is also clear of drunks. The Police will continue to monitor this area, but it seems to be clear at the moment. – Kate reported that she had found the problems continuing. PC Diffin said this conflicted with what the Police team had been told and witnessed for themselves. However if they had just been patrolling at the wrong time, and missed the drinkers then they requested that whenever there is a problem, could it be reported in because times can then be logged and patrols altered to suite and the logs will provide the proof needed to justify the patrolling of this area.
The Chair reiterated that any crime, no matter how small should be reported; as there was a fear we might lose another member of our Police team.

Speeding – As there is a wish for 20 mph speed limits around the area, speeding will continue to be a priority.

Litter – There are still problems around the area, but SBC are doing their best with their limited budget.

The structure of the Neighbourhood Police Teams (NPT’s) across Swindon have altered from today (01 July) - they will all now consist of a Beat Manager and 1 or 2 PCSO’s and they will not deal with long term problems. The NPT’s work will now be aimed at community engagement. Response teams made up in the Central area, of 5 Police Officers, will deal with crime. It is unclear what sort of impact this will have, but it could be looked upon that there were now 5 extra Police Officers in the area.

Jane Dudley from the Neighbourhood Safety Team is currently undertaking a survey – anyone that fills one out will receive a ‘DNA Marking Kit’

A number of concerns were then directed at PC Diffin:
Because of the removal of caretakers at the Broadgreen, do the police still have easy access to the building to get to their office?
They cannot always get in, but the decision to move the caretakers to another site had been taken from above and was part of the swine flu strategic planning being put in place and was a bit of a ‘hot potato’.
The Chair said that we had tried to contact the Primary Care Trust (PCT) about the proposed usage, but they were very secretive about it.
Councillor Montaut said that he had raised this along with other issues connected with the Broadgreen Centre but he believed that the reasons for moving the caretakers was as a cost cutting exercise to reduce the numbers, and also because the council are looking for community groups to take over the running of community centres.
There was an incident in Salisbury Street recently where the fence at the back of a property was set on fire; a man was caught at the scene, although he denied setting the fire. He was quite abusive to residents, but said he lived at the bail hostel in Rosebery Street and was due in court on arson charges, so he couldn’t be connected to this fire; a short while later there was also a fire at the back of the hostel – the problem is, we had been reassured by Clearspring who rent the property, that this was not a bail hostel and any one that put in there would only have committed low level crime, is this the case and are the Police told who is living at the property?
It is not a bail hostel in the technical sense; people living there have normally just come out of prison. Arson is a low-level crime and the Police would not be notified who is in there unless there was a problem- sometimes you get a bad egg. The arson is being investigated.

GUEST SPEAKER – Councillor Derique Montaut on being a councillor: Councillor Montaut explained that now was not a good time to talk about being a councillor, when nationally MP’s are getting a kicking and people say they only see their councillors at election times.
There are good and bad in all Parties and he has represented 3 Wards to date and they have all been different. It is not the electorate who decides who will be their councillor, rather the Party to whom the prospective candidate has to prove through interviews etc that they are the right person to be put forward.
Once elected there is much hard work to do and it takes up as much time as you afford to give it. Ward casework is very important as is meeting with community groups; it is a privilege to represent people but councillors should remember they are accountable and can easily be thrown out.
Casework is very important and it is the councillors who can help people cut through the council’s bureaucracy. Councillors are also uniquely placed to bring about change in their local areas, by linking up community groups with decision makers, and using network effectively, Councillors can empower local people to have a real say and how communities is run and developed.
As part of the opposition Party in Swindon, one of the very important jobs is that of scrutinising how the council is run, and the decisions made by the Cabinet, Cllr. Montaut as Leader of the Labour Group therefore has 2 Scrutiny Officers working with him, to aid this very important job.
If a councillor is not up to standard then Cllr. Montaut believes the electorate has a moral obligation to vote that person out of Office, this is an important aspect in a democratic system.
There is a tremendous amount of reading involved in being a councillor, as councillors need to be up to speed on policies etc. Many people think that they can report a problem and pass the responsibility to a councillor and it will be sorted out, but Councils and Councillors have to work within a framework set down by Central Government and this can very often place limitations on what can be achieved.
When local communities raise issues with their Ward Councillors, the political groups discuss them. Often on policies, things have already been decided and if people leave problems until it is too late, then the groups may very well turn around to that Councillor and say ‘sorry about that, but you’re party to this group and we’re not going to go along with you’ and you will have to abide by that and the groups will, will be placed on you. So do not expect at the last minute to raise issues after key central issues have been determined. In other words Councillors have got to come in at an early enough stage to put the case forward to their groups to be able to get the support, if not they can expect the groups whip to come into play.
So it’s not a straight forward situation, it’s a complex one and a councillor can spend as little as a few hours a week on their councillor work or can spend as many hours as they are prepared to give. I don’t suppose it’s unusual to give up 60-70 hours a week to be able to do the job properly.
Finally, there are changes in the pipeline for Local Government and Wards in the future. Central has some 9 to 10,000 residents and three councillors, but Ward boundary changes are currently being discussed and this might mean for example this area might become part of the same Ward as Gorse Hill and there might only be one councillor.

