Welcome to Council where this evening the Mayor will be awarding long service awards to members of our staff. We will be discussing a critical report affecting the future of this borough and its residents and considering a range of motions put forward by member colleagues.
I want to begin by saying how moving it was to see hundreds of people turning out on Remembrance Sunday to pay their respects to those people who laid down their lives for peace and freedom. I know that services took place across the borough and in Hinckley I laid a wreath at the memorial in Argents Mead on behalf of the Borough Council’s elected members, one of the most important duties of the year. We will remember them.
Tonight, we will be considering the report on local government reorganisation. I want to put it on record again that I don’t believe the current system is broken, but in the absence of a choice in submitting a proposal, the North City South model which has been developed by the seven districts and Rutland County Council will ensure that we remain closer to our communities and can safeguard, as far as possible, the amazing work that this Council does, some of which is detailed below.
I want to put on record my thanks to our Leicestershire and Rutland council colleagues who have collaborated so well in getting to this stage of the process with our proposed North City South proposal. Personally, I think it is a travesty that we have been forced on this journey by the government, but we really have no choice in the matter. We now need to do the best for our communities and staff.
Making a Difference awards
Councillor Michael Mullaney hosted the annual Making a Difference awards ceremony at the Hinckley Rugby Club last week. A fantastic event that celebrated and showcased what fabulous communities we have in our borough. 36 awards were presented that covered our heritage, culture and tourism offer, community pride, our environment and our young volunteers. It is always inspiring to hear the contribution that volunteers make in so many different areas of life and the awards are a celebration of the close connection we have with our community groups and residents.
Hinckley area foodbank
I am also pleased to share some excellent feedback from Hinckley area foodbank following their recent AGM. They expressed heartfelt thanks for the support and partnership provided by Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council and our approach was highlighted as a shining example of best practice.
This recognition reflects the proactive steps we’ve taken, from financial support to creating dedicated roles and facilitating regular network meetings that bring agencies together. These efforts have been described as “transformative”, enabling better coordination of food and welfare services and improving outcomes for residents in crisis.
Our partnership work
Our partnership work is not just important, it is essential. By working closely with organisations like Hinckley area foodbank and other local agencies, we can ensure that those most in need receive timely, practical and compassionate support. This collaboration helps us to pool resources, share expertise and create a safety net for the most vulnerable members of our community. Unless this local knowledge, understanding and collaboration continues following reorganisation, residents will suffer, and we know from our community work and our responses in emergency situations that smaller councils who are more local to their communities are able to be flexible and respond quickly, something that one large unitary covering the whole of Leicestershire would struggle to do.
Our excellent local relationship and partnership with the police is vital in delivering positive outcomes for residents, businesses and visitors. These local relationships ensure actions and responses to emerging priorities are informed by our community intelligence, including intelligence from elected members. Some highlights of our work include:
· Tackling retail crime: Our good work continues to tackle retail crime in the town centre, with the DISC information sharing system and CCTV, and we have successfully bid for 20 free body worn cameras for retailers. Local performance shows that we are the best in the county for effectively detecting and dealing with shop related theft.
· Community safety: We continue to use Community Safety Partnership funding to support police and partnership work, for example we have funded thermal imaging cameras for the police to detect cannabis grows and delivered targeted campaigns on numerous themes such as anti-social behaviour, burglary, retail crime and keeping safe in the night time economy.
· Prevention work and young people: We continue our prevention and awareness work with young people and have already engaged with 2000 young people this year in schools and other settings on a number of community safety and wellbeing themes.
· We have recommissioned Leicester City in the Community to delivery their Kicks youth diversion offer until March 2026, with young people and the police engaging locally in the programme.
· Road safety: We have started quarterly road safety meetings with our partners to support our work around road safety to ensure partners are working together to tackle local road safety concerns and working together to reduce road traffic collisions.
