Agenda and minutes

The Police sent a written update crime report to the meeting All residents present received a copy. The Update report reminded residents they could access the Leicestershire Police’s website to access up to date crime statistics. https://www.bing.com/search?q=Leicestershire+Police+website&src=IE-TopResult&FORM=IETR02&conversationid

A Resident expressed thanks for assistance received from the Anti-Social Behaviour Officer, Thomas Maccabe and PCSO Len Browne. This assistance was in regards to the work done on Anti-Social Behaviour carried out by them to sort a distressing issue, which occurred near the local chemist store.

Below is the update received from the Police to share with residents.

Dear Residents

With regards to the Oadby Residents Meeting this evening unfortunately I have no-one from the team that can attend, however I have completed a short report on the work that has been done by the Beat Team since the last meeting which I hope you find useful.

Latest crime figures are available to view through the Leicestershire Police website.

1. Graffiti - Oadby team have been linking in with the Knighton Beat team who are also experiencing the same TAGS being drawn on various pieces of street furniture. Knighton officers have made enquiries within their local schools and we have been in touch with BTP but we are no nearer identifying a suspect at this stage.

2. Good CCTV at the back of Severn Road shops has been used to identify offenders causing ASB in the area. We have linked in with the new ASB officer from the Council Tom Maccabe and have issued 7 advice letters, a Community Resolution and a S59 warning (which will allow us to seize a vehicle if found committing ASB again within the next 12 months) to offenders, 90% of which are Oadby residents.

3. Good work by the neighbourhood team in relation to the Retail Op we did over Christmas. Due to hi visibility patrols we had no reported purse thefts and shop thefts went down based on previous months, when the trend would usually suggest an increase.

4. Due to a positive conviction for Possession With Intent to Supply Class A & B drugs, again working with the Council a Closure order  was successfully obtained at Court and the defendant is due to be evicted shortly.

5. It would be useful to remind residents in relation to not leaving anything in vehicles overnight. There has been a slight increase this month in Thefts from Motor vehicles which we are tackling through an ongoing operation.

6. A local resident was caught on Manor Road Oadby travelling at 60mph and has been reported for the offence. Owing to the fatal RTC where an 18 yr old student was killed on Stoughton Drive South, we are looking at putting together another speed op to target speeding motorists.

Please pass on the Beat Team’s apologies for not being able to attend this evening.

The minutes were agreed as a true and accurate record.

All matters arising from the previous minutes were concluded.

Mrs Sallie Butt, the Environment & Waste Technician from Leicestershire County Council provided a presentation on what are recyclable and non-recyclable items.

·         Currently some seven-district councils use Case Pak in Leicestershire. Leicestershire County Council is due to roll out a recycling campaign.

·         Waste Initiatives carry out talks on recycling in schools and to community groups. Articles are placed in magazines such as Letterbox.

The Chair extended an appreciation of thanks to Sallie Butt at the close of the presentation.

Recycling Dos and Don’ts.

The Dos:

·         Rinse and drain plastic bottles

·         Keep plastic in its original state. Squash it and place it in the wheelie Bin.

·         Place plastic tubs pots in the recycling.

·         Tetra pack cartons are recyclable. Flatten them if you wish. Those with the lids left on are more collectable.

·         Cardboard can be flattened.

·         Cleaned aluminium foil is acceptable and can be squashed flat.

·         Food tins must be rinsed and drained.

·         Drinks cans are acceptable.

·         Some types of clean tin foil.

·         Completely empty aerosol cans are ok to recycle.

·         Rinsed glass bottles and glass jars with their lids on are acceptable. Rinse the items and place the lids back on.

·         Ensure all packaging is empty.

·         Brown and green loose bags previously used for recycling can be placed in the bin.

·         With regard to rolls of old green and brown surplus recycling bags, residents may contact Customer Services. They will advise residents that they can either bring them into the Customer Services Centre or arrange with the Depot (Tip) for the bags to be collected.

·         Residents were reminded that they could use their small black bins for composting.

·         The Don’ts

·         Do not place any black plastic in the recycling waste. Infrared rays used to identify plastic rubbish cannot pick up its existence.

·         Do not place broken glass in the recycle bin. Place it in a bottle bank for recycling.

·         Do not add textiles, as they tangle up in the equipment. Donate them, even the rags to charity.

·         No used nappies. Place them in the general waste.

·         No makeup in plastic tubes. These are difficult to clean.

·         No hard plastic such as hangers, wash baskets, washing up bowls or plastic storage containers.

·         No children`s toys.

·         Do not add crisp packets or multi-use crisp bags. Walkers Crisps have set up a recycling process for their crisp packets. Some stores are taking back plastic carrier bags for recycling.

