To consider and provide a recommendation to Cabinet on the proposals set out in the attached report.
Minutes:
The Chairman introduced the following registered speakers who spoke in turn in respect of matters included within the report. A brief summary of their issues is provided below:
Councillor Rodney Atkins, Borough Councillor for Paddock Wood East
· Questioned the green status of the project for the Community Centre in Paddock Wood;
· Raised objections on behalf of the Friends of the Memorial Field not to the principle of a new Community Centre but its location on the Memorial Field;
· Highlighted the results of the Parish Poll which also indicated a majority against the use of the site; and
· Explained that this green space in the centre of Paddock Wood was used for cricket, other outdoor leisure activities and was now the subject of a Village Green application.
Councillors Martin Clay and Nick Blackwell, Southborough Town Council (STC) regarding the Southborough Hub -
· Highlighted errors and omissions in the officer report;
· Clarified matters relating to a quoted depreciation charge;
· Explained delays to agreements and contracts, increased and unbudgeted costs, the lack of commitment to proposed shop space and most critically the loss of previously committed income from the NHS and an inadequate fixed sinking fund; and
· As a result STC were extremely concerned over the impact on Council tax payers, notwithstanding letters of comfort received from KCC and TWBC which gave some reassurance and might mitigate some costs resulting from dilapidations.
Lee Colyer, Director of Finance, Policy and Development responded to Councillor Atkins representation and confirmed his comments would be noted.
Mr Colyer also responded to Councillors Clay and Blackwell and acknowledged that the report written in respect of this project was very unhelpful. He apologised and confirmed that the report would be corrected before going forward to Cabinet to make the issues clear. Future comments would be discussed before publication. He confirmed, however, that this was a Southborough Town Council led scheme and notwithstanding the best efforts of all involved the contract had still not been signed. TWBC would continue to provide support to the project objectives.
Mr Colyer then proceeded to update on the service performance elements of the report which provided a review of the 24 performance indicators and their status and outstanding issues. Of these 16 were performing as expected, 5 were not meeting targets and he updated on these. Data was unavailable for 3 which were being chased up. Additionally the report indicated the status of the 8 big projects and comments had already been heard on two of these from the speakers.
Further matters of discussion and responses to questions included the following:
· Concerns over the adequacy, accuracy, governance, and RAG status on project reporting were discussed along with the potential provision of greater detail, for example to include information on timescales and costs. It was felt that this would facilitate greater understanding of the wider picture both by members and other stakeholders. Mr Colyer explained that this was already provided at project board level but it was only intended that a high level summary and RAG status was appropriate at Advisory Board/Cabinet level; and
· Regarding the Village Green application, it was noted that this had been submitted to KCC for initial consideration and until their response was received no assessment could be made in respect of any impact on S106 contributions.
The chairman summarised that members were broadly supportive of the matters in Appendices B and C but clearly still had reservations about the RAG status on major projects, which had already been referred to Overview and Scrutiny and together with the other changes discussed, the recommendations to Cabinet would note those issues.
RESOLVED – That the recommendations set out in the report be supported subject to the issues identified below:
1. amendment of the narrative update and RAG statuses relating to the Southborough Hub and Paddock Wood Hub projects;
2. partners in priority projects being consulted in future on their respective performance updates prior to publication; and
3. the timeliness, accuracy and oversimplification of project performance be reviewed.
Supporting documents: