Agenda item

At this point each of the Cabinet members made a presentation on their respective portfolios.  Councillor Hadland in addition to the update on his portfolio which had been circulated with the agenda circulated a statement with regard to the approved local development scheme and Sixfields in light of the recent press regarding this issue and which he read out.  He advised that he was making the statement in order to clarify the position concerning Sixfields and the football club.  His statement read as follows:-

“The Borough Council is required by Government to prepare the plans for future growth of Northampton.  The local development scheme is the programme for this work which has to be approved by Government.

The Council submitted a draft LDS in December 2006, jointly with South Northamptonshire and Daventry Councils.  This draft included an accelerated timetable for Sixfields.  The Government office were not prepared to approve the programme and directed us to reconsider.

They instructed the Councils to reduce the number of documents and identify the resources needed to achieve the timetable.  An independent facilitator worked with the Councils and GOEM to produce a revised programme and this was approved by a special meeting of the Cabinet on 15 March in order to meet the Government’s deadline of 31 March.  Failure to comply could have placed significant Government funding at risk, reducing the Council’s ability to pay for the planning officers and resources needed to complete the process.  The programme is now acceptable to the Government office and they approved it the following day.

We were not legally permitted to work on the joint core strategy, which is the overall plan at the heart of the process, until the new programme was agreed and brought into effect.

The core strategy will include policies about the scale and broad location of future retailing and the development of the town centre and district centres and will set the criteria required to decide future development at Sixfields.  The preferred options will come forward before Christmas to go to public consultation early next year.

Ideally the future development of Sixfields will come about through a joint initiative by all the interested parties based on the core strategy principles.  The planning of the district centre on this basis could go ahead next year, culminating in a planning application.

I have already met with the club and other interested landowners and I welcome their co-operative approach in driving this process forward.  This has the potential to assist significantly in the action plan process for Sixfields.  We are all keen to ensure that the Cobblers go from strength to strength and have a secure basis for future prosperity.”

At this juncture Councillor Marriott requested that procedural rules be suspended so that the Council could debate an emergency motion with regard to Sixfields that was being put forward in his name and seconded by Councillor Wire.  A vote was taken on the request to suspend procedure rules and was lost.

Members then asked questions regarding the statement and his portfolio update.

Councillor Hadland then made his presentation referring to the two day community enabling fund meeting that had taken place.  Two amendments to the budget had resulted in a significant effect on the distribution of the community enabling fund.  He then also touched upon sickness absence, pay and grading review and community safety.

NB Councillor Roy declared an interest in the part of the presentation dealing with CEFAP as a member of Northampton Race Equality Council.

Councillor Flavell then presented her portfolio update touching on culture and leisure, Northamptonshire Waste Partnership, recycling, trade waste, property management, Development and Building Control and Environmental Health.

Councillor Caswell then presented his portfolio commenting that GOEM had now accepted the Borough Council’s Housing Strategy as being fit for purpose.  He also touched upon the Local Development Framework, Foot Meadow’s Regeneration, the Economic and Regeneration Strategy and Town Centre Operations.

Councillor Larratt then presented his portfolio update referring to the Street Scene and Parks and Open Spaces, Legal and Democratic Services, Community Centres and the Money 4 Youth initiative.  With regard to Brookside Community Centre, Councillor Pritchard asked whether the meeting to discuss the various options for it could be held before she retired from the Council.  Councillor Larratt stated that he would get the Corporate Director to pursue this and to try to set up a meeting within the next week.

Councillor Miah then gave an update on his portfolio.  He covered issues including the move of the Housing and Money Advice Centre from Fish Street to the Guildhall, Choice Based Lettings, Allocations Review, Sheltered Housing Review, Rough Sleepers Task and Finish Group, Travellers and Customer Pledge.  In response to a question he gave assurance that there would be additional rooms available for families so that they could be interviewed in a sympathetic way following the move of the Housing and Money Advice Centre into the Guildhall.