Agenda and minutes

1.1

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and explained the running order for the agenda.  The Chair advised that the formal business of apologies, declarations and minutes of the last meeting first would be dealt with first.

The meeting would then move onto a presentation on the Good Parking Scheme and certificates would be presented to participating schools.

There was a slight change to agenda items for the meeting and items 7 and 8 have been swapped around.

Item 7 would now be the public question session where members of the public would be invited to ask questions and the Chair would read out any questions that have been submitted in writing.

As part of this item, the council were piloting a ‘remote participation’ element to the meeting, and had two questioners who would be joining the meeting remotely to ask their questions.

Item 8 would be an update on the South East Local Area Committee Community Plan and  review of the last 18 months.

For item 9, the committee would be celebrating voluntary groups within the South East Area.

Item 10 would be a presentation from Elaine Davies, Development Officer, Voluntary Action Sheffield and the final item, item 11, the committee would break into groups for discussions on Supporting Voluntary Groups.

2.1

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Kurtis Crossland, Bryan Lodge, Kevin Oxley, Jackie Satur and Paul Wood.

3.1

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

4.1

There were no declarations of interest.

5.1

The minutes of the meeting of the committee held on 11^th January 2023 were approved as a correct record.

6.1

The committee received a presentation from Claire Knotts, Local Area Committee Officer on Good/Bad Parking Scheme (Dealing with Problematic Parking at Schools).

Ms Knotts advised that one of the concerns brought up during the South East consultation was problem parking, especially around schools.  As a result, the SE LAC made a commitment to look at ways to help.  LAC Officers and Sustainable Communities Officers worked with a group of children from 8 schools in the South East area, showing them how to identify good and bad parking and helping them to tackle the bad parking in their local area.

The scheme was split into two sessions.  Session one, covered understanding why good parking was important for safety, learn how to identify good and bad parking and creating parking notices to promote safe parking and discourage unsafe parking.  Session two allowed Pupils from the schools to join in with LAC Officers and Sustainable Communities Officers to patrol outside school at peak times to hand out parking notices.

Following the presentation, a thank you was given to Waterthorpe Infant School and Birley Spa Primary School, who has pupils in attendance to collect their certificates.

6.2

RESOLVED: That the committee:

a)    notes the information reported as part of the presentation; and

b)    gave thanks and presented certificates to the participating schools.

7.1

The committee received question from the public. Two members of the public asked their question via hybrid connection.

Jane Mason (hybrid) - Could the community centres in the S12 area be opened up more as warm places and to have drop in centres for citizens advice?

What is happening regarding the Anti-Social behaviour at Base Green, and can assurances be given that it is being dealt with?

The questioner was advised that all the community centres were being considered and reviewed.  There was space available at Crystal Peaks and a neighbourhood support team was available to help.  An application form would need to be completed to explain why the space was needed and if anyone was interested in this to contact the team at Crystal Peaks. There was a telephone number available that could be given out or found online.

In terms of the Anti-Social behaviour, councillors were aware of this and had been walking around Base Green to look at the problem and this was being monitored by the Council at a cost by CCTV. Meetings have been set up between the Police and the Safer Neighbourhoods Team, who meet regularly to identify why ASB was gaining momentum in that area.  It was advised that there was a reliance on the public to report the issues, so that these could be dealt with. Another meeting was due to take place with partners.

Gill Green (hybrid) – Is anything being done about the litter and the fly tipping; it was raised at an earlier LAC meeting and at the recent meeting in February.  There is fly tipping on the highway on Bochum Parkway and Donetsk Way and A57 out towards the M1 and Sheffield Parkway.  These roads don’t have footpaths and lots of litter and fly tipping is thrown from moving cars into the hedgerows and it looks horrendous and looks like no one cares. I keep reporting it on the council’s website.  In the breakout room with Gail, I mentioned the success of the litter cams that detect people throwing litter out of vehicles.  I asked for a feasibility study on how much can be saved, if we could reduce or prevent the issue but had no feedback.

The Chair firstly thanked the litter pickers for all the hard work they do on a voluntary basis.

Gillian Fairbrother from Amey advised that they did do litter picks on the A57 twice a year.  Amey could not have workforce there on a regular basis as they had to apply for permits to close the road, so it was not a straightforward case.  Bochum Parkway and Mosborough Bypass were a little bit more straightforward as the gateway team go out and collect the litter, but there was the problem of the team could pick up litter on a Monday and by Tuesday it was the same, there was not the resources to be following people around, collecting litter, so they did the best they can.  In terms of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.1

The Committee received an update from Councillor Karen McGowen and Jayne Foulds LAC Manager on the South East LAC Community Plan.

Local Area Committees were a way for people to make a difference in their area and communities.  The LACs were also an opportunity for people to get involved, say what was great about their area, what improvements they would like to see and what mattered to them and their community.

The LAC Manager talked about what was known about the South East and its demographics.  A number of projects had been delivered over the year such as good/bad parking scheme with local schools, tackling dog fouling in public spaces, speed reviews and speed awareness measures in all four wards, working with environmental groups and projects, speed watch schemes with speed cameras and increased mother and toddler groups.

In terms of the funding streams from April 2022-April 2023.

Ward Pots

Beighton - £6351.71

Birley - £7995.89

Mosborough - £7136.57

Woodhouse - £9140.56

Throughout the year the LAC had helped with funding Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, Youth Provision, Cost of Living Welcome Spaces and funding for the King’s coronation celebrations in the area.

8.2

RESOLVED: That the committee notes the information reported as part of the presentation.

9.1

The Chair and Deputy Chair wished to thank all the community groups for their work in Sheffield and that it would be a worse place without these groups.  Volunteering work played a big part in making people feel good about themselves and this had a positive impact on the City.

10.1

The committee received a presentation from Elaine Davies, VCS Support Manager.

The presentation covered support for new and emerging groups, to establish aims and objectives, producing a set of rules, opening a bank account and developing basic policies and procedures.  Support was also provided for growing organisations and being in strong position to look for funding. VAS also supported volunteers to becoming ‘volunteer ready’ and to provide good practice advice and guidance to volunteer management.

It was advised that volunteering opportunities could be advertised through VAS’s website and monthly volunteering bulletins were shared with the latest volunteer roles distributed widely.

Contact information was shared to the committee.

www.sheffieldvolunteercentre.org.uk

www.vas.org.uk

email – infor@vas.org.uk

phone - 01142546600

10.2

RESOLVED: That the committee notes the information reported as part of the presentation

11.1

The meeting moved to a public participation session to discuss supporting voluntary groups.