CORRESPONDENCE: A letter has been sent to back up the emails to Father Leslie regarding the Broad St. Trust and what he is proposing to do with it. No reply as yet.
Informed the parking department of the parking problems in - Broad St, Corporation St (Lagos St), Manchester Rd and Station Rd and invited them to a future meeting.
Received an invite to attend a Sustainable Communities forum/ conference on the 24th July
Overhanging hedge at the side of children’s centre in Gladstone St. – The work has now been carried out.

PLANNING APPLICATIONS:

· S/09/0470 - 151 - 153 County Road - Erection of a first floor rear extension - Application Refused - Committee Decision*
· S/09/0469 - 149 County Road - Change of use from residential dwelling (C3) to house in multiple occupation (Sui Generis) and single storey rear extension. - Application Refused - Committee Decision
· S/08/2397 - Former Paragon Laundry, Aylesbury Street - Enclosure of land (following partial demolition of buildings) for use as car parking in conjunction with remaining buildings. Making good openings arising from demolition including new roller shutter door - Application Granted – Delegated.
· 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 Granted – Delegated
· S/09/0062 - 26 Medgbury Road - Erection of two storey/single storey rear extension - Application Invalid - Delegated. – sent letter saying it was granted?
· S/09/1010 - 86 Manchester Road - Conversion of first floor from offices to 1 no. flat and change of use of ground floor from Class B1 to Class A2 (Financial and Professional Offices) and erection of single storey rear/side extension. - Application Pending Consideration
· S/09/1092 - 110 Rosebery Street - Erection of a single storey rear extension - Application Pending Consideration

*151-153 and 149 County Rd were both looked at by the planning committee, Kevin spoke on behalf of the residents against the applications and the committee decided to refuse both applications on grounds of over-development, detrimental to amenity of neighbours, which will lead to an over concentration of HMO’s in area that will further erode the character of the area, contrary to DS6 and H15 of the Local Plan 2011. There is a possible new owner for both properties who, if he purchases them, wants to convert them into flats rather than HMO’s.

We have now met with the owners of the old laundry site in Aylesbury St. and it looks likely that they intend to continue with their application to build a hotel instead of flats on the site. This is mainly on financial grounds, as it would seem that there is still money to be made from hotels. They went away knowing that we felt the better option was for housing, as it was in a residential area and we were very concerned that if the proposals did not work out as a profitable concern as a hotel, it might make an ideal bail hostel.

33 Rosebery St – the garage at the back has been converted into flats, enforcement were looking into it and they said on the 31 March that they were expecting an application to go in the next 6-8 weeks - that was 13 weeks ago. Contacted the Officer and she has been off for the last month we were promised however that it is being chased up right now.


TREASURERS REPORT: Although the Treasurer John Phillips was not at the meeting, an interim financial report was put forward. Proposed by Derek Sutton and Seconded by John Freegard.

The Chair explained to the meeting about the difficulties we have been having, obtaining the up to date books concerning the financial situation of the BSACC from the former Treasurer Richard Coates. Unfortunately, despite it now being some 10 weeks since Richard resigned and many promises of the delivery of the books, this has not happened. Assurances were made by both the Chair and Vice-Chair, that there are no financial irregularities other than the fact we actually have too much money in our account, due to the fact Richard did not replace the cheque book when it ran out, and had for some time been paying bills from his own personal account. We now have a chequebook, but until Richard returns the up to date accounts and any bills etc he is owed monies for, we cannot have our accounts audited, and Richard cannot claim back any monies owed to him.

CHAIR REPORT: Fire Station Open day Saturday 4th July 10 – 4 help for tabletop sale etc.
The Big Lunch 19/7/9 1-4 pm – closed Gladstone Street – food – entertainment
Required. Will be fund raising for Drove Road Fire Station 50 year anniversary.
Donations welcome.
Street Athletics 29/7/9 1-4pm ALL young people welcome.
Goan Festival 1st August at the County Ground Ext. We will be running a under 5’s play area and are able to have a promotion stand for BSACC/History project/BG Community Plan - Any volunteers welcome. We have a meeting with Ruston tomorrow about this.
Through fund raising at 3 events this year, we now have £285. It was proposed that we should give John T £35 towards the Swindon Voices project, because John gives out a photograph and a CD recording of peoples interviews to all those that have spoken. This was agreed by the meeting.
It was also proposed to use some of the money to reinstate the Broadgreen ‘Outstanding person’ award and possibly an Outstanding Young Persons award. This was agreed by the meeting.
Clair Collins from HMCS has been invited to attend a future meeting and also request a tour of Swindon Court.
Spoken to Bob Johnson to arrange a meeting about the visible file – so we can become an accredited community group. Will be advantageous to do this.
PC Q Sheikh has sent info for young people about the Swindon Migrant and Refugee community.
Having received complaints about the BG Breakfast club – the Chair has been invited to their AGM next week.
John P has kindly volunteered to Chair the community garden group and will be holding a meeting in the very near future. Volunteers for the committee were requested.
Drove Road Fire Station:
If you have a community event that you may like the fire brigade to attend – they need at least 1 months notice.
They have a plan for community outreach work for all 4 watches and they must attend over 60 events a year. They have agreed to attend the following: The Big Lunch – Green Watch, Street Athletics – White Watch and the Goan Festival – Blue Watch.
With regards to the alleged ‘Bail Hostel’ in Rosebery Street, the Chair has met with the Police and Clearspring about this and reassurances have been made that it is not a bail hostel. Wendy Niblett from Clearspring has said that a private landlord rents the property to Clearspring but only low category offenders are placed in there. They sign a contract of behaviour to be good in the house and the local community.
Problems with hirers of the Community Centre have been reported from residents in Salisbury Street. It would seem that a number of parties have recently been held there and they have gone on until after midnight, with very loud music playing.
The next meeting will be from 6-7pm, followed by an open evening for people to drop in and meet us. Sarah Chalmers will be attending the meeting to talk about the replacement Carfax Street Health Centre.

