Bohemia Village Voice

Report from Cllrs Andrew Cartwright & Kim Forward (Gensing Ward) and Cllr Trevor Webb (Central St Leonards and Gensing, ESCC). The report is considerably abridged.
Hastings Council Budget and Corporate Plan The full complement of Street Wardens (now known as Environmental Community Officers) who deal with litter, dog fouling and fly-tipping will continue to operate for another year. Hastings’ Council has abandoned its plan to scrap the Small Grants scheme. This scheme gives grants of up to £500 to small community organisations. This was due to a big campaign from local organisations, residents and local councillors. In the past several organisations in Gensing ward have benefited from this scheme.
Communal bins Four petitions against the Communal Bin scheme have been presented to the Borough Solicitor. Three are from the Bohemia area and one is from Alexandra Road. They contain nearly 400 signatures. The Council has postponed the decision on the Communal Bin Scheme until Monday 27th April at 6pm Town Hall, Queens Road. The Bohemia Area Association formed a Working Party which has written to the Council outlining the reasons for rejecting Communal Bins in Bohemia and suggesting that a modified version of the “Twin Bin” scheme using smaller wheelie bins, binvelopes and possibly strengthened sacks might be the most appropriate solution.
Clarence Road We complained to the Council about the long delay in removal of fly-tips from the unmade part of Clarence Road. After 8 weeks the Council’s contractors turned up but a resident had already removed the fly-tip.
Upper Park Road loading bay Residents campaigned for years to have the camber of the loading bay in Upper Park Road made level. This is essential if it is to be used for unloading large delivery vehicles safely. Andrew reported that the Head of Parking and Highways has said  “I can advise you that as a result of heavy vehicles mounting the kerb and parking on the footway, this resulted in structural damage far greater than originally anticipated. The extent and cost of these works far exceeded the allocated budget therefore it has been planned for the works to be carried out next financial year. It is anticipated that these works could be completed by early May 2009.”
Parking For several months Andrew has been chairing a Review Team which has been examining on-street parking and the use of parking surpluses (a small element of highways funding). Concerns about the lack of a mechanism for the community and councillors to have an input to decisions about parking charges, parking control proposals and the use of the parking surplus were a key issue for the Review Team. The Review Team concluded that the development of a ‘Parking Advisory Group’ (PAG) consisting of councillors could provide the desired mechanism. PAG could then invite contributions from the wider community and business representatives on an ad hoc basis as issues arose. The report has been approved by the Resources Scrutiny Committee and will go to Cabinet, 27 April for a decision.
Clarence Road barrier This is complete. Trevor said “Funding was made available from the Government’s Neighbourhood Renewal Scheme, but, even so, it was necessary for local residents and councillors to persevere for over two years”.
Gensing Neighbourhood Panel At the end of January the first meeting of the Gensing Neighbourhood Panel took place. This has been created by Sussex Police and is intended to give the community a greater say in influencing local policing. The Panel decided that the three main priorities were: dog fouling, anti-social driving and parking and  drug dealing. Kim said “The police said that more residents from Gensing had attended than from any other ward in Hastings and St Leonards”.
Baird House We have been working with residents and Council officers to improve recycling facilities.
Contact Please let us have your views on all of these issues. Please let us know what subjects you would like to see covered in this report.
 cllr.andrew.cartwright@hastings.gov.uk    203231
 cllr.kim.forward@hastings.gov.uk             717390
 cllr.trevor.webb@eastsussex.gov.uk         781099
All at Town Hall, Queens Road, Hastings, TN341QR.