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Report of Charnwood Borough Councillors to Annual Parish Meeting 9th April 2001
This report is a combined report on behalf of all five Borough Councillors. We report on another busy year at Charnwood. It has been a year of achievement, frustration and disappointment.
The three party Cabinet arrangement has continued this year and Birstall’s Borough Councillors collectively have been involved in all aspects of the Council’s work from Cabinet through scrutiny and planning to housing and council tax benefits appeals.
The provisional executive and scrutiny structure has continued. It would be true to say that councillors across all groups and officers have struggled to adjust to new ways of working. The Cabinet has considered a large number of items in its meetings and has sought to come to grips with developing proposals for the restructuring of the council’s departments to meet the challenges of best value, community planning and use of IT in accordance with the Government’s E-Government strategy. Scrutiny Committees have been active on considering a wide range of matters. We attempted to improve the budget consideration procedures this year and to involve members in giving closer scrutiny to officer proposals for expenditure. The process was a tortuous one and one that needs much refinement, but it did mean that greater justifications were required for the inclusion of items in the budget than has been the case in the past. It is vital that the budget and capital spending processes are designed to set priorities more precisely. Although there is no immediate financial crisis, there is an urgent need to have tighter financial planning so that revenue and capital spending can be managed in an orderly manner in a period when resources are becoming much tighter.
For Birstall, there have been two key issues during the year. First, there are the inter-related matters of the Alldays car park site and the Sibson Road improvements. As Councillors, our priorities have been to put in place the necessary processes and funding requirements to ensure that these schemes come to fruition.
Following Mrs Murphy’s purchase of the Alldays site, we were able to persuade the Cabinet and the Council to transfer the money, which it had allocated for the purchase of this site, to the Sibson Road Improvement scheme in 2001-2002 financial year. Throughout the year, we have worked to ensure that the necessary processes of consultation and plan preparation have been undertaken as close to schedule as possible. We pressed from an early date for a ‘Planning for Real’ exercise. In large measure, we have kept to the timetable and have undertaken more detailed consultation with residents and with shopkeepers on this scheme than on any other I know of undertaken by the Borough Council. I am sure that the scheme will be the better for this time and for the efforts by a number of people including the Landscape Architect. the final detailed plans which are going to be put out to tender are nearly complete and it is now expected that they will be put out to tender next week with a return date of three weeks. This has been a major undertaking.
The car park advanced quite quickly in the middle part of last year and your borough councillors share the frustrations of many in the village at the delays that are holding up this important project. These are not of the Borough Council’s making, but I am becoming increasingly anxious about this matter. Although it has been overshadowed by the Sibson Road scheme, final plans for the Front Street improvement scheme are now being drawn up and hopefully progress should be made soon on this project.
It is vital to the future of the village that these schemes are completed. Together with the County Council scheme on Sibson Road, these projects represent a considerable investment in Birstall - approximately £1/2 million.
The second key issue for Birstall and also for Wanlip is the Hallam Fields Development. We were extremely disappointed at the outcome of the public inquiry and at the way in which the Inspector had ignored the concerns of local residents. The consideration of the plan and the Inspector’s Report has been complicated by the Government’s production of PPG3 on Housing policy last year. It is only in recent weeks that the Environment Scrutiny Committee and the Cabinet have considered the responses to the report and resulting modifications. The modified plan, if agreed by Council, will involve an increase to 810 houses and 6 hectares of employment land. We have probed the plans carefully asking detailed questions about different aspects of the officers’ recommendations. Cabinet agreed to reword some of the supporting wording of the plan to ensure that the structural landscaping is in place by the end of the second planting season and that the employment site is laid out and marketed before 200 houses are built. We still believe that the site is the wrong site for development. However, it is now likely that it will be developed and it is important therefore to ensure that Birstall gains benefits from this development with improvements in facilities for the village as well as for the new development. To that end, I would like to see a contribution to parking and environmental improvements in the centre of the village by the developers. Cabinet agreed that stronger emphasis should be placed on this as part of the Council’s negotiations with the developers. I cannot comment on the details of the planning application, but I can say on behalf of the Borough Councillors that we will continue to work to ensure that the interests of residents and the village are fully considered by the Council if this development proceeds.
Before closing, I would want to join Councillor Wilson in paying tribute to the work of Mrs Doreen Wilson, who has now retired as Parish Clerk. I have worked closely with her for many years and would say the parish has been very lucky in having a clerk that worked in such a dedicated way for the Parish. Thank you Doreen. I wish you a long and happy retirement.
Personally, the coming year is going to be an interesting one, and as Mayor, I look forward to meeting many residents in Birstall and Wanlip as well as other parts of the Borough.
Tony Stott
9.4.01