150428 SCRAIP report doc

Economic and Commercial and Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee - SCRAIPs issued 2014-15

 

A report showing all the SCRAIPs made by the Committee during the municipal year 2014-15

 


 

Meeting, Date & Minute

Recommendation

Executive Decision Maker

Action Expected Outcome

Response

Lead Officer

ECD.140729.20b

That the Commercial Projects Manager be recommended to give priority to carry out a commissioning exercise for the planning and planning enforcement services.

 

Rejected

The inclusion of ‘Commissioning’ in the draft Commercialisation Strategy is for two reasons:

 

-To ensure that a unit or service is delivering outcomes that are required by statute and that the Council wishes those organisations to deliver; and to ensure that services and outputs in support of those outcomes are being delivered at the standard the Council requires.

-To analyse commercial options in response to the definition of those outcomes as part of a STOP, MAKE, BUY, DIVEST decision process.

 

Planning services are a statutory service and are being delivered in a model which Council already approves. The recommendation is therefore rejected. The committee’s concerns about the standards of delivery are noted and are referred to the Planning, Transport and Development OSC.

Dawn Hudd

ECD.140826.30a

The Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development be recommended to adopt the Festivals and Events Policy, subject to:

i. Due consideration being given to rural communities in the final policy;

ii. Advanced warning about traffic management being given to residents before events, specifically in the form of mobile road signs on the highway system, as well as traffic management advice being given on the day of an event;

iii. Work being undertaken to develop a signature event for Maidstone.

Cabinet Member for Economic & Commercial Development

 

i. Agreed the policy will be adapted to reflect this.

ii. Partially agreed. Event organisers will be required to provide appropriate warnings relative to the size of the event. Traffic Management is a major part of the any event plan and is assessed as part of the SAG process if appropriate.

iii. Agreed

Laura Case; Dawn Hudd

ECD.140826.30b

Consideration be given by officers on how to feed back good news stories from events to the committee

 

Agreed

We will feed back via email through performance officer on large scale or council run events.

Laura Case; Dawn Hudd

ECD.140826.30c

Further information be provided, by the Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development, to explain why recommendation k in the Events Review SCRAIP was rejected

Cabinet Member for Economic & Commercial Development

 

For most events the timescale for inclusion inclusion in Council Tax mail outs would be too tight and the cost too high. For larger and in advance events this will be taken into consideration and assessed as part of the possible marketing mix.

Laura Case; Dawn Hudd

ECD.140929.42.1

The Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development be recommended to consider the Maidstone East site as a possible location for the Enterprise Hub, prior to the decision being taken, as this may help to encourage development in this area.

Cabinet Member for Economic & Commercial Development

Rejected

 

The need for an Enterprise Hub is immediate. Any redevelopment of the Maidstone East site would take several years. Further, an outline planning application is currently under consideration for a 10,000m2 mixed development. Any development of the site is reliant on securing a major anchor store. The site is allocated for retail (not employment).

Karen Franek

ECD.140929.42.2

The Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development be recommended to consider the following options:

a. starting off with a smaller scale Enterprise Hub located on council premises; and

b. a short term leasehold property for the Enterprise Hub;

As the committee recognises the urgent need for such a facility to support business start-ups in the borough.

Cabinet Member for Economic & Commercial Development

Agreed in principle - further work required

Officers are continuing to look at a smaller scale business centre as part of the overall office accommodation project and future use of the gateway. A report will be brought forward before the end of the financial year with proposals.

Karen Franek

ECD.140929.42.3

The Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development bring the full Cabinet Member Decision to the Committee before the decision is taken.

Cabinet Member for Economic & Commercial Development

Agreed

It is planned to take the report to the 12th November meeting. As agreed by the Chairman of O&S the report will be circulated to members of O&S for them to ask questions either prior to the Cabinet meeting on 12th November and/or to attend the meeting.

