Minutes: Abbots Langley LAF 26.06.12

THREE RIVERS DISTRICT COUNCIL

Notes of a meeting of the Abbots Langley Local Area Forum held atManor House Sports and Social Centre on Tuesday 7 November 2012 from 7.30pm to 9.30pm.

Present:CouncillorsStephen Giles-Medhurst(Chairman)

Ward Councillors:Sara Bedford, David Major, Joy Mann, Kate Turner, Chris Whately-Smith and Keith Williams

Parish Councillors:Owen Roe and Ivy Young.

Officer:Sarah Haythorpe, Principal Committee Manager.

Apologies for absence:CouncillorMatthew Bedford.

Also in attendance:Police Sergeant Neil Canning.

Approximately 40members of the public in attendance.

1.INTRODUCTION

The Chairman welcomed those present at the meeting.

2.LOCAL COMMUNITY POLICING REPORT

Sergeant Neil Canning reported as follows:

Overall crime was down 7.5% with the number of incidents reduced to 384 compared to 416 the previous year. Anti social behaviour was down 24.1% with reported incidents reduced to 362 from 447.

Police had found 150 cannabis plants in a house in HuntonBridgewhich had a street value of £200,000. One person had been arrested with two people being sought.

In Rickmansworth and Sarratt two houses had been found to be growing cannabis with a street value of around £130,000.

A person responsible for the cannabis plants was arrested after their vehicle was stopped by the Police who found £3,000 cash in the vehicle along with a pungent smell of cannabis.

The Forum was advised of 5 key points to look out for if cannabis was being grown inside a property:

The curtains were permanently drawn;
If you live in a terraced/semi detached property the walls would be warm;
There would be a pungent smell;
The residents of the property would be buying large amounts of fertilizer;
Foil on the windows.

If you spot any of these signs contact the Police. Further details were also available on the constabulary website.

Burglary in the area had increased with 10 reported incidents in the last month. Access to properties was being made at the back of the property by smashing the windows with small items being taken such as laptops and jewellery.

It was noted that incidents of burglary did increase at this time of the year and Sergeant Canning encouraged local residents to leave a light on or a lamp or purchase a light timer from the local DIY store to be programmed to switch on at certain times to make it appear that someone was in the house.

Residents were asked not to display empty boxes and to keep any Christmas presents out of view.

The Police were working hard to keep burglaries low and plain clothes Police officers and cars were working in the area. Arrests had been made.

The LeavesdenCountryPark dog watch scheme would be taking place on Saturday 10 November 2012 near to the YMCA between 2pm and 4pm.

A Local Member asked if the residents not participating in the OWL scheme could put forward local policing priorities. Sergeant Canning advised that issues raised at the Local Area Forums were always noted and residents could put forward suggestions at the Police station front desk between 10am and 1pm or email Officers directly.

Residents made the following points:

During the Summer holidays and Half Term holidays, a number of young people had gathered in Langley Road outside the MethodistChurch. Items of rubbish had been left. Sergeant Canning advised that the Police did patrol the area at peak times and they would remind the young people to dispose of any rubbish correctly. The land could not cleared of litter by the street cleaners as it was private land.

In the Trowley Rise alleyway leading to the Shirley Road estate it was understood that drug dealing was taking place – if residents saw this happening they must telephone 101. Some arrests had been made in the area recently for selling cannabis.

Recently young people had been waiting around the shops asking adults to buy alcohol for them. A resident had called 101 but they did not receive a response from the Police until 1 hour 45 minutes later. Sergeant Canning advised that calls were received and graded on the type of incident. If another incident was more important they responded to that first.

The Police had powers to challenge shopkeepers and to fine them if they were found to be selling alcohol to underage people. The Police also worked with Trading Standards to undertake test purchases.

Vehicles were parking on the footpath in HuntonBridgestopping access. Sergeant Canning advised that the Police did not have sufficient resources to monitor this everyday. If there was a blatant obstruction the Police could issue a fine or advisory note.

Vehicles were also parking on the new roundabout in HuntonBridge next to Wharf Way at weekends and in the evening. It was advised that the County Council had not revised the Traffic Regulation Order and there was no enforcement in place but double yellow lines were being progressed. The local PSCO would be asked to visit the area.

The Local Authority, not the Police, could issue tickets for parking on yellow lines. The Police could only issue tickets if the vehicle was causing an obstruction.

