In accordance with the Constitution, Members of the Council may answer questions from the public of which notice has been given.
(a) The following question was received from Kelly Davies :
On page 10 of the council's new corporate
strategy, there is mention of increasing vitality, vibrancy, footfall and spend
in the town centre. How does the council plan to do this when our public
transport has been acknowledged by the BBC as being sub-par and many of my
followers have claimed the town's car parking charges to be a killer of footfall
within the town centre?
The Portfolio Holder for Growth and Prosperity (and Deputy Leader) to respond
(b) The following question was received from Gareth Batchelor :
Can
you provide details regarding the background to the decision to re-locate the
Christmas tree pit in the Town Centre, including the identification of issues
with the previous site and the procurement process undertaken?
Supplementary Question provided:
How
long the new site is expected to last and what, if any, guarantees are in place
if any remedial work has to be carried out to prevent a large expenditure
again?
The Portfolio Holder for Growth and Prosperity (and Deputy Leader) to respond
Minutes:
In accordance with the Constitution, Members of the
Council may answer questions from the public of which notice has been given.
(a) The following question was received from
Kelly Davies :
On page 10 of the Council's new Corporate
Strategy, there is mention of increasing vitality, vibrancy, footfall and spend
in the town centre. How does the Council plan to do this when our public
transport has been acknowledged by the BBC as being sub-par and many of my
followers have claimed the town's car parking charges to be a killer of
footfall within the town centre?
The Portfolio Holder for Growth and
Prosperity (and Deputy Leader) responded as follows:
‘Thank you for the question
and also I would like to pay tribute to
you for circulating covid updates particularly
amongst young people and for joining some of our seminars. As you note, as part
of its new Corporate Strategy, the Council has made a commitment to delivering
sustainable and inclusive growth in Melton and surround. We understand that the
vibrancy of town centre is reliant on a range of factors such as quality and
diversity of offer, promotion of businesses, opening hours, occupancy levels,
affordability and spend capacity of the community and accessibility of the
place itself. It is important that people have access to employment and as well
as access to affordable housing to
improve the disposable income of our communities and this Council wants to
reassure you and your followers that young people are very much at the heart of its agenda in terms of getting
them new houses and finding new jobs for the next decade to come.
It has been an extraordinary
year for town centre retail and leisure particularly with significant falls in
footfall due to the covid pandemic. Throughout the
year, the Council has been working with the Business Improvement District and
Melton Mowbray Town Estate to maintain the vitality, vibrancy, footfall and
spend in the town centre. We have done this by ensuring public health messages and infrastructure were implemented
ready for the retail reopening back in June, including extensive signage, hand
sanitisers, and support provided by visible Covid
Ambassadors. Our regulatory services team has worked with our partners to
support businesses in ensuring their shops, cafes and restaurants could open in
a COVID-safe way.
Other support measures we have
undertaken during the Pandemic have seen us :
·
Relax enforcement of
Marquees and temporary structures to ensure those businesses who are able to
can utilise outside space more effectively. This helped create more capacity to
achieve social distancing guidelines whilst on the premises.
·
We supported
town centre businesses in trialling a
café culture in the market place by supporting pavement licences for outdoor
seating
·
We also have
developed a shared seating space in the market square for businesses to utilise
during the day and in the evenings.
To support footfall in the run
up to Christmas, the Council has offered free parking days in key town centre
car parks on every Friday in December to attract shoppers. We have also
enhanced our Christmas lighting scheme this year, and have installed a 25 feet
high Christmas tree to create a festive environment for all visitors to enjoy.
Clearly, despite the efforts of
all involved, not least the businesses themselves, this is going to be a
challenging time for them but this Council had provided over £11m of direct
support to over 1,000 businesses within Melton over the last 8 months. Our
business grant support schemes are still open and he implored all those
businesses who have not yet to come forward for assistance. There was also a
new £1K wet-led pub grant available which was being promoted around the
Borough.
Looking to the future, Melton
Borough Council has an extensive plan for town centre growth, with a commitment
to help build over 4,000 homes over the next 15 years that will ensure new
families and residents move to Melton which will increase footfall and
patronage of our town centre. Our Cabinet has also only this week confirmed the
establishment of a new Food Enterprise Centre for Melton which we look forward
to launching in 2021.
The Council is investing into
strengthening the economy and supporting key economic sector such as food
production, retaining jobs by using the grants money to retain spend capacity
and increasing housing growth to support affordability to the community.
