Minutes of London Road Area LAT meeting 2023-07-11
18:30 Calvary Church, Viaduct Road, Brighton
1. welcome and introductions, apologies
- Apologies: Andy Keeffe,
- Pcsos Tilly Earley, and Lauren Lewis (Georgia Messer is on leave)
- Cllr Pete West,
- Cllr Sue Shanks,
- Ellen McLeay
- Tony and Mike
Present
- Cath Prenton
- Roz Lopez
- Catherine Clement
- Nazmar Jabbar
- Lucy Dunleavy
- PSCO Molly Baskar
- PSCO Sean Chandler
- Simon Bannister (BHCC)
- Councillor Raphael Hill
- Roz Rayburn
- Judi Lynn- Steering group of Providence place
- Alan Briggenshaw
- Sandy Crowhurst
- Philip Wells (chair)
- Corinne Lamb (notes)
(15)
2. Minutes, and date of next meeting
- Minutes from meeting were read out, and discussed.
- The question of who to get the survey to get things sorted and followed up. Its the noise abatement society who are in charge of it or the council?
- Minutes were agreed
- Date of next meeting: 26th September to invite Katy Bourne (police and Crime commissioner) and 12th September to follow up on items including providence place.
- Katy Bourne event: Need to work out how it will work it in terms of questions and issues that are raised.
- Questions for future meetings:
- To organise community conference- date to be confirmed.
- Organise some swat marketing. Make Kate Bourne the special event. Use swat marketing a few weeks before to publicise the event.
3. Noise/traffic issues in area of Rose Hill Terrace – last time we had Lisa Lavia (Managing Director Noise abatement Society) – follow up (if still required)
Question from resident:
- Who do I go to from the council to help with Alcampo bin collection timings? Alcampo has a written in clause that states the bins are collected between 8am-9pm. This is a very clear condition of its planning approval (from Cath P.)
- Action Point: Planning enforcement are the people to get in touch.
- Diarise the times the rubbish gets collected and sent to the enforcement officers who will get involved.
- Time control at Poundland
- Action Point: Noise survey very good idea and a meeting with the business. Go to noise enforcement first. Very time consuming.
- Parking permits were written into tenant’s agreement of the development. There is a loophole and the council are not aware of this.
- Action Points:
- Get in touch with enforcement. It’s a grey area
- Cathy to ring them to clarify the above and clarify the grey area.
- Phil to send resident’s email to PSCO
- Residents to push the complaint up the chain
- Write to the CEO of Abacus to come and have a chat
[see addendum]
- Naz: There is a lack of parking around rose hill terrace: 60 houses on that street. There are 4 parking bays. This is zone Y.
- SB: Need to find out the reason for the lack of bays and to make them residents only. The person to talk to is Charles Field who is in charge of parking in the council.
4. Update from Elder Place/ Providence Place “walkabout”
- There were 30 people who came, including the council and others involved in the regeneration project.
- They were given a questionnaire and the results are being finalised
- There is a genuine wish to the area make better
- There is a £13,000- 22,000 a month to spend in this area. The council want this to be spent in the North Laine and St Peters and its key to not loose the history of the local area
- There is a lot of money in the pot this is around £730,000 and this is contributed by section 106 and match funding is being sought by the Project Manager
- There are plans to do some outdoor exhibitions and social media events in the area to get people interested in the area and to get a flavour of what is going to happen. Also to drum up interest to get involved.
- This is the start of something bigger.
Thalia feedback:
- Project Centre has been appointed to develop the preferred transport option and concept street design for the Corridor.
- This is the first design stage, which is focused on the “big picture”. It seeks to balance initial ideas with functional and practical considerations.
- The feedback gathered from the Community Walkabout on 04 July will inform the development of the concept street design. Thank you again to all who participated, for giving us their time to share thoughts and suggestions. A summary report is being produced and will be shared with attendees over the coming weeks.
- The project is committed to continued collaboration with the local community. The concept designs are now being worked-up, with the intention of consulting on these in the Autumn.
- The project team is in the process of appointing consultants to support with the engagement and consultation activities. Further details about the public consultation will be released in late Summer / early Autumn.
5. Policing issues – special focus on London Terrace/Abacus building
- Testimony by resident: This is the 1st year where they have taken 1st students. The gates have been turned into a dealer haven. Gangs of 20 at midnight, cars and then giving drugs. Abacus have just told residents to get in touch with police, then the police don’t come.
- Molly says: The police can get the late shift to do regular patrols and put in a request for a “nomad” camera in the area.
- They also need to have statements from residents, PCSO has spoken to security/ maintenance man and they said it is nothing to do with them.
- Drug dealing in the area:
- The patrols and cameras that the police put in place should have a impact.
- Students’ issue:
- Talking to the students is impossible as no help from abacus. They didn’t talk about any way forward. However they did phone the police.
- Comments: The client of Abacus are the universities, they are they ones who put money through the business. The Vice Chancellors of the universities should be contacted and involved.
- The initial use of the building was to house postgrad and ma students.
- The gates being closed were agreed after the development and about 9 years ago.
