Agenda item

Interview with Cllr Malcolm Greer, Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development.

Councillor Malcolm Greer, the Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development, was invited to speak on item 8: Cabinet Member Priorities for 2014/2015.

The committee enquired about the relationship between the proposed developments at Maidstone East, The Mall, Springfield and the Powerhub.

Councillor Greer responded that all of these developments were privately owned and were independent of each other. Councillor Greer emphasised that the developments would only be accepted if they were right for Maidstone, and that most of these developments required an enabler in the form of a supermarket.

A member of the committee asked Councillor Greer for a more in depth update on phase 3 of the regeneration of the Town Centre.

Councillor Greer updated the committee on the following areas:

·  Board 3 had been set up, in a similar way to which boards 1 and 2 were set up for phase 1 and 2 of the High Street regeneration. The aim of Project Board 3 was to ascertain the financial benefits and construction costs of the proposed projects;

·  Consultation had taken place with stakeholders and the general public; and

·  No funding was in place, however these schemes needed to be analysed to ascertain their business case and cost to implement. Funding would be from contributions of future developments.

The committee asked Councillor Greer whether there had been any progress in speeding up of the time taken for utility companies to replace the granite paving on the high street, following repairs and maintenance.

Councillor Greer informed the committee that an agreement had been reached between Kent County Council and the utility companies. It was noted that the granite paving would be replaced within 2 weeks of commencement of works. Within this agreement it was specifically stated that there was a ready supply of granite blocks in Maidstone Borough Council’s possession that utility companies could use to re-surface areas that had been worked on.

The committee was interested to hear whether Councillor Greer had any plans for introducing a supermarket tax.

In response, Councillor Greer stated that there were no plans for a supermarket tax. Councillor Greer also stated that whilst many of the proposals for redevelopment in the town centre required a supermarket as an enabler, it remained to be seen how many supermarkets would actually decide to invest in these schemes.

In response to a question about any plans for the river area, Councillor Greer explained that this was not currently in his plans. This was because regenerating the river area would require a large funding commitment; not just to design and implement but also to maintain; and that funding wasn’t available.

A member of the committee asked Councillor Greer what his priorities for rural areas were for the coming year. Councillor Greer explained that the main barrier in rural areas was transport, particularly for young people, and that he would be working to address this in the coming year.

A visiting member pointed out to Councillor Greer that there were no timescales listed against his priorities, and that some of the pieces of work had implications for other pieces of work (e.g. the local plan).

RESOLVED:

a)  That, where appropriate, timescales be added to the list of cabinet member priorities and circulated to members of the committee; and

b)  That Councillor Greer be invited to report back to the committee at the end of the municipal year on his achievements against his priorities. This should be added to the Future Work Programme.