BROADGREEN HISTORY PROJECT: The history project is coming along well – we visited St Josephs School as part of their community cohesion day - past present and future – and put on 3 workshop presentations to 3 sets of students. Much was learnt, not least the fact that there was a need to present the historic pictures a little differently next time - the young people might then stay awake! Luckily the Deputy Head was impressed though, as she used to live in Broadgreen 20 years ago.

Roger Trahurn from the Library came along to the first workshop and offered help from the Library, where they have a wealth of historical documents, books maps and photos. He also offered the history group the chance to take a tour of their local studies and family history section, so we could see what they have. This will be arranged during the coming months.

It is hoped that we will be able to put the old images of Broadgreen that we have collected so far, into small album, and also put them on to Power Point presentation so they can be shown as a slide show from a computer.

Finally, the monthly ask - anybody who might have any old photos of the area, and of events that may have been held– VE day celebrations, Queens silver jubilee, street parties, fete’s etc

VICE-CHAIR / Twenty is Plenty REPORT: Derek has been Vice-Chair for 2 months now and things have been great. He also wanted to inform the meeting how much work Karen and Kevin do behind the scenes.
Twenty is Plenty: Derek was pleased in some respects that the council have decided to put a 20 mph limit in Old Town, because he believes in the future, when we take our campaign forward, they will not be able to say there is no need for 20 mph limits in a residential area.

BROADGREEN COMMUNITY PLAN: John spoke of the Swindon Voices slot he does on Swindon 105.5 and noted that many of the people he had interviewed said they would like to see 20 mph limits in this area.
The surveys are now coming in and Churchfields will be picking theirs up tomorrow, the info gathered so far will give plenty of interest for the Council and Police to look at.
The outreach work we did at St. Josephs was the most successful we have done yet, and in the feedback report, Broadgreen had many mentions.
Illustrations of the preliminary results of the surveys to date were passed around and they showed a range between 85 and 99% positive to the 8 subjects on the forms, with 44 other suggestions being put forward to improve the area. The steering committee filtered down the 44 suggestions to the 5 top priorities – new community facilities with more family events, extend the S4L and 3 equal 3rds - more Police, houses to remain as homes not converted to HMO’s and free collection of big pieces of rubbish. This shows how we need to prioritise; there will be more suggestions on the youth survey when they are analysed.
At the next BSACC meeting, John will bring along both lists of suggestions and people will be able to ID what they want. From this we will be able to identify which Agencies would be able to take the lead to sort out the issues.
The Broadgreen website has been revamped - www.broadstreet.ik.com


NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH REPORT: A manhole cover in Broad Street was exposed and a resident fell over it, the problem was reported and should have been fixed immediately, unfortunately it hasn’t. Councillor Montaut took the details and was going to take action on it.
There has been much noise reported coming from the Broadgreen Centre, after 11pm.
A van that is for sale is constantly parked in the area, with a concessionary parking permit on, it has not been booked, but other people cannot get concessionary permits.

SHRIVENHAM ROAD REPORT: The overgrown shrubs at the County Ground Extension have still not been cut back; neither has the brambles at the back of Stratton Bank. Councillor Montaut said the council are morally obliged to sort this out, he has tried but it should be brought up again at the tasking meeting.

WARD COUNCILLORS REPORT: Residents parking continues to be a problem with the price increases being too much, he felt it might be good to raise another petition in this area and also it might be a good idea to invite the lead member on this to a future meeting to explain why the increases are needed.
Councillor Montaut was at a Goan AGM meeting to which 200 plus people attended, he felt it was ok for people to have and operate their own ethnic groups, but they also needed to join in as well.


B.O.N.D: No report

ANY OTHER BUSINESS: lights at Broadgreen being left on until after midnight.

What’s happening with the seats in the community garden?

The children’s play area County Ground - when is it going to be rebuilt?

There is a wheelie bin at the back of the Manchester Rd alley it is in the little alcove at the back of the Open Hands Fellowship building, the drinkers are using this and it is full of beer cans – can this be removed?


Meeting closed at 9.15 pm.