Agenda and minutes

1.1

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Kurtis Crossland, Gail Smith, Paul Wood and Ann Woolhouse.

2.1

No items were identified where resolutions may be moved to exclude the public and press.

3.1

There were no declarations of interest.

4.1

Due to illness, a teacher from Birley Spa School was unable to attend the meeting to receive the certificates for Birley Spa School’s participation in the “Good Parking Scheme”, so this item was postponed to a future date.

5.1

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 29^th June 2022, were approved as a correct record.

6.1

The Chair, Councillor Karen McGowan read out two questions and their responses from Glynis Chapman as follows:-

6.1.1

Q.1     What are the plans for the empty building on Streetfields Halfway. The old Knowle Hill nursing home. In the past year it has had a fire and cement lorries discharging wastewater down the drive flooding the basement (I reported that myself) There are lots of worries locally regarding this.

Response from Dermot Reader, Project Manager, Housing Growth Delivery Service.

You will recall from the briefing note dated 01/07/2022 that following feasibility investigations we have recommended the demolition of the existing building to enable a new build Temporary Accommodation facility of 25 units plus ancillary office space. The City-Wide Housing Service has committed to this being a women’s only site which will provide suitable and secure accommodation for its customers, in particular those fleeing domestic abuse. The site will have a 24/7 staff/security presence once in operation.

A Business Case has been submitted to secure capital approval to proceed with the demolition, but we must still complete the appropriation from the People to Place portfolio. The demolition works will need to be tendered in line with the council’s procurement guidelines. Therefore, the current timetable for demolition is May-July 2023.

In the meantime, I have been liaising with colleagues in Property Services and Property & Facilities Management to improve the security measures in place for the vacant building. Despite the screening, anti-climb measures, and security cameras already in place, there are individuals clearly intent on entering the building or climbing on the roof. Therefore, the next step will be to consider a manned security presence on-site.

6.1.2

Q.2     As the current infant school is in the old building at the bottom of station road and the junior school is on Streetfields we have lots of problems with parents having to use cars to collect children from both schools. It is a problem if you have a child in one school and another in the other school. Any thoughts on joining the schools which share a headteacher.

Response from Dermot Reader, Project Manager, Housing Growth Delivery Service.

I have spoken to Cathie Tandy (Strategic Commissioning Manager in the People Portfolio) regarding relocation of the infant school. Cathie has advised that there are currently no plans to relocate Halfway NI school next to the Junior school.

The situation is that there is great pressure on limited capital funds available which are being used to:

a) support expansion proposals in areas of the city where we have a deficit of places,

b) support any rebuilding of schools in the city which will need to focus on condition first.

I have also enquired with colleagues in Housing Strategy and Property Services, and there are no other accommodation proposals for this site. This is why it was previously declared surplus and was being considered for disposal.

6.1.3

Regarding the old Knowle Hill Nursing Home, Councillor Tony Downing said that he, along with Councillors Gail Smith and Kevin  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.1

Cost of Living Crisis

7.1.1

Carl Mullooly, Head of Community Services, gave an update and presentation on how the cost-of-living crisis was beginning to have a significant impact on people in every part of the city, stating that the city needed to come together, with partners and communities, to focus its efforts on the steps which would need to be taken to alleviate the effects of the crisis, particularly the impact that it was having on routine day-to-day income and expenditure decisions for households.  He said the Council was creating a package of support to provide available guidance for anyone facing hardship, with statutory and non-statutory provision to anyone in need.  He referred to the City Council’s “Neighbourgood” Welcome Places,which was a network of Welcome Places badged as ‘NeighbourGood’ aimed at providing convenient spaces for people to access help or just call in to get ‘warm’, have a cup of tea and a chat, within their local communities.  Carl Mullooly stated that a Welcome Spaces toolkit, in partnership with Voluntary Action Sheffield and the voluntary, community and faith organisations, had been produced, both digitally and in print, to provide support to frontline workers, who in turn offer support to people in their communities.  He said the ‘NeighbourGood’ sticker would be used to identify venues participating in the Welcome Spaces scheme at any time.   He said NeighbourGood” postcards where already being distributed to frontline workers which contained referral details for the public to access help via a number of different websites or the Community Support Helpline phone number.

7.2

Food Works

7.2.1

Renee Meijer gave a presentation on the Food Works Projects outlining grassroots resilience in practice. He said that the current food system was destroying our planet and did  not feed everyone, due to consumers taking what the wanted and giving very little in return.  He said that Food Works nourished the planet, would feed everyone and communities would only take what it needed and give back what it could.  He said that Food Works collected surplus food, grew its own produce on allotments and gardens and then distributed food every month to cafes, provided ready meals and put together boxes of shopping.  He said that the budget needed for Food Works was 90% customer contributions and 10% coming from grants. Currently there were three main hubs, 11 partner hubs with 15 staff, plus around 500 volunteers, all working to deliver food to thousands of customers per year, with the aim of cutting CO²  emissions and save 50,000 trees.

7.2.2

The Chair thanked Carl Mullooly and Renee Meijer for their presentations and said that more detail on these could be found on the Council services and partner stands at the end of the formal business of the meeting.

8.1

Jayne Foulds, South East Local Area Manager, gave a verbal update on the Community Plan for the south east area.

8.2

She referred to the workshop sessions that had been held and the three main concerns identified at those sessions being transport and highways, community safety and crime.  She said that six local schools were involved in the good parking schemes, working with pupils.  A speed review had been carried out in an attempt to tackle speeding vehicles and Active Travel was included within the Community Plan.  She said that work was ongoing regarding urban accessibility onto estates and community facilities that were available.  Jayne Foulds said that there was a need to tackle social isolation which had increased during covid and had resulted in some people being afraid to leave their homes, particularly if they saw young people hanging around on street corners.  Work was ongoing with the Woodhouse Forum and each Ward should see an increase in Mother and toddler groups across the 4 wards.  She reported that the police were tackling offroad biking and have set up a poster campaign.  Finally, work was being carried out to try to engage more with those under the age of 30 to be become more involved within their community.

8.3

Councillor Tony Downing gave an update on the Mosborough Speeding Review, stating that a meeting had been held with the Residents Panel in June, 2022.  He said the meeting had been attended by local Councillors, Clive Betts, MP, Alan Billings, the Police and Crime Commissioner and Highways officers.  He said it had been agreed that highways officers would undertake a speed survey in the locations identified and work on this was currently being undertaken.  Councillor Downing said that another Residents Panel was due to be held at the end of October/early November  to provide an update on the actions agreed at the previous meeting and to discuss option identified by highways officers from the speeding review,  Finally, speed reviews for the Birley, Woodhouse and Beighton Wards were to be launched in November.

8.4

Councillor Tony Downing said that a speed gun and officers were I the process of setting up sessions at locations identified with local Councillors in each Ward.  He said these sessions had started in all Wards  and the police had issued warning letters and offenders had been reported to the Safer Camera Partnership.  Councillor Downing said that each Ward had been allocated a new Vehicle Activation Sign (VAS).  He said each Councillor had been asked to identify hotspot areas for the VAS to be placed and the VAS would be rotated round each Ward every six to eight weeks.  Data would be collected from the VAS to identify times, numbers of vehicles etc., which would allow work to be carried out with other agencies to target areas at relevant times.

8.5

Finally, Councillor Downing said that Ward Councillors were looking to see where they could encourage and develop of active travel and had set up a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.