Minutes:
Before starting his report to the Council, the Leader
· thanked the Mayor and commended him for the success of the Civic Dinner which had been well attended by other Civic Heads. This was a good reflection in terms of the regard in which the Mayor was held;
· congratulated Councillor Pam Posnett on receiving her MBE award at the Palace last month and complimented her on the photographs and coverage this had received in the local press;
· referred to the Mayor’s attendance at the recent Melton & Belvoir Agricultural Society events where he had impressed and won over those attending. The Leader said Councillor Bains was a great credit to the Council.
The Leader then began his report on the following matters:
(a) Peer Challenge: acknowledged the work that had taken place over the last two days to support the Peer Challenge. Despite bad weather, five local government colleagues had arrived at the Council on Monday to undertake an intensive review of the Council and to act as critical friends to help support the authority’s future direction of travel. The Leader expressed his thanks to the team for their support and he looked forward to receiving their feedback the following day at 2pm in the Council Chamber. All Members were invited to attend;
(b) MMDR Update: reported on recent significant developments towards meeting the aspirations to deliver the relief road. The Policy, Finance & Administration Committee had agreed the principles which would allow the Council to enter into an agreement with the County Council to ensure the road could be fully funded. The County Council’s Cabinet had considered the proposals that day and with their approval, the Council would be on track to submit the business case to the Department of Transport before Christmas. Referring to the significant amount of work that had gone into to getting to this point, the Leader thanked Members and Officers from both County and Borough councils for working to deliver this important project for Melton. The County Council had made a massive commitment of £4M towards the submission without any guarantee of Government funding. The Leader said he would be meeting with Sir Alan Duncan MP after Christmas to keep up the lobbying for funding. The outcome of the submission to the Government for £55M of funding would be known in the New Year.
(c) Rail Improvements: further to his report to the last Council meeting on the issue of rail connectivity between Melton and Nottingham, the Government had announced in the budget recently £3M investment in the Old Dalby test track to support 5G connectivity. Referring to the Government’s recently publicised rail vision in which included the aspiration to re-open old lines, he and the Deputy Leader responded to this on the Sunday Politics Show, making the case for re-opening the test track to passengers. Although early days, Officers were talking with colleagues from Network Rail, the County Council and East Midlands Councils to explore the potential for re-examining the business case for this investment.
(d) Senior Management Realignment: referred to the recommendations before the Council from the PFA Committee regarding the senior management realignment which would allow the Council to re-focus its resources on supporting people, whilst also releasing capacity to support its ambitious growth agenda. The proposals also included an ambition to bring back the legal service in house which would enable the Council to strengthen its internal governance processes. The Leader emphasised he had made improving the workforce retention a key priority for the Council and was pleased that following the adoption of the new structure, the Council would be in a position to commence a significant recruitment drive in the New Year with a view to the new positions being filled by the Spring. The new Workforce Strategy was developing well and a number of staff workshops had been held where colleagues had the opportunity to feed in their views towards developing a ‘can do’ and supportive culture.
(e) Local Plan: the date for the commencement of the Local Plan examination in public had been confirmed as 30 January 2018 and this would run for two weeks. Officers were now busy responding to the initial round of questions from the Examiner and would be submitting final responses early in the New Year.
The Leader concluded his report by inviting all Members to a Christmas Dinner at the Harborough Hotel on 20 December. The Mayor gave his apologies due to a prior Mayoral engagement that evening.