Agenda item

Ms V Poole spoke on behalf of St Margaret’s Hospice in Yeovil.  She said that one of their commercial ovens had unexpectedly broken beyond repair, and, as this was unforeseen, there was no budget to replace it in 2017/18.  She said that she would be contacting each of the Council’s Area Committees to request assistance in replacing it.

The Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture commended the Hospice for the care they provided to the community and said the contact details for the Area Committees would be provided.

Mr B Budzynski said that during the recent presentation of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Octagon Theatre, the tickets had been printed with both the Westands / Octagon entertainment venues which had caused some confusion to the public attending as to which venue the performance was being held. 

The Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture said this had been brought to their attention and they were looking at the future presentation of tickets for both venues. 

Ms V Cornelius asked if the Council would consider installing a gate at the entrance to Yeovil Recreation Ground’s Chilton Grove car park.  Local residents had to deal with anti-social behaviour by people using the car park late at night and in previous years it had been occupied by travellers which had required both security staff and a clear up of the car park after they had left at tax-payers expense.  She said that no-one needed to be in the car park after 10.30pm and asked the Council to consider that it may be cost effective to install a gate or barrier.  

The Portfolio Holder for Property confirmed that a written answer would be provided.

The Leader of Council advised that he had raised the issue of having a temporary transit site for travellers in the district at a Somerset CEO and Leaders meeting recently.  If a temporary site could be identified then the Police could use their powers to move any travellers in the area to the site. 

Mr R Skarbek, the CEO of Diversity Voice, said they were a small local charity providing support to ethnic minorities, working mainly with children and young people to ensure they were safe and secure.  He said that following a number of reports of racial abuse from Romanian taxi drivers in Yeovil they had arranged a community tension meeting on 26^th April at the Yeovil Day Centre to discuss this and other issues with a number of interested organisations.  He invited Members to attend the meeting to raise awareness and encourage support for victim of hate crime.  He also asked that SSDC publicly state that it would stand up to race crime and work closely with Diversity Voice. 

The Leader of Council responded that SSDC took their lead on such issues from SARI and the Police, but, SSDC would always deal positively with hate and race crime.  Any complaints from taxi drivers would be dealt with by the SSDC Licensing service.  He hoped that Members would be available to attend the community tension meeting the following week and he said the council would look at working closer with his organisation in the future. 

The Chairman of Council confirmed that SSDC had passed a Motion in July 2016 confirming its intolerance of race and hate crime.  He said that he would forward a copy of it to Mr Skarbek.