Agenda item

 

The Neighbourhood Partnership noted the report. There were three requests for funding two from S.106 funds and one, Old Quarry Sensory Garden Project, from the general budget. Given the recent spending freeze it was proposed to fund the Old Quarry Sensory Garden Project from the S.106 fund also as this source of money was exempt from the spending freeze.

 

Two other items were also proposed for resolution by the Neighbourhood Committee -

 

(1) The cost of the design work for the Old Quarry sensory garden be funded from S106 (not CIL) up to a maximum of £4k and the design work for Stoke Lodge sensory garden be funded from S106 up to a maximum of £4k;

 

(2) Maximum spend on Old Quarry Sensory Garden Project and Stoke Lodge Sensory Garden, funded from S106, be £10k each;

 

On being put to the vote the Neighbourhood Committee voted unanimously in favour of the proposals as set out above.

 

A vote was then taken on all three projects as recommended by the Environment Working Group, Councillor Liz Radford did not take part in the vote in respect of recommendation 1 due to a declaration of interest.

 

On being put to the vote the Neighbourhood Committee unanimously –

 

Resolved – 

 

1. That the application by the Parish Church Westbury Park for kitchen works be approved with funding of £7,646,59 to be released from the Neighbourhood Partnership’s S106 fund from the 99 Devonshire Road Project;

 

2.  That the funding source for the Old Quarry Sensory Garden Project Design, up to a maximum of £4k, be approved and be funded from the Neighbourhood Partnership’s S106 fund; 

 

3. The Stoke Lodge Sensory Garden Project Design, up to a maximum of £4k, be approved and be funded from the Neighbourhood Partnership’s S106 fund;

 

4. The Old Quarry Sensory Garden Project installation works and the Stoke Lodge Sensory Garden Project installation works be approved and be funded from the Neighbourhood Partnerships S106 fund up to a maximum of £10k each;

 

5. Resolutions 2, 3 & 4 to be funded from the remaining S106 funds from the Hiatt Baker project, The Former Dairy Crest Depot Project and the 21 North View Project.

 

Tree report

 

Tree report and verbal update was noted.

 

Proposal for Neighbourhood Committee to endorse a total £9,145 for spend on replacement trees as set out in the report 25 plus 6 trees) from the general budget if and when money became available.

 

On being put to the vote the Neighbourhood Committee unanimously  -

 

Resolved - to endorse a total £9,145 for spend on replacement trees as set out in the report 25 plus 6 trees) from the general budget subject to the spending freeze and that money would not be released until this had been resolved.

 

Budget freeze

 

At this point of the meeting the Neighbourhood Partnership invited Councillor Asher Craig Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods to speak about the current spending freeze.

 

The following points provide a summary of the discussion and points raised –

 

1.     Bristol City Council needed to make a further reduction of £27.5m in the financial year 2016/17 due to an unforeseen deficit;

2.     The spending freeze would only affect revenue spending, not capital;

3.     As a result of this all non-essential Council spending would be frozen excluding S.106 money and possibly CIL money;

4.     Current spending on NP’s amounted to £1.1m per annum with 80% of the cost related to staffing;

5.     Anticipated that in the future NP’s would save between 25% and 75% of costs with a ‘bottom up’ approach to governance;

6.     NP’s in the future would not be ‘one size fits all’ but would reflect the wishes of each respective local community;

7.     A Steering Group would meet in the near future to consider all options;

8.     Parks budget to be reduced and noted that Head of Parks position not filled and now unlikely to be due to recruitment freeze; 

9.     The Council’s budget would be set at its meeting on 21 February, 2017;

10.  An event would be held in January/February to consider future options with all NP’s and wider community organisations invited to take part and share ideas to reorganise how to deliver future NP schemes and projects.

 

Members expressed concern about how this would affect the ongoing work of the NP and the impact on the local community particularly as it had a good record of achieving its objectives when funding was available. For applications approved today it was important to have suitable wording so that applicants clearly understood the implications of the spending freeze even if their projects had been approved.

(b)        Transport

 

The Neighbourhood Partnership/Committee noted the report and the decisions that were required to be taken.

 

The Transport Working Group Chairman had received an update from the Programme Manager, Strategic City Transport, on progress with the CPNN Traffic Mitigation Proposals which was a follows -

 

“The A4018 Corridor Study was originally forecast to be complete by end of November 2016 but will now be completed in February 2017.

The data collection went well and the base model (representation of the current situation) is complete and verified. Several scenarios will now be run through the model to assess the impact of development at CPNN, and the implementation of the proposed measures on the A4018 to mitigate the impact. Nearer the completion of the study I will be arranging a meeting with Councillors and community representatives to present the model, alongside the report on the scenario testing.”

 

The Partnership noted that on street parking by students at Bristol University had made some progress with all students being asked not to bring cars to Bristol after the Christmas break to help alleviate the parking issues in the NP area. It was noted that other universities eg Reading had formally enforced no parking of its student population on residential streets. This option would be pursued with Bristol University.

 

After further consideration the Neighbourhood Partnership considered the recommendations in the report and agreed as follows -

 

Neighbourhood Partnership

 

1.     That the continuing lack of progress with publishing the results of the traffic survey that was a prelude to the possible removal of the remaining section of bus lane on the approach to the White Tree roundabout, or to justify its retention, be noted;

 

2.     To note that the Neighbourhood Partnership currently had a balance of £11,026 in its devolved Minor Traffic Schemes budget;

 

3.     That the progress of the Minor Traffic Schemes and Minor Works Projects previously sanctioned by the Neighbourhood Partnership be noted;

 

4.     To note that currently there were requests to fund 21 Minor Traffic Schemes across the Neighbourhood Partnership, including the provision of seven new Zebra Crossings.

 

Neighbourhood Committee

 

Resolved - that the allocation of £10k from the NP’s devolved budget to cover work to tighten-up the junction at Bell Barn Road/Shirehampton Road by way of new pavement provision and pavement build outs etc, be approved, subject to it being noted that due to the current revenue spending freeze, the Neighbourhood Partnership would not be in a position to proceed with the works until advised otherwise.

The report was noted including adoption of a new constitution.

           

No report this time.