Illingworth Ward Forum and Illingworth Neighbourhood Watch

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Venue: Illingworth (St Marys ) Cricket Club Alloe Field View, Illingworth HX2 9EU. Present: Councillor Daniel Sutherland
Illingworth Ward Forum and Illingworth Neighbourhood Watch For more information, go to www.halifaxnorthandeast.com; email [email protected]; or ring 01422 255402

Meeting NoteVenue:

Thursday 11 September 2014

Illingworth (St Marys ) Cricket Club Alloe Field View, Illingworth HX2 9EU

Present: Councillor Daniel Sutherland (Chair); Police & Crime Commissioner Mark Burns Williams; Insp Colin Skeath, PC Dave Illingworth (West Yorkshire Police); Liza Crowther, Hilary Chadwick (Pennine Housing); Sarah Richardson, Mark Brazil (Calderdale Council), Vicky McGhee, Karen Scanlon (Ovenden and Mixenden Initiative). 22 Residents. Apologies: Councillor Lisa Lambert

1. Welcome and introductions 1.1.

Cllr Sutherland welcomed everyone and outlined the format of the meeting and how people can raise issues and have their say. He also explained that the Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson would be joining the meeting to answer questions about Neighbourhood Watch.

1.2.

A Ward Forum for Illingworth – Vicky McGhee said that from September there is now a separate ward forum for Illingworth only, instead of the joint meeting for Illingworth and Mixenden. This will mean that Illingworth residents will now have a meeting in their area every 3 months and it is hoped that this will encourage more people to get attend and have their say.

2. Calderdale Council Website: improving the customer experience 2.1.

Sarah Richardson gave a presentation on improvements that have been made to the Council’s website and their plans for the future. The website currently gets 2.5m visits and collects £4.5m in revenue through the site each year. A live web chat facility was launched the week commencing 25 August. It is available between the hours of 9am and 5pm.

2.2.

The Council is asking for volunteers to be part of a web improvement group. Volunteers will be emailed links 2 or 3 times a year to spend 5 – 10 minutes testing the site. Sarah asked for anybody interested to give their email address to Vicky at the end of the meeting.

3. Calderdale Citizens Celebration Awards 3.1.

This awards celebration is all about recognising the work of individuals, groups and organisations in their communities. It was agreed at the last meeting that 1| Page

although nominations would be open to new nominees, the 7 North Halifax Neighbourhood Awards winners from the Illingworth and Mixenden area would be included. 3.2.

At the meeting voting slips were distributed. The winner will be announced when the Mixenden votes have been counted and added to the total.  UPDATE: Irene Mullhal received the highest number of votes and will be put forward as the overall nominee representing the Illingworth & Mixenden ward. All the nominees will receive certificates recognising their achievement.

4. Local updates and forthcoming events 4.1.

Illingworth St Marys Cricket Club - Andrew Smith, Chairman of the club thanked the ward forum for choosing the club as a venue. He then gave a brief history of the club, some of the activities on offer and their plans for the future. Everyone who works at the club is a volunteer and the club is always looking for new volunteers to join them either in the running of the club or through fundraising activities. Most recently they have just set up a Sunday League open age team.

4.2.

Illingworth Neighbourhood Watch – The 27 individual groups in Illingworth continue to meet regularly to discuss community safety issues across Illingworth and Bradshaw. Following a visit to Carr Gate Police Headquarters by one of the Neighbourhood Watch Coordinators, in July, there is also a session on Loan Sharks and the law planned for autumn. More details will be sent to Neighbourhood Watch coordinators.

4.3.

Ovenden Phoenix Football Team – Vicky McGhee gave an update on a new open age football team that has been set up with support from Ovenden and Mixenden Initiative.

4.4.

Players are made up of young men from Illingworth, Ovenden and Mixenden mostly between the ages of 16 – 24 years. Earlier in the year the lads had started playing informal matches but were using local pitches without permission. Local resident and Ovenden and Mixenden Initiative officer Karen Scanlon approached the lads to see if she could help. Since then, with lots of support from West Yorkshire Fire Service, they have formed a strong team and have just commenced playing in the Halifax Sunday League. They train weekly at Beechwood Park, and currently use Savile Park for home games but are looking at facilities within the North Halifax area for next season.

4.5.

Over the summer the team have supported community events like Pennine Housing’s Grove Fun Day, and undertaken various fundraising events for Ovenden Phoenix and the Fire-fighters Charity. They have also attended Ovenden, and Mixenden ward forums to promote and get support for their team (they would have attended tonight’s meeting but Thursday is training!).

4.6.

A number of the players have been volunteering with Pennine Housing, Happy Days and Ovenden and Mixenden Initiative, 2 of those recently progressed into apprenticeships with Pennine Housing.

