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BARROW HILL AND WHITTINGTON COMMUNITY FORUM
Wednesday, 19th May, 2004 at New Whittington Primary School
Present -
Representing Chesterfield Borough Council
Councillor David Stone Councillor Paul Stone Councillor John Bradbury
Dave McCall - Lead Officer to the Forum Anne Goss – Support Officer to the Forum Glen Rowbotham – Landscape Services
Representing Derbyshire County Council
County Councillor Mick Bagshaw
Representing Staveley Town Council
Councillor Paul Mann
Representing ‘C’ Division, Derbyshire Constabulary
W.P.C. Sarah Roberts
Representing Chesterfield PCT
Diane Conduit
Representing Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service
Mark Bailey
Co-opted Member
Peter Fletcher Yvette Marsden
Approximately 6 members of the public attended.
1/04/05 APPOINTMENT OF CHAIR
Councillor Paul C. Stone was appointed Chair of the Community Forum for the Council Year 2004/05.
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2/04/05 APPOINTMENT OF VICE-CHAIR
Councillor Bill Flanagan was appointed Vice-Chair of the Community Forum for the Council Year 2004/05.
3/04/05 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Bill Flanagan, Councillor James Watson-Bentley, Margaret Higgins, Betty Sheard, Margaret Boss, Richard Davis, Joan Cartwright, Peter Cartwright, Jane Collins and PC Julian Hall.
4/04/05 APPOINTMENT OF CO-OPTED MEMBER
An application for co-option to the Community Forum was received from John Alan Craw of 78 Newbridge Lane, Old Whittington, Chesterfield.
AGREED - That John Alan Craw be appointed a co-opted member of Barrow Hill and Whittington Community Forum.
5/04/05 DECLARATIONS OF PERSONAL OR PREJUDICIAL INTEREST BY MEMBERS RELATING TO ITEMS ON THE AGENDA
No declarations were received.
6/04/05 HIGHWAYS ISSUES
Councillor Bagshaw confirmed that in the absence of officers representing Derbyshire County Council, he or Councillor Lismore would report on highways issues.
Councillor Bagshaw had recently conducted a tour of the area with a Derbyshire County Council Highways Inspector and reported that the following schemes had been included in a bid for funding:-
Barrow Hill:-
Zebra crossing – Station Road Traffic calming and surface dressing Speed warning signs, Station Road/Duewell Court
New Whittington:-
Hedley Road/High Street – measures to reduce speeding Eckington Road – electronic warning sign to reduce speed Burnbridge Road area – police speed enforcement signs
The above measures would be monitored.
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Derbyshire County Council would be considering alternatives to speed humps as traffic calming measures.
Those present raised the following issues which Derbyshire County Council would be asked to address:-
- Need for bus pull-in at Station Lane/Ashcroft Drive.
- Request for bus pull-in near High Street shops, New Whittington.
- Repairs to tactile dropped crossings at New Whittington requested.
- Potential for one-way loop system – High Street, New Whittington.
- Measures needed to discourage parking on grass verges outside schools, particularly at Glasshouse Lane.
- Danger caused by parking close to junctions.
AGREED – That Councillor Bagshaw provide a list of proposed highway and footpath repair schemes programmed for the Forum area for the next meeting.
7/04/05 HEALTH ISSUES
Diane Conduit of Chesterfield PCT attended the meeting and gave an update on proposals for the reorganisation of services based at Walton Hospital. It was noted that Councillor David Stone was a member of the project board.
Diane’s presentation covered the following:-
Services to be developed or changed.
Changes at Walton Hospital:-
- Features of new models of care:-
- Nearer to or at home - More personalised and timely - People to be partners in their own care - New rules for staff - Use of new technologies
- Old People’s Mental Health Problems:-
- Increased community based care - More support for carers - Specialist assessment facilities - High quality, long term care and more choice
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Stroke Rehabilitation Specialist Centre at Walton
Care for people with chronic conditions:-
- Fewer beds at Walton - Purpose designed facilities - More community based teams - New roles for staff and better use of technology - Single assessment process
Work was being undertaken with North East Derbyshire PCT to develop services at Dronfield and Eckington. Residents of this Forum area could benefit from these proposals as it would avoid journeys to Walton via the town centre.
In response to questions, Diane pointed out:-
- It would be more economical for new build on the Walton site than to modernise the existing buildings.
- Three minibuses were being purchased to help alleviate delays associated with travel to and from Walton by ambulances.
- Problem associated with loneliness experienced by older people and the roles of social services and day care facilities were discussed. Diane could be reached by ringing 01246 231255.
