Agenda item

          The Sub Committee considered a report of the Strategic Director Policy and Resources, which outlined proposals for the installation of alleygates between 21 and 23 Montgomery Road, Widnes. The Safer Halton Policy and Performance Board, having thoroughly considered all of the residents and other views put forward both for and against the installation of the gates, came to a unanimous decision that a recommendation should be put to Board Members for approval to be given to installation of the gates (Minute SAF4 refers).

   At its meeting on 21^st September 2010 the Safer Halton PPB was advised that between Montgomery Road/Cunningham Road and Chilton Avenue/Netherfield Road, there was a linear greenway. Over the previous 12 months there had been a considerable amount of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) with 27 incidents being recorded by the police. St Georges Court (operated by Riverside RSL) and 23 Montgomery Road had been particularly affected. The complaints of ASB related to gangs of young people congregating in the area and throwing stones, fly tipping, leaving graffiti, firing pellets at windows, damaging residents’ windows and arson.

There was a non adopted alley to the greenway by these properties and local councillors had identified this as a key access point for the people who were causing the anti-social behaviour. This alley also provided access to the council allotments and was well used by the public as a route to the town centre, schools and places of work.

          The Alleygating operational group received the request to gate Montgomery in 2009-10. The Alleygate operational group decided, after many deliberations to take this to the Partnership Tasking and Co-ordination Group where all "responsible authorities" e.g Police, Fire, Council, Halton Housing, Riverside, Youth Service etc were present and all incidents and underlying problems could be assessed. The Tasking and Co-ordination Group developed an eleven point action plan to address the ASB issues and continued to monitor the incidents reported to the police.  Residents were advised to contact the police following any incidents so that T&C could fully assess the problem in this area. 

At their meeting on 21^st September 2010, the Safer Halton PPB agreed the eleven-point action plan to address the anti social behaviour and to the establishment of a  working group, including Members of the Safer PPB, to consider how to proceed with alleygating in the future.

          The report outlined the informal local consultation carried out in the area by the Council in October 2010 in order to gauge the views of residents in respect of an Alley Gating scheme being introduced at this location and the views expressed. It also included comments by Cheshire Police.

          In addition the Board noted the comments from the Council’s Highways engineers who had expressed a number of concerns about potential installation of alleygates between 21 and 23 Montgomery Road.

          It was noted that the response to the gating request between 21 and 23 Montgomery Road had followed the procedures applicable to alleygating applications which were agreed at the Safer Halton Policy and Performance Board at their meeting on 18^th January 2011. These procedures were subsequently adopted by the Executive Board at its meeting on 31^st March 2011 (Minute EXB 117).

          RESOLVED: That approval be given to the installation of alleygates between 21 & 23 Montgomery Road, Widnes.