- Abertillery Online Discussion Forum -

Rocke · Joined: 08 May 2008 Posts: 795 Location: Abertillery

Last Monday was a special meeting of Licensing.
Due to the fact that we don't know how many applications we'll be hearing in the normal meeting and so can't be sure of how long it will take this special meeting was held to discuss some policy decisions.

The first dealt with how we deal with applicants whose CRB checks aren't blank. Because Taxi drivers deal with the public in general an enhanced CRB check is done, which mean that any offence, whensoever committed, is detailed and up until now any applicant with an offence has to be interviewed by committee. This has led to us interviewing people with offences such as disorderly conduct back in the 70's when they were in their early 20's. I've actually seen one applicant's record that showed he was fined 5 shillings !!
So we're now proposing that for certain offences and/or certain time limits our officers will be able to process the application without the applicant having to get time off etc. to come to committee. A lot of sense in that I think. ( Certain offences, such as sex and violence-related ones will still result in referral to the committee, however ).

Tuesday I had a site meeting at Roseheyworth with one of our officers regarding trimming trees and cutting away bushes that youngsters use to hide the fact that they're drinking there. Work will start in a few weeks. Hopefully the work of the Police and the peace for our residents will be made a little easier now.

Weds. was a meeting of the School Development Working Group.
You may be aware of the investment coming into The Works. A state of the art Learning Campus will be built and there's a number of options regarding the school(s) and post-16 education that can be provided there. There's also the impact on schools in the surrounding area. This meeting was to start the long process off.

Weds was also 'greater Abertillery Regen' Executive briefing.
Not many Members there I'm afraid - well, Delwyn and me. I know a few others we on holiday or working. Not sure where Cllr. McCarthy was.
Anyway, a very informative and hopefully productive meeting.
First, businesses etc. in the town:

* Wetherspoons have indicated that they are to push ahead with their plans. Looks more like Easter now though, than New year ;
* Iceland's shop fitting will start around Nov. with planned opening around March. We'll be liaising with the Job Centre as and when Iceland start recruiting;
* There's been an approach regarding development of the former Lib and our officers will be looking into that;
* Advanced plans for Foundry Square ( so the temp car park is a no-no I'm afraid Harry ). Your idea regarding a sculpture is in the picture sunbeam, all and any ideas being welcomed.
* The former TV shop will be offered for sale, since it's clearly been proved that we didn't need to demolish all the properties to get Foundry Square.
* Nothing regarding FADS.

Regarding the town in general:

* Some work has started on the Bridge ( Anvil Court end ) and we were shown a 'gateway feature' that might go at the Alma St end. I've no doubt that this will give rise to many comments !!
A decent sized bus shelter has been commissioned and will hopefully be in place before the weather turns really bad.
There's plans for bespoke fencing. The problem here is that with so many cables under the pavement normal, 'off the shelf' fencing solutions weren't feasible.

Some new developments:

* Traders Forum has been reconvened and we will be actively working with them ;
* We undertook a survey ( some 190 people took part ) regarding the town, especially car parking, traffic in Church St and an indoor market. It seems that a substantial majority of people do not want Church St opened up to traffic and also want it cleared of all the cars that seem to use it for parking these days. A loading/disabled parking bay will be provided at the top of Church St. This will allow disabled people to stop close to the Post Office, chemist and newsagents in one go.

Members' ideas:

* Delwyn wants to see the bus stop opposite the toilets reinstated. I agree. It's a bit daft to get off there and not be able to get back on to return to Cwmtillery.
* I presented my plan(s) for improving traffic flow in and out of Aber.
In short it's a filter lane to allow traffic to go out towards Aberbeeg while traffic's coming in on the 'green arrow', a mini-roundabout at the bottom of Station Hill, reprioritising the roads so traffic coming up Station Hill has priority over traffic coming down Gladstone St. and a Stop line at the bottom of Gladstone St, possibly coupled with creating a drop-off area outside the Dolls. This should make it safer to cross the road by there.

Thursday was a special meeting to update us on the Council's Corporate Improvement Plan and our Communities Strategy.
Sadly we were inquorate - not enough of the 33 members turned up.
Worse, we only needed 8 !
Anyway, the meeting went ahead but purely as a seminar, effectively allowing Members to be updated and also to give their views on how things might be improved further.
It seems that once again we've achieved our targets regarding improvement in certain areas and it looks as though we've got the maximum amount of money available from WAG as our reward.
Regarding the communities strategy I was able to relay some info. from the previous week's Community Council Liaison Group that helped.
Community Councils are key partners in working together to make our local community areas better.
My view is that it's as long as the Community Councillors are making the decisions and not the Clerks, most of whom seem to be associated with previous political administrations somewhere along the line.

Street Lighting continues to be a talking point among Partnership members and I think it's fair to say that we've got a very good handle on all the material issues now. This week's Group Meeting will no doubt see a healthy debate and resulting consensus on the changes that need to be made and how to tweak things to reduce the impact on citizens.
A full update next week.

Cheers.

_________________
Rocke