London Road LAT minutes for 10th January 2017

London Road L.A.T.

Tuesday 10th January, 2017

Minutes

  1. Welcome and introductions

In Attendance:

Silvia Chilton- local resident, Bob Chilton- local resident, Barry Hughes- Silvan Hall chairman, Council Central Area (housing Panel) Residents chairman, Claire Peace – Housing Officer University of Sussex, Lucy Walker – Housing officer University of Sussex (running a community fair at Sussex, 1st February), Penny Morley – local residence, older Peoples’ Council, Andrew Keefe – community liason officer Uni Brighton, Cath Prenton – local resident, Lucy Dunleavy – local resident, vice chair, Richard Baraball – local resident, Corinne Lamb – friends of the elderly, local resident, Tony Firmin – resident, Keith Newnham – outreach worker for Equinox Brighton, Scott Crossley – team leader for drug and alcohol outreach team at Equinox (work in 7 homeless hostels, Sandy Crowhurst – North Laine Community association

(15)

Apologies

Elspeth Broady, Insp Brian McCarthy – apologies were also received from Cll Lousia who had last minute child-care problems due to the train strike.

  1. Minutes and date of next meeting

1. updates on next meetings:

  • Invitations and plans 14th Feb (HMO): Tracey Hill will be speaking about the HMO issue and working group forum that is looking into this

  • 14th March (no Cllrs): suggested Brian McCarthy as a potential speaker

  • 11th April,

  • 9th May: (Air quality report) – Environmental Protection dept will come and speak

These were all approved

2. any volunteers to produce publicity materials?

  • Discussion about value and qualities of a newsletter

  • Suggested to put something in the Preston Pages

Phil to speak with Joan from Preston Pages about putting something in the publication

3. to note: funding provisions still to be investigated

  1. Policing and Licensing and Community Safety

    1. Insp. Brian McCarthy was invited to send a police rep. but no one is able to come – his email is as follows

  • Phil read letter from Brian McCarthy

Phillip,

Unfortunately I will not be able to send someone to this. AT the moment we are training the second batch of new PCSO’s. I will be attending the LAT chair meeting on the 12th where we can catch up and discuss concerns. I believe that the PCC will be there and I would be interested to hear what her views on local Policing are and how they fit into what I have been advised of the LPP plan. We are again in a period of change with a new District Commander in C/Supt Lisa Bell and a new second in command in Supt. Jayne Derrick.

With regards to the Level this has seen a reduction in the number of calls and has over the last few months. We are however aware that as the days get warmer so the Level will get busier. With regards to Drug issues in the area we again are not getting many calls. With regards to rough sleeping we are looking at a holistic approach to this and are working with the council to set up alternative giving. We are also looking to get them to engage with outreach workers in the first instance before any enforcement.

Regards Brian

Attending communities for meeting recently, where they expressed the following concerns about the level:

committee members being offered drugs by 12 year old

vandalism and gang culture in this area

Phil asked for any feedback:

Tony F asked for an update on PCSOs training and if they will still walk in two’s

Community Safety team have also sent an email reply and reported what they’re doing with other agencies and especially areas around the level

The Level

The Level Communities Forum continues to meet on a regular basis with the aim of addressing community concerns about the area; the Community Safety Casework Team feeds into this meeting.  A recent positive development to come out of this was that Jonathan Ridley brought together the Youth Service, the Sports Development Team and people who use the skate park and local skate shops who have now started working towards organising a positive community event for that part of the level in order to bring a more positive focus to the area.

Community members who attended the Level Community Forum felt that the negative reports in the Argus relating to use of the skate park and surrounding area were unfair and were not representative of the majority of people’s experience of using this area.

The Police continue to patrol the area on a regular basis in uniform and plain clothes to address criminal concerns such as drug use; we would advise people to continue to report concerns that they have as it is only by reporting that resources can be targeted to the areas most in need of them.

