Agenda item - Items referred from Council

Item referred from the last meeting of Full Council held on 8 May 2014 (copy attached).

(a)          Petitions

(i)            Stanmer Village- Jamie Hooper

(b)          Deputations

(i)            Recycling in the Clarendon area- Jackie Quinn

(a)          Petitions

(i)            Stanmer Village- Jamie Hooper

7.1         The Committee considered a petition signed by 48 people requesting that no bid be submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund Parks for People until issues on parking space and community space be resolved. The petition had been referred from the meeting of Full Council held on 8 May 2014.

7.2          The Chair provided the following response in writing:

Thank you very much for your petition expressing your concerns about parking in Stanmer Park and the need for community facilities.  I know that these are issues the residents in Stanmer Park feel strongly about.

I hope you agree that we had a very useful meeting with you and a number of representatives from the village a few weeks ago to talk these and other issues through.  Officers explained that as part of the Stage 1 submissions we will not have yet worked out the detailed proposals to address parking in the park. 

We intend to work on the detailed proposals once we have completed our stage 1 applications in the New Year.

I am very pleased that we have established a working group with representatives from the village and we will work closely with this group on the development of the whole project, including parking proposals. The working group will also form a clear mechanism for residents to feed their proposals in to the continued development of the masterplan.

On the issue of your request for a community space, again this level of detail has not been worked out yet and is not required for the Stage 1 bid.    However community engagement is a key criterion in the HLF application process and we do expect the final plans to include community facilities. 

So in summary, subject to the decision by the Policy & Resources Committee on the 10^th July we will be submitting our high level Stage 1 applications to HLF later this year.  Hopefully these will be successful and contribute to the resources needed to develop our detailed Stage 2 plans which will include parking issues and community facilities. 

I am very pleased that we have identified a mechanism for working with Stanmer Residents through the working group and look forward to your close involvement as this project progresses”.

7.3         RESOLVED- That the petition be noted.

(c)          Deputations

(i)  Recycling in the Clarendon area- Jackie Quinn

7.4         The Committee considered a Deputation concerning refuse and recycling collection in the Clarendon area of Hove. The Deputation had been referred from the meeting of Full Council held on 8 May 2014.

7.5         The Chair provided the following response:

“Thank you for your deputation regarding communal refuse and recycling in the Clarendon Area and I’m sorry you have had cause to complain.

The refuse and recycling service has been through a significant period of change since last summer and this has unfortunately caused disruption. 

The changes were implemented following negotiations with the unions on allowances and subsequent restructuring of the collection rounds.  These changes affected the whole city and were the biggest we have ever had to implement and as a result have taken some time to bed down. 

I am pleased to say that the changes have now largely bedded down and the situation has improved significantly.

The changes have improved the service for residents in that we now provide collections on bank holidays for those properties with kerbside collections.

At the same time we have also been introducing communal recycling to many areas of the city centre following a successful trial which showed the new service increased recycling rates and was preferred by service users.  Communal recycling bins are emptied at least three times per week and one of the advantages is that residents do not need to remember on what days they are collected. 

The communal recycling roll out will be completed in the next two weeks.

Where communal bins are just being rolled out we are sometimes seeing a purge as people get rid of recycling they have stored for collection. We sometimes also have to tweak bin locations once we know which bins are used more than others.

We do not advertise collection dates on communal bins as people can use them at their convenience and do not need to remember when collection days are.

We are working on a campaign to encourage people to recycle more and an incentive scheme whereby the communities in the city will benefit if recycling rates increase.  This will work by allocating some of the savings realised through increased recycling to a community fund.

I have today received your email which suggests residents are experiencing ongoing problems and I will ask officers to meet with you to discuss how they might improve the service in your street.

7.6         RESOLVED-That the Deputation be noted.