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BRIDGEGATE EAST RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION (BERA) Minutes of Executive Meeting. Tuesday 22nd October 2024 in The Albion

In attendance  Bill Grady (Chair), Fiona Rushforth , Jim Parrish, Anne Grady, David Flood , Adrian Rushforth

Apologies Helen Foden

Drill Hall Gardens

All agreed that the draft flyer written by Helen was a good idea and should be delivered to residents asking for help with the Drill Hall Gardens. There is some money available in BERA funds which can go towards this.

It was felt that we must meet to agree what the purpose of the Gardens will be before starting any work.

Bill said that at the CRAG conference, the University asked for suggestions for community projects that their students could get involved in. Bill to ring the University for more details, but it was felt that this would be very useful in providing help in maintaining the Gardens as they would also be insured by the University

David pointed out that there was a pile of timber outside 616 from the pergola that had to be taken down. He is to enquire from Matthew if we could obtain this and use it to make raised flower beds.

One City Plan Meeting

David and Jim attended this. The minutes are below

CRAG Conference

Bill, Anne and Jim attended. They reported a very interesting talk about the University and what it does. They also still want to buy the Quicks building, but at the ‘right price’.

They reported that the question and answer session was much more open than last year.

Minutes will be circulated when available

Date of next Meeting

TBD

CRAG Minutes of Second Meeting to discuss the Chester One City Plan action item “City Centre Living”

Topic Group One: Commercial Impacts & Interfaces

on Monday 7th October 2024@ Bishop Lloyd’s Palace – Watergate Street Rows

In attendance:

1. Mike Hogg (MJH)
2. Andy Farrall (AF)
3. Vanessa Bond (VB)
4. David Colclough (DC)
5. Julie Colclough (JC)
6. Ann Farrell (AF)
7. Sarah Roberts (SR)
8. Allan McKenzie (AK)
9. Mark Gillette (MG)
10. Aki Roughley (AR)
11. David Flood (DF)
12. Jim Parrish (JP)

Apologies:

1. Mark Roughley (MR)
2. Nic Beckett (NB)
3. Annika McIntyre (AM)
4. Julia Tickridge (JT)
5. Karl Dean (KD)
6. John Walker (JW)
7. Bill Grady (BG)
8. Anne Grady (AG)
9. Rob Hulme (RH)
10. Tony Barcroft (TB)

11.Mark Williams (MW)

12.Alison Geavie (AG)

13.Tony Mould (TM)

MINUTES

7th October 2024

1. Introduction: MJH opened the meeting and thanked all for attending. He reminded attendees that the objective of this and the other meetings of this group is to deliver a view on “What good would look like” for City Centre Living – one of the 45 deliverables of the One City Plan (OCP). Each individual attendee then introduced themselves to the meeting.
2. Minutes of 24th July 2024 meeting: These (including the red additions / amendments) were approved as an accurate record.
3. Objectives of this Evening’s Meeting: To “flesh out” what good would look like for the first group of issues – i.e. Commercial impacts and interfaces, covering: (a) Noise (b) Odours & (c) An improved diversity of shops & businesses in the city centre – especially on The Rows.
4. (a) The Noise impact of Commercial Activity: This principally concerns the operation of licensed premises. The following comments were made, that:
5. not all licensees are bad and that it was encouraging that some recent applicants had engaged in advance with the local residents’ association.
6. some of the above had volunteered to install a noise limiter.
7. live and recorded music with premise doors open is the most intrusive aspect.
8. the bass notes of the noise range are the worst – and in extremis can be felt as well as heard.
9. The worst offenders are in constant breach of their licence ( and sometimes) planning permissions and in some cases secure a premises licence for one purpose and then use it for another.
10. Whilst limiting noise generation to “reasonable” hours – and at worst the WHO silent hours of 11pm to 7am is good in principle, that excessive noise at any-time of the day or night is problematic (particularly where small children are involved).
11. a standard set of licence conditions across the city that could be shared with license applicants at the time they were thinking about submitting an application (rather than during the process of application) would be useful.
12. the licensing conditions secured for Pepper Street premises would be a good starting point for a set of standard conditions i.e. no deliveries, (waste) collections, bottling out of the moving of kegs & barrels be permitted between 9pm & 8am, and outside noise stopped at 11pm at the latest, with licences granted for 11pm onwards requiring measures that prevent noise “escaping” to the outside of the premises (eg sound insulation, mandatory door closures etc).
13. the erection & demolition of scaffolding should be added to those activities banned between 9pm & 8am.
14. CRAG should make and publicise awards for the best operators every month / quarter as well as bringing focus to bear on the bad operators.
15. Reversing bleepers on delivery and other vehicles should also not be allowed in the “quiet / silent” hours – albeit if all deliveries and collections are banned in that period, that in itself would solve the problem.
16. Cars and taxis collecting people late at night from licensed premises are also a problem – as are buses at the bus station standing with their engines running.
17. Enforcement also needs to be improved, but it is accepted that the current CIP is not enforceable as it stands. CRAG could support individual RAs in focused enforcement activities against the worst offenders.