Karen Franek

ECD.141021.53.1

The committee supports development for employment use at Junction 8 of the M20 subject to the development of a planning policy by the Cabinet Member for Planning, Transport and Development to mitigate damage and to ensure appropriate constraints. This policy should be considered by the Planning, Transport and Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee in January 2015.

 

Agreed

Agreed. A draft allocation policy for Junction 8 will be presented for PTD OSC’s consideration at its meeting on 20th January 2015.

 

The Cabinet Member for Planning Transport and Development will liaise with the Chairman of the Planning Transport and Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider the content of the draft allocations policy with Members of the Committee in advance of the January meeting.

Sarah Anderton; Cheryl Parks; Sue Whiteside

ECD.141021.53.2

The Cabinet Member for Planning, Transport and Development be recommended to acknowledge the importance of retaining the employment sites outside of the town centre detailed in Appendix B of the report (list of existing industrial sites/estates for inclusion in Policy DM18).

 

Agreed

Agreed. Policy DM18 of the draft Local Plan (Reg 18) identifies key existing employment sites to be retained in employment use. A revised version of this policy will be presented for PTD OSC’s consideration at its meeting on 16th December 2014.

Sarah Anderton; Cheryl Parks; Sue Whiteside

ECD.141021.54.1

That subject to point XII regarding the Draft Economic Development Strategy, under minute number 51, being considered by the Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development, the Committee recommend the Draft Economic Development Strategy be approved by Cabinet for consultation.

 

Agreed in principle - further work required

Recommendation: Some concern was raised regarding the wording and strength of the delivery mechanisms for the action plan for the draft Economic Development Strategy. It was agreed there was a need for a higher priority and profile for tourism, leisure and the visitor economy and renewable and green energy in the strategy and it was felt the action plan needed to be written in more positive language.

Response: The comments from the Economic and Commercial Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee are noted and will be responded to as part of the public consultation. When the consultation process is completed and the draft strategy has been finalised, the action plan will be updated accordingly.

Dawn Hudd

ECD.141028.65.2

The Head of Economic and Commercial Development be recommended to refine the language in the Maidstone Culture and Leisure Business Plan to make it clear that the formation of Maidstone Culture and Leisure is not purely a profit making exercise;

 

Agreed

The document will be reviewed and amended to reflect the recommendation.

Dawn Hudd

ECD.141028.65.3

The Head of Economic and Commercial Development, at the earliest opportunity, be asked to give all councillors access to the full list of commercial projects for their positive input.

 

Agreed

Commercial projects in development taken to E&CD O&S 25 November 14 for early input from councillors.

Dawn Hudd

ECD.141125.78.1

The Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development be recommended to give further consideration to job opportunities and training needs in the wider public sector when developing the skills and employability work programme.

Cabinet Member for Economic & Commercial Development

Rejected

In line with the Council’s draft Economic Development Strategy, it is proposed that the council’s limited financial and staffing resources should remain focused on the generation of growth opportunities in the private sector.

Dawn Hudd

ECD.141125.78.2

Miss Lewis be requested to provide an update on the Skills and

Employability work programme to the appropriate committee in six

months’ time.

 

 

 

 

ECD.141125.80.3

Cabinet be recommended to pay particular attention to staffing needs due to the likelihood of high usage of the hub, and also in relation to the existing workloads of the department.

Cabinet

Agreed

 

Karen Franek

ECD.141125.81.1

That the Head of Economic and Commercial Development be recommended to further develops the business case for animal cremation at the current Crematorium site, having regard to the committee’s reservations about the current proposed location of the facility within the site.

 

Agreed

The lead officer for this project is the Bereavement Service Manager, and her Head of Service is the Shared Head of Service for Environment and Street Scene; Commercial and Economic Development is providing advice and capacity to the development of this proposed project.The Project Sponsor will be the Shared Head of Environment and Street Scene.

