Wyke College planning application

John Fareham and John Abbott have details of a planning application to relocate two mobile classrooms at Wyke College. The College have applied for retrospective planning permission to resite two mobile classroom buildings, the last two remaining of those replaced by the new school buildings, to the southern part of the school site adjoining Hartoft Road. The fact that it has already been done is not, in and of itself, grounds for refusal. Should local residents wish to pass an opinion either for or against this application they can either E-mail dev.control@hullcc.gov.uk or writing to Planning Services, Kingston House, Bond Street, Hull, HU1 3ER quoting the reference number 14/00047/FULL, preferably before 14 February 2014. Further details including drawings can be found via the Council website.

Ancaster Avenue tenfoot

John Fareham and John Abbott offer to support a gating scheme for the Ancaster Avenue-Fairfax Avenue tenfoot should local residents want one. The cost of such a scheme would be partly borne by local residents and all those whose back access would be affected would have to agree to it. We make the suggestion now as it has come to our attention that dog walkers who do not live locally are using this tenfoot, failing to clear up after their dogs, and becoming abusive towards local residents who object. It will not have escaped local residents’ notice that in a more general sense a gating scheme would do no harm in a crime and disorder context – it certainly hasn’t escaped ours insofar as we have put a number of gating schemes in place elsewhere in the ward.

Allderidge Avenue TRO consulation

John Fareham and John Abbott urge all residents of Allderidge Avenue to take part in the forthcoming consultation exercise on a traffic regulation order for Allderidge Avenue only. Residents will recall the earlier consultation exercise on a wider traffic regulation order introducing resident parking over a wide radius around Wyke College and Kelvin Hall School, the rationale being that anything smaller would have led to a process of attrition as the exclusion zone around both establishments was set ever wider to deal with successive sets of knock-on effects. To say that this idea failed to find widespread favour would be an understatement, but we did undertake at the time to offer Allderidge Avenue its own resident parking scheme if the big scheme failed to find favour. The consultation exercise is expected to take place in the near future and we encourage all local residents with a view either way on resident parking here to express it when they get the chance. Blocks of flats on the YPI front so far are a dead issue, however 8 “houses” could easily produce 32 adults, and more would be possible. In the current financial climate we just managed to find funds to keep our promise; it is not likely to be consulted or acted on again for a few years.

Railway Homes damaged wall

John Fareham and John Abbott have arranged for the repair of the perimeter wall of the Railway Homes on Chanterlands Avenue after it was damaged by a motor vehicle. We understand from the Police that local residents that they heard a loud bang recently but nobody actually saw anything colliding with the outer wall. Be that as it may, we saw the damage, photographed it, sent the photograph to Railway Homes and we now understand that they are waiting for quotes for someone to do the repair work, which suggests that the work will be put in hand as soon as they can come to terms with someone qualified to carry it out.

Hotham Road North street lights

John Fareham and John Abbott have secured the reinstatement of malfunctioning Hotham Road North street lights. Having heard from local residents that street light no. 7 was not working, we immediately reported it to the officers who now tell us that a repair has been arranged. We are also aware that another light has not been working properly and that too has been reported. Members of the public wishing to report a street light not working can of course do so by calling 300300 and quoting the number of the street light and the street where it is situated, but we continue to report street lights that don’t work whenever we see them, or are told of them, and will continue to do so.

Baker's Field consultation exercise

John Fareham and John Abbott report that a further meeting of local residents to discuss the future of Baker’s Field will be held early in February. As a result of the earlier meeting and of discussions following it, the number of possible schemes has been reduced to a final two or three. Residents have now received official notice of a meeting to be held on February 4th at which they will be invited to reach a final decision on which of the remaining proposals they prefer, but we thought it best to tell you first to give you more notice of a chance to consider the options. Whatever is decided, the funds are there to pay for it insofar as, working with the Council’s finance officers, we have identified Section 106 funding which was accrued in the first instance to pay for precisely such schemes as these.

