Minutes of June Meeting

Minutes of the Meeting held on Tuesday 4^th June 2013 at 7.00 pm
St Mary Magdalene's Church Community Hall

Matters arising from the Minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.  Any matters arising to be discussed as the Agenda.

Pallion News
Bill Blackett had been invited to attend the meeting in order to receive the results of a consultation re the damaged grass verges in Brookland Road organised by Tom (Brookland Road resident).  Tom reported that the residents of Brookland Road had overwhelmingly voted for the verges to be replaced with tarmac.  Bill stated the Consultation would be very useful.  He agreed the verges were in a deplorable state following the winter weather and parking. In February he had taken part in a “Ward Walk” with Cllr Gofton and met with Tom in Brookland Road. He stated the Council planned to try re-seeding the verges following the Parking Permit Scheme being introduced into Brookland Road, thus hopefully the parking should be reduced.  If this did not work then the option of replacing the verges with tarmac would be looked into.  Tom stated big lorries trying to deliver glass to the local glaziers were adding to the problems with incidences of broken wing mirrors etc.  Cllr Gofton stated that hopefully the improvement to the parking situation in Henderson Road because of the Scheme would follow through to Brookland Rd when the Scheme was introduced there.

 Crime/Anti-Social Behaviour

David Lynn from the Anti-Social Behaviour Team explained that his Department now also dealt with noise complaints.  He stated that the situation in Pallion & Millfield was now quite quiet with just a couple of issues being dealt with at the moment.  He stressed that he could only deal with reported issues.  If residents had any concerns they should report them to his Department.  He gave his Direct Line number 0191 5617886 and also Council 24/7 helpline number 0191 5205550 which was manned by a dedicated team with a matrix for direct referrals to a Victim Support officer.  He stated that last summer Barnes Park had been subjected to quite a lot of youth disorder.  There was a lot of work being done by the Police and Youth teams dealing with alcohol abuse etc. with warnings and contracts with offender’s families.  Identified problem families are visited and worked with to tackle anti-social behaviour.  Some families were turned round by the support received.  Any families refusing to engage were subject to the law and appropriate penalties.  He stressed again he could do nothing without a report.  Any calls to the Police 101 line were treated in confidence.  He could then follow up with leaflet drops to gauge the situation.  Most reports received were about fly-tipping and issues of tolerance.  He was also working with private landlords, inviting them to join an accreditation scheme.  David agreed to the contact numbers being put on the Residents’ Blog.   They were also on the Council Website and in the Community News.

Ken reported recently attending an event in Barnes Park in which everything went very well with no troubles whatsoever.  The park was well used.

PC Kevin Hood gave out the crime reports for the previous month for Barnes, Pallion & Millfield areas.  He reported a big problem in Sunderland in general of bike thefts.  There would be a Security Road Show held in the Sunderland Royal Hospital for members of the public as well as staff.  Bikes were expensive items and thus attracted the thieves.  There was also a scheme to mark items with security pens.  There were a few incidences of anti-social behaviour reports around Holly Court but these were mainly youths playing football and also gangs moving through the area being reported in different streets.  Susan stated many people felt intimidated by the size of the gangs.

PC Hood reported very few reports of anti-social behaviour in Barnes Park.   He asked the residents to be more vigilant during the warm weather and try not to leave doors and windows unlocked.  Garden ornaments, tools etc. are a target for thieves.  Sightings of a white scrap van touring the area blatantly looking over walls were reported.  Linda thanked Bill Blackett and the council officials for making sure residents did not leave their bins out and less incidences of fly-tipping in the back lanes.  Bill agreed to look into concerns about a resident on St Gabriels Estate leaving household rubbish outside his front door.

Parking Management Scheme

Susan reported the next Working Group meeting would be June 18^th 2013.  Linda and Susan had recently attended the Hospital Travel Focus Group meeting whereby ways of helping staff and visitors to use public transport, car share, bikes or even walking to work could be looked at.  The Hospital were now hiring bikes to their staff.  While the multi-storey car park was being built they had asked staff to voluntarily give up their on-site parking permits and use public or alternative transport instead, rewarding them with free permits once the car park was finished.  Building was due to start in September. The Hospital are also in negotiations with the contractors re their workers being transported to the site rather than bring their cars, causing even more chaos.  It was vital that Phase 2 of the Residents Only Parking Scheme was in situ before building started.  The Hospital are  in agreement with this.  The back gate leading into Sorley Street is to be permanently welded shut.  Plans were also in place to demolish the old laundry and replace this with parking for over 100 cars.  Linda reported the Hospital were also going to negotiate with the Bus Company to try and get the 700 bus to go through the Hospital grounds stopping at Outpatients and the Main Concourse.  Linda also reported the potential use of a “POP” card similar to the London “Oyster” card which could be used on all public transport including metro and trains.

Cllr Watson stated a good public transport system for the 21^st Century was a social need but the bus companies needed to make a profit so ways of subsidising costs had to part of an economic master plan.

Treasurers Report

Elizabeth reported the accounts were ready for the AGM.  She had used the previous grant money so would be applying for further Community Chest grant money to help cover costs of extra meetings.  Discussion followed about the cost of financing a leaflet drop covering Barnes, Pallion and Millfield in order to attract a wider group of people.  Following discussion it was agreed this might be too big an area and posters in local shops would be more viable for the moment.

 Any Other Business

Cllr Michael Essl could not attend the meeting but did provide his mobile telephone number: 07917554433 with regard to any concerns over the traffic situation at the junction of Cleveland Road/Ewesley Road.  Cllr Martin had also attended the meeting by invitation from the Residents Committee over the same concerns.   At last month’s meeting concerns had been raised about the dangers and near accidents at this junction.  Tom reported watching a large articulated lorry trying to negotiate the corners, holding up all the traffic.  The meeting agreed the size of the lorries was the main issue.  Cllr Gofton questioned the Police’s approach to this issue.  PC Hood stressed the incidences should be reported in order to build up a data.  Cllr Watson suggested writing to the Spa management with dates and photographic evidence.   Spa management and the Florists had been written to previously with no response. Tom suggested asking them to try and receive deliveries out of hours.  Cllr Martin suggested more should be done to get traffic back to the main arterial routes with chicanes on Cleveland Road to reduce traffic flow, also limited time parking bays.   He also stated extending the Parking Management Scheme to the ABC streets and Ewesley Road would give the Traffic Enforcement Officers the opportunity to monitor and police the situation.  Linda stated the trend for the return of local shopping was a good thing but this in turn would necessitate more deliveries.  Ken stated the cars parked all day right on the corners of the junctions did not help the situation.

 Date of Next Meeting (including AGM)

Tuesday 2^nd July at 7.00pm in St Mary Magdalene’s Church and Community Hall.

The meeting closed t at 8.15pm.