MANCHESTER CHINATOWN COMMUNITY GROUP MEETING MINUTES/ACTIONS

 

Chairman of the Meeting; Gary Ellis – Director of Operations Cityco.

Meeting Held on; Wednesday  21^st November 2012

Venue; New Hong Kong Restaurant

 

Attendees;

Tommy Wolstencroft                     CityCo

Kirsty Rawlinson                               MCC City Centre Regen

Ray Quinn                                           Grosvenor Casino

Carl Wetherill                                     Grosvenor Casino

Mark Baldwin                                    Grosvenor Casino

Insp. Rik Byatt                                   GMP

PC Rick Grace                                     GMP

Lisa Jones                                            MCC NDT

Winnie Leung                                    Great Wall Restaurant

Martin Jones                                      Arora Hotel

Jaunita Yau                                         Wai Yin Chinese Women’s Society

Jimmy Low                                          Wing Fat Supermarket

Clifford Hui                                         M/c Chinese Centre / FCAM

Rachel Combie                                  Marketing Manchester

Rebecca Harrison                             United Utilities

Vanessa Ho                                        Ho’s Bakery

Yin Ting Yeung                                   Yang Sing

Bonnie Yeung                                    Yang Sing

Barrie Thompson                             UK China Business Centre

Thorsten Mayer                                               MCC City Centre Ward Coordination

Vera Wong                                         New Hong Kong Restaurant

Tony To                                                                Tung Sing Housing Association

Jo Harrington                                     Tung Sing Housing Association

Matthew Guest                                                Guest & Company

 

Welcome and introductions

 

Matters arising from the minutes of the last meeting

Traffic Signage in Chinatown – Lisa Jones responding for Breige McDonald and reported that an inspection had been undertaken but they were unable to identify the actual signs that were the issue.

Action: TW to arrange to undertake an audit with NDT Officer

 

United Utilities

Report in AOB

 

Committee Nominations and Election

The following structure was ratified at the meeting (see attached chart)

It is the intention of the working groups to produce a cohesive action plan that will improve the environmental quality, animation and profile at the follow up meetings in December. This will be submitted to the MCTCG meeting in February for comment, discussion, sign off and implementation.

 

The Chinese Arch

MCC Highways have appointed an engineer to formulate an action plan that will include affecting repairs to make the structure safe. This should result in the protective netting being removed before the Chinese New Year celebrations. He will also be speaking to the authorities in London, Newcastle and Liverpool on what maintenance regimes and which specialist contractors are required for long term repairs.

 

Parking Enforcement

Members queried the chance of overturning of the council changes to parking hours?

Hilary Sayers confirmed that this was highly unlikely in the foreseeable future, and explained that the aim was to increase circulation of spaces and create higher footfall. This was deemed to have been achieved.

Concern was raised that there is a high concentration of parking enforcement officers in Chinatown and a common sense approach is not being implemented.

Civil Enforcement Officers are deployed to all areas of the City Centre in an equitable manner.  No one area is ‘focused’ on.

Parking tickets remain an on-going problem,

any objections should be forwarded to:-  

Any on-going concerns can be highlighted to:  ;     ;

Action: Response from Diane Murphy in Red

Neighbourhood Policing

Inspector Byatt introduced himself and explained that the city centre was currently undergoing a re-structuring exercise. This will see more ground-level policing in Chinatown, two new Constables to assist Rick Grace and PCSOs Phil Brown and Mark Pickford.

Rough sleepers and street drinkers are still an issue and the 101 number is not seen as an efficient way to report the incidents. Alternative contact details for non-emergency response are:- or e-mail:

The increase in manpower should produce more visible policing levels.

 

Waste Management

An updated questionnaire will be redistributed by TW and Bonnie Yeung to all businesses. This will allow us to survey the amounts and types of waste generated, which when collated can be used to attract a single waste collection company to provide a unified service for the community.

The amount of waste being left out for prolonged periods on Reyner Street was highlighted.

Action: MCC NDT to identify perpetrators and visit

 

The lack of ash trays outside restaurants/ bars was highlighted.

Action. Community Development/Environment Working Group to discuss with MCC NDT

 

NCP Update

An A6 promotional leaflet has been produced and was awaiting translation before distribution.

A city centre residents permit is available for access to any of the 15 car parks in the city centre for £999.00.

NCP requested that members contact them to access discount offers and stressed that they are willing to listen to businesses, (i.e. The Lowry validation deals with local businesses). Any requests will have to be sanctioned by the board

The NCP board meets in April where reviews and requests will be discussed

NCP are prepared to database share with the group and e-mail out information.

It was noted that the area around the car park needs sprucing up and the environment improving, they are prepared to host quarterly events there.

The NCP Chinatown map is to be replaced and updated

It was raised by the group whether discount could be given to businesses for short stay usage in the car park

NCP could look at providing a half-hour tariff in the future

Action: Community Development Group to progress

 

AOB

United Utilities gave an update on the sewer replacement works on Faulkner Street.

They apologised for the works over-running, but explained that this was caused by having to work around the other service apparatus within the excavation area. They agreed that there had been communication issues in the consultation process and that no definitive finishing date should have been circulated on the initial memo.

An agreement on effective communication with the group has now been formalised and they will liaise through CityCo on any future works.(Reyner Street?)

UU are also in the process of obtaining funding to deep clean the fascia of any businesses affected by the works and are prepared to discuss a contribution to the Chinatown Arch repairs.

 

The Chinatown website – permission has been requested to hand over the administration rights for the website from the developer to Bonnie Yeung.

 

Events for 2013 include a pre-Chinese New Year fundraiser and a Miss Chinatown pageant in the spring. These and other events are to be planned and delivered by the Events/Fund raising working group.

 

It was raised that there was a need to improve the branding and promotion of Chinatown, to increase visitor numbers/ footfall etc. including better sign posting and the Marketing Manchester website. Rachel Combie explained what Visit MCR do in promoting Chinatown at the moment and stated that there is a 3 page article on Chinatown in their latest magazine MCR 10.

Action: Rachel Combie to look into giving the area a stronger presence on www.visitmanchester.com

 

Next MCTCG Forum

 

• Date; Wednesday 20^th February 2013
• Time; 2.00pm
• Venue; TBC