14.It is understood that if a licence for a particular premises is revoked, that this “wipes the slate clean” for that particular location.

15. Staff awareness and motivation are seen as a key “lever” in tackling these issues, with local owner operated premises more likely to be attuned to local resident concerns than those that are part of national chains.
16. Consideration should be given to amending planning rules to permit the installation of appropriate double glazing in listed buildings and conservation areas for both environmental and noise mitigation reasons.

(b) The Waste, Odour & Health impact of Commercial Activity: Whilst this will in part be picked up in more detail when we tackle Group 4 (Services), there were a number of points tabled that:

1. Commercial bins are often left open and overflowing – leading to unpleasant odours, rats and seagulls.
2. Bin stores are both too small for current levels of usage, inadequately managed and unsightly.
3. Commercial waste collections are often very early (within the WHO silent hours), noisy (particularly when removing glass) and also prone to leave rubbish and remnants behind them (food detritus and glass fragments) that are again unsightly and an HSE hazard. The Street Care team remediation of this problem seems to depend upon the good will of the operators rather than any operational plan. The need to clear up would be removed if the job was done properly in the first place.
4. Extractor fans are often noisy and discharge odours close to residential premises.
5. Buses at the bus station often keep their engines running both during the day and evening, producing noxious fumes.

(c) Avoiding the trend towards a high street “monoculture”: 1. There is concern that city centre living would be less attractive if there were to be only a narrow range of shops (e.g. just bars, restaurants, charity shops and coffee shops).

5. Next Steps: 1. Work up a “best case” set of ideal licensing conditions that should be proposed as the standard for any new licensing applications in Chester. These should be based on the “Pepper Street” model attached. Look at “stepped” additional conditions that should be added when any premises wish to have a licence for after 11pm. These conditions should also incorporate the mandatory requirement for a noise limiter to be operated 24/7 – particularly managing the bass sound ranges. The Pepper Street standards are attached: please suggest any additions / amendments that you would feel to be appropriate.
6. Once a standard set of conditions has been agreed by the CRAG OCP working group, we will seek to engage with relevant third parties to test out the model. These would include some licensees, the police & council licensing teams and city centre councillors. The objective is to have them (or something as close to them as possible) accepted as a city wide standard for all new licence applications in Chester and for key elements to be incorporated in the revision of the Cumulative Impact Policy scheduled for Spring 2025.
7. It is accepted that enforcement is as important as the licensing conditions themselves. A second element of discussions with the above third parties is to be the role that RA members of CRAG could potentially play in a sustained campaign focused on serial licence abusers (starting with the worst first).
8. MJH to contact Cllr Katrina Kerr regarding commercial waste collections, bin stores & bus station issues.
9. MJH to write to Cllr Katrina Kerr regarding the installation of double glazing in listed buildings and conservation areas.
10. CRAG OCP working group members to send MJH a list of the shop types they would see as essential to facilitate attractive city centre living (a hardware store and a vets were mentioned during the meeting).
11. A.O.B: 1. AF explained that once this working group have established the building blocks of the nine groups of issues, that we are asked to consider and help to advance three key projects: a. Living above the Rows. b. The Commonhall Square Master Plan c. New city centre residential development.
12. Suggested dates for next meetings: a. November 19th, 21st or 26th b. December 2nd, 3rd or 16th. c. January 7th, or 14th d. February 11th or 17th.
13. MJH: Closed the meeting at 2030 and thanked all for attending and contributing

 

Pepper Street “Standard” Licensing Conditions

(1) Opening Hours of the premises, supply of alcohol, performance of live music and performance of recorded music all to be limited to the following hours:

1. Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 00:00
2. Sunday 10:00 to 23:00
3. From the end of permitted hours on New Year’s Eve to 01:00 on New Year’s Day.

(2) Late Night refreshment to be limited to the following hours:

1. Monday to Saturday 23:00 to 00:00
2. The last hour of operation on New Year’s Eve.

(3) Emptying of bins into skips, refuse collections and all deliveries shall take place in or via the internal service yard and only between the hours of 08:00 and 21:00.

(4) Glass bottles shall not be disposed of from the premises between the hours of 21:00 and 08:00 on any day to prevent disturbance to residents in the vicinity of the premises.

(5) Beer kegs, bottles and other similar items shall not be moved to an outside area of the licensed premises between 21:00 and 08:00 hrs.

(6) All staff shall undertake appropriate training of their responsibilities under the Licensing Act 2003 (including the refusal of service to any person who is drunk). Such training shall be documented and records maintained for production upon request of the Police or relevant Responsible Authorities.

(7) The premises licence holder / designated premises supervisor will come to an arrangement with a private hire taxi company who will offer a ring-back service. Telephone numbers for that taxi company will be displayed in a prominent position inside the premises. Customers shall be encouraged by staff and door staff to wait inside the premises.

(8) All doors and windows to be closed at 23:00 hrs other than for safe access and egress.

(9) The use of any outside or al fresco areas to cease at 23:00 hrs.