 

When deciding on the final location and access arrangements for the proposed extension to Bereavement Services the concerns of the committee will be considered and final siting options will be analysed as part of the final design phase of the delivery project. The views of Kent Highways and MBC planning have been sought in terms of getting the project to this stage and further detailed consultation will be undertaken during the project.

Dawn Hudd

ECD.141125.81.2

The Head of Economic and Commercial Development be recommended to arrange a visit for officers involved in bringing the café back in house to visit Victoria Park in Hackney to get an idea of café provision in this park.

 

Agreed

Officers will investigate and if necessary visit other parks and venues during the development of the business case for the cafe provision in Mote Park.

Dawn Hudd

ECD.141125.81.4

The committee supports the further development of the options for charging for parking in Mote Park.

 

Agreed

An options report for charging for car parking at Mote Parr will be brought to Cabinet in early 2015.

Dawn Hudd

ECD.141125.81.5

That the Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development be recommended to further investigate the proposal for regenerating Brunswick Street Car Park, provided that a piece of work on the wider regeneration of the area takes place at the same time.

 

Agreed

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Housing is the Cabinet Member leading on the development of options for the regeneration of the Brunswick Street car park.

A working group, including the High Street Ward Councillors, is to be formed to discuss options for the regeneration of this asset, prior to a report being brought forward to the Council .

There is a firm aspiration to regenerate this part of the town and concurrently officers are working to identify other sites; and to monitor and facilitate KCC proposals for Wren’s Cross.

Dawn Hudd

ECD.150127.107.1

The Head of Planning, Transport and Development develop policies to ensure that new residential buildings, and conversions, in the town centre have appropriate acoustic protection to prevent noise complaints about the night time economy;

 

 

Emerging Local Plan Development Management policies, as amended and agreed by the Cabinet on 14 January 2014, already make provision for protection of residential amenity in town centre locations.

Policy DM4 Principles of Good Design, at criterion v) states that developments must “respect the amenities of occupiers of neighbouring properties and uses and provide adequate residential amenities for future occupiers of the development by ensuring that development does not result in excessive noise, vibration, odour, air pollution, activity or vehicular movements, overlooking or visual intrusion, and that the built form would not result in an unacceptable loss of privacy or light enjoyed by the occupiers of nearby properties;”

Furthermore Policy DM29 Leisure and Community Uses in the Town Centre, at criterion i) states that “the development, including in combination with any similar uses in the locality, will not have an adverse impact on local amenity, including as a result of noise and hours of operation.”

Newly constructed residential dwellings, and those formed by a material change of use will also be governed by the provisions of Part E of the Building Regulations (Resistance to the Passage of Sound.)

Whilst these policies do steer design towards mitigation of such issues it is inevitable and indeed a characteristic of town centre living that a vibrant night time economy will be inherently boisterous for residents.

Rob Jarman; Cheryl Parks; Sue Whiteside

ECD.150127.107.2

The Head of Economic and Commercial Development considers the interaction between the night time economy and town centre residents during the town centre visioning process.

 

Agreed

This will be considered during the development of the Town Centre Vision.

Dawn Hudd

ECD.150127.107.3

The Head of Environment and Public Realm reviews the process for reporting major noise disturbances that happen out of hours

 

 

 

Gary Stevenson

ECD.150127.107.4

The Head of Environment and Public Realm circulates a guidance note to members regarding procedures for reporting major noise disturbances.

 

 

 

Gary Stevenson

ECD.150311.160.1

That the Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development be recommended to negotiate a deal with Kent County Council to ensure broken streetlights in the town centre are fixed at a faster timescale than 28 days.

Cabinet Member for Economic & Commercial Development

Agreed

We will speak to KCC to establish the current reporting mechanism and response times and investigate to see if there is any potential to reduce the time taken to fix street lights in the town centre

John Foster; Dawn Hudd

ECD.150311.160.2

That the Cabinet Member for Planning, Transport and Development should ensure there is appropriate lighting for approaches to council owned town centre car parks.

