Mr Mayor, fellow Councillors, Officers, members of the public and media.
As this is my last Position Statement to the 2011/15 Council, it is very much an ‘end of term’ report, reminding everyone what has been achieved for people who live and work in Hinckley and Bosworth over the last four years, as well as what will be delivered, certainly within the first year of the next Administration.
Significant progress continues to be made on the delivery of major economic and regeneration schemes facilitated by the Council. These include:-
o RGF-funded works on the A5 upgrade, with new cycle-ways to be completed by the end of this month and the improvement of bus services between Hinckley and major employment centres and the MIRA Enterprise Zone to be introduced during summer 2015.
o The £15m new Leisure Centre scheme is progressing on programme with steel work now being erected and the scheme taking shape on Argents Mead. This scheme is still targeted for completion in the spring of 2016.
o The £60m Crescent scheme continues to show significant progress. The new shopping and leisure scheme is due to open in November 2015, with Sainsbury’s stating that they are targeting to open on 4 November!
o The MIRA Technology Park Enterprise Zone, which will secure £300m investment - creating 2,500 direct jobs and 2,500 indirect jobs, is developing well. Some major new occupiers are taking up new space already, including Haldex and Aston Martin. A new £10m National Training Centre is due for development on the site for opening in 2016.
o Government has announced very recently the intention to extend the Enterprise Zone by 250,000 square feet – another very welcome initiative, reflecting the economic success of this area, in which this Council has played, and continues to play, a major part.
o We recently secured £1.4m LEADER European funding with our partners at North Warwickshire Borough Council which will be directed to a range of rural economic initiatives.
o
I am delighted that, with the full support of this
Council, the Hinckley Town Centre BID last year secured a further
four year term to help promote and showcase the tremendous offer we
have in the Town Centre.
Following the production of the multi-agency case, led by this Council and put forward to Government for further major investment in the A5, the Autumn Statement announcement of identifying the A5 as a future Expressway is a significant step in securing the long term dualling of the A5. Furthermore, the commitment of £20m from the Highways Agency to develop the detailed scheme for upgrading the A5 between the M42 and the M69 has been a key success.
Securing DPD’s new £100m logistics hub at Sketchley Brook, bringing 1,000 new jobs from
September this year, is a significant achievement. This will be the largest parcel delivery hub in
Europe!
Two weeks ago, at the last Planning Committee, the Council took a step closer to facilitating the delivery of the £400m investment in the Barwell Sustainable Urban Extension. It is expected work will commence in 2016 delivering the major regeneration of Barwell and bringing significant improvements to community facilities in the area.
Finally, in the area of development and regeneration, it is significant that, in a recent Business Survey of Leicestershire, Hinckley was identified as having the highest level of confidence by businesses compared with any District within Leicestershire, as well as compared with Leicester City. That alone is testament to the great work undertaken by this Council; work which will continue, as we remain active and respected members of two City Deals and are in negotiation to secure increased funding from Enterprise Zone Business Rates during the term of the next Council. We should thank Bill Cullen and his team, ably assisted by our Assets, Estates and Finance/Support Services staff, for our successes in this area.
We are also in the fortunate position, through our foresight and good management, of again setting a balanced budget for 2015/16, whilst yet again making a contribution to reserves, to enable continued financial stability, at least until 2016/17. This is a doubly-significant achievement, given that we have protected (and in some cases expanded) our frontline services, against a backdrop of freezing the Council Tax for four years, whilst at the same time freezing, and in some cases even reducing, car parking charges. This has been a very difficult and challenging period for local authority finances and we should be grateful for the efforts of Keith Lynch, as our Executive Member for Finance, and to all our staff for being in such a relatively strong position. In particular, can I thank Sanjiv Kohli and his team for their husbandry of the finances, enabling a sound base for the future, of which Members will see evidence in the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), to be debated later tonight.
In areas of corporate and community activity, over the last year we have seen significant commitment to supporting our communities and voluntary sector. We have remodelled sheltered housing provision to protect the level of services to our older people, following reductions in funding from the County Council. This has ensured that we can retain our control centre and provide support to older and vulnerable tenants across our 11 schemes.