The Community Safety Casework Team received some reports towards the end of last year regarding members of the Street Community camping on the Level and causing anti-social behaviour.  This information was shared with appropriate partner agencies and a multi-agency response removed the tents and sought to engage with the individuals in them with the view to moving them towards more appropriate long-term accommodation; this is a standard process across the city and resources to address issues relating to members of the Street Community are allocated on the basis of risk, vulnerability and community impact at a fortnightly multi-agency meeting.  Again, we would encourage residents to report concerns of this type so that these resources can go to the areas that need them most.

We have not received recent reports of other concerns relating to the Level (apart from having been notified of the vandalising of the Christmas tree by other council officers).

·         Brunswick Row

We were contacted by members of the public who work in Brunswick Row in October voicing concerns similar to those that you raise.  Their aim was to get support in making physical changes to the area in order to reduce its attractiveness as a location for people using drugs and discarding paraphernalia.  We put them in contact with colleagues in the Environmental Improvement Team who specialise in this type of work and are best-placed to support them in taking these positive steps; we have not heard anything further about this and so assume that this work is ongoing. 

We would always advise anyone finding drug paraphernalia to report it to City Clean who have a 1-hour target response time for hazardous waste such as needles.

  • Phil reported concerns about Africa House

Phil to put letters from the Community Safety Team and Brian McCArthy on the website (as above)

    1. For information – PCC Katy Bourne is attending the LAT chairs meeting 12/1/17

  1. Local Updates

    1. Rough Sleeping Issues –From Equinox:

  • Scott C: are a team of 5 outreach workers, trying to tackle street drinking, drug and alcohol problems in Brighton

  • Have joined with police (including Insp Brian McCarthy, and Insp Gareth Davis), as well as St. Mungos, substance mis-use team, other out reach agencies and have a multi-agency meeting every fornight

  • Discuss each area, make a plan of how they will target certain individuals to reduce anti-social behaviour

  • Their main objective is to break up groups, and set individuals on a path of recovery

  • Looking to re-launch ‘Sensible and Strength’ to reduce strength of alcohol that can be sold at newsagents; trying to get more outlets signed up for this

  • Email community safety team (contact can be found on: http://www.safeinthecity.info/) if you see anything, and they will send out an email to all agencies involved

  • Will be doing local training for individuals soon on how to discard needles

-> Phil to send Scott email of contact for Africa House who may also be interested in the training

    1. From Level Communities Forum 9/1/17

  • the forum was concerned that with the cutbacks the pavilions were in danger of becoming places of anti-social behaviour, vandalism and disrepair, unless they were promoted

  • Barry H mentioned that council doesn’t have a continuous plan for the Pavilions, but only secured funding for the initial big improvements

  • Richard mentioned putting up notice boards on the Pavilions to alert people that they are able to be used and hired out

  • the Level Communities Forum was considering ways of managing these facilities from a community base rather than a council base. Phil concluded that Level Communities Forum should deal with this, rather that LAT for now

    1. Emporium / 88London Road –

  • James sends thanks for our support- venue has now closed

  • Cath P (building surveyor) was approached by someone who knew the owner of the building; keen to keep it a live-music and theatre venue with a bar and restaurant

  • Phil mentioned that licensing at 88London Road was ambiguous as to what the building was meant to be used for. It was to be “theatre-led”

  • Phil suggested being vigilant about what will move in next and be prepared to speak up about any licensing discrepancies

    1. Circus Parade – works in hand in “forecourt”

  • Still has not got a reply from anyone on this

    1. Viaduct Road – enquiry to Cllr Gill Mitchell, no reply received

  • Awaiting reply about the implementation of the wheelie bins on Viaduct road that have been voted in

  • Suggested to have Cllr Gill Mitchell be a guest speaker at LAT in the near future

    1. HMO forum – report, if any

  • No updates, but Mike H offered to contact Tracey Hill and ask about current situation

    1. London Road Town Team – BID

  • Bid has been reduced to very little – no further updates as Anne Townsend not present

  1. Any other business

  • None

  • Meeting closed at approx: 19:30