Minutes:
The Leader stated that
(a) it had been a couple of months since the Council took a huge step to move to a cabinet and scrutiny model from May this year. He believed this would make a big difference as the Council looked to become a more commercial and agile organisation and address some of the governance challenges identified by the LGA and recognised by all at the Council. He was delighted that the change received such strong support from the Council and thought it gave a clear platform to build on;
(b) since that time the Director for Legal and Democratic Services and colleagues had been working tirelessly on writing a brand new, streamlined and more effective constitution. At that meeting the Council was to consider the first set of documents which would ultimately form the new constitution from May. The Governance Development Group had continued to meet and was joined by Councillor Blase who made some excellent contributions to help shape and develop the early drafts. These were shared with all members enabling wider comments to be fed in. Last week the Governance Committee considered all the documents before the Council and the views expressed and any proposed amendments made as a consequence of the discussion, had been shared with the Council for consideration and approval at this Council meeting. The constitution would always need to be a live document and would continue to adapt over time. It was anticipated that some further sections would be presented to the Council for consideration later in the month and then again in April, so a fully approved, new constitution was ready for the new Council in May;
(c) another area the Council had been focussing on for improvement was planning; as the Council looked to deliver the housing and jobs Melton needed. Through the recent service prioritisation exercise members made the planning service one of their top three priorities and for this reason the Council wanted to ensure it had the most effective planning service possible. This may mean an increase in resources, but first the Council needed to ensure its structures, processes and procedures were as effective as they could be. The Council was awaiting the final review report and as a consequence was starting to consider how it might want to develop and how the Planning Committee operated. He looked forward to discussing the findings with members in due course and any proposed changes as to how it operated would be fed into the constitutional changes considered in April;
(d) he was delighted the Corporate Committee recently approved its new Fire Safety Policy alongside additional resources for a new Compliance Officer as the Council looked to continue its investment into its housing stock. Over the last year he had made improving the quality of housing a priority and was delighted the Council had been joined by two new Housing Tenancy Officers to strengthen how the Council managed both its assets and the tenants who live within them. There was more work to do in this area and later this year the Council would be refreshing its HRA Business Plan to ensure it invested sufficiently in its existing stock, as well as consider any ambitions for new build in the future;
(e) Members be reminded about the informal briefing to be held before the next Council meeting regarding the progress made in developing a new ‘story’ or ‘vision’ for Melton. This was something the Council had been working on with a wide variety of stakeholders. In early January the Council hosted over 80 people at Parkside for a Town and Place Partnership workshop and the Council was in the process of finalising a Destination Management Plan which would drive a range of activities all geared around improving Melton’s profile and attracting new businesses and tourists to the area. He thanked Councillors Freer-Jones, Sheldon and Glancy for their support and leadership on this work and looked forward to the session on 27 February where officers would share more details about the work being undertaken and the preparations being made for a sizable bid to the government’s Future High Street Fund;
(f) in terms of specific town centre developments, the St Mary’s Way toilets would be opened on 20 February as per the recent announcement and the arrangements for the Wilton Road toilets were being finalised and the opening was expected to be in mid-March. At the same time the Council was also undertaking some signage and environmental improvements in the area to maximise the benefits to visitors and users of the town centre. Whilst a successful bid to the Future High Street Fund could make a huge difference to our ambitions for the town, he was pleased with the steady progress made over recent months. The investment in 7 King Street saw a new business, Beerheadz, move into Melton and the Council’s work and partnership at the Cattle Market also recently enabled the opening of a new brewery;
(g) he referred to frustration and disappointment at the BBC study published in the previous week which suggested Melton was a poor place for young people. It was fully recognised that there was more to do and bids to things like the Future High Street Fund and the adoption of the Local Plan and Strategic Growth Plan highlighted the work being done to transform the town. The BBC datasets used were however, skewed against rural areas and did not reflect the many positive attributes of Melton. The Council rejected the BBC’s findings and would be writing to them to challenge what they had said and suggesting that rather than just being critical they offer some assistance. Who knows, maybe Melton will host the Radio 1 Big Weekend Festival this year;
(h) being ambitious for town and place as well as ensuring core services were properly resourced underpinned the key elements of the budget before the Council later in that meeting. As discussed numerous times, and the LGA had advised the Council had to prioritise and the current levels of funding available could not sustain everything the Council did. To be effective the Council had to ensure resources were moved away from non-priorities and towards its priorities. Based on the service prioritisation work already done and the feedback from all members, he believed the budget before the Council achieved that and ensured the Council continued to do those things that mattered most to Melton’s communities and he would speak more on this later in the meeting;
(i) finally he felt he should mention Brexit. Whatever perspective anyone had on this, it could not be ignored in the current uncertainty of what might happen. All Councils in the UK were making preparations for a potential ‘no deal’ scenario and as recently announced there was some funding support for local authorities. The Council was working with partners through the local resilience partnership to make necessary preparations and these would step up significantly if the prospect of a ‘no deal’ scenario remained. This would take up officer time and capacity and he asked Members to be mindful of this and the impact it may have on other activity as the end of March approached.