· Victim support: We continue to provide practical and emotional support to victim-survivors of domestic abuse in the borough via our dedicated outreach services and in November we will be supporting the national White Ribbon domestic abuse campaign with a full programme of awareness and activity.
We need to ensure we do everything we can to continue our excellent local partnership working across many areas of our council work.
To return to the North City South proposal, the focus on a strong economic growth, neighbourhood delivery and prevention “Big enough to deliver, close enough to respond” will give the best chance of protecting our services. Officers from across the Council have been heavily involved in the development of the proposal, particularly around the areas of finance, economic distinctiveness, prevention and governance as well as the resident consultation work and I would like to thank them for their contribution.
Free tree scheme
Moving onto our work on climate change, our annual free tree scheme this year has once again been a success, with 35,000 trees and hedging packs offered to everyone in our borough, helping to do our part fighting in making the borough a greener place to live and work. Since launching this scheme, we have over the past few years handed out well in excess of 100,000 trees. By spring 2026 we hope to have planted the equivalent of one tree per resident which is an incredible achievement. Assuming all of these trees survive for 40 years they will absorb over 40,000 tonnes of carbon, demonstrating our commitment to fighting climate change. I would like to thank our lead member and Green Spaces and Communications teams for their work on this positive initiative.
Draft Local Plan consultation
I’d like to say “thank you” to everyone who has taken part in our Regulation 28 draft Local Plan consultation. This is the key planning document guiding development in the borough for the next 20 years, including housing, jobs, infrastructure, environment and design. To remind us all, we are having to provide over 18,000 new homes in the borough by 2046. This target includes an increase imposed on us by the government last year of over 4,000 homes.
I want to particularly thank our planning staff who have been out to our communities and have been running engagement events. The outcomes of this stage of the consultation will inform the next stage which will be the development of the draft Regulation 19 Plan which will be more detailed and site specific, which we plan to bring forward in the spring of 2026.
There is still the opportunity to respond to the consultation until 5pm on Friday, 28 November. Further details can be found at www.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk/localplanreview until the deadline.
Peggs Close
We are progressing redevelopment of Peggs Close in Earl Shilton, working towards a demolition start date of January with construction of a council house development proposed to commence April / May. The scheme will include a mixed type of properties and shows the commitment of this Council to meeting the needs of those on the housing register, ensuring we are providing good quality homes to our tenants and addressing issues of anti-social behaviour which historically were experienced on the site.
Christmas free parking
As we enter the Christmas season, it’s great to announce that the Council will again be offering free car parking in selected town centre car parks on Saturdays in the run-up to Christmas.
Shoppers will be able to park for free in Lower Bond Street, Trinity West and Castle car parks in the four Saturdays before Christmas. This is a thank you to residents for their loyalty and to increase trade for shops, Hinckley market, restaurants, the cinema and all local businesses.
Christmas lights switch on
Hinckley’s Christmas lights switch on will take place on Friday, 21 November and will get underway at 4pm. The main town centre lights will be turned on by the Mayor, Councillor Richard Flemming, the Mayoress and the Deputy Leader at 6.30pm in the Market Place. The festivities will feature Santa’s grotto, a Christmas tree, street entertainment, two live music stages, children’s crafts, a festive food and drink area alongside a host of charity and community stalls. This year we have built on the successful Lights in the Mead, launched last year to replace the fireworks, with over 25,000 lights bring switched on to create a magical experience each evening through to 6 January.
I know there are other Christmas events taking place around the borough and I hope they will be enjoyed by residents and visitors on the lead up to Christmas.
Councillor Stuart Bray
Leader, Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council
Minutes:
In his position statement, the Leader referred to Remembrance events, the Making a Difference awards, Hinckley area foodbank, partnership working, the free tree scheme, Peggs Close and the Christmas lights switch on events around the borough. He drew attention to the recent local plan consultation event in Twycross and the unacceptable abuse that staff had been subjected to and unhelpful false information being circulated on social media in relation to HMOs.
Councillor Hollick entered the meeting at 6.55pm.