Agenda item

7.1

The Local Area Committee received a presentation from Diane Owens, South Local Area Committee Manager, outlining the Community Plan.  Ms Owens gave a brief update following on from the information she had provided at the meeting of the LAC held in January, and highlighted the six key themes of the Plan.  She provided more detail around the work that had been carried out to the clearing up of The Lumb in Gleadless Valley, the speed indication devices that had been installed, and said that the Committee would be looking at the data received regarding speeding in those areas and potentially identifying other areas for the devices to be installed.  She also provided an update on the Neighbourhood Action Groups that had been set up in the South LAC area following the £30k allocated by the South LAC.  She said there had been a boost in youth activities in the area, and referred to the Youth Conference held in November, and that the feedback from that would be fed into work around the Economic Recovery Fund.  She highlighted the work that had been carried out using the Ward Pots and the Community Infrastructure Levy.  She referred to the priorities approved at the January meeting for the purchase of two portable CCTV cameras, funding allocated for community capacity building and also for street art projects and where they would be located.  She said that over the next couple of months, the Team along with Members, would be working to support voluntary, community and faith sector, local communities and businesses by looking at projects and how to get projects off the ground and would also be looking at the online engagement platform and how this could be best used to engage with local communities, and finally the King Charles III’s Coronation, each LAC had been allocated £5,000 so that they could offer grants to help support local community organisations and residents for celebrations over bank holiday weekend.

7.2

Councillor Simon Clement-Jones thanked Diane Owens for her presentation and asked those present if there were any questions regarding the Community Plan. 

A member of the public said that the Community Plan had talked about engaging with local communities and he raised a question regarding parking outside Greenhill school.  He asked whether, as a community, have can we push forward to tackle the issue. It was not about the lack of parking spaces for safe parking.

Councillor Clement-Jones said he met at the Greenhill Historical Society the previous week and a similar issue was raised  He said that at the LAC Chairs Committee earlier in the day, there had been a presentation from Highways Services and the outcome from this was that a much better way to tackle problems around parking would be at grass roots level, for communities to raise issues and get things done at a more local level.  He said that he had asked about School Streets Projects and around the A61 corridor and that he wanted the South LAC to be part of that consultation and to work to find out what the problems were, to find a solution and how it would be funded. Councillor Clement-Jones felt that there was a need for a more holistic community approach to get things done.

Councillor Richard Shaw referred to issues around Greenhill shops.  He said many people had got in touch with him recently regarding parking on pavements, obstructing footways and said that he was raise this with Parking Services and Council officers.  He said that Parking Services along with local police would like to do a “day of action” to concentrate on problem areas and discourage people from parking dangerously.

Councillor Alexi Dimond said the School Streets Project was something that should be looked into by speaking to the school and getting them involved.  He said that parking enforcement generally was a city-wide problem as Sheffield didn’t prioritise parking as much as other cities. He encouraged the public to contact their local councillors asking them to prioritise parking matters.  He said children’s safety should always be a priority.

Question from Alan Newsome

I am aware that in the northwest of the city, the local policing team has something in place where a member of the public can report problem parking on the streets and footpaths and take photographs.  He asked if there was something in place that could be used in the southwest area of the city.  He said he had been documenting these problems and has challenged parents, but it was not always safe to make your case.  Wass there a safe place to report this and document hotspots in certain areas?

Councillor Maroof Raouf said that there were safe routes to explore this and that, in the North West area of the city, the police had surveyed all residents asking for their priorities, and safe parking was one of them.  In the South West Police Team, it had been decided that safe parking was not one of their priorities. Councillor Raouf said that he was aware that there may be another survey to be carried out in the next 12 to 18 months, and encouraged people in this area to raise concerns around dangerous and illegal parking if this was deemed a priority.

Councillor Nighat Basharat said that since she had been elected, parents had shared concerns around pavement parking and parking on zigzags outside schools.  She said that she would share the concerns with local Councillors.  She said that speaking with communities, it had become apparent that people were not aware of what LAC meetings were about, that these meeting were there to tackle local, real issues that matter to the local community.  She said that parking around schools was an important issue and should be placed on the next LAC agenda.

Councillor Richard Shaw said that in terms of reporting, in the first instance it was necessary to report matters and pass information to parking services.  He said the Southwest Police team did not have this as a priority, but the City Council should be able to take any action by passing information to the Council’s Enforcement Team of the best time to patrol and act as a deterrent.  Councillor Shaw said that tackling parking issues was part of the Community Plan.