Agenda

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 9 December 2025.

To be advised of any additional items of business which the Mayor decides by reason of special circumstances shall be taken as matters of urgency at this meeting. Items will be considered at the end of the agenda.

To deal with questions under Council Procedure Rule number 14.

Question from Councillor Sutton to the Executive member for Planning:

“Is it possible to have a special meeting to discuss future planning policy and the Local Plan for the Borough?

At the moment we have increased to over £1,000,000 for housing the homeless, which is not sustainable.

The average house occupancy is less than two people per household.

There is a need for more accommodation for older people, ie bungalows.

I think the projected numbers for the next 40 years are misplaced.

Developers and landowners should listen to what is needed to be built.

With the land available in the world suitable for producing food having peaked, and going downhill, we should put more emphasis on which land we build on; this also limits the spread of solar panels on good farm land.”

Response from Cllr Crooks:

“The Local Plan for the Borough has recently been the subject of a public consultation in autumn 2025. The responses from this consultation, over 800 in total, are being reviewed. These responses, together with further evidence both completed and in progress will inform the next Local Plan document at Regulation 19 stage. This next stage will include a further round of public consultation, considered to be in late spring / early summer 2026. Following this further public consultation, the Local Plan will then be submitted to the government by December 2026.

Members are involved in the Local Plan at each stage in the process. This includes a decision taken at Council ahead of each consultation stage, and this will be the same ahead of the next Regulation 19 consultation. Further, members will receive briefings through the Planning Policy Member Working Group, open to all members to attend, in the run up to the Regulation 19 consultation. A special meeting is therefore not required given that briefings are already available to members and members have the final sign off at Council at each stage in the process.

Ongoing evidence to inform the Local Plan includes evidence on housing mix. This will help to set future planning policy for the type and size of homes that are needed across the plan period to 2045, in addition to the quantity of new homes required.”

To deal with petitions submitted in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 15.

To receive the Leader of the Council's Position Statement.

Welcome to the annual budget Council meeting which forms the main business of tonight. This is one of the most important meetings of the year where we set the budget to ensure we can continue to deliver services and support to our residents and communities.

Food waste roll out

I would like to thank the teams in Streetscene Services, supported by Customer Services and Communications, who have been working over the past year to ensure we deliver on the government’s programme of food waste collection. I would like to make it clear that the government is mandating councils to provide this service, and despite uncertainty over the funding promised by the government, our teams have worked tirelessly to plan and prepare, and we see this come together this week with the start of the food waste caddy deliveries. This will take place over the next six weeks to ensure we are ready for the service to commence with collections starting from 2 March, as part of a phased roll out of the service. Collection dates will be included on our website.

Sports awards

Perhaps we don’t have athletes competing in the winter Olympics, but what we do have is some serious sporting talent in our borough. These fantastic individuals and teams were celebrated at the recent annual Sports Awards event, arranged by our Cultural Services team. The awards, which recognise the impact that sport and keeping active can make to the lives of residents across the borough, were presented by the Deputy Leader of the Council, Cllr Mark Bools, and special guests were Jayant Mistry and Vicky Macqueen. Jayant became the first British player to win the wheelchair men’s doubles title at Wimbledon in 2005 and is now a coach and Vicky is an ex-England international rugby player, former head coach of Hinckley RFC and now commercial director at the club.

Article 4 Direction consultation

This week consultation has begun on the introduction of an Article 4 Direction which would give the council greater planning control over where houses in multiple occupation are located in Hinckley. I have asked for this work to be undertaken in response to concerns from residents, councillors and local communities about the growing concentration of HMOs in parts of Hinckley town centre and surrounding streets.

National planning rules require Article 4 Directions to be evidence-led and focused on specific areas, which is why the proposal applies to a defined part of the town rather than being borough-wide. It is recognised that HMOs play an important part in meeting housing need across the borough, but in certain areas where there has been an increase in numbers, there needs to be a way to look properly at each application, consider the local impacts and work towards a more balanced and sustainable spread of HMOs across Hinckley. An Article 4 Direction is about having a say and assessing proposals properly, not stopping development.

Local government reorganisation (LGR) consultation

The  ...  view the full agenda text for item 8.

To receive for information only the minutes of the Scrutiny Commission meeting held on 5 February 2026.

To receive the pay policy statement for 2026/27 for approval.

Supplementary documents which were published after publication of the agenda are attached.

Updated report attached.

To consider the terms of reference and timescales for a community governance review for Witherley parish.

Motion proposed by Councillor M Mullaney:

This Council notes:

·         The Home Secretary is planning to merge England and Wales’s 43 police constabularies into as few as 12 or 15 larger regional forces

·         The need for a commitment to strong, visible, community-based policing and local accountability

·         Evidence that local policing builds trust, improves crime prevention, and ensures responsiveness to community needs

·         Police forces already achieve economies of scale through joint procurement of vehicles, shared ICT systems, and collaborative cross-border operations to tackle issues such as county lines drug dealing.

This Council believes:

·         Merging police forces into “mega-forces” would weaken local accountability and reduce the visibility of officers in our communities

·         Investment should focus on modernising technology, improving data sharing, and strengthening community policing—not structural mergers.

This Council resolves to:

·         Oppose any proposals to merge our local police force into a regional or national entity

·         Call on the Government to prioritise:

o    Increased funding for community policing teams

o    National standards for vetting and technology upgrades to improve efficiency

o    Enhanced rural crime support and local police desks in community hubs

·         Write to the Home Secretary to express this Council’s opposition to force mergers and support for localised policing.

The Mayor has agreed to accept the following motion for reasons of urgency:

Motion from Councillor Bray:

“Hinckley and Bosworth expresses deep concern that the ICB is considering cancelling the new NHS day case centre proposed in Hinckley.

This Council has fully supported NHS colleagues in bringing much needed new investment in health facilities into Hinckley for the benefit of residents across the borough. This has included supporting the £22m investment in the recently opened new diagnostic centre and hosting the new physio and occupational health facilities at the Hinckley Hub.

HBBC granted planning permission for the planned day case centre only last summer – within their timescales.

HBBC offered to help meet the £2m shortfall for the day case centre in the form of a loan to the NHS but this has been declined. The offer remains on the table.

The Council notes that the current administration has for a long time been pushing for a new urgent care centre to be provided in Hinckley for the benefit of our residents. Despite our efforts, not only has this not been provided but the facilities that were considered by the NHS to enhance much needed health infrastructure for our residents is being snapped away from our grasp.

The Council also condemns the inaccurate and untruthful statements issues by the Member of Parliament for Hinckley and Bosworth seeking to blame the Council for the NHS’s decision.

This Council therefore resolves:

1.    To request that the ICB boards urgently reconsider their position on withdrawing this much needed investment in Hinckley

2.    To ask that consideration be given by the ICB boards to the potential for an urgent care centre to be delivered on the site of the former community hospital

3.    That an urgent meeting be requested with the ICB executives to consider investment in alternative neighbourhood and community health facilities, pending a final decision of the day case centre and consideration of a new urgent care centre on the site

4.    That the Council’s Chief Executive writes to the Chief Executive of the Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland and Northamptonshire ICBs and ministers requesting an urgent meeting takes place on these proposals

5.    To call upon the Member of Parliament for Hinckley and Bosworth to issue an apology to the Council and its Leader for his misleading statements and work with all councillors to ensure the best possible outcome

6.    That, should the Member of Parliament fail to issue an apology within seven days, the Council instructs the Leader to contact The Speaker of the House of Commons and its Standards Commissioner to express concerns about the conduct of the MP.”