Councillors to ‘round-up’ on the issues discussed at the community council meeting in 2010/11
Minutes:
The chair introduced the review of the year where he asked councillors summarise the work of the Walworth community council over the year.
Open Spaces
Cllr Diamond talked about the open spaces workshops which had taken place in March 2011. He explained that the meeting had been well attended with over 60 people taking part in workshops around the themes of: types of open space, quality of open space and linking open spaces.
The chair added that at that meeting the community council has agreed to look into the possibility of establishing an open spaces network. The Walworth Green Spaces, Open Spaces network would soon have their inaugural meeting. He informed residents that this would be an independent body which would feed comments into the community council and as such would have an independent chair. He asked residents interested in taking part to complete a form so they could be kept informed of meeting details.
Burgess Park
Cllr Garfield updated the meeting on the Burgess Park Revitalisation Project. The council had £6million to spend on the development of the park and it was expected that work would be completed by March 2012. As part of the project the lake would be reformed and the fountain replaced, new meadow flowers and new tress would be planted. Cllr Garfield explained that some parts of the park would be closed, but not all, whilst the work was completed.
Residents raised concerns relating to the lack of toilets and supervision in the park, some felt that a full-time park attendant should be employed.
Aylesbury Update
Cllr Garfield also updated the meeting on the regeneration of the Aylesbury estate. He explained that PFI funding had been removed just before Christmas. He stated that the council were committed to regeneration on the estate and that scheduled demolition had begun. He also stated that the regeneration was not just about the building being built but the facilities around the estate, such as the revitalisation of Burgess Park. Cllr Mohamed added that residents should be credited for their role in the Burgess Park project as they had helped to raise £2million of the funding.
One resident questioned the validity of the Aylesbury regeneration as the project had been designed at a time when more funding was available. Cllr Garfield explained that the Aylesbury Action Plan was in effect a 20 year plan for the regeneration of the area and although finances were limited at this time that would not always be the case.
Housing Repairs
Cllr Merrill updated the meeting on the housing repairs theme of the November meeting. He explained that Cllr Edwards had attended as scrutiny had been conducting a review into the housing repairs service. The recommendations of that review were being implemented by the council, As a result of the review the service was being made more transparent, satisfaction would be monitored by resident survey rather than reports from contractors, the collation of satisfaction results would change and improvements were being made to the contact centre which included one reference number per job.
The chair added that a new Director of Housing had been appointed to the council and it was intended that contracts would be more closely monitored.
Sex Establishments Consultation
Cllr Coyle spoke about the meeting on the sex establishment consultation where the council was seeking views on whether any area in the community council area were considered appropriate for sex establishment licenses. Cllr Coyle added that the majority view of the meeting had been that there were no suitable locations in the Walworth community council area and this had been supported by written submissions after the meeting. A report to the Licensing Committee to approve the final policy was being worked on and the final stage would be for this to be considered by Council Assembly. When the final policy was agreed the community council would be updated.
Elephant and Castle Leisure Centre
Cllr Morrissey provided an update on the leisure centre consultation to find out what people wanted from the new leisure centre and why they would use the centre. A new swimming pool was the most desired option. Existing customers of the leisure centre voted for the swimming pool, gym and sports hall as their top three priorities. Non-users of the leisure centre voted for the swimming pool, gym and exercise/studios as their top three properties. The results of the consultation exercise helped define the leisure centre design brief which was then issued to the project architects to define. Construction is programmed to commence Summer 2012.