The opportunity is given to members of the public to put questions to Cabinet Members or Committee Chairs provided that a question does not relate to:
· Matters which are the subject of current or pending legal proceedings or
· Matters relating to employees or former employees of the Council or comments in respect of individual Council Officers.
Minutes:
76.1 A Gloucester resident asked the following to Councillor Cook via Microsoft Teams:
“The park in Coney Hill has been left in a dilapidated state. The ramps are overgrown, the playpark is too small and the trees around it haven't been cut back. It took 4 months and several reports for fly tipping to be cleaned up. Would the council like to explain why these issues haven't been addressed?”
76.2 Councillor Cook thanked the resident for the question. He stated that the Council had not been able to find any reports in respect of fly tipping at Coney Hill park on their Focus system. He said that Focus was not working for some time, so an additional list of requests was kept by customer services, but there was no entry on this list either. He stated that the Council would need to know how the fly tipping was reported in order to investigate the matter further.
Councillor Cook stated that the playground inspector would report any fly tipping he saw in the vicinity of the play area directly to Amey, it wouldn’t appear on the play equipment report sheet. He said that they had been issues in the past with residents throwing waste over their fences onto the Park and on more than one occasion, low risk inmates at Leyhill had been in and spent a day removing large quantities of rubbish.
He stated that he was not aware that there were any particular issues with the play equipment within the fenced toddler area, and that the Council carried out repairs when necessary. The last annual ROSPA inspection of the play area stated that the play area provided reasonable play value and activity. He stated that the Council was aware that the zip wire from the teen area has been missing for some time, but that a replacement was being ordered.
The play facilities certainly met the criteria for a local play area, though they could fall slightly short of the criteria for a neighbourhood play area. Recently the Council had been concentrating on creating new play areas where there was a shortfall in provision and s106 money available, though consideration could be given to providing equipment for older children (e.g. a big climbing frame or space net) at Coney Hill if funding could be found.
The sides of the BMX track were cut biannually. The bikes kept the track free of vegetation but the grass on the banks was allowed to grow longer as part of the Council’s low mow regime.
Councillor Cook stated that he was unsure what the reference to trees around the play area was referring to. There was a group of trees in the top right corner but they did not seem to be interfering with anything. The light green structure in the middle of the trees was the roof of the youth shelter, but that has now been moved to an area next to the BMX track.