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) electionswould be taking place next week. The Police had to prioritise its budget in Hertfordshire and were facing 20% cuts over the next 5 years. There was no information available on where the cuts maybe made but they would not be to frontline services. Consideration was being given to outsourcing back room operations and joint working with other constabularies.

The Chairman thanked Sergeant Canning for his updating report.

3.320 BUS SERVICE AND OTHER BUS ISSUES

The Chairman read out the following statement from Arriva:

“We sincerely apologise for cancelling our attendance at the meeting at very short notice. Unfortunately a domestic issue has occurred and it was something that I had to attend to. We will definitely be at the next meeting and we will respond to any issues raised tonight if they are passed back to us.

Update

“The service 320 has been adjusted on a couple of occasions since we were last invited. That has seen reliability improve from around 50% of journeys being on time to over 70%. This figure is clearly still a long way from being acceptable.

We have also made some changes to how the service is operated so we have vehicles to change over if buses are running late and we no longer serve the station at Hemel during busy times to allow extra time.

We are now in the process of identifying the problems that still cause the bus to be late since the last set of changes. Regrettably this is a long process and our current target date is to have an improved and punctual timetable in place by 31 March. I know this is a long way off but with a minimum of 8 weeks registration with the Traffic Commissioner it is being worked on now and we are taking into account our observations, customer comments and data from our new ticket machines which shows where the buses are.

In 2013, Hertfordshire County Council is introducing Real Time Information systems on bus routes across the county. This will not only allow you to see what time the bus will actually be arriving but will enable us to adjust services there and then and put them back on time. We are also opening a new Control Centre to enable us to better manage the punctuality of our service.

There are still some issues beyond our control and an example is last Tuesday, 30 October when a set of temporary traffic lights was put up in Scotts Hill in Rickmansworth, delays were in excess of 30 minutes causing buses to run together or to go out of service to get back on schedule.

We have also noticed that since the withdrawal of Herts CC School services that our services and the roads are also much busier since the schools went back in September. It may be that we have to have a different timetable for different times of the year especially when the schools go back. The changes we made earlier in the year did have a positive impact in June and July but this has fallen away since the schools went back.

We know this is all taking some time and we can only offer our reassurance that all your concerns are being taken seriously and are feeding into our planning. Please continue to raise issues with our customer service team in the meantime. However if you have anything that you would like us to look into as a result of that meeting please ask Sarah to take the details.

Apologies again for not being able to attend and we assure you that we will come along next time and hopefully will have plans of the new timetable and other updates on our work in Hertfordshire.”

Residents made the following comments:

On 30 October 2012 the 320 bus did not arrive;

Complaints were regularly being made about the staff and drivers being unfriendly;

The timetable was not working correctly;

On 31 March 2013 would the timetable work correctly then?

Schools go back every year so why not take this into consideration when making any changes to the timetable?

The Real Time System should provide the opportunity to monitor the reliability of the bus services at every bus stop and improve the quality of service but unless the general public have a mobile phone with the appropriate system the technology was useless.

Why were there still continued delays and disruptions to the local bus services.

As a resident who lives in Bedmond and uses the 320 bus service regularly it was invariably late and the drivers were not friendly and were not able to explain or provide reasons for the lateness of the service. The first 320 bus was recently very late and meant users missed their train connections at Watford.

Elderly travellers and parents with children were not being given sufficient time to get onto the bus and sit down and had in some instances fallen over.

The logo at the bus stop which enabled passengers to access the timetable requests a 69p charge.

Arriva were paid a subsidy from Three Rivers District Council and Herts County Council (HCC)to provide a service and if they did not provide the service to an acceptable level they should be penalised.

The Number 8 bus service had completely missed part of the route in Abbots Langley on Sunday 3 times in a row. Arriva had denied it happened. This route was subsidised by HCC.

Complaints on Arriva’s performance should be made to the Passenger Transport Unit.

All buses should be fitted with disc trackers.

Real time system would track the buses to check if they were providing the requested service although it would only be used on main routes for a trial period.

Why were there no buses after 7pm?

Which routes were publicly funded by the Councils?

Some buses were arriving early and were not waiting until the allotted time they were supposed to leave the bus stop.

It was difficult to read the timetables in the dark with no lights - could luminous print be considered.

