Notes from LAT meeting 14th Feb 2017

London Road L.A.T.

Tuesday 14th February, 2017

Minutes

  1. Welcome, apologies, introductions

In Attendance:

Richard Baraball– Local resident

Roz Lopez- Local resident

Tony Firmin – Kingsbury Road

Mike Hedgethorne – Kingsbury Road

Ann Townsend- Town Team

Cllr Louisa Greenbaum- BHCC

Cllr Tracey Hill- BHCC

Mary Stevens- Drara

Andrea Goddard- Local resident

Terry Reed – Local Resident

Lucy Dunleavy – Vice Chair

Lucy Walker – UOS

Clare Pearce – UOS

Bob Chilton

Corinne Lamb (minute-taker)

P. Wells (Chair) (16)

Apologies

Curtis Tappenden

Andy Keefe – UOB

Sandy Crowhurst (NLCA)

Andy Winter (heading to Cape Town)

Mark and Daphne – gone to theatre

Penny Morley – gone to visit grandchildren in Norhampton

Barry Hughes – volunteering at Night Shelter

Richard Grills – gone to Santiago …

Cath Prenton – hospital treatment

Sandy Crowhurst – Brighton Society

B. future dates and meetings

14th March – councillor-less …apologies FROM pw, if VC is willing and available she can chair on 14th, otherwise revert to 7th March

11th April

9th May – Air quality

  1. Community Safety issues, policing and licensing

a. Licensing:

  • St peters is not in control of the licensing at the Fringe event “Warren”, it is the Warren’s responsibility.

  • October beer festival on the Level- It has been passed without any opposition, because even the Cllrs were not sufficiently alerted to what was proposed. , passed anyway. Concern expressed about it. It will be ticketed evnt.

  • It will be open during the day.

  • AT: From a traders point of view it is not great as it might take people away from London Road

B. POLICING

Phil sent an email to Brian McCarthy his replies shown in italics below:

1. The meeting [regarding the LEVEL] is scheduled for next week and is to see what partners have around CSE/Drugs/ASB at the Level. We will be discussing ways of designing the area with a view to reduce ASB Etc. These could be something as improved lighting or better CCTV.

Explanation: another similar meeting had been held in the Autumn and a follow-up meeting planned – but this meeting was different.

Comment in meeting: CCTV- Where would the money come from how was it is raised? Wait to hear about that

2. We have not been receiving calls from the Brunswick Road Traders around this problem [drug litter]. They may have been reporting these concerns straight to city clean.

3. Last week we again conducted a plain clothed Op aimed at drug dealing at the Level. This did not result in any arrests but we did stop and search a number of youths.

comment: Suggested to combine with Triangle group to meet with Brian McCarthy on this issue.

 

4. [ regarding rogue parking in CPZ J – Clyde Road] If a vehicle is parked dangerously then this could be called in and police do have powers to remove the vehicle.

  1. Drug dealing in local residential streets – update requested

  • There is no effort to make it less obvious its open in the street by the Mitre etc

  • Advice : Always Report it to 101

  • It was noted its a problem etc

  • If we can get Brian McCarthy to come to talk on this issue.

    Update from LAT chairs meeting  (January)- N.B. Police website has removed all reference to LATs, a new, unfinished draft “service arrangement” sheet has been circulated to LAT chairs

  • The original is from an unknown person

  • It says that The police will come only if they think it is appropriate and only promise to “consider it”, Phil has written back (what is the criteria to be appropriate)

  • No mention of accountability to the community

  • This affect us and what we do as a LAT

  • “It is the police pulling back on LAT groups”

    Could we ask them how much they get involved in the community?

  • At present the situation is: phone 101 and nothing with LATs, becomes faceless.

  1. Special Guest Speaker – Cllr Tracey Hill (HMO issues)

  • Lead councillor for private housing including HMOs

NOTE: the substance of her presentation is posted in its entirety on the website Following links here

various comments and questions are noted below, the discussion dealt with technical matters in some detail – please contact Cllr Hill for clarification if required:

  • HMO- Housing legislation etc fire size etc, then planning, community consultation

  • HMO licensing is the licensing for 3 or more people

  • (Houses of 2 or more storeys and 3 or more storeys)

  • The register is online and then anyone can find out the who landlord is.

  • The Council team has names of all properties and they should help if problems, e.g. rubbish – license conditions

  • Self financing- should pay for itself through licensing fees..We like to extend this across the city.

  • Additional licensing- this gets renewed every 5 years

  • We would like to be consult on selective licensing. Going to landlord groups etc to publicize.

