LAT Minutes September 2012

Meeting of the London Road Area Local Action Team on
Tuesday 4 September 2012, 6.30pm, at Calvary Church
MINUTES
1. Welcome, apologies & introductions
Cllr. Davey is on holiday. Caroline Lucas MP and Assistant Chief Constable Robin Merritt have both deferred attendance until a future time.
Apologies from: Barry Hughes (Sylvan Hall), Sharon Watson (who is now no longer the housing officer for this area), Sylvia and Bob Chilton, Liliana Murari, Jean Calder, Ros Lopez, Mohammed Asaduzzaman (of Goa Spice of Life in Baker Street), Amanda Healey (Headteacher, St Bartholomew’s CE Primary School), and Elaine Welsh, Jim Meyer, Richard Hilton (The World’s End).
Present: Philip Wells, Charlotte Overton-Hart, Mark and Daphne de Boissiere, Mike Hedgethorne, Tony Firmin, Andy Winter, George Middlehurst, Nic Harrison, Sharon Birt, Charles Dudley, Lorrinda Holness, Ollie de Trafford (Moksha), Lotta (Moksha), John Holden, Edward White, Karen Ashdown, Ben Alltimes, Sandy Crowhurst, Rob Dawson, Alan Buck, Ben Coleman, Bob Curtis, Billy Doyle (Preston Circus Pharmacy).
2. Minutes of previous meeting – taken as a fair record of events
3. Matters arising, ongoing and updates
Philip Wells did a walk with Elaine Dignan (Highways) to identify unnecessary and tatty signage and to flag up the location and usefulness of London Road car park – there was a list between 26 and 30 items. A London Road parking sign has gone up.
Mike Hedgethorne: requested the list be sent out to LAT members.  Philip Wells did a preliminary walk round with Jim Mayor (see below)
Open Market – first storeys are being completed.
Argus letters – Several letters have been sent into The Argus suggesting that London Road is not safe for children. One reader – Diane Waller – wrote into The Argus saying she has always felt safe in the area.
Received email: “Official Notice: One Brighton Residents’ Association (ORA) to be dissolved. Further to a Special General Meeting held on 16 July 2012, and consultation to ensure proper procedures were followed and votes passed according to the ORA Constitution, it was officially confirmed on 28 July 2012 ORA is to be dissolved.”
Fly-posting update.
Edward White: according to The Argus the case against the Concorde 2 was lost on a technicality. Will look into the case further and report back.
Karen Ashdown: there are fewer posters up than before, which marks a clear success in this area.
Mike Hedgethorne: this has been a success of the LAT, and should be noted if there is going to be a LAT newsletter.
Edward White: it has certainly been a success.
Car parking
Philip Wells: would the LAT like to express the view that there shouldn’t be city centre prices in the London Road area?
Agreed by the LAT.
Update from Sally Pinkus – in appendix of minutes
Andy Winter: a new multi-agency initiative is being undertaken to address the top ten most entrenched alcohol and drug users in Brighton.
4. Policing matters – statistics and policing priorities

Update from Sharon Birt: squatters have been evicted from 77 London Road. The police can assist removal and arrest of squatters in residences, but not in business premises. Every meeting we have the opportunity to confirm/update our policing priorities.

Sharon Birt: there has been a suggestion from someone in the team to remove the shelter by the taxi rank at the north end of St Peter’s, and wanted to request the views of the LAT.
Edward White: appalled by the suggestion to remove the shelter, and would rather see enforcement.
Andy Winter: office at BHT overlooks the taxi rank and the shelter and would not be in favour of the removal.
Karen Ashdown: suggests putting some signage on the shelter giving police details so people can contact the police if they are waiting for a taxi and feel uncomfortable by the behaviour of others around them.
Philip Wells: confirmed that the LAT is not in favour of the removal of the shelter.
Police Statistics for July 2012:
London Road/York Place
Anti-Social Behaviour 28
Burglary 1
Criminal damage 1
Medical (drugs/drinking) 11
Rowdy (e.g. drinkers, fighting, noise, domestics) 1
Road Traffic Collision 5
Suspicious 22
Theft 29 (of which 23 were shopliftings)
Violence (assault, fighting, robbery) 15
Police Activity (warrants/arrests etc) 12

Review of our three possible policing priorities for this month.

