| Finance Minutes 5 May 2010 |
|
REPORT OF THE FINANCE, POLICY AND GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE MEETING held in the Council Chamber at the Council Offices 66 Dunstable Street, Ampthill on Wednesday 5th May 2010 at 7.30 pm Report no 07/09 Present: Cllrs R Holden (Chairman), Mrs S Bacon, Mrs P Foster, G Pascal, M Smith, G Summerfield, R Tebbutt, Mrs M Wilson, Mrs M Wright and the Clerk. Also present were Mr J Plummer Ampthill Community Safety Group, Mr R Holgate, Stevenage Borough Council CCTV control and 15 members of the public.
Apologies were received from Cllrs R A D Chappell (unwell) and P Duckett (another commitment) and P Eversley (work commitment)
Two members of the public had registered to speak. Miss S Gibb, Church Street Miss Gibb advised Councillors of the problem suffered by herself and her mother in the early hours of Saturday morning. Two men were acting violently outside their home and then entered their rear garden causing damage to plants and wheely bins, the window of Martins newsagents was broken and one of the culprits had sustained a cut hand. The Police were called and arrived within two minutes resulting in an arrest. Miss Gibbs and her mother were left in a state of shock. Dr W DeGroot, Church Street Dr DeGroot advised that it was now a year since residents voiced concern over the disturbances occurring at night in Church Street and Dunstable Street and he must emphasis what is going on in the centre of Ampthill most weekends and asked why it is taking so long for any action to be taken.
Mr Plummer advised those present he would give an update on the matters for action arising from the SARA report. Action 1 CCTV –Friday and Saturday monitoring is taking place and is concentrating on specific areas such as the Town Centre. Members of the public can help by reporting matters using the following two telephone numbers: Noise nuisance 0300 300 8098 Environmental Crime Team 0845 849 5972 High visible policing is ongoing particularly in the Town Centre. Action 2 Review of licences – the Police have a meeting with the Licence Holder at the White Hart Hotel in the week beginning 10th May and licensing hours will be discussed. Action 3 Trading Standards- tests are still ongoing for underage selling of both cigarettes and alcohol. There was one test failure in January 2010 and a visit has been carried out where the retailer has been advised of the consequences of any future sales to underage persons. A knife and weapons test took place in March. Mr Plummer, being a partner of Waitrose, advised that the management took a very serious view on this matter and partners would find themselves in trouble if they were ever caught doing this. Action 4 Alcohol signs are now present in the town. Action 5 Noise nuisance- People are advised to use the number given to report any incidents. All this information is linked to the SARA report actions only and does not relate to any later matters. There is a lot of work going on in the background; Sergeant Lisa Johnson was unable to attend this evening as she is covering for Inspector Tania Couling who is sick and for P.C Element who lost his mother last night. However Mr Plummer will take any comments back to the Police. Feedback from Town Council Cllr G Pascal firstly declared an interest a Chairman of the Church Street and Dunstable Street Residents Association and asked that residents do take the time to report any noise nuisance or if in any doubt use the environmental crime hotline. Cllr G Summerfield advised that once something is reported it will go into a file at Central Bedfordshire Council and be reviewed when licences are looked at; if there are no reports then it will be deemed that there are no problems. Standing Orders were suspended at 7.50pm to allow Mr J Lawrence of Dunstable Street to address the Council on the noise problems caused by people attending the Old Sun Public House. The following information was given:
Standing Orders were resumed at 8pm A member advised that the Town Council know that the CCTV cameras have some blind spots and it may be that incidents happen within these blind spots. Another member advised that although we have alcohol free zones in the town this only means that the Police are able to challenge a person drinking and confiscate any alcohol. After further discussion it was: Recommended that the Clerk writes to the Licensing Officer at Central Bedfordshire Council to advise that on the behalf of the residents of Ampthill a representative from the Licensing Department attends a meeting of Ampthill Town Council to discuss the concerns of both the Town Council and residents.
Cllr M Smith advised that the prime reason for this item was the monetary issue of the Council spending £32,000 on CCTV per year and whether value for money was being gained. He has a concern that the cameras may not be operating to catch people behaving in an anti social manner, but to act a deterrent and it does not seem to be having that effect at the moment. People either seem to forget or do not know they are on camera in the town centre. It would also be helpful to know how many convictions have arisen or to have evidence that it does work as a deterrent as it seems that every weekend incidents happen that may not be caught on the cameras. It is also to be asked as to why cameras are off line. Mr Plummer advised that residents should not just rely on the CCTV cameras but call the Kempston Police hotline to report any incidents when they see them on 01234 841212, this will be answered within 3 rings. Mr R Holgate then gave a report with the following information being given:
Mr Holgate was thanked for taking the time to attend this meeting and it was then: Recommended that: i) When P C Element is back on duty he is asked about the Airwave Radio scheme. ii) The Councillors that have not seen the CCTV monitoring control room at Stevenage take the opportunity to do so. iii) Councillors are to visit Kempston Police Head Quarters to see the other end of procedures. iv) Mr Plummer is to continue as Chairman of the Community Safety Group to monitor actions on the SARA report. The SARA report and the CCTV can be looked at again in September. v) The No Alcohol Zone be placed on a future agenda.
Cllrs Gary Summerfield, M Smith, and R Tebbutt declared a prejudicial interest in the next item as they are members of the Festival Committee; Cllr Mrs P Foster also declared a prejudicial interest as her company is one of the sponsors for the event.
Mr Palmer gave details of the Amp Rocks event as appended to these minutes and asked for approval from the Town Council to hold the event. Recommended that the Town Council are happy to support Amp Rocks.
Vicki Frances had asked that the Council consider any issues surrounding the setting up of a new allotment site. The Clerk was advised that at the previous nights Planning Committee meeting this proposed development was discussed with following recommendation on the allotments being made: “The Town Council would also suggest a commuted sum be available through the S.106 for maintenance costs for the proposed allotments and provision of mains water supply to serve the allotments.” Therefore there is no further action needed at this time.
Recommended that two places be booked, one for the Clerk and one for a Councillor to be advised at a later date.
a) £1,107.00 b) £) 940.00 The Clerk advised that the sum of £300 is held in reserves for the Deputy Clerk’s office. Recommended that the Clerk contacts the higher priced company to see if they can match the lower price as the Council, would like to support an Ampthill business, if this is not possible the lower quote is to accepted. 10. To review the Short, Medium and Long Term strategies for this Committee. Members had been provided with a copy of the draft Terms of References Recommended that the Clerk amend all references to Mid Beds District Council to Central Bedfordshire Council and that this Committee looks at implementing a five year rolling plan for buildings at a later meeting. There being no further business the meeting closed at 9.15pm CHAIRMAN DATED |