Minutes:
The Leader congratulated the Mayor on his video speech and raising of the flag to celebrate Armed Forces Day.
The Leader stated
‘Tonight we have some
important business on our agenda relating to finance, the establishment of a constitutional
review group and reviewing the annual report from our scrutiny committee. We
also have three important motions that I look forward to discussing with all
members later.
First of all I would like to raise the
crisis impacting on the agricultural industry throughout the Melton Borough.
Agriculture is still one of our largest employers and very valuable to Melton
Mowbray. Agriculture has been subjected to a combination of events which have
created a perfect storm which started with the torrential rainfall on 29th
September 2019 and continued throughout the whole of October, November,
December, January and into February. This area was affected more than others
and I have witnessed the terrible state of the crops first hand from my
frequent journeys to Kings Lynn. All
this is on top of the impact of Covid which has also
hit the hospitality and dairy farm industry. I applaud the Government’s
financial aid to dairy farmers but farmers mainly work alone and there are
concerns for their mental health too. To discuss how the Council can support
farmers through this crisis, I will be initiating a meeting between the Council
and the National Farmers’ Union.
We are now in our
fourth month responding to the Coronavirus outbreak and I want to, once again,
reiterate my sincere thanks and gratitude for the way this Council has
responded. Working with our community and voluntary partners, our Community Hub
has delivered over 2,200 food parcels and over 200 prescriptions. Through the
government business grants we have paid out nearly £11m to over 950 businesses,
as well as providing guidance and support. Throughout this entire time I am
proud that we can say we have been ‘here for Melton’ and we will continue to be
so now and in the future.
The pandemic has clearly
had a significant impact both in terms of public health and the economy and we
are now refocussing on recovery and how we support our communities and
businesses to rebuild. It is not going to be easy and that is why we are
calling upon government to do more to support us financially as we lead the
local response. At a time when the demand for our services, and need for our
support, have never been greater, we are finding ourselves under significant
financial pressure. Yes, the government has supported local councils but we are
concerned they have not taken account of our individual circumstances and we
may still be left with a sizeable gap. We are still working through the
details of the third round of funding but please be assured that if the
funding remains insufficient I will be writing directly to the Secretary of
State to make our case for additional help.
As lockdown has
started to ease, we have worked closely with local partners to ensure a
successful retail, and then more recently, hospitality sector reopening. It has
been pleasing to see that the measures introduced have allowed these businesses
to reopen safely and the people of Melton have responded very positively. We
have also been working hard to enable local businesses to recover as quickly as
possible. As well as the grants schemes mentioned earlier we facilitated a
business webinar a few weeks ago and relaxed regulations so those providing
hospitality can maximise outdoor space. We have also facilitated the start of a
new café culture which we hope will start to develop further and help the
reinvigoration of our town.
Alongside the response
and recovery, other areas of business continue. The recent meeting of the
Housing Improvement Board continues to show we are making positive progress in
this important area of business. As we have got to grips with our long standing
housing challenge, health and safety has been of paramount importance the whole
time and I am delighted that the steps we have taken to increase compliance
over the last year are more and more becoming business as usual.
In mid-June we
launched our new customer self-service platform, IEG4. This replaced a number
of older systems and will enable the Council to significantly improve its
online offer to residents. Over the next month we will be increasing our
promotion of the new system and encouraging residents to sign up to more online
services.
We await the
government’s white paper into Devolution which we understand is due to be
published in the Autumn. We will obviously digest the contents with our
neighbouring councils and will consider how we can ensure we are best placed to
secure the required increase in investment and focus the East Midlands
requires. As you will be aware, improving rail connectivity between Melton and
Nottingham has been a long standing aspiration of mine and building on work we
undertook last year, alongside our MP, we recently submitted a bid to
government for further funding to develop the business case and create a direct
access through Syston. I look forward to receiving
the outcome from this bid later in the year.
I will now turn to the
latest developments in relation to the relief road. Firstly I would like to say
a huge thank you to the officers of this council for their incredible work to
deliver a robust and credible Masterplan within the timescales required. At a
time when the vast majority of our resources were being refocussed on
responding to the crisis we maintained a commitment to this priority and did
not let ourselves or our community down.
I am though very
frustrated and disappointed by the approach taken by Leicestershire County
Council and their attempt to blame this council for their decision not to
accept the Housing Infrastructure Fund. From the outset I must start by
reminding everyone that they are the highways authority and they are the
education authority. We have worked with them and will continue to do so, but
the bottom-line is that if they choose not to accept the Housing
Infrastructure Fund then it is a matter for them, and something for which they
must accept responsibility.
It is worth reminding
ourselves of what has taken place to get us to this point:
1. In October 2018 our Local Plan was adopted,
which included the three parts of the relief road but no secondary school.
