Agenda item

Mr M J Whiting, Member for Swale Central, was present for this item and spoke on it with the permission of the Chairman.

 

Mr M Bodkin, Head of Urban Regeneration, Mrs T Bruton, Head of Regeneration Projects, Mr P Campion, Development Contributions Manager, Mrs H Coleman, Economic Development Manager, Mr R Hancock, Regeneration and Projects Manager, Mr D Hughes, Regeneration and Projects Manager, Mr I Lewis, Growth Areas Manager, and Mr K Mackenney, Regeneration and Projects Manager, were in attendance for this item.

 

The Chairman, Mr M C Dance, declared an interest as a Trustee of Sheppey Academy, having previously served as an elected Member of Swale Borough Council, and Mrs J A Rook declared an interest as her family business has retail premises in a number of Kent towns.

 

Mr K A Ferrin declared a prejudicial interest due to his involvement with Kent Science Park in Sittingbourne, although, as this site was not referred to specifically during the discussion, he was able to remain in the room and take part in the general discussion on the item.

 

1.         Mr N Smith introduced the report and explained the criteria against which the priorities arising from each district visit had been assessed and awarded a provisional rating of High, Medium or Low.  He emphasised that the exercise had been an independent assessment, and assured Members that the criteria had been applied consistently across all districts. Priorities listed were those which had been identified at the visit, within the context of the Regeneration Framework. The report also included an update on any change to the projects in the time since the visit.

 

2.         Members were asked to consider the priorities listed, identify any priority which they thought had been omitted from the list, and decide if they agreed the rating awarded to each priority.  Members discussed what they had seen and heard at each visit, and the officer team answered questions of detail.  Points highlighted by questions and comments were as follows:-

 

General Comments on the assessment process:-

• Members would need to consider how each District’s priorities link with the KCC’s priorities;
• The priorities listed must be achievable;
• Members would need to consider the likely county-wide effects of the new Local Enterprise Partnerships; and
• KCC should stimulate economic growth as an underlying theme, in all areas.

 

ASHFORD

• the town centre is a joint priority with the Borough and County Councils;
• it is right that Ashford’s status as a growth point has a High rating. The Regional Spatial Strategy will set ambitious growth targets;

• there was a difference of view locally over the value of ‘Ashford’s Future’. Some Members expressed the view that it is a good driving force and a big advantage for Ashford, which, if it were to be discontinued, would need to be replaced with something as dynamic.  Other Members, however, did not share this view;  

• Local Development Framework assumptions made in 2008 were driven by Ashford’s status as a growth point; if one thing were to change, it would change the basis of other things;
• KCC has delivered over £30million of transport schemes in and around Ashford.  Future programme management will be done jointly with the Borough and County Councils; and
• ‘Supporting the development of Higher Education/Further Education Learning and Skills provision’ should be increased to a High priority rating.

 

CANTERBURY

·        since the visit, Herne Bay had benefitted from £26million of private investment and £4½million from the City Council for sports and other service provision;

·        a High rating for Higher and Further Education is good, as the area has three Universities.  The student population is very important;

·        cultural investment in Canterbury (eg, Marlowe, Beaney Institute) will benefit the wider area of East Kent;

·        Whitstable has been a great success story and is still moving forward with good momentum;

·        attitudes to joint working have changed much for the good over the years, and some East Kent districts have grouped together in a new way which would not have been possible six months ago;

·        an additional priority – transport links – was suggested, with a High rating (although it was not agreed to add this as a priority). 

·        the Freedom Pass has been a big advantage in helping secondary school students travel to Canterbury schools, and there are successful initiatives which must be retained;

·        the Freedom Pass needs to make more difference to access in rural areas; and

·        transport is the key to regeneration in all areas; the Committee must ensure that discussions are ongoing. There are issues around the range of types of transport which need to be addressed.