  • There would then be 3 groups:

    • HMOs as per national legislation

    • Additional HMOs for selected areas of Brighton

    • possible Selective licensing of privated rented properties i.e. HMO-

    • Question: can this cause backlash, in problem areas, lenders can back off can as it can effect property prices, at present this effects 12 wards (St Peters, Preston park, Hollingdean, North Laine etc- this comes from research to do with housing.

  • There is no fee structure as yet. As it costs lots and the costs differ to the different scheme. If the house cost more the amount the council pay goes up.

    • Hasting has a similar scheme

    • Comment: Rents will go up more.

  • Airbnb- is unregulated- 300 full house lets in Brighton.

  • Planning Permission

  • The two teams (Licensing and Planning) don’t talk to each other

  • Take months to sort out, HMOs, they do come in a sort out and look

  • Restrictions- 7 + should have planning permission, people there should have a planning application, find in planning register, if not there is no planning it will be on the enforcement page of the council website.

  • Planning application page- applications- address and how its going and if its been rejected in the past.

  • Handout with a link on it was given out.

  • Point 3 of the handout-if you want to make a complaint

  • Give out HMO apps but there is no require for planning

  • Article 4 direction- removes development rights

  • Small HMO– planning permission for change of C4-HMO is 3-6 people after the date it needs planning permission and if not it is after it doesn’t 2013

  • There is a 50 meters radius if there is more than 10% will be refused – from the edge of the house, there is exact definition again on the council website

  • It is a criminal offence to have an HMO without a license

  • If anyone wants to advertise as a HMO, no one can take action until it’s being lived in

  • E.g. Hanover/elm grove- people have contacted local council to do this and alert Estate Agents and their purchasers and if they don’t they will be in trouble.

  • Wording is available on how to go about this if anyone sees anything without permission- can take 8-9 months or 3 months, only after that they will take action or the tenants will be kicked out. We can write a letter to the Council and then planning enforcement team

  • Recently:

    • People have started to squeeze in more people. Creating a problem

    • Conditioning amount of people to live there e.g. 4 people, adding multiple extra people is pretty rare with students

      • They will complete registration forms but not have planning permission

  • It all depends on the particular case and they are conditioning them, but if it’s been there for a while and its retrospective it will be looked at.

  • Developers are arguing they are not doing any thing wrong, and being sneaky and they are stepping stones past the legal steps. I.e. still appealing the decisions.

  • The applications will be refused even if the 10 % isn’t there this is a tightening up of the system.

  • Building control– there is a register on the council website.

    • If they have started work without letting they council know they council can go in and have a search. (On the building control page)

  • Where has it made a difference?

    • There is a written contract.

    • There has been a difference in terms of rubbish collection etc.

    • People now know where they are and it is working

  1. Plans for publicity and funding – to note

  • There has been a proposal for an article for LAT to go in the Preston park pages.

  1. News and Updates

1. Parking in zone J- mentioned before

i.e. difficulty in finding parking spaces at night

  • The is a suggestion that they might split the zone to prevent internal commuting. Please could people think about how the split will work and if it affects them

2. Viaduct Road progress

  • Outcome of consolation:

Richard Bradley’s email was read, and is below and this is the solution and will be dealt with:

Following Committee(s) approval, we are now in a position to start planning the roll out of communal bins in the areas of the City that Members gave approval for, Viaduct Road being one such area.

Colleagues and I will contact you very soon Mr Wells to discuss the implementation plan but as Cllr Mitchell states, whilst we are not able to undertake new planting schemes, we can discuss other thoughts and ideas you or fellow residents may have. That said, walking up Viaduct Rd just this morning, I am absolutely convinced the appearance of the street scene will be very much improved with the installation of the communal bins and the removal of many wheeled bins from footpaths and associated debris.

Best regards

Richard Bradley,Head of City Clean & City Parks, Hollingdean Depot, Brighton, 01273 294701

  • Ask if a councilor or someone can be there at a future meeting?

3. Greenway extension

    • The lift is broken and the lighting is bad.

      • There is a sign post saying there is another way

      • Louisa to follow up on this

4. Business Improvement District progress

  • Still working on the Business Improvement District consultation following on from the Portas Town Team

  • Trying to move forwards and get more business involved and would like to hand it over to others. The business community needs to be pro-active.

  1. Level Communities Forum matters (if any)

  • This was raised earlier

  1. Any other business

  • None

  • Meeting Closed around 19.50