The Council owns 9 car parks
in the town centre providing over 1,000 parking spaces which include 7 free
spaces and 37 free disabled bays. There are approximately 13 other car parks in
the town centre in private ownership, providing access to over 1,100 parking
spaces, over 70% them being free for a duration of time. In addition there are
approximately 80 on-street car parking spaces available in the area.
In regard to car parks in the
Council’s ownership, the Council has had to tread a fine line between
supporting the town centre and ensuring it is bringing in enough income to
cover the cost of operating and maintaining our car parks. The new charging
schedule has only been in place since April 2020 and before then the prices had
been frozen for 4 years. During this April – July the Council removed
enforcement of car parking activity in the town to support those essential
businesses the Key Workers that were able to use them. The Council has also
offered free parking days in certain car parks on every Friday in the run up to
Christmas to support traders where possible.
We will also continue to work
with our County Council partners regarding transport and highways
infrastructure. But as demonstrated above, the Council is taking a range of
actions and is committed to do everything in its power to increase footfall and
vibrancy in the town centre and importantly to encourage people to spend in
local shops.’’
Ms Davies asked the following
Supplementary Question :
Ms Davies thanked Councillor
Higgins for his response and asked for
the duration and location of the free parking places in the town centre. She
also asked for an outline of the dialogue taking place with the Leicestershire
County Council Transportation section relating to the public transport
offering.
Councillor Higgins responded
that there were free car parking spaces
on Burton Street, Thorpe End, Sherrard Street,
Park Lane, Jubilee Street, King Street, St. Mary’s Way and at the Council
Offices, he believed there were between 80-100 spaces. He added that there was
also commercially hosted free car parking in the town centre as places such as
Pets at Home, Morrisons, Lidl etc. He referred to the
ongoing representations of Melton’s County Councillors with the County Council
to retain Melton’s bus services and it was understood that young people were
most affected when services were reduced.
(b) The following question was
received from Gareth Batchelor :
Can you provide details
regarding the background to the decision to re-locate the Christmas tree pit in
the Town Centre, including the identification of issues with the previous site
and the procurement process undertaken?
The Portfolio Holder for
Growth and Prosperity (and Deputy Leader) responded as follows :
‘Thank you for your question.
The planned works for the Christmas tree pit pre-dated the coronavirus pandemic
and had been planned since mid- 2019. The existing tree pit was no longer fit
for purpose and structural tests had identified it was no longer capable of
safely securing the town centre Christmas tree. It was also identified that due
to the ground works required for a new pit, the existing location was also not
appropriate because it was next to a drainage system and therefore would have
required diversion of the drain pipe. This would have incurred a significantly
higher cost The other solution explored was to continue to use a temporary
solution and secure the tree above ground as we did in 2019. This solution
consisted of securing the tree via a metal collar to four x 1 tonne concrete
blocks. This too was an expensive solution due to the fact the cost would have
to be incurred every year until a permanent solution was put in place.
Considering the above, and
recognising the importance of maintaining a high quality, town centre Christmas
tree, it was decided that the safest and most value for money option would be
to relocate the tree pit. To achieve best value the contract was procured via a
nationally recognised procurement framework and Jeakins
Wear was the preferred bidder. The funding was allocated in the Council’s
capital programme in February 2020 and the final cost came in slightly under
budget. The work required included; survey work undertaken on site to identify
the best location for the pit so as to not disturbed any underground
infrastructure, design work to ensure the pit would be structurally sound,
license fees to actually undertake the work, the hiring of heavy machinery for
ground works and other site related costs, including compound facilities and
secure fencing etc).’
The following Supplementary
Question was provided :
How long the new site is
expected to last and what, if any, guarantees are in place if any remedial work
has to be carried out to prevent a large expenditure again?
Councillor Higgins responded :
This was anticipated to a be a
long term solution and the structure of the tree pit could last for a whole
generation. The pit will now form part of our routine maintenance regime to
ensure it lasts as long as possible and any issues are picked up quickly and
dealt with at low cost moving forward. If we want to properly support our Christmas
festivities in Melton, then we will have to invest in the infrastructure to support and there would be
no compromise in public safety in doing so. Last year it cost the Council a significant
sum in temporary supports and having to meet that cost each year does not represent
good value for money.
The
investment we have made this year will ensure Melton’s high quality Christmas
festivities can continue for many years to come and you only have to look at
social media to see how much the Christmas lights and tree have been valued
this year.’