The Voluntary Sector Commissioning arrangements, which we introduced two years ago, go from strength to strength. We have facilitated a great local support network for voluntary organisations and secured opportunities for many of them in providing support services, particularly in respect of local health and wellbeing initiatives. Twenty nine projects have been supported and a detailed database has been created of all 1,200 active voluntary organisations in the Borough.
More recently, we have introduced a collective energy switching scheme, which all our residents can access, whereby we help secure the best possible tariffs from energy suppliers.
Our ‘Endeavour’ Community Safety partnership initiative, which seeks to take collective and proactive action to tackle difficult and recurring environmental and criminal issues, has attracted national attention and is seen by the Home Office as national good practice.
We have helped facilitate roll out of high speed broadband across the Borough with plans to secure 100% coverage over the next few years. As regards our public engagement, we have been informed in the last few days by GovMetric that we are the top performing Council in their Channel Satisfaction Indices for ‘Face to Face’ and ‘Telephone’ interactions with the public. These indices cover over 70 Councils in the UK. Even more significant has been the award by SOCITM, the independent organisation which vets public sector websites, of four stars to our own website and a commendation for its ease of use and accessibility. We are one of only 9 out of 407 councils in the country to have received this – the highest rating possible for this service. Together, these indicate the high levels of public and independent satisfaction with these very important services.
We recently launched our Health and Wellbeing Strategy with our health partners. This focuses on tackling the key health issues in the Borough, including obesity in children, supporting teenage parents and promoting good mental health. Out local work on health has been showcased at national local government events over the last year. As an example, we had 6,570 people taking part in out ‘Walking for Health’ scheme. The ‘Lightbulb’ integrated housing offer for health initiative is a key transformational project, in the development of which we have played a major part, has recently secured significant funding support from Government.
The Leicestershire Revenues and Benefits Partnership, which we initiated some five years’ ago, is an efficient and high-performing organisation and, following a recent review, has introduced arrangements which will reduce the costs of operation even further. It is an excellent example of our practical partnership working. In the next few days, our staff across the Council will begin the work to support the introduction of Universal Credit into the Borough. A report later on tonight addresses how this will be approached. This is further evidence of additional work being expected of local Councils; work which, as always, in Hinckley and Bosworth will be undertaken in the most professional way and with our residents at the heart of what we are doing.
Looking even further to the future, Members will be considering proposals for a ‘wholly- owned Company’ tonight; a proposal which will change how we operate, initially in relation to the provision of housing, but also in wider services over time, as the proposal will change (for the better) the way in which we finance the organisation – a necessary step, given that Revenue Support Grant is expected to disappear for local authorities during the next Parliament.
Mr Mayor, these examples and others form an excellent record of achievement – the envy of many District Councils – and it has been my privilege to lead the Council during this period, with the support of my colleagues in the Executive and the wider Administration. At times, we have had to take very difficult decisions in this room and formerly at Argents Mead; decisions which have been proved correct, once delivered by our dedicated Management and staff.
In the next few weeks, two significant events will take place – one very local and the other of national importance. The locale event is the series of ceremonies, which will culminate in the final and proper burial of Richard the Third who, as I am sure everyone knows, was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. These events will be in the international media and will showcase this Borough to the world. It is perhaps the most important promotional event in recent times and I know that our Cultural Services and other staff have been working hard to ensure that the Borough is given due prominence. The other events, taking place over the weekend immediately following the elections 8-10 May, will mark the 70th anniversary of VE Day in 1945. Again our staff in Cultural Services will be giving every support to local events in the town and villages to mark this historic occasion. I hope that Members, whatever the outcome on 7/8 May will join in these celebrations.
With now very little time before the General and local elections, can I thank all Members for what they have achieved for their communities in the last four years and, in particular, those who will not be returning to office, either by personal choice or by the choice of the electorate. Being a Councillor is in many ways a thankless task, but I hope that, when we look at what has been achieved over the last four years, Members will agree that it has its rewards!
Mr Mayor, I commend this Statement to the Council.
Minutes:
In his position statement, the Leader of the Council referred to the A5 upgrade, the new leisure centre, the Crescent development, MIRA, DPD’s new hub, regeneration activities and the budget. He thanked members and officers for their support in achieving these improvements.