 

DOVER

·        since the visit, much work has been done in Dover, and the District Council is looking at three priorities; developing a new town at Whitfield, building up maritime training at the Port of Dover to help promote links between learning and skills and jobs, and it is also hoping to attract Hadlow College to boost its rural economy;

·        a new priority to add to the grid should be ‘Essential joint working across District Councils to make a healthy economy for East Kent’, and this should have a High rating;

·        the Building Schools for the Future priority should now be deleted.  This will be a big loss for Dover, but Dover will recover;

·        priorities should emphasise Dover’s status as a growth point;

·        the importance of promoting Dover Town Centre should be emphasised;

·        Dover has had much success so far, eg with HighSpeed1, with KCC’s help, and neighbouring towns like Deal and Sandwich have benefitted too; and

·        Dover’s improvements should be celebrated, and successes used as case studies as examples of new ways of working.

 

KENT THAMESIDE – DARTFORD AND GRAVESHAM

·        the visits to these two areas were very encouraging, and had shown good examples of how to manage regeneration well;

·        the need to address the community needs of the huge residential development at Ingress Park had been the reason for the KCC adopting its present S106 policy;

·        Dartford presents a fascinating case study of how to balance a town centre with surrounding retails areas, the former able to offer independent retailers and the latter large generic stores.  Achieving a thriving town centre depended on people being able to live there;

·        Bluewater’s approach to apprenticeships and skills training had been enlightening, and a good example to use elsewhere;

·        the changing economic climate would inevitably lead to a change in priorities, as previous priorities had been based on assumptions around levels of home ownership;

·        Gravesend has potential to make use of its wharfage as a cruise terminal, and it would need to look at what heritage and cultural attractions the town could offer to cruise tourists.  Once a wharf area had been given over to housing it could not be recovered;

• Gravesend has very recently opened a maritime centre of excellence to address the need for maritime training and ship building and repair;
• Crossrail had not been included in the current priorities as there is no funding available yet, but this would be held in reserve for the future; and
• a large development at Victoria Park in Dartford is much anticipated.

 

MAIDSTONE

• the Maidstone Southern Relief Road should be included as an aspiration (although it was not agreed to add this as a priority);
• Maidstone’s status as an economic hub is an essential priority, as the town will potentially lose many public sector jobs in the near future.  The priority to ‘maximise Maidstone’s potential as an economic hub’ should be increased to a High rating;
• Maidstone’s retail premises are of very high quality;
• road and rail links to the town are an issue to be addressed, and ‘Lobbying Government for rail links’ and ‘Ensuring no adverse effects of congestion’ should both be increased to a High rating.  Public transport should be improved, as it is cheaper and easier to drive to Maidstone in a private car than it is to use public transport;
• regenerating deprived areas should be increased to a Medium rating; and
• Maidstone is a ‘maturing’ town and needs to look ahead to the next five years.

 

SEVENOAKS

• the visit to Sevenoaks had shown up areas of great economic and geographic diversity;
• it had become apparent that the Barnfield gypsy site had been spruced up in anticipation of the Committee’s visit;
• New Ash Green had appeared to be a good coherent community but did not have the local facilities which it needed.  Residents do not shop locally, and addressing the problems presented by the shopping centre is a major challenge; and
• the Sevenoaks area has a number of Independent Schools – 18% of schoolchildren in Kent are educated at Independent Schools – and KCC needs to know more about these schools.

 

SHEPWAY

• Shepway has the great benefit of a committed local entrepreneur and benefactor in the De Haan Trust; 
• Members would need to consider the impact of the Local Enterprise Partnership on the issue of which Kent airport/s to develop;
• Lydd and Manston airports each have different roles, Lydd offering business flights and Manston being used mainly for freight;  
• ‘Supporting the development of Lydd airport’ should be lowered to a Medium rating. By 6 votes to 3, Members decided that Lydd should be prioritised below Manston; and
• ‘Supporting Shepway District Council in lobbying for Dungeness C power station’ should be increased to a High rating, by a unanimous vote.

 

SWALE

• priorities should concentrate on supporting people and communities;
• KCC particularly