·         No batteries or small electrical items to be placed in bins.

·         No tissues to be placed in bins.

·         No single use plastic drinking cup to be placed in bins.

·         No used plastic bags to be placed in bins.

·         No tin foil as used to box tea such as Tetley, PG Tips and Typhoo etc. Scrunched up tin foil turns into a laminate so must not be placed in recycling. The test to see if it is not recyclable is to scrunch it up into a ball to see if it does not spring back open. If it springs back, do not recycle it.

·         No shredded paper  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

Jacky Griffith, Head of Customer Transformation at Oadby & Wigston Borough Council, provided an update specifically about the telephony service and the change to accessing it within Oadby Library service.

The telephony service within the library was previously held four mornings a week from, 10am until 1pm.

·         The Customer Service Team dealt with enquiries in summer 2018. When the Service moved to wheelie bins, it was observed to have a dramatic effect on the Service Desk. Less than six people were found to be using the service at Oadby Library. It was also observed that the Officer staffing the Service did not have enough work to do. This was an issue of a resource being under-utilised.

·         From 3 December 2018 to 1 February 2019 a Freephone, hotline was placed in the library. Regular customers were instructed on how to use it. This was a priority phone line. People were not held in a queue.

·         A record was kept on the demand over a seven-week period. How many calls dealt with were noted with written feedback. Over the trial period thirty-four calls, less than five a week, were listed. Most of these calls were made during the afternoon and were about making payments. No one had to make a visit to Bell Street. An alternative payment system was explored.

·         When demand at the Library was reviewed it was found an Officer’s presence could not be justified.

·         The Council intends to keep the line open within the Library. Last week only one call was received. The Officer time of two hours was compromising the service. There is no evidence to justify keeping a service line with an Officer present at the Library. Staff is placed where there is a demand.

Responses to questions posed from Residents are as follows:

·         Phone calls create a heavier demand on the service than face to face. The Service is looking at different ways for customer demand to be met.

·         Face to face, demand is less than the Telephony demand.

·         The hotline will be kept open in Oadby Library as it is deemed good for people to contact Bell Street Customer Service Centre on Freephone. Once the Library goes to Smartcard access in April 2019, the Telephony hotline will remain.

·         The Head of the Service noted that the letterbox at the Library, for security reasons was not liked as an option for people to make payments. This was due to payments not being picked up daily. Further, reliance on it could affect those wishing to pay and end up receiving Court Summons due to the payment not reaching the payments systems on time.

At the close of the Update the Chair thanked the Head of Customer Transformation for delivering this agenda item.

The update on housing development was shared with residents. The last paragraph was identified as requiring clarity. Some residents wished to know when consultation on the housing development had taken place and where feedback on this could be found on the Council’s website.

The Chair requested it be noted that residents were unhappy that no officer from Planning attended the meeting to talk to the Briefing Update on agenda item 5, Housing Developments and Implications.

Action:

Provide residents with a link to Oadby and Wigston Council planning services page.

https://www.oadby-wigston.gov.uk/pages/viewing_planning_information_with_publicaccess

Action:

Request the MP for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston be invited to attend the next Oadby Residents’ Forum meeting to, discuss housing development.

Action:

Invite an officer from Planning Services to attend  the next Oadby residents’ Forum meeting to; provide a presentation on the Stoughton Grange building application, noting the implications on building, from the perspective of Education and the NHS East Leicestershireand Rutland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

OADBY TRADERS UPDATE

The Oadby Traders’ representative gave her apologies for being unable to attend the meeting. She provided a short written update to be read aloud by the Chair. The Update included the following points:

·         The Summer Motor Festival takes place on Sunday, 11 August 2019.

·         The Festive Lights Switch-on takes place on Sunday, 10 November 2019.

·         The Marks & Spencer store is not moving from Oadby Town.

·         The Traders’ Forum is almost at a self-funding point.

The representative of Pride of the Borough (POB) provided a verbal update. Key points to note are:

·         Loyalty cardholders currently number 1000.

·         50 businesses in Oadby offer a discount.

·         Half of the customers using Grange farm Monday to Thursday lunchtime use a loyalty card.

·         The Loyalty card is helping to bring more trade into the Town.

·         Membership for the Loyalty Card can be obtained from Zeph’s Café.

·         There will be a floral competition in 2019. People will be invited to enter and help with judging. Residents may enter a container.

·         A Litter Campaign has begun. This will include rollout to schools and businesses.

·         Knightsbridge Estate Agents is setting up a big litter pick team. It will go around the Ellis Park Area.