4.7.

At a fun pre season match against West Yorkshire Fire Service on 24 August, Ovenden Phoenix received a new kit sponsored by Community First and West 2| Page

Yorkshire Fire Service. Police Chief Superintendant Angela William attended and the lads got a good write up in the Halifax Courier - and they won 8-1! 4.8.

Colin Skeath commented on the success of the work done by partners in engaging with these young men, some of which he said were previously known to Police or at risk of being known. It’s a really great piece of work and is having much wider benefit for these individuals, and also the local area.

4.9.

Abbey Park – Liza Crowther Neighbourhood Coordinator, Pennine Housing gave an update on the Abbey Park estate. All tenants requiring re-housing have now been moved. Demolition is waiting disconnection of utility services including Virgin cable. Liza said that the biggest issue at Abbey Park, for Pennine is security of the empty properties. Even though they strip empty properties as soon after vacation as possible, there have been a number of break-ins and theft of copper piping and boilers. Another big problem is flytipping, and deliberate fires.

5. Your issues – open forum 5.1.

Garden Waste – Illingworth resident enquired if the pilot run scheme that was run last year in the Illingworth area would be running again this year as resident felt it was a valuable resource.  UPDATE: taken from Council’s website 24/9/14 Garden waste collection trial Calderdale Council and SITA UK conducted a trial collection of garden waste, fortnightly, between April and September 2012 from 1,500 properties, split between the Illingworth and Hipperholme areas. Some properties were provided with 2 strong sacks for their garden waste and some were given wheelie bins (the same height but slimmer than the standard wheelie bin already used for refuse). The purpose of the trial was to gather information on collection methods, as well as on weights of garden waste. The garden waste was turned into compost. Any residents using the garden waste sacks can keep them for future use at the Household Waste Recycling Centres. Thank you to everyone who took part in the trial, you provided us with some useful information. Unfortunately we are not able to introduce further garden waste collections at the moment. We are now looking at the possibility of introducing garden waste into the next waste collection contract which is due for renewal in 2015 (or 2016 if a potential one year extension is implemented). Until then, there are no immediate plans to collect garden waste.

6.

The Police Crime commissioner for West Yorkshire 6.1.

PCC Mark Burns Williams was introduced and it was explained that he had been invited by Illingworth Neighbourhood Watch members originally because they had questions about the lack of available Neighbourhood Watch signs, and the future of Neighbourhood Watch. The floor was then opened for questions from the group.

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7. Police Updates 7.1.

Pc Dave Illingworth gave a crime statistics report from 31 Jul – 9 Sep 2014 including:  Burglary Dwelling – 0  Burglary Other - 9 - reports across the ward including at Field Head Lane and Natty Lane and Heath Moor Way.  Theft from a Motor Vehicle - 6 - including a handbag stolen from a car parked at Ogden water  Theft of Motor Vehicle – 1 – theft of a motor cycle at Withens Hill Croft. The vehicle was later recovered by the police.

7.2.

Pc Illingworth stated that crime within the Illingworth area is lower than at the last meeting but that he is currently dealing with an ongoing problem at Natty Lane playing field. Residents have been complaining about young people hanging around the football shelter at night and also causing antisocial behaviour. Dave said that he is working with the Council to find a solution to stop them being able to gain access to the shelter. He also said that the youths causing antisocial behaviour have been identified and warned about their behaviour.

7.3.

Did you see Us? - Following resident reports about speeding traffic, local Police and the Ovenden and Mixenden Initiative conducted a traffic operation in the Illingworth area on 2 September. They used SID (Speed Indicator Device) to monitor the speeds of 223 vehicles using Illingworth Road (towards Bradshaw) and Riley Lane (toward Bradshaw from Holdsworth Road). The speed limit on both roads is 30mph. Average speeds monitored on this occasion were 22.5mph on Illingworth Road, and 27mph on Riley Lane. 9 vehicles were stopped and spoken to about speed and safety, including the use of seatbelts. Lots of residents came out to find out what was happening, and many confirmed that both roads do suffer from traffic issues especially at evening times. Similar operations will be carried out in the future.

8. Anything else 8.1.

Discussions around Community Disposals and restorative justice led to a suggestion that the Illingworth Neighbourhood Watch might want to invite a guest speaker from Calderdale’s Youth Offending Team to talk about restorative justice at a future meeting.

9. Dates of next meeting 9.1.

Illingworth Neighbourhood Watch – Thursday 23 October, 6pm at Illingworth Fire Station.

9.2.

Ward Forum – Thursday 4 December, 6pm for 6.30pm start at Illingworth Fire Station

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