BISHOP'S HULL LOCAL ACTION TEAM
Minutes of meeting held Tuesday 16th June 2009
Present: Nick Mott (Chairman), WPC Claire Griffiths, PCSO Simon Parry, Alan Paul, Dave Smith, and Rod Porter
Apologies: Nigel Stuart-Thorn, Ken Burgess, Tom Catherall and Pete Yeandle
Minutes of meeting held 5th May: Agreed subject to the following amendment -
Under item 2, the date shown should be 31st March 2009
Speedwatch: Team members were out in Bishops Hull Road on the mornings of 26th May and 1st June.
Unfortunately there is no news as yet re authorisation of Silk Mills Road and Bishops Hull Hill as additional Speedwatch sites.
Dave Smith suggested staging an accident re-enactment and Claire will certainly consider this. She and Simon are already planning a road safety and 'stranger danger' session at the primary school.
The Parish Council has asked for feedback on Speedwatch recordings and Claire agreed to provide us with a regular summary of these.
Village Event Group: The firm supplying the bouncy castle and jousting equipment for the Party In The Park on 11th July will now supervise it themselves. However, it is hoped that the LAT will be able to provide manpower on the day and details will be finalised at the VEG meeting on 22nd June. Rod is unable to attend and Dave agreed to go along in his place.
VEG has not been made aware of the proposed hay bale event in September. However, Claire advised us that it has been postponed.
Paintball: The bad news is that the police have completely pulled out of the Taunton Youth Paintball Project! Taunton Deane Borough Council officers are hoping to keep it going but there is no clear solution until September at least. Following general discussion it was decided that (i) Alan Paul will contact Borough Councillor Alan Wedderkopp for more information and (ii) Nick will write to Chief Superintendent Sandy Padgett expressing the LAT's huge disappointment on hearing this news and asking the police to reconsider the situation.
Other youth activities: Taunton East PCSOs are working up a funding application to purchase mountain bikes. This is the project that Kelly, our previous PCSO, was initiating and it is hoped that Taunton East will extend participation to young people throughout the town.
Summer activities are being planned in various parts of Taunton where there is an identified youth problem. There is nothing of course planned in Taunton West and Rod commented that local young people seem to lose out and get no recognition or reward for 'good behaviour'.
Simon mentioned that a six-a-side football tournament will be held for teams from all parts of Taunton and pupils at Bishops Hull School seem keen to take part.
Cycling events are being held on Sundays at the Silk Mills park and ride site - 14th June, 12th and 19th July. Could this set a precedent for other youth activities to be held there?
Claire understands that a field behind Haydon Close has been identified as a possible bmx site.
Alan briefly outlined the plans being put in place to rebuild the Trident Centre as a youth and community centre for south west Taunton with regular youth service involvement. As such, Bishops Hull will be a main 'user' of the facilities and we (LAT, Parish Council, etc) should perhaps be getting more involved in this project.
Car boot: Arrangements were put in place for our LAT presence at the car boot this coming Sunday, 21st June. The police community van will be there with Simon and a fellow officer plus Speedwatch represented by Pete and Dave. Leaflets and posters will be available plus 'suggestion' cards for completion .
Police report: Claire is now back on light duties - 5 hours a day with 2 of these being outdoors. She gave us a comprehensive report, the main points being as follows -
Claire has been unable to progress the application for a camera overlooking the play park simply because there is no evidence of a continuing problem there. No reports at all have been received since the last PACT meeting.
The problem of litter and fly tipping seems to have decreased although Simon did deal with a recent occurrence near Roughmoor.
Taunton Deane has arranged a community clean up day on 24th June with a skip at the Smithy and flyers giving details are being distributed.
An arrest has been made re the sexual assault in Netherclay Lane.
Other recent incidents include people being bitten by dogs, children being victims of domestic disputes and a number of youngsters coming across from Norton and swimming in the river near Netherclay.
The police are already aware that Netherclay and the community woodland are likely to be trouble spots this summer. No doubt this will be come up for discussion at the next PACT meeting on 16th July.
Parish Council report: Work will be going ahead in the coming months on (i) the cobbles at Netherclay and (ii) installing a dropped pavement / kerb at Shutewater. The additional street cleaning provided by the Parish Council is under review and there is the on-going concern re Persimmon's application for 200 plus houses off Bishops Hull Road.
Treasurer's report: No financial activity other than the cost of room hire. The LAT's bank balance stands at £355.
Any other business: Alan Paul mentioned that efforts are being made to combat the problem of commuter parking. Taunton Deane and the County Council are working to create a resident friendly parking policy to be launched when the town's second park and ride site is opened.
Dave congratulated Alan on his re-election as our county councillor and this was endorsed by all. However, the elections did give overall control to the Conservatives who have already called for a review of community and local initiatives budgets.
Date of next meeting: Tuesday 28th July