Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Holmes.

Members to declare any interest as appropriate in respect of items to be considered at this meeting.

Councillor Rhodes declared a personal and pecuniary interest in item 3 (Funding for the Melton Mowbray Distributor Road (MMDR)) as the Cabinet Lead for Finance at Leicestershire County Council and left the room for this debate.

Councillors Orson and Pearson (upon arrival) declared a personal interest in any items relating to Leicestershire County Council due to their positions as County Councillors.

The Corporate Director and Solicitor to the Council declared interests in item 5 (Corporate Structural Realignment and Associated Implications) and left the room for this debate.

(Councillor Rhodes here left the meeting throughout this item. Councillor Pearson arrived during consideration of the item.)

The Corporate Director to submit a report to update the committee with regard to the submission of an Outline Business Case for the development of the Melton Mowbray Distributor Road (MMDR) and on discussions with Leicestershire County Council (LCC) to share the burden of the funding of the MMDR that will not be met from external sources and to seek approval to work with them further on identifying a solution.

The Corporate Director submitted a report to update the committee with regard to the submission of an Outline Business Case for the development of the Melton Mowbray Distributor Road (MMDR) and on discussions with Leicestershire County Council (LCC) to share the burden of the funding of the MMDR that will not be met from external sources and to seek approval to work with them further on identifying a solution.

The Corporate Director explained that Members should have received an updated report with the additional sections highlighted in red along with Appendix A, the Leicestershire County Council’s cabinet report and Appendix B, the negotiations of the Heads of Terms.

Leicestershire County Council are requesting that letters are exchanged prior to their cabinet meeting on 12 December 2017. Funding for any shortfall in funding can be sought from the Business Rates Pool and the Business Rates Pilot, should that be successful. In addition Leicestershire County Council are requesting that any shortfall in funding be allocated from the New Homes Bonus and the Business Rates growth that is generated by the road. It is also proposed that the feasibility of Council tax being included in the funding arrangement should be assessed.

Based on the attached Heads of Terms the detail would need to be developed based on legal advice and more detailed modelling before final submission to Full Council for approval.

Paragraph 5.6 gives an indication of the scale of the contribution of the level of funding we are looking at but more modelling is still to be undertaken but the sums are over the life of the local plan and there are risks of overspends from such a large complex project but the risk in not developing the road is also great.

The Chief Executive explained to Members they would hope that the road could be funded through the bid to the Department for Transport (DfT) and contributions secured from developers but there also needs to be a plan should there be any shortfall or overspends. It was explained that there will be thresholds put in place both to ensure a baseline of funding is retained from the various funding sources as well as a maximum limit above which any agreement would have to be reviewed. This gave a level of protection to the Council and created a threshold within which the council would jointly share the cost of funding the road with the County Council. 

The Chairman explained that this is the biggest decision the Council will make but there is risk to both authorities. It was explained that Sir Alan Duncan has been invited for a meeting to seek support to maximise funding from the DfT but there are no information on the detail around this. The Chairman stated that he was happy to move the recommendations but would like to amend recommendation 2.2 to include the Leader in the consultation along with the Corporate Director and the Solicitor of the Council.

Another Member explained that they were  ...  view the full minutes text for item P50

To consider any other items that the Chair considers urgent.

There was no urgent business.

EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC

RESOLVED that the Public be excluded during the consideration of the following item(s) of business in accordance with Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (Access to Information: Exempt Information) under Paragraphs 1,2 and 3.

(Councillor Rhodes here re-entered the meeting. The Corporate Director and the Solicitor to the Council here left the meeting.)

The Chief Executive to submit a report to ensure resources, structures and capacity match the Council’s aspirations.

The Chief Executive submitted a report to ensure resources, structures and capacity match the Council’s aspirations for a structural realignment. An updated version of the report was presented to Members at the meeting.

RESOLVED that all recommendations within the report be approved.