Bishop Alcock Road open land

John Fareham and John Abbott report that the Council have agreed terms with the prospective purchasers of the open land on Bishop Alcock Road. The Council’s Cabinet have decided to enter into an Agreement of Sale with a prospective purchaser who will be proposing to use part of the land, which falls into three parcels, for a residential care home and the rest of it to build houses. This will be subject of course to planning permission being granted and Wyke Area Committee have already expressed the hope that this is not another instance of “land banking”, the practice of buying land and then saving it till either it, or the planning permission you get to go with it, are worth a lot more money. It goes without saying that I for my part will take a particular, but of course wholly impartial, interest in the details of this application when it comes to Planning Committee.

Loveridge Avenue traffic consultation

John Fareham and John Abbott report that a traffic regulation scheme for Loveridge Avenue is approaching the stage for public consultation. We have had a number of comments from local residents regarding safety issues such as a possible conflict of interest between cars travelling one way through the tenfoot entrance and pedestrians travelling the other way. A scheme has now been evolved, funding has been allocated and a formal consultation exercise on the Traffic Regulation Order required will follow in due course. We do not as yet have a date for this - a matter on which we do have to wait our turn - but we will pass it on as soon as we get it.

YPI floodlights again

John Fareham and John Abbott report that further progress has been made with the issue of the YPI leaving their floodlights on after the time allowed by their planning conditions. The most recent information we have is that the Council’s enforcement team have met with the officials of the YPI to discuss the setting of the floodlight timers to comply with the switching off times imposed by the planning conditions. Arrangements are also in hand for a formal caution, currently in preparation, to be issued to the YPI in respect of their future use of these floodlights. It goes without saying, of course, that if there are any further problems, technical or otherwise, with these lights being on at the wrong time we will pass local residents’ concerns on to the enforcement officers.

Kirkham Drive-Allderidge Avenue open land

John Fareham and John Abbott report that funding has been approved for the enhancement of the green open space between Kirkham Drive and Allderidge Avenue. The funding for this comes from Section 106 agreements whereby, in accordance with strict rules, a developer whose plans impact negatively on urban green space can pay for compensating enhancements elsewhere. These funds have been found by the Newland Ward councillors, with whom we have worked closely on this issue, and will pay for the clearing of debris, importing of soil and pruning or removal of trees. After all the concerns about YPI and open space it is a pleasure to announce that, left to our own devices, we and others are ready and willing to enhance open space provision whenever we can.

Fairfax Avenue litter bins

John Fareham and John Abbott have secured the repair of two litter bins on Fairfax Avenue. One of them was reported to us during the course of our most recent mobile forum and we spotted the other on our way round the ward. Both were reported to the officers as soon as we spotted them and we now have undertakings from the officers that they will both be repaired, the latter being received less than an hour after we reported it. We understand local residents’ concerns about litter, perhaps especially in those neighbourhoods where there’s an obvious potential source of litter, and we remain resolved that, wherever possible, we will clamp down on the wanton dropping of litter from takeaways and the like.

Bricknell Avenue traffic vibration

John Fareham and John Abbott have secured a proposed solution to the problems with vibration from Bricknell Avenue traffic. We secured an inspection of this section of carriageway by the officers who concluded the problem was not so much the relaying of the carriageway after the cabling works on the even-numbered side – it had been done to a higher standard, as specified by the Council, than that normally followed, and a small overlap between the trench reinstatement and the existing road surface had already been fixed. They concluded, however, that the state of repair of the other side of the road- problems with joints and with the loose surface – could result in vibration being transmitted to adjacent properties. It is therefore currently proposed to include repairing the joints and resurfacing the carriageway in the 2014-15 capital maintenance programme currently under preparation. Because of existing highway commitments this work cannot be done before then. We will of course pass on any more details we have about the work as we get them.

BISF and CASPON insulation works

John Fareham and John Abbott report that plans are in the pipeline for cladding and insulation works on all the BISF and CASPON council properties. This is something for which we have been pressing for years at every opportunity. The Council are working with external partners to submit a grant application that will be as favourably viewed as possible and will offer the Council the best chance of doing a good job in construction terms that will avoid the work needing to be done again. It is expected that the Council will know whether it has got grant funding in time for the 2014-15 financial year but the Council are also looking at whether it might be cheaper in the long run to find the money themselves.