London Road Local Action Team Minutes from 14th March 2023

  1. Welcome and apologies

Judi Lynn, Philip Wells, Simon Bannister, Sandy Crowhurst (NLCA), Alan Briggenshaw, Corinne Lamb

Matthew Alder- Environment enforcement officer (by zoom)

Naomi Barnard- University of Sussex- liaison officer to do with residents (by zoom)

Andy- Stanley road, Lucy Dunleavy, Catherine Clement

Apologies

Sarah Tobias

PCSO’s all- Ben was going to come but not now, disappointing

Sue Shanks- Issue with timetabling

Georgia PCSO- updates from Brenda Major- leaving to be a detective for Sussex Police

  • Should we adjust our dates to make sure we can get them to come?
  • Is there a regular date we should be able to do?

Lauren and Tilley on similar shifts- on different shifts

  • Philip to write to Andy Saville and see if we can get something from their end and get consistency. Action point

Mike and Tony- on a cruise, Roz Lopez, Hermione Huckley

2. Minutes of 14th Feb 2023 – date of next meeting Tuesday 11th April 2023 (Easter Bank Holiday weekend). Note elections in May 2023

4th May- Election- hustings, prospective councilors to attend for 2 wards- 2 councilors each. All can come to have equal playing field

By 7th April will be known who is standing.

  • Action: Phil to see if next meeting could coincide with hustings

3. Environmental Enforcement – introducing Matthew Alder

Good idea to reach out to LAT as an intro.

They wander round Brighton- flying tipping, littering and make sure that business and residents get ride of waste properly. It’s a trial to see if it works.

At the bottom of Ditchling Rise its always full of litter and its unpleasant, bins etc- Max is operations manager and will feed this back to him and get a crew out there to clean up and then officers will come to the area.  There are lots of people living there.

Poundland and Pure Gym- Providence lofts- rear is vile- has been cleaned. People see this as a dumping ground- what powers do you have? The strip is private, what can be done?

  • They have fined Poundland before- its difficult- go back and speak to manager. Its not a particularly clean area
  • Could get businesses to clean it up better
  • Give back to Max and see for a solution.
  • Railworks did a deal with Poundland and why is there change now, and why can they not keep there bins in- this is a health and safety issue- but will double check.

Could press coverage about this work- its up to us if we want ??.

Commercial bins on pavements

  • If they are business bins there is a T zone in the central agreement that they cannot be on the highway between 9-6pm
  • Could we have a map of the T zone-
    • Action: Matthew to send this map through

Duke of York’s, Grocery shops etc

  • Duke of York’s bins- there was a planter there and now has bins on it
  • See if they can keep bins somewhere else.
  • Team to come and look

Stanley road bins by the side of cinema.

  • Max might be able to see if there is a better place for these bins
  • They are looking into expanding T zones.
  • There is a problem with their gutter as when it rains, there is a waterfall coming down from their gutter. This has never been fixed.

London road- posters on lamp posts

  • There is an increase of fly posting for gigs, which is illegal.
  • Thought that street cleaners would get rid of these. Do street cleaners remove these?
  • The promoters are the ones who will get the fines, but they are hard to find. The team has spoken to the venues to try and find different ways to promote the events.
  • Action: Matt will check and get back to Philip who has details. This is prosecutable and will take action.
  • Action: Check the cleaners remit

4. Police

  • Parcel stealing – update?Sainsbury’s and shoplifting: BCRP radio sign-up progress?Sainsbury’s have signed up to the BCRP

Have Aldi signed up to this- take a look into this-

There been various meat deals outside Sainsbury’s and all the reporting helps.

Ring 999 if there is anything happening in progress.

It was suggested to invite Andy Saville to come to the meeting.

  • Problems on London Terrace regarding Abacus House

                Resident has reported that:

  • Spoken to the assistant manager about the type of students that are there now.
    • Abacus has started to rent privately not just to Sussex students, a variety of ages.
    • The security guards have lost control; ambulances and fire trucks were called, all very distressing.
    • There is no money to open bollards and to re hire security guards.
    • Drug dealing is also happening around the area.
  • Andy Keefe has called the manger of Abacus, and there was a positive meeting, they were willing to work together. Its important that both universities have representation.
    • It is concerning and we need to get more information and an idea of what is going on.
    • If anyone knows anymore on this please let Naomi know.
    • This is something to take up to the council about private sector housing. Not sure how they are regulated. See what we can do to put something in place.
    • The universities do not have responsibility for their students in the community.

                Punishment for students:

  • If there is a drug deal involving a student, it would then go to student discipline, which is an excludable offence.
  • Naomi and Andy need to reiterate it to Abacus. This is the first report of such an incident.
    • Action: They will try and speak to IQ and the expectations they expect of their students.

                Bollards:

  • These have been damaged so people are using the road behind instead. This has lead to an increase in traffic on London Terrace.
  • Action: Simon Banister could see what their travel plan says and look into it. Naomi will look into it also.
  • Current situation on Level: Home secretary, trees, etc

5. Drug Harm conference – 15th February – Feedback

  • The police and council are trying to do things, and do report incidents, this is the take home message. In practice its not working.
  • There are better ways to communicate a report on the website. It is down to a force of how much space each force wants.
  • Another way to report is Crime stoppers, which is anonymous.
  • There is a hotspot of Cuckooing in St Peters and the North Laine. This area has lots of challenges  

6. Providence Place/Elder Place

  • Update as from a meeting earlier on 14/3/2023Consultants have been appointed to look into parking provision and requirements, transport planning, traffic calming, access for business ANDProduce a concept design to be put out for consultation (June? or September?)

At some point there will be a “walk around” t.b.a.

The meeting was shown an update from Thailia: New scheme in place that puts people first, her response is below:

In terms of an update, the key highlights are:

  • Project Centre Ltd has now been appointed to develop a preferred transport option (aimed at reducing traffic flows, introducing traffic calming measures, and making the corridor more pedestrian and cycle friendly) and a costed concept street design that puts “people first”.  Over the coming weeks, traffic and other surveys will be commissioned to inform thinking.
  • The project is working towards public consultation and testing (where possible) in or around September 2023.  This has been pushed back from May/June 2023, to allow more time to both develop the transport option and concept street design and to plan and publicise the consultation and testing (including any events), whilst also avoiding the summer holiday period.
  • The project remains keen to take a placemaking approach, and to meaningfully engage the community as part of this process.  The project will be holding a “walkabout” with the consultant team and interested members of the community, to hear thoughts and gather further input on the key issues and potential solutions at an early stage.  The intention was to publicise this in March 2023 and to hold it in April 2023, but this has been paused until after the local elections on 04 May 2023 following advice from the lawyers responsible for advising the Council on how it can best stay within the rules that govern Council publicity during the pre-election period (which runs from 17 March 2023 to 04 May 2023).
  • This is hopeful and shows that we are being listened to. Hoping for practical and sustainable solution, things are moving forward.

7. BHCC support, Publicity drive and Local conference idea + PCC visit

Invitation issued to Katy Bourne – but her diary is busy April to beginning of July. Summer or September??

Invite Andy Seville to come to the meeting with Katy, or before.

Action: Philip will ask.

Invite Katy in September

8. PAN and neighborhood conference:

  • There is a sense of not marching together in the city, with lots of groups that aren’t talking to each other. Groups need to be strong.
  • The pandemic hasn’t helped the lack of communication.
  • Next meeting is happening in July.
  • We should be using Facebook more to engage with the community team. 
  • AOB – items for next agenda

Close.