Cabinet Member for Planning Transport and Development

Agreed

Approaches lit by highway authority managed land will be reviewed, with Kent County Council being advised accordingly. Lighting within council owned town centre car parks will also be reviewed with any defective lamps being replaced to improve lighting levels.

Jeff Kitson

ECD.150311.160.3

That the Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development invest in, or encourage businesses to invest in, floodlighting of appropriate buildings in the town centre. Floodlighting of buildings could be included into existing regeneration plans and funded through section 106 money.

Cabinet Member for Economic & Commercial Development

Agreed

A lighting strategy for the town centre is something the Town Team is keep to pursue. We will discuss with the Local Plan Policy Team the possibility of amending Policy DN6 External Lighting to encourage developers of key town centre properties to floodlight their buildings with appropriate lighting.

John Foster; Dawn Hudd

ECD.150311.160.4

That the Cabinet Member of Economic and Commercial Development, as well as the Head of Commercial and Economic Development, be recommended to support the new Town Centre Manager, help them to engage with local businesses and if required support the BID process.

Cabinet Member for Economic & Commercial Development

Agreed

A new TCM hasn’t yet been appointed, the potential for a BID will be raised with the new post holder and support provided if required to develop a BID.

John Foster; Dawn Hudd

ECD.150311.160.5

That the Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development work with the business community in the town centre to find a ‘champion’ for the twilight economy. This person could be the new Town Centre Manager, or could be a separate representative of the businesses who operate in twilight hours.

Cabinet Member for Economic & Commercial Development

Agreed

Town Centre Management have an existing evening economy sub group. They will be asked to take on this role.

John Foster; Dawn Hudd

ECD.150311.160.6

That the Head of Commercial and Economic Development be recommended to investigate the costs and possibility of bringing the MyCanterbury app to Maidstone, with a particular focus on twilight economy businesses.

 

Rejected

There are already a number of Apps that fulfil this role and more emerging into the marketplace. The possibility for MBC to bring a version of the MyCanterbury App to Maidstone was investigated but the cost was prohibitive.

John Foster; Dawn Hudd

ECD.150311.160.7

That the Cabinet Member for Economic and Commercial Development make the proposed regeneration work in Week Street, Earl Street and Gabriel’s Hill a priority.

Cabinet Member for Economic & Commercial Development

Rejected

These public realm improvements are part of a number of infrastructure projects identified in the infrastructure delivery plan to be funded from development contributions of which affordable housing and transport are the top priorities. Work is being undertaken to agree detailed designs for phase III in readiness for when funding becomes available.

John Foster; Dawn Hudd

ECD.150311.160.8

That the Cabinet Member for Planning, Transport and Development be recommended to negotiate that park and ride tickets be valid on local bus routes after park and ride services finish, and to keep the park and ride car parks unlocked in the evenings. This could be trialled at the London Road car park, as it has the best local bus services, and the passenger numbers be monitored. If successful, this could be expanded to all Park and Ride sites.

Cabinet Member for Planning Transport and Development

Agreed in principle - further work required

Negotiations complete / agreement reached to trial proposals on 71 service

Jeff Kitson

ECD.150311.160.9

That the interaction between Park and Ride sites and local bus services in the evening be considered by the Cabinet Member for Planning Transport and Development, as well as the Planning, Transport and Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee, when considering the Integrated Transport Strategy.

Cabinet Member for Planning Transport and Development

Agreed in principle - further work required

This action was dicussed with the Cabinet Member 17/4 who agreed proposal to include as part of the ITS work

Jeff Kitson

ECD.150324.132.1

The Committee supports an option for a £1 car parking charge at Mote Park with the first hour free. It stipulates that the income from car parking charges at Mote Park be ringfenced to Mote Park. The option should include:

 

i. Provisions for a season ticket and a concessionary pass for volunteer workers.

ii. A charging period that begins at 10am.

 

 

 

Marcus Lawler