Agenda and minutes

There were none.

DECIDED:That the minutes of the previous meetings held on 16 and 23 March 2022, be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

No urgent items had been received.

·         Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

·         Other Interests

. No declarations of interests were made by members.

(At least two clear days notice required, in writing, to the Proper Officer in accordance with Procedure Rule 15).

Question received from Councillor Hoptroff

Q1.“Due to the recent wanton vandalism of the Leek Bus Station toilets and the unfortunate forced closure, we need to set up some form of security before we even contemplate carrying out expensive repair work and reopening to the public again.

What progress has been made in providing some form of CCTV coverage around the

area that was discussed at this panel’s meeting on the 3rd November 2021?”

Response from Councillor Ward -  Portfolio Holder for Communities:

Background

Unfortunately, the Smithfield WCs have been the focus of vandalism for some time now. In Spring 2020, a major capital refurbishment project  was undertaken to improve accessibility and also included steel reinforcements to the doors as well as high-spec fittings to try and stem the impact of revenue costs of continuing to fix the toilets following bouts of vandalism. This was completed at a cost of almost £100k. Despite this there were repeated minor acts of vandalism through autumn and winter 2020.

In March 2021  an explosive device was set off in the ladies WCs in 2021 causing significant structural and fire damage. The WC had to be closed for an extended period whist they were fixed at further cost of £20,000.  The police were informed and a juvenile was arrested on another matter but admitted to setting fire to the WCs, but the matter did not proceed to court.

Since then there has intermittent issues of vandalism. Most recently over past 6 weeks we have both ladies and gents being targeted more often. (Graffiti, fire damage, ripping off toilet roll holders, ripping of toilet doors, food being ground into walls and floors, littering , purposefully blocking toilets ). The perpetrators have been doing this during the day and also at night time once the WCS are locked. Following the major capital project, auto-locks were added to automatically lock at 6pm. However, the doors were being repeatedly kicked in so hard that the locks have “dropped” allowing access. Therefore manual locking by Norse has also been tried to act as an additional deterrent. This also made little difference and therefore the decision was taken to close them for the time being. The disabled WCs can still be accessed by those who have possession of a radar key.

CCTV

It should be noted that placing CCTV inside the WCs is NOT an option due to these of the facility as a toilet. Therefore CCTV can only cover the entrances to the WCs. Therefore, unless any criminal activity happened outside of the WCs the best we can hope for is that it will capture those entering and exiting the WCs at a specific time. Although this may not stand up as evidence in a prosecution, we can hope that it will act as deterrent to prevent the anti-social behaviour.

OpenView – our CCTV Contractor – have been commissioned to install an additional camera at Leek Bus Station in response to the repeated vandalism. The camera is due to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Any additional items to be added to the Work Programme:

·         Chair’s Items

·         Members’ Items

It was noted that there were a number of substantive items for the meeting scheduled in September. Therefore, where possible, some of the listed items would be rescheduled.  

Following a query in relation to the mills in Biddulph being incorporated in the Leek Mills report, the Leader agreed that he would contact the Head of Regeneration after the meeting.

Due to the number of member items being listed as TBC, a request was received for these to be allocated to a meeting or for a heads of terms/position paper for each item to be provided to the Panel.

DECIDED: That the Panel’s Work Programme be agreed,

The Panel considered a report which detailed the development of an investment plan for delivery of refurbishment works or full replacement of Council owned play and outdoor sports facilities across the district.

Play and outdoor sports facilities were important assets in many of our parks and open spaces and it is important these facilities were provided, maintained and developed effectively. To ensure this happens, the proposed investment and delivery plan detailed in Appendix 1 of the report had been developed and proposed a programme of refurbishment and/or replacement of selected facilities over a 4 year rolling period.

To develop the plan, quality assessments of existing Council owned play and outdoor sports facilities had been undertaken which highlighted the facilities that required improvements, the approximate timeframe for when these improvements needed to be delivered by, and a budget estimate for how much the improvements were likely to cost.

The estimated cost to deliver the first 4 years of this plan was £320,000and this amount would need to be added to the medium term financial plan (MTFP) as a growth item from the 2023/24 financial year. The impact of this resulted in the additional revenue borrowing costs as detailed in the report.

It may be possible to offset the amount of funding required to deliver the proposed programme of works using section 106 funds secured for these types of improvements from housing developers. Where this was possible, the funds secured would be factored into each project on a case-by-case basis, resulting in a reduced cost to the Council.

During the planning phase for each project, officers within the Council’s Leisure and Recreation team would assess whether it was possible to secure external funding towards them. If this was possible, it would further reduce the cost to the Council for delivering each project. However, should it not be possible to secure external funding, the proposed budget request included in the report would still be sufficient to deliver all projects to the required level.

The District Council did not have the responsibility for refurbishment or replacement of play areas and some outdoor sports facilities in Cheadle but, recognising the importance of these facilities to local residents, officers were working with Cheadle Town Council to develop an improvement plan for Tean Road Recreation ground and Churchill Road Recreation ground. This plan was expected to be completed during 2022 and funding via a number of section 106 agreements had already been identified to contribute towards delivery of any plan, once trigger points were met within these agreements.

Councillor Deaville – Portfolio Holder for Leisure & Sports welcomed comments and encouraged members to contact him with any potential projects.

Gareth Knapper – Service Development Officer and Rob Wilks – Principal Officer were in attendance to respond to any queries as detailed below:

Equality Impact Assessment – The assessment was positive for all users of the play facilities and members were pleased the plans were inclusive. The play areas incorporated as much fully accessible equipment as possible and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Chair to move:-

 “That pursuant to Section 100A (2) and (4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or nature of the proceedings whereby it is likely that exempt information as defined in Section 100A (3) of the Act would be disclosed to the public in breach of the obligation of confidence or exempt information as defined in Section 100I (1) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act would be disclosed to the public by virtue of the paragraphs indicated.”

“That pursuant to Section 100A (2) and (4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or nature of the proceedings whereby it is likely that exempt information as defined in Section 100A (3) of the Act would be disclosed to the public in breach of the obligation of confidence or exempt information as defined in Section 100I (1) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act would be disclosed to the public by virtue of the paragraphs indicated.”

DECIDED:That the exempt minutes of the previous meeting held on 23 March 2022, be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.