2. Even before the ink was dry on our
Local Plan, the County Council massively increased their requirements for
developer contributions for education which created the need for additional
primary schools and another secondary school which weren’t in the original
plan.
3. Inevitably this put huge pressure on
viability, but we have worked with them to overcome this and in November 2019
we agreed the basis of a risk share agreement to support infrastructure costs.
4. We understood that everything was then in
place for the Housing Infrastructure Funding to be secured but in February 2020
the goal posts changed again and they now needed the Masterplan to be completed
before they would accept the HIF money.
5. Even in the middle of the current crisis we
diverted resources to accelerate delivery of the Masterplan, which we did on
time and to an excellent standard.
6. Now they tell us that is not enough and we
have to provide a ‘guarantee’ on developer contributions.
So what exactly does a
guarantee mean? They haven’t told us,
but in the last 5 years, Melton Borough Council has secured over £32m towards
County Council services and infrastructure. This compares to just £3m secured
for all other agencies including ourselves during that time. £25m of this is
for the MMDR and education. Of the 55 s106 agreements processed during that
time there are only 2 where the County Council’s full requests have not been
met; and the value of these was very low. In financial terms over the last 5
years Melton Borough Council has secured 99.5% of what the County Council has
asked for. If this level of past performance doesn’t provide the required
assurance or the ‘guarantee’, what would? 99.7%, 99.9%? What more do they
want?
As recently as April
we offered to form a joint delivery team with the County Council so that we
could work together on securing the HIF. This was rejected by them.
We remain ready to
refresh the current viability appraisal and work with the County Council on a
development strategy which could be completed in a matter of weeks. We are
happy to review options which would assist with improving viability and which
could still see the HIF money secured.
Melton Borough Council
has done everything it possibly can to deliver the road and to suggest
otherwise is both illogical and totally unjustified. This is their
responsibility and they cannot just pass the buck.
I feel I also have to
share my disappointment in relation to the conduct of the Leicestershire County
Council colleagues at their recent Cabinet meeting where this was discussed.
At a time of national
crisis, we should all be working together for the benefit of our communities,
not seeking to disrespect, criticise or undermine each other. There is a £30m
investment in Melton at stake and seeing County Council Cabinet Members,
smirking and making some highly unprofessional comments about Melton Borough
Council during their meeting was totally inappropriate and unjustified. I am
also extremely concerned by some of the reasons their Cabinet gave for not
accepting the HIF money.
The Portfolio Holder
for Finance and Resources suggested the development of the Masterplan had not
involved the Developers. This is just plain wrong and the main developers were
fully engaged in the process and supportive of the preferred options. With the
question of viability such a key consideration, it is deeply troubling that his
decision was made on the basis of this inaccurate understanding.
Equally concerning was
the suggestion by the former Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services that the
level of developer contributions associated with a live, un-determined planning
application was a justification for refusing the HIF money. As mentioned
previously, our performance in securing infrastructure funding for the County
Council is impeccable, with 99.5% of requests secured over the last 5
years. There is simply no justification for refusing the HIF money on
this basis.
I raised this very
point with the County Council’s Portfolio Holder for highways at the recent
Members Advisory Group, and challenged him to explain his own reasoning for
rejecting the money and what he was going to do about the risk it creates for
infrastructure delivery more generally across Leicestershire. He did not
respond.
It was ironic that the
County’s Deputy Leader articulated precisely the challenge faced by planning
authorities like ourselves; sharing his experience of developers wanting to
renegotiate s106 agreements. We certainly recognise that challenge and I would
also welcome his thoughts for how we might prevent that in future - if we are
to provide the kind of ‘guarantee’ seemingly required by the County
Council?
We fully appreciate
the significant risk faced by the County Council in relation to infrastructure
funding, but as I have demonstrated, we have done all we can to support them –
delivering our Local Plan, establishing the basis for a risk share
agreement, securing 99.5% of developer contributions they have asked for and
completing the Masterplan on time. If the County Council chose not to accept
the HIF money it is their decision, and their failure to follow through on the
commitment they made. If that is what they want to do, they need to grow up, be
brave and accept responsibility for that decision, rather than blaming us or
anyone else.
We continue to liaise
with Homes England and even now, we stand ready to work with the County
Council, in good faith, to secure the HIF money and deliver the road. It is not
too late and we await their response.’
Councillor Holmes thanked the Leader for taking the time to look into the difficulties faced by the agricultural industry and offered her support in providing statistics during this time.
Councillor Cumbers agreed that it was a sensible approach to meet with the NFU and work out a way forward to help the local farming industry.
The
Leader thanked the Councillors for their comments and for recognising the
seriousness of the situation that farmers are facing at the current time.