Mr Mayor, Fellow Councillors, Officers, members of the public and the media
As this is your first full Council meeting in the chair, I will be more than usually brief we do have a significant item on tonight’s agenda, with an exciting potential for the future regarding our Housing strategy and operations, and we will need to concentrate on that, even though it has been the subject of detailed and constructive discussion at both the Executive and the Scrutiny Commission. I am aware also that the item on Standards, brought here at short notice because of a ridiculously late announcement by the Government, has had similar detailed discussion both at a Working Group and more informally afterwards.
Can I first draw attention to the many Diamond Jubilee events held across the Borough in recent weeks, with the full support of the Council, not least by our concentration on enabling events, rather than imposing unnecessary bureaucracy. Despite the sudden changes in weather, it does seem that our communities have enjoyed themselves in celebrating the sixty year reign of our Queen. That should be a source of pride and pleasure to us all and we should hope the she may continue on the throne for some years longer yet.
The Executive is also ‘doing our bit’ to maintain the economic vibrancy of Hinckley town centre by agreeing to free car parking in the Church Walk car park between noon and 5.30pm on every Tuesday in June, July and August; with a review in August to see how helpful this has been. It has been introduced following discussions with the Town Centre Partnership. Whilst there will be a small loss in income to the Council, I believe that it is an investment very well-made, if it can encourage people to shop here on the less busy days of the week and will answer criticism that the Council is putting income before town centre survival, building on the fact that the basic charge has been frozen throughout the five years of the Liberal Democrat Administration.
In addition, I have written to four traders, who have indicated that they may close their premises in the town in the near future, to remind them of the many benefits of remaining in Hinckley; benefits not available in other similar locations. I have invited them to meet with me to discuss how the Council might retain their operations in the town. I hope that they will be able to respond positively to this offer.
Finally, Mr Mayor, I recently received a letter from the new County Council Cabinet Lead for Waste matters, following the recent reshuffle. He suggested that there would be benefits in the operations of the seven District Waste Collection services being amalgamated and offered the services of County Council officers to explore this further. Whilst there may be some merit in his proposals for some of the Districts in Leicestershire (who, I am sure, have very capable officers within their own ranks!), I had to respond to him that there seemed little, if any, advantage to this Council in pursuing such an initiative, given that our cost of collection per household is now less than it was eight years ago (despite subsequent inflation), that our recycling performance is one of the highest in the country (comfortably over 50%) and that our levels of customer satisfaction are high and increasing. I will be very happy to continue to work in partnership with the County Council, other Districts and other partners in the public, voluntary and private sectors (as we have done in Revenues and Benefits, Legal Services, Community Safety and Troubled Families). However, on the issue of Waste Collection, I am more than happy to continue to ‘go it alone’, as that is the best option for our local Council Tax payers!
Mr Mayor, I commend this statement to the Council.
Minutes:
The Leader of Council thanked officers, parishes and communities for the Jubilee events that had been held, and he reported on the unveiling of a plaque in Argents Mead from the Queen. He also provided an update on free parking initiatives in Hinckley and a letter from Leicestershire County Council’s Cabinet portfolio holder for Waste inviting amalgamation of waste collection authorities in the County. In response to the latter it was felt that the amalgamation would not benefit Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council due to our already high performance.