Agenda item

Councillor Yates asked a question of Councillor Caswell as the Portfolio Holder regarding Upton Interpretation Centre.  He asked him whether he could give an update as to why the Upton Interpretation Centre was not yet open for business and available to educate and inform students, developers, planners and members of the public into the state of the art of sustainable building and planning as demonstrated by the Upton Development given that they had been informed that funding had been secured and that the first phase of development was completed and work was progressing on the later phases of development.  Councillor Caswell advised that discussions where taking place with English Partnerships as to the best way forward to meet the revenue costs of the Centre.  English Partnerships were working with the Council on the appointment of the Consultant from their select list to prepare a business plan for the centre which would identify the costs and income associated with the project.  It was hoped to commission the work on the business plan very soon and a meeting with English Partnerships was due shortly to discuss this.  It was envisaged that the Business Plan would help the Council to see how best the Centre could be created on a set funding basis until the outcome of the Business Plan was known.  It was considered inappropriate to start the construction of the project at present.

Councillor Roy asked a question of Councillor Hadland as to whether he could give details on the cost of commissioned consultancy for 2004/2005 and commissioned consultancy for this financial year to date.  Also she asked if he could detail resources spent on consultancy in the same periods of time.  She stated that she had asked the same question at the last Council meeting and had received a written response to the question but did not consider this to be adequate.  Councillor Hadland then referred to a table of figures which he read out.  These included Veredus, Recovery Plan Management Restructuring, the Root and Branch Review etc.  The figures totalled £125,703.00 for 2004/05 with the current forecast for 2005/06 being £305,524.00 with as yet no external funding shown.  He stated that he could forward the details in writing to Councillor Roy at a later date.  Councillor Roy commented that the figures did not include vacancy cover and some detail of that would be appreciated.

Councillor Roy then asked a question of Councillor Miah as to progress in investigating and developing tenant management organisations and when the Overview and Scrutiny Committee would be able to give attention to this matter, it was noted that this issue had arisen from a motion to Council back in March of this year.  Councillor Miah advised that a report would be made back to Council in March 2006 to report any progress in this respect.

Councillor B Hoare asked a question of Councillor Caswell as the Portfolio Holder regarding the fact that the Government had introduced legislation to help neighbours resolve problems of high hedges and referred to the Mediation UK website which could be used as a first stage to help resolve any disputes.  However Councillor Hoare advised that when one of his constituents contacted the Company they were advised that Northampton Borough Council had not commissioned them to provide a service to Residents in the Borough.  He understood that other District Councils had linked up with the Mediation Service and asked whether the Portfolio Holder could advise when he would be able to advise residents in Abington of how the Borough Council would be able to assist them with Mediation to resolve their high hedge problem.  Councillor Caswell stated that in the time since the legislation came into force no formal complaints had been received requiring further investigation about high hedges under the provision of the act.  However, if the Council wished to join the Mediation service then he could have discussions with the Portfolio holder who now had responsibility for this area.  Councillor B Hoare undertook to follow this up.