Last month’s were:

• York Place/St Peter’s Place/street drinking/anti-social behaviour – as previousmonth
• Shop-lifting – as previous month
• Prevention of intimidating behaviour on London Road – NEW in July 2012

Ollie de Trafford: in favour of keeping the police priorities.
Karen Ashdown: asked about the pattern of police statistics, and how they may have changed over a number of months
Sharon Birt: sometimes the stats relate to how calls are recorded.
Andy Winter: has been in touch with Ian Davey about the traffic accidents on the corner of Oxford Street and Ditchling Road, and has previously have been in touch with Keith Taylor about it. There is certainly potential for a fatality. Will chase Ian for a response.
Ollie de Trafford: there was an accident today in front of Moksha (a man got hit by a car).
5. Portas Bid
The Portas bid was successful! The amount is £83,000. This was announced on 25th July 2012 resulting in Radio and TV coverage including some local faces and voices.
Would the meeting support the invitation to Chair to attend the next official Portas progress meeting on 6 September in Croydon? Philip Wells to attend.
Would “Another London Road” care to invest its residual funds (if any) into thisproject? – Philip Wells: would the LAT be interested in contacting Christina Summers with a view to finding out about this. Yes.
Update from Rob Dawson.
Rob Dawson: met with Communities and Government last week. Thanks to Ollie for his contribution, and all others who contributed to working on the bid. Keen on working with complimentary rather than piecemeal projects. Subsidised crime reduction radio networks, concentrated version of the White Night which has not received funding this year, business training, working with landlords to bring occupancy back, working with local businesses through the business rates team, and working with highways and signage on helping pedestrians find their way through/across the area. All projects will certainly be local, rather than brought in from London.
Anticipates that projects will start happening in December 2012 / January 2013.
Andy Winter: would consideration be given to traders already in the area, who have already made a steak in the area?
Rob Dawson: it is certainly being looked into whether it would be possible. In addition to the funding from the bid, the council has contributed funding for a web presence for the project. There are currently no stats on footfall.
Bob: the Five Ways artists are very prolific, and there may be an opportunity for them tomake a contribution to the bid.
Sharon Birt: some businesses would really benefit from the radio network scheme, while others don’t seem so bothered. Maplin now have a radio after two years. There isn’t a great deal of money to invest.
Ollie de Trafford: used it for a while but didn’t find it particularly successful.
6. Former Co-op Planning Application
Update: there was a planning consultation meeting 23, and 24 July. The proposal is for 350 students, with retail on the ground floor, reduced massing at the rear, and the facade to be retained. Issues were raised resulting in correspondence, clarification and modification – letter from Rebecca.
From David Stevenson 30-08-2012 “An update to let you know that a revised planning application on the London Road property was submitted to the local authority at the beginning of this week. Whilst the detail of the application will be available for public inspection as part of the usual process I did agree when we last spoke that if the members of the LAT would like us to make a further presentation (I believe this was done with the original application) then we would be happy to do so.” Yes. Would we like to have a representative from the developer next time? We understand that Rebecca is leaving this employment, would we like to say express any appreciation to her? The LAT confirmed they would like to express their
appreciation.
Andy Winter: the application has gone in, but it is not currently up on the website.
Edward White: the developers are saying that to allay concerns about the development they will contribute funds to local policing. It is imperative that if this is to happen, the contribution should not simply be absorbed into Sussex Police.
Alan Buck: the consultation should be a minimum of 8 weeks, and perhaps for 12 weeks.
Charles Dudley: it would be helpful to put the possible development into the context of the university accommodation overall. With the assistance of the city council the university accommodation is growing, and this year all first year undergraduates have all been accommodated in Falmer.
7. Lively Cities – Providence Place
The project will take place in the first two weeks of October (update from Alan Buck)
What can we do to support this, and maintain the benefit into the future?
Alan Buck: Lively Cities is a pilot project to revamp the Ann Street area. The winner was The ‘Common Room’ idea, developed by Plan Projects in collaboration with Luis Trevino Architects. All the railings will be removed for two weeks (only some of which will be replaced), turf will be added, there will be a stage area, there will be free wi-fi, and terracing on the lower side of the green. The idea is to have an area where people can spend time, including students from City College, people who live and work in the area,
and people who are passing through. The area will take on different characteristics at different times of the day. If anyone would like to take part in market research in the first couple of weeks of October they would be very welcome (email Alan at Alan.Buck@brighton-hove.gov.uk). In terms of police presence it would be good to have a light police presence to see how successful the scheme is in terms of the scheme itself contributing to a reduction in anti-social behaviour.