- Action Point:
- We need clarity of who is in charge of putting the students in the building.
- Councillor Hill will get details of BIMM residents and who to contact.
- Police: Reports go into a database of the ward and logged and call number. Can be viewed within the police by anyone on the force.
- The best way to report a crime occurring is through 999 and NOT 101 or on the website of the police.
- The fact that the council does not own the building, so it is complicated.
- Despite the small number of houses on the street, reports need to be from multiple residents in order to distinguish the matter from that of a single vexatious individual
- Police can do a letter drop that counts as a report and also these meetings like the LAT etc. count as a report statistic.
- The gate to the building was open 8am to 8pm and now closed permanently.
- The majority of the work can be done now before the new students come in September/October, not all students are to blame.
- Action Point: Simon Banister to review the status of the alley way
- This information need to be fed back to Naomi, including that there are also good students
- Ask Andy Keefe or Naomi to come in September to prime the new students and encourage them.
- There have been 3 incidents that were not being looked at. This counted as a Community trigger to get the managers looking at this more. This case review is on the council website.
- Naomi Barnard (student liaison officer from University of Sussex) this is the email response:
I met with the team at Abacus as promised.
They said that there are no issues with regards to the gates, and that these can be accessed freely. However, the issue on London Terrace is seen as separate to this and the Abacus staff have reported this to the parking enforcement officers at Brighton and Hove. However, they did not say that any action had been taken.
Andy is right, we have no jurisdiction over the management of Abacus, however, if students are identified as part of either university, then we are able to contact them as per our complaint’s procedure. This would involve Abacus contacting us and reporting this, which I have asked them to do, so will await any contact from them.
I would really stress that Ros should contact Environmental Health and the Police (especially if there is illegal behaviour). It may be that they need to regularly report via 101 to build up a picture.
Both of these agencies will be able to build up a picture of noise nuisance/anti social behaviour and hopefully be able to take some further action.
I hope this is helpful feedback.
Best wishes,
Naomi
Andy Keeffe (UOB) also wrote in response :
Hi Phillip
Thanks for copying me in.
As you know where the halls are directly managed by the universities or where we know of a specific student or students that an allegation relates to we can potentially have some effect in support to try and address a situation.
Historically from my understanding the issues around noise and allegations around suspected drug dealing from cars etc has arose since the private halls decide to close their gates, the effect this has caused has been raised by me to them in the past and I’m sure Naomi & Andrew will have had similar contact with Abacus house.
I am not privy to their management’s decision as to close the gates but as it seems there were no or less concerns when the gates were open, this is action that only Abacus House management can have an effect on. I wonder if closing the gates is down to their staffing levels?
Possibly getting the local Councillors/Police/Environmental Protection Service involved may have some influence on the situation.
Point 6 were not discussed at the meeting so will be held until next meeting.
6. Updates
- a. Level
- b. anything else ?
- London Road Community Conference
Please also note the date for Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne to visit on 26th September 2023
Addendum:
Note Abacus is run by IQstudentaccommodation, which appears to be:
IQSA (BRIGHTON) LIMITED
Registered office address
7th Floor Cottons Centre, Cottons Lane, London, United Kingdom, SE1 2QG
Company status
Active
Company type
Private limited Company
Incorporated on
1 May 2013
Accounts
Next accounts made up to 30 September 2023
due by 30 June 2024
Last accounts made up to 30 September 2022
Confirmation statement
Next statement date 1 May 2024
due by 15 May 2024
Last statement dated 1 May 2023
Nature of business (SIC)
- 82990 – Other business support service activities not elsewhere classified
Previous company names
| Previous company names | |
| Name | Period |
| THE STUDENT HOUSING COMPANY (BRIGHTON) LIMITED | 01 May 2013 – 17 Jan 2017 |
5 current officers
Correspondence address
7th Floor, Cottons Centre, Cottons Lane, London, United Kingdom, SE1 2QG
Role Active
Director
Date of birth
August 1969
Appointed on
27 July 2022
Nationality
British
Country of residence
England
Occupation
Chief Development Officer
Correspondence address
7th Floor, Cottons Centre, Cottons Lane, London, United Kingdom, SE1 2QG
Role Active
Director
Date of birth
May 1979
Appointed on
25 February 2021
Nationality
British
Country of residence
England
Occupation
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Correspondence address
7th Floor, Cottons Centre, Cottons Lane, London, United Kingdom, SE1 2QG
Role Active
Director
Date of birth
January 1982
Appointed on
30 July 2021
Nationality
British
Country of residence
England
Occupation
Chief Investment Officer
Correspondence address
7th Floor, Cottons Centre, Cottons Lane, London, United Kingdom, SE1 2QG
Role Active
Director
Date of birth
August 1980
Appointed on
24 February 2023
Nationality
American
Country of residence
England
Occupation
Director
Correspondence address
7th Floor, Cottons Centre, Cottons Lane, London, United Kingdom, SE1 2QG
Role Active
Director
Date of birth
December 1980
Appointed on
15 May 2020
Nationality
American
Country of residence
England
Occupation
Investor
London Road Area Local Action Team 