Agenda and minutes

J Butler, J Gray, J Haigh, S Harris, S McBarron, D Bell, S Garvani.

To consider any appeals in accordance with Procedure Rule 15.2 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules (in the event of an Appeal the press and public will be excluded).

(*In accordance with Procedure Rule 15.2, written notice of an appeal must be received by the Chief Democratic Services Officer at least 24 hours before the meeting.)

There were no appeals against refusal of inspection of documents.

1 To highlight reports or appendices which officers have identified as containing exempt information within the meaning of Section 100I of the Local Government Act 1972, and where officers consider that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, for the reasons outlined in the report.

2 To consider whether or not to accept the officers recommendation in respect of the above information.

3 If the recommendation is accepted, to formally pass the following resolution:-

RESOLVED – That, in accordance with Regulation 4 of The Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 or Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 as appropriate, the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of those parts of the agenda designated as containing exempt information on the grounds that it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information, as follows:-‘

There were no exempt items.

To identify items which have been admitted to the agenda by the Chair for consideration.

(The special circumstances shall be specified in the minutes.)

There were no formal late items. However, there was supplementary information in relation to the following items:

Item 10 Dixon Unity Academy Update

Item 11 Leeds West Academy Update

Item 12 Waste Service Review

Item 13 Finance Report

To disclose or draw attention to any disclosable pecuniary interests for the purposes of Section 31 of the Localism Act 2011 and paragraphs 13-16 of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests were made.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Hazel Boutle, the co-optee for Armley Ward.

Apologies were also received from Danny Carr the Principal of Dixon Unity Academy who had been going to give the Community Committee a presentation in relation to Agenda Item 10.

In accordance with Paragraphs 4.16 and 4.17 of the Community Committee Procedure Rules, at the discretion of the Chair a period of up to 10 minutes may be allocated at each ordinary meeting for members of the public to make representations or to ask questions on matters within the terms of reference of the Community Committee.  This period of time may be extended at the discretion of the Chair.  No member of the public shall speak for more than three minutes in the Open Forum, except by permission of the Chair.

In accordance with paragraphs 4.16 and 4.17 of the Community Committee Procedure Rules, at the discretion of the Chair a period of up to 10 minutes may be allocated at each ordinary meeting for members of the public to make representations or to ask questions on matters within the terms of reference of the Community Committee.

On this occasion Ms O’Keefe attended the meeting and spoke to the Committee about the shortage of green spaces in the Armley and Wortley area. She raised concerns in relation to a site on the Site Allocation Plan which is currently used as a sports ground in the community.

Ms O’Keefe provided the Community Committee with a brief history of the site explaining that the land had in 1928 been bought by public subscription and a lease drawn up containing covenants that the land should be used as a provision of playing fields for school children in the City of Leeds.

Ms O’Keefe requested that the Community Committee look into this matter so that the playing fields were not sold for a housing development going against the covenants set out, but remain as a playing field for children in the Wortley and Armley area.

The Chair and the Community Committee thanked Ms O’Keefe for her representation and offered to ask the appropriate Scrutiny Board to look into this matter.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 25^th September 2019.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 25^th September 2019, be approved as a correct record.

In relation to minute 29 it was noted that the scheduled workshop on Community Safety would be rescheduled for a future date. Members would be sent an invite.

The Chair informed Members that she is continuing to work on an average speed check camera system for the A647. Members were asked to nominate schools for the CCTV car to visit.

The report of the City Solicitor invites Members to give consideration to appointing co-optees to the Community Committee for the duration of the 2019/2020 municipal year.

The report of the City Solicitor invited Members consideration in the appointment of two co-optees to the Community Committee for the duration of the municipal year.

The following nominations were proposed:

Stephen Garvani – Kirkstall Ward

Donnna Bell – Armley Ward

RESOLVED – To appoint the following two people as co-optees the Inner West Community Committee for the duration of the municipal year:

·  Stephen Garvani – as co-optee for the Kikstall Ward

·  Donna Bell – as co-optee for the Armley Ward

The report of the Principal of Dixons Unity Academy is to provide the Inner West Community Committee with an update on Dixons Unity Academy.

(Report attached)

This item was deferred as unfortunately the Principal of Dixon Unity Academy, Danny Carr had sent his apologies due to a family illness. No deputy had been able to attend on his behalf due to the short timescales. Mr Carr invited questions from Members via email.

The report of the Principal of Leeds West Academy is to provide the Inner West Community Committee with an update on Leeds West Academy.

(Report attached)

Mr Christian Wilcocks, the Principal of Leeds West Academy (LWA) attended the Community Committee. A presentation was shown at the meeting with Mr Wilcocks updating the Community Committee on the progress and achievements since the section 5 inspection in June 2017 where OFSTED had reported that the school required improvement.

The presentation had been provided to the Members as supplementary information and published to the Leeds City Council webpage for the Community Committee.

Members were informed of the following key points:

·  LWA  was inspected again in July 2019 and it was report as good in all areas;

·  LWA was the highest in Leeds for exclusions. However, in 2018, the school made a significant shift to lowering exclusions and it was the hope that this would continue;

·  Attendance is still an issue at the school with attendance below the national average;

·  The school was designed to accept 240 pupils per year group. This year the school has received 284 applications as the first choice academy;

·  There has been an improvement in grades for examinations year on year with good progress being made in maths;

·  Good attainment for Progress 8;

·  The Strategic Plan is published to the school website. The school have tried to make the aims clear and for it to be easily accessible;

·  The curriculum is reviewed to ensure that pupils are offered a broad choice of learning;

·  Key Focus on behaviour programmes;

·  Nurture Groups to assist those who are identified as being vulnerable. The principles are to work, eat and cook together, offering support to each other;

·  Isolation/ seclusion is part of the behaviour policy. However, the school are trying to reduce the use of this facility and it is hoped that this facility will not be used in 18 months. The facility is staffed by year managers and the focus is on getting pupils back to the mainstream classes. LWA is looking at a programme developed by Carr Manor School called ‘Loose the Booths’ and it is hoped that this will become a way of working at LWA;

·  The school has community links including;

o  Learn to swim and Lifeguarding sessions at Bramley Baths with the CEO attending a meeting at the school;

o  Free letting of rooms for community groups;

o  Support primary schools in the area;

o  Partly fund summer camps;

o  Fund raising and social enterprise in local community;

·  It was recognised that more community engagement was needed.

