Agenda and minutes

Any Member who is substituting for another Member should so indicate, together with the name of the relevant absent Member.

The following substitutions were declared:

Councillor David Nettleton for Councillor Diane Hind.

Councillor Patricia Warby for Council Simon Brown.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Simon Brown, Diane Hind and Paul Hopfensperger.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 19 July 2017 (copy attached).

The minutes of the meeting held on 19 July 2017, were confirmed as an accurate record and signed by the Chairman.

Members of the public who live or work in the Borough are invited to put one question/statement of not more than 3 minutes duration relating to items to be discussed in Part 1 of the agenda only.  If a question is asked and answered within 3 minutes, the person who asked the question may ask a supplementary question that arises from the reply.

A person who wishes to speak must register at least 15 minutes before the time the meeting is scheduled to start.

There is an overall limit of 15 minutes for public speaking, which may be extended at the Chairman’s discretion.

There were no questions/statements from members of the public.

The Chairman advised that she had nothing to report.  However, the next Cabinet meeting was scheduled for Tuesday 19 September 2017, at 5pm.

Report No: OAS/SE/17/023

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Growth, Councillor Alaric Pugh has been invited to the meeting to provide an annual account on his portfolio and to answer questions from the Committee.

[Councillor Andrew Speed arrived at 4.05pm during the consideration of this item].

The Committee was reminded that on 14 September 2016, it had received a presentation from the Cabinet Member for Planning and Growth, setting out his responsibilities covered under his portfolio.

At this meeting, the Cabinet Member had been invited back to provide his annual update.  Report No: OAS/SE/17/023 set out the focus of the update. 

The Cabinet Member was also provided in advance of the meeting with some key questions identified by Scrutiny Members on areas they wished to be appraised on during the annual update, specifically:

1)       The justification for the proposal to close the bus station which was proposed within the Bury St Edmunds Town Centre Master Plan. 

2)       Proposals for implementing Minimum Space Standards;

3)       The Eastern Relief Road and plans for the business park and how it was progressing alongside the Portfolio Holders Vision for supporting businesses in the Borough;

4)       An update on the Haverhill Town Centre Master Plan and current proposals being worked on;

5)       An update on the Haverhill Research Park and progress on development;

6)       The likely impact on the government’s proposals on withdrawing diesel/petrol vehicles from market in 2040 on planning applications and other developments in terms of electrical charging points; and

7)       An update on the A1307 corridor including road and rail links.

Councillor Alaric Pugh opened his presentation by thanking the Committee for the invitation to address the Committee on progress made within his Portfolio since September 2016.

Before responding to the questions, he introduced two new Assistant Directors; Julie Baird for Growth, and David Collinson for Planning and Regulatory Services.  He then gave a short introduction explaining that the Council was now seeing progress in its journey of moving towards thinking and working strategically and not just in geographical or planning terms but in how it could go beyond the boundaries of its statutory responsibilities to lever investment.  Work had begun on developing the Strategic direction for Growth, which was being shaped under the Strategic Plan work over the forthcoming months.  This would help the Council to clearly define its Growth priorities and align its resources in promoting what it was good at to attract the right businesses, infrastructure and investments to support communities. 

He then provided responses to each of the questions in turn:

Bus Station, Bury St Edmunds

The draft Bury St Edmunds Town Centre Masterplan did not propose the closure of the bus station, although that was how it had been reported in the press, which was disappointing. 

However, the Masterplan did include an aspiration to reconfigure facilities on St Andrews Street North which would facilitate the redevelopment of the existing bus station, which occupied a site of some 0.36ha. 

The aspiration was to ensure bus services met the needs of the town in the future.

Given the level of interest which this had created, it was an aspiration which would need to be reviewed as the Council considered the consultation responses  ...  view the full minutes text for item 179.

Report No: OAS/SE/17/024

The Committee received Report No: OAS/SE/17/024, which updated Members on the current status of its rolling work programme of items for scrutiny during 2017-2018 (Appendix 1).

The report also requested that Members identify questions they would like the Portfolio Holder for Operations to cover in his annual update to the Committee on 8 November 2017.

The Committee considered the report and at the time of the meeting had not identified any questions they wished to be put to the Portfolio Holder for Operations.  Therefore, the Democratic Services Officers would email the Committee asking for questions to be submitted to her by Monday 9 October 2017.

Finally, the Democratic Services Officer (Scrutiny) reminded the Committee of the Extraordinary Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting arranged for Wednesday 25 October 2017 at 4pm when the Suffolk County Council Cabinet Member for Highways and Transports would be attending to discuss how communication could be improved between the various tiers of local government for the benefit of all residents and Councillors in West Suffolk, and the New Suffolk Highways Structure. Forest Heath’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee had also been invited to attend the meeting as observers.

There being no decision required, the Committee noted the current status of its forward work programme for 2017-2018.