Mark de Boissiere: what is going to happen about the graffiti and tagging?
Alan Buck: a screen will be painted on the wall by Iceland and films will be screened during the evenings, and wallpaper will be printed on the backs of a number of the buildings.
Karen Ashdown: there will also be some tai-chi and shitatsu events, and the local scouts will spend an evening there, and it is hoped that other impromptu events will take place during the two weeks.
8. Valley Gardens traffic projectPLUS London Road traffic and development project
Update from Jim Mayor
Note: query from Liam Mandville about enforcement of private vehicular traffic coming on to London Road next to Boots.
Ben: there is funding over the course of three years, but how it will be spent has not yet been ring-fenced. This is the broadest part of the project. London Road may not be seen as the most desirable area, but there are a lot of inherent qualities in London Road, but the way it is currently configured it is not playing to its strengths. The mid-90s traffic scheme created a race track around London Road. Everything from Ditchling Road to the New
England quarter up to Cheapside will all be considered. A great deal of time has been spent with the analysis of the area over the past month. London Road is a major thoroughfare, and this will not change, but it is a question of considering the area as a whole and what can be done realistically.
Bob: are any of the junctions going to be addressed?
Ben: some junctions may be addressed.
9. Environmental Improvement & Highways
Any updates from Simon Bannister including cable-tie safari and street cleansing – held over
10. A.O.B
London Road LAT is now on Twitter.
Follow us at: https://twitter.com/LondonRoadLAT
Any other items, please notify Chair at philipwells@btinternet.com before the meeting.
Dates of next meetings: 2 October / 6 November / 4 December 2012
AOB:
What LAT members like about the London Road area: it’s local, the mixture of retail and people living here, the number of small shops, the essential character of Brighton – anyone and everyone can be found on London Road, it’s very busy with access to lots of different things in the city, so why not add a natural flow to the London Road area? It has a lot of character, links to lots of different areas, it’s John’s Camping, and the sale’s still on!
Low cost parking would be great, hanging baskets would look nice and smell nice, neighbourliness and traders are present. It’s a gateway to Brighton, and has a mix of chain and independent shops. Its accessibility is a strength, and people walk and bus and cycle to the area. It seems more authentic when compared with other retail areas. It’s slightly gritty, and [I] wouldn’t want to gentrify the area too much, it’s a local resource for local
people, it’s eclectic, and it’s gone down as far as it can and it’s now on the up, it used to be diversity of shops and would like to see it again, [I’ve] never worked in a more interesting place, it has an eclectic mix, diversity, Dukes, Badlands Guitars, old Brighton.
Appendix to Minutes (from Sally Pinkus):
Communities of Practice Development Programme
Stakeholder newsletter – July 2012
What is a Community of Practice?
A ‘Community of Practice’ is a group of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic and who want to deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. These CPs will bring together frontline workers from a range of relevant services including homeless, drug and alcohol, mental health, social work and criminal justice services.
Through case-based learning it is hoped that they will provide a forum for reflective practice, provide inter-professional education, promote creative problem-solving for complex cases and improve inter-professional working. More information about CPs can be found here. As well as having members from a range of agencies, the Communities of Practice will be attended
by a ‘knowledge broker’ who will attempt to bring relevant research findings to the CP forconsideration.
The original research
The ‘Community of Practice’ (CP) Development Programme is part of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Knowledge Exchange Programme designed to implement the findings of a recent research project undertaken on multiple needs and exclusions.
Brighton
Brighton CP is focusing on women with polydrug use (including alcohol use) and is being hosted by Brighton Oasis project. So far members have been recruited from adult social care, the local Accident and Emergency department, Sussex Police, Rise (supporting victims of domestic
abuse), Equinox, Sussex Probation, Inspire(Brighton’s women’s centre) and Survivors’ Network (supporting victims of sexual violence). Some of those attending had never met before and in the first meeting discussion focused around each organisation’s role and the difficulty in bringing about change with this group. At the second meeting the case study presented raised issues around services for dual diagnosis; hostel provision; experience of domestic violence; and the need for training around safeguarding in the context of adults with substance misuse needs. Much of the discussion also focused around the difficulties of repeated assessments and how to manage disclosures of abuse, both in terms of supporting the client but also in terms of supporting staff.If you would like to find out more about this project, please email: communitiesofpractice@revolving-doors.org.uk