8/04/05 SPIREPRIDE
Glen Rowbotham of Landscape Services gave a presentation on the imminent introduction of SpirePride as follows:-
- The launch date would be 24th May, 2004.
- The name had been chosen by a competition.
- New uniforms:–
Landscape Team – green Streetscene and Enforcements Team – light blue.
- SpirePride had been introduced to meet the Council’s priorities which were:-
- improving the streetscene - protecting the environment - crime prevention
- Consultation had established that the public’s priorities were:-
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- street cleaning - removal of litter - fly posting - abandoned cars - dog waste
- Progress:-
- cleaning of transport corridors - review of street cleaning frequency, cleaning streets team
- Project Teams:-
- workforce - clean streets - Brighter Chesterfield
Glen explained the roles of the teams and how they linked to Community Forum boundaries. This Community Forum would be in Zone 1 of the 4 Borough Zones with its own local service team.
The SpirePride hotline number was 345735.
Those present considered the following to be important issues for the local team to be aware of:-
- Area around Revolution House and Mary Swanwick Memorial Hall prone to litter.
- Need to ensure planting on roundabouts would withstand all weather conditions.
- Advice to be provided on positioning and maintenance of Forum’s Christmas tree.
- Recent spate of graffiti.
- Suggestion that a facility specifically for graffiti artists be provided at Stone Lane Play Area, possibly under the supervision of an artist.
- Incidences of spillage of refuse from contractors’ lorries travelling through the Forum area to disposal sites.
- Need for gum busting machine and weed killing to be deployed on pavements within the Forum area.
- Concern that a member of the Forum had witnessed fly tipping directly from wheelie bins as a result of change to two weekly collection.
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- Need for high profile to be given in the media to prosecutions for litter and fly tipping offences.
- Need to check responsibility for sweeping of private roads.
9/04/05 COMMUNITY SAFETY
PC Sarah Roberts presented crime statistics for the Forum area.
Sarah also reported that:-
- arrangements were being made for anti-social behaviour to be included in the statistics;
- work was being undertaken with beat officers in other areas on an initiative to tackle anti-social behaviour hotspots;
- 500 letters had been sent to parents so far this year as compared to a total of 100 last year.
Other issues raised were:-
- The Council could take action in cases where the families involved were occupying Council property.
- Problems arising from young people leaving school premises during lunch breaks to be monitored and addressed in partnership with the school.
10/04/05 BUDGET
A statement of the Forum’s budget was submitted indicating that £12,886.67 was available for projects.
In response to a question from the floor, the Lead Officer reported that although an undertaking had previously been given to arrange for costs of providing screening to the recycling site at Church Street North, an inspection had established that landscaping in the area now satisfactorily screened the facility and additional screening would not be necessary.
11/04/05 OPEN SESSION
Those present raised the following issues:-
1. It was pointed out that rubbish was accumulating around the rubbish bins at Swanwick Memorial Hall.
Councillor David Stone reported that he had been aware of the problem which he considered to be caused by rubbish being deposited by the
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general public who used the facility for fly tipping.
Councillor Stone undertook to investigate ways of solving this problem.
In response to a question from the floor, Councillor David Stone reported that the Best Value Review which was considering the future of Swanwick Memorial Hall was still in progress.
2. Complaints were received about advertising balloons. It was reported that the balloons in question were exempt from planning control because of the altitude at which they were being flown.
The Civil Aviation Authority who had issued the necessary licence. Concerns were expressed that such balloons were a distraction to drivers.
12/04/05 MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting of the Forum held on 24th March, 2004 were approved as a true record, subject to the inclusion of Peter Fletcher in the list of attendees.
13/04/05 MATTERS ARISING ON THE MINUTES
(i) Brearley Park (Minute No. 19/04)
The Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Brearley Park was to be held on Tuesday, 25th May, 2004 at 7 p.m. in St. Patrick’s Church Hall.
(ii) Minute No. 24/04 – Annual Council Meeting
It was announced that the Mayor’s charity appeal would be Ashgate Hospice.
(iii) Minute No. 25/04 – Replacement Doors at Barrow Hill
Confirmation that doors would be replaced.
14/04/05 APPOINTMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES TO THE COMMUNITY FORUM LIAISON GROUP
The Chair, Councillor Paul Stone, and co-opted member, Peter Fletcher, appointed.
15/04/05 FUTURE MEETINGS
Future meetings would be held as follows:-
Wednesday, 28th July, 2004 at Glebe Court Wednesday, 29th September, 2004 at New Whittington Primary School
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Wednesday, 24th November, 2004 at Glebe Court Wednesday, 26th January, 2005 at New Whittington Primary School Wednesday, 30th March, 2005 at Glebe Court