·         The representative appealed for help from the residents to share their email and phone number with pride of the Borough. This will help POB with sending out a monthly newsletter and to update a resident’s details when a discount card has been lost. POB does not share its database information with other agencies.

·         The third Saturday of each month a litter pick working party goes out to help keep the locality litter free.

·         The next Litter Pick Group is on Saturday, 16 March 2019 for the Hill Way area. More volunteers would be appreciated. The Litter Pick will be from 9:30am until 11:30am. All volunteers will be provided with litter picking tools. This will include visibility vests and gloves.

·         A request was made by POB to residents requesting volunteer to weed and water four big planters, which they purchased for £500 each. The planters are located in; Parklands, the Legion, Zephs Café, and by Epic Accessories.

·         Oadby Rotary and POB have joined up to plant up the big planters on the Parade.

·         POB is addressing how it can be more effective in coordinating updating of memberships on an annual basis. The next Pride of the Borough public meeting is on Monday, 11 March 2019. The venue is Brocks Hill Centre.

·         A resident wrote to the head of Beauchamp College expressing concern about the amount of dropped litter. It was noted the council does litter pick in the area. It was also identified that Colin Robertson, a member of POB also does a litter pick around Manor High School. If anyone wishes to Join Colin Robertson on this litter pick, Graham Lamb will pass on their details to Colin Robertson. Colin Robertson will then contact the person.

·         Concern was expressed about the level of litter left near Beauchamp College after the purchase of ice creams from a local ice cream trader. POB carries out anti-litter talks with local schools.

·         A resident suggested POB should invest in some “Think Litter” flyers for the Big Clean Up week.

·         POB is to launch a campaign to find out where the litter hotspots are sited. A resident is to contact POB to help organise the great British Clean Up. Residents were also requested to speak to Councillor Jeffrey Kaufman and resident Sue  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

All the projects, which previously received an award, have been completed or in the process of completion, and have received their award. An update will be provided at the next Oadby Residents Forum meeting.

The current Oadby Resident Forum budget funds remaining stands at £42,678.00.

A list of requests for funding received from residents was circulated at the meeting.

Residents were requested to indicate by a show of hands whether they wished all the requests to be funded in principle pending costings for them to be provided. The requests were as follows:

·         Request for a Bus Shelter - Placing of a Bus Shelter opposite Waitrose on Harborough Road.

·         Request for a Bus Shelter. The Bus Shelter is to be erected on the A6 near Highcroft Avenue, Oadby.

·         Request for a Bus Shelter for the bus stop at Severn Road/Hursley Closed, Oadby.

·         Request for a Bench at Wickham Road, Oadby. The location identified is the junction of Fairstone Hill and Wickham Road. This is to be accompanied by a plaque in memory of the proposer`s late husband.

·         Request for a Litter Bin. The location identified is; Upland Road by Launde school bus stop.

·         Request for a Litter Bin. The area of concern for which the litterbin is requested is the jetty/alleyway between Adlington Road and Launde Road. The alley way is heavily used by dog walkers, school children from Brookside and Manor schools at the corner of Woodfield Road.

On the issue of the Wickham Road bench, a resident is to sponsor its cost.

Twenty-eight out of the fifty-six people present, not including the six Councillors present, agreed to accept all the projects for funding.

In principle, this is subject to the view of the Street Furniture Officer and endorsement by PFD (Policy, Finance and Development) Committee.

This list of items is to come back with the price of each item.

·         Black bags dumped by the side of litterbins by Uplands Road. This has been communicated to Customer Services on Bell Street.

·         A water mains burst on the Parade. This has been reported to the Water Authority.

·         The Community Engagement Officer shared information about a consultation and engagement tool to be accessed through the Oadby and Wigston Council’s website. This tool is termed a Citizen`s Panel. A paper outlining what a Citizens Panel is, how residents will be able to access it and how in terms of consultation and engagement it will be utilised. Copies outlining this tool were circulated to residents at the forum meeting.

·         The paper in brief noted:

·         A Citizen`s Panel is a means through a database of accessing a minimum of 1000 people of diverse range of backgrounds, ages and ability. The groupings would be used for consulting on a range of Council policies, plans, strategies, and services online.

·         There might also be opportunities to attend focus groups, take part in telephone interviews and be rewarded for input in the form of gift vouchers.

Those interested in signing up to the Citizens Panel were directed to contact the Community Engagement Officer; veronika.quintyne@oadby-wigston.gov.uk.

House building in Oadby -New housing development on land near Stoughton Road and Gartree Road, Oadby of 300 homes.

The details relating to the next round of Oadby Residents’ Forum meetings will be made public as soon as they are available. All dates, times and venues will be displayed as usual on the borough Council`s web site.