Agenda and minutes

Notes of the meeting of the SANDWICH Neighbourhood Forum held on 9 October 2008 at the Guildhall, Sandwich at 7.00pm

Present:          DDC Cllr Sue Chandler                      Chairman

                        Worth PC Cllr Ian Martin                     Vice-Chairman

Other Councillors and members of the public.                     

An apology for absence was received from KCC Cllr Leyland Ridings

1.         Chairman’s welcome

Cllr Sue Chandler welcomed those attending.

2.         Notes of previous meeting

            Were approved as a correct record and there were no matters arising.

3.         Street Scene Consultation

            3.1  Christopher Allen, DDC Street Scene Project Manager, gave a

presentation on the Street Scene in the District which covered:

·         objectives for environment, residents and public realm

·         partnerships to ensure clean, tidy, well maintained and safe streets

·         top 10 and all other priorities for street scene

·         top issues for Community Safety Partnership (CSP)

·         service delivery: education, prevention, involvement, enforcement

·         partnerships between all tiers of local government and CSP

·         measuring how the service is doing

·         purpose of the consultation being to understand communities’ expectations from street scene service and how they can become involved

3.2  The Forum broke into three discussion groups to identify priorities and

suggest means of community involvement:

            Priorities:         anti-social use of vehicles

                                    anti-social behaviour

                                    parking on pavements; inconsiderate parking near schools

                                    speeding vehicles

                                    drug paraphernalia – not an issue for all areas

                                    dog fouling, noisy dogs, loose dogs

                                    pollution from bonfires, especially burning plastic/batteries

                                    flyposting

                                    cars for sale on the highway

                                    state of public conveniences; Eastry takes responsibility for

theirs

                                    noisy motorcycles in fields

                                    overhanging vegetation

            Community involvement:

ensure all residents know who to contact and how; use Councillor surgeries, local press, parish/church newsletters, public noticeboards, websites;

be prepared to speak to people leaving litter or allowing dogs to foul if safe to do so or report through tenant groups;

would role of Street Leader/Champion work?

take vehicle numbers when parked on pavement/footway, pass to police and be prepared to give evidence;

target money to local levels for services like public conveniences;

have one central number for roads and pavement issues;

more enforcement for overhanging vegetation in private gardens;

involve schools and youth groups.

                                    Burgess Hill, West Sussex as an example of good practice.

Other issues:  DDC could delegate some of its funding to town and parish councils to spend it on local street scene issues.

3.3       Question and answer:

Consultation to be completed in November with strategy adopted by Council in March 2009 to start in April 2009.

No extra money or resources available for street scene so redirection of priorities needed in budget setting process which is starting now.

Consultation not restricted to Forums; individual responses welcomed.

Action:  investigate comments about having to wait 15 minutes to speak to a person on call centre/switchboard

had Graeme obtain the data from the time given to me that shows the longest wait was around 4 minutes on the call centre.

 4.        Kent Highway Service

Mr Dennis Button, Community Delivery Manager Kent Highway Services (KHS), gave a presentation on restructuring of Kent Highways covering:

·         scale of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.