These points were to be considered/investigated forthe next meeting when Arriva were asked to attend along with the PTU from county to explain what were “supported” buses.

4.LEAVESDEN AERODROME

The Chairman of the Forum advised that outline planning permission had been granted 18 months ago for a housing development on the former Rolls Royce factory site. A detailed application had been submitted for Phases1 and 2 of the development. A briefing report had been presented at the September Planning Committee meeting where concerns had been raised by Members particularly on where the plans differed to what was agreed in the outline planning application. On 22 November the Council would be considering the application to seek permission to start Phases 1 and 2. Substantial public consultation had taken place with over 1,000 people notified.

The Chairman of the Planning Committee provided an overview of the history of the site:

Public consultation had taken place a few years ago on the proposals for the development of the site. 30 local groups were invited with 16-20 attending. Concerns expressed at the time were addressed as part of the outline planning permission which was granted permission last year.

As part of the outline planning permission requirement, 10% amenity land needed to be secured. As part of this agreement the Council was able to secure Horsesfield as public open space.

BellwayHomes purchased the site for housing, excluding the public open space at the Horsesfield, for 425 dwellings to be implemented in four phases. As part of the outline planning permission, there would be no through access route across the site from Aerodrome Way to South Way. Some cul de sacs off South Waywould be created for a maximum of 9 dwellings. Traffic calming measures would be provided in South Way along with a speed reduction from 40mph to 30mph.

Members had raised concerns regarding the amount of affordable housing to be provided including the number of 2 bedroom houses. Changes had been made since September and re-notified to local residents.

Under Phase 1- 123 residential dwellings would be built with 44 provided as affordable housing units.

Under Phase 2 - 99 residential dwellings would be provided with 35 as affordable dwellings.

2 crossings were to be provided in South Way– a traffic controlled crossing and a pelican crossing.

The entrance to the site for the first 9 months of the development would be via the Old Studio entrance. 9 months access for construction traffic from South Way would cause a lot of disruption to the Abbey Drive Estate.

(POST MEETING NOTE: The construction access remains to be agreed as part of a discharge of conditions application).

The following comments were made:

You cannot keep building houses when there is no provision for schools and doctors in the area.

The Section 106 Heads of Terms requests that the developer make a contribution to local services andpart of this requirement would be to provideHCC with a contribution towards local education over the next 5 years. A payment of £425,000 was required towards sustainable transport measures.

HCC were the Education Authority and would provide education facilities in the area. Previously local schools had been closed in the area and with this development there would be a requirement to provide education provision.

It was noted that Leavesden Green JMI would be returning back to a 2 form entry. Possible sites for primary school provision were the Bill Everett site in North Watford, expansion of the CherryTreeSchoolor the Nascot Road site,

BedmondSchoolwas currently under-subscribed but was a fantastic school doing very well.

Parents may put forward their school preferences but you did not always get your first choice of school. Leavesden Green JMI school would be 5 minutes walk from this development. Three Rivers District Council did not have the ability to turn down applications on highways/education issues if HCC raisedno objections.

If the development had been refused and the applicant had appealed the decision and won the Council would have to pay costs to the applicant from Council Tax Payers money.

Would Officers be in attendance for the archaeological surveys to see what was found? It was advised that English Heritage would be involved in any archaeological surveys.

(POST MEETING NOTE: It would be Herts Archaeological Officers who would be involved in any survey work).

There were no plans to make Aerodrome Waya dual carriageway.

The Highways Authority would decide the location of the crossings in South Way.

Part of the outline planning permission allowed for 10% amenity space to be provided in the form of public open space at Horsesfield. Three Rivers District Council would,in consultation with local residents, make decisions on its future usewith further details available at the next Forum meeting.

Consultation and discussion would take place on the provision of the play equipment with consideration to be given to providesimilar play equipment to that in South Way which was now well used and appreciated by local residents. Part of any large development like this must be provided with or include leisure facilities. The remaining part of the site would preserved as public open space.

(POST MEETING NOTE: The layout and content of the amenity space required by the outline planning permission (on the Horsesfield) is subject to conditions and the Section 106 on the outline consent. There will be no further consultation on this. The wider Horsesfield is also to be brought into use as public open space. Three Rivers District Council would in consultation with local residents make decisions on the future use of the wider Horsesfield in terms of anything more than informal open space.)