The school was congratulated on the progress and there was recognition for the influence the school has in the community.

Responding to questions from Members the Community Committee were informed of the following:

·  It is still the intention of the school for students to have trips abroad, but they are still working on this charter. The school have again been asked to accept a bulge cohort;

·  There are currently 2 students who have elected to be home educated, this is not something that the school encourage. The school do flag up to the relevant support teams when  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

The report of the Deputy Chief Officer, Waste Management is to provide the Inner West Community Committee with an update on the Service Review of Waste Management.

(Report attached)

The report of the Deputy Chief Officer, Waste Management provided an update on progress with the review of the Refuse Service in Leeds. It also provided a brief update on the development of a new National Resources and Waste Strategy and how it relates to Leeds.

The Deputy Chief Officer for Waste Management was in attendance at the meeting and informed the Members of the following key points:

·  Rationalisation of the current routes will help the service to save money. The current routes have been used for 9 years and need to change to adapt to an ever changing city and communities;

·  The service needs to have better links to the Community Committees and the Cleaner Neighbourhood Teams to address issues at a local level whilst still delivering a city-wide service;

·   Appendix A of the report listed the objectives of the service. Currently the unions are working with staff on these objectives;

·  The new role of Chargehand was provided to Members and the use of in cab technology;

·  Routes have been redesigned to link with the Community Committee areas and include recycling facilities;

·  Garden routes have also been redesigned and these will be relaunched in March 2020;

·  The service is due to have 45 new wagons by end of December 2019;

·  A report is due to be taken to the January 2020, Executive Board on the subject of missed bins in relation to access routes;

·  The Government are due to publish the Waste Strategy in December 2019. Highlighted within the strategy will be the recycling of glass, food and plastics. Leeds hope to be advocates and champions addressing issues of recycling, with more items being included in the green bin collection. There is a social media campaign to provide clarity on what can be put into green bins;

·  Refuse collection at tower blocks and in areas where there is a large student population bespoke solutions are being considered. Discussions are also ongoing with Housing in relation to tower block refuse chutes;

·  The review is looking into communal composting in relation to food etc.;

·  End of day reports will be more detailed and are monitored as a back office process;

·  The service is looking into the use of bio-mass fuels for the future.

RESOLVED – To note the content of the report.

To consider the report of the Head of Stronger Communities which provides the Community Committee with an update on the budget position for the Wellbeing Fund, Youth Activity Fund, Capital Budget, as well as the Community Infrastructure Levy Budget for 2019/20.

(Report attached)

The report of the Head of Stronger Communities provided the Community Committee with an update on the budget position for the Wellbeing Fund, Youth Activity Fund, Capital Budget, as well as the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Budget for 2019/20.

Members were informed of the following key points:

·  Point 18 of the report set out at table 1 a list of projects funded with a remaining balance currently of £46,644;

·  Points 20 to 28 listed projects for members consideration;

·  Supplementary information presented 3 more projects for members consideration;

·  Monitoring information had been provided for a cookery project which had been delivered from two sites one in Bramley and one in Armley;

·  Table 2 of the submitted report set out the activities funded under Youth Activity Fund with £49,749 being allocated and a remaining balance of £3,651;

·  Table 3 listed the small grants which have been funded by the Committee with table 4 listing the community skips which have been provided. The remaining balance currently stands at £1,935;

·  The Inner West Community Committee has a capital of budget of £11,680.43 available to spend, table 5 of the submitted report showed the schemes which have been allocated capital money;

·  The Inner West Community Committee currently have £114,605 available to spend in the CIL budget.

During this item Cllr. Illingworth declared an interest as he is Director of the Kirkstall Valley Development and is involved in decision making in relation to this project.

A member of the Drug Watch Foundation attended the meeting to provide information on the project ‘Drug: The Truth’.

Members’ discussions focused on CIL money and how this should be spent in the community.

RESOLVED – To:

a)  Note details of the wellbeing budget position (Table1);

b)  Consider/approve the following wellbeing proposals;

c)  Note monitoring information of the Committees funded projects;

d)  Note details of the Youth Activities Fund (Table 2);

e)  Note details  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

The report of the Head of Stronger Communities brings to the attention an update of the work of the Communities Team, based on priorities identified by the Community Committee. It also provides opportunities for further questioning, or to request a more detailed report on a particular issue.

(Report attached)

The report of the Head of Stronger Communities updated the Community Committee of the work which the Communities Team is engaged in, based on the priorities identified by the Community Committee.

Members were requested to appoint a Children and Young People Community Committee Champion from the Armley Ward to ensure that all Inner West Wards are represented. The Community Committee were advised that a nomination for Cllr. Lou Cunningham had been received.

The Chair informed the Committee that the employment workshop had taken place with 20 people attending. It was noted that the workshop had helped 6 people go on to apply for posts in the NHS.

RESOLVED – To note the content of the report and appoint Cllr. Lou Cunningham as the Children and Young People Champion for the Armley Ward.

The Meeting of the Inner West Community Committee will be on Wednesday 18th March 2020, at 6pm.

The next meeting of the Inner West Community Committee will be held on Wednesday 18^th March 2020, at 6pm.