East Chesterton Liberal Democrats

Further to previous updates, enforcement of the new parking controls around the Shirley School will start on the 3rd June.

Cllr Manning has requested Police support for the County Council officers who will enforce against anyone flouting the new rules.

“I’m pleased this long saga is finally reaching a point whereby residents’ misery at school times will be eased” said Cllr Manning.

The scheme can be seen in more detail in the attached pdf :
Shirley Sch Aug 1_3

Police Priorities

Cllr Manning suggested a modification to the Police report format:

“I’ve often felt frustrated with the police priority setting process” explained Cllr Manning “where often it’s unclear what the log term effect of our voting is. It is quite common for the root cause of things we ask to not be something the Police can fundamentally deal with.

I’ve asked that the Police add a section for ‘root cause’ when priorities are reported back on. If the Police feel that there is an underlying issue that could be fixed by another organisation – in the case of Fen Road, closing the level crossing; in the case of anti social cycling, changing junction design – they could suggest this.

Cllrs would then vote on whether they agree, and if they do, the North Area Committee would be charged with chasing up the relevant authority.”.

Cllrs voted to drop anti social cycling as a priority, and replace with addressing ASB in green areas in the North; continue with arson prevention work; proactive work to reduce cycle theft.

In the last case, Sgt Wragg explained police had monitored website gumtree and found someone selling over 300 bikes, which they quickly identified as stolen. This was done quite openly and the resulting conviction was easy to find.

Community projects by funding from housing developments

The informal BMX track and Brownsfield Youth Centre is mpossible play moving forward as a project. Cllr Kerr, who worked with the centre and the children who attend it to bring this forward, urged officers to make sure they consulted with those groups before going out to public consultation.

The St Andrew’s Hall extension work is continuing apace and the small funding gap is close to being closed.

City Cllrs were asked to prioritise one of 8 play areas for upgrade – all Cllrs agreed that they didn’t have enough information to make a decision, and the matter was deferred to collect more evidence.

Area Corridor Transport Plan projects

This was an update on transport plans projects. Cllr Manning has asked for his highways bids to be assessed for inclusion.

In January, Cllr Manning took part in an assessment panel, to help determine the County Council’s preferred sponsor for the new primary school in East Chesterton.

For more detail, see:

http://eastchestertonfocus.org.uk/2013/01/17/what-factors-influenced-cllr-mannings-part-in-the-recommendation-of-a-preferred-sponsor/

and

http://eastchestertonfocus.org.uk/2013/01/11/new-school-decision/

For a long time, the closed-door nature of the panel meant that no detail could be released of that meeting. Cllr Manning has now managed to get the County to agree to release the minutes of the meeting:

20130110_SpnAssessmentPanelMinutes

The signs which has been put in place by the County appears to be incorrect, incorrectly showing no waiting at all between the times suggested (see photographs below). The signs were meant to show 15 minute maximum waiting in the defined times.

Cllr Manning is working with the County Highways and School to decide what can be done to rectify this and will update residents accordingly.

Laxton Way sign

Residents will be aware that various forms of yellow lines were painted around the Shirley School – on Nuffield Road and Laxton Way for example.

Residents will also have noticed that these are currently not being enforced: this is because the County Council have to put up signage to give the lines “legal” powers.

This should be going in today, Cllr Manning says “I’m trying to co-orindate between the Council parking teams and the Police to check they get adequate support when applying the new rules.

Any enforcement will only be effective if people know they cannot ignore it.”

Cllr Manning is aware a number of parents will have received offers to the new primary school.

In many cases they may not have selected the new primary school as any of their first, second or third preferences.

For clarity, the new school will appear as “New Chesterton School, Green End Road” and is not the same school as the Shirley School on Nuffield Road.

Communications about this are going out to parents now, but please contact Cllr Manning if you are affected.

Ian Manning has been returned as the County Councillor for East Chesterton. The result was:

Clare Blair (Lab) 832

Peter Burkinshaw (UKIP) 221

Tom Kerby (Con) 160

Ian Manning (Lib Dem) 1,147

Peter Pope (Green) 140

“I’m humbled to be relected. There are huge changes coming to East Chesterton, and I’m looking forward to working with residents to make these changes benefit residents.”

Reports from residents who attended indicate the appeal hearing lasted the whole day, with a site visit late afternoon.

The final decision is expected within a few weeks.

Thursday will see the fate of the Penny Ferry decided at a Planning Inspectorate Appeal hearing, starting 10am at The Guildhall.

Local residents groups prepared an extremely effective submission to the inspectorate, and everyone is hopeful they will be successful.

Cllr Manning comments: “I really hope the inspectorate listens to the views of residents – the former pub could have a grand life as a boat house with attached pub, bakery, or any other of a huge number of ideas I’ve heard of.”

Cllr Manning drafted a suggestion of his own after consultation with the City Council and some local boat clubs: 20121018_Proposal

Cllr Manning and a number of interested residents recently to discuss improvements to the Green End Road area: http://eastchestertonfocus.org.uk/2013/03/06/green-up-green-end-road-first-meeting-tonight/.

They decided to come up with a plan for the area, a “wish-list” of things they might want to happen, and the result of that can be seen below:

Cllr Manning says the plans don’t stop there: “We’ve also got plans including a community litter pick & have already started talking to the Co Op about funding & their involvement – I often cycle this way to my day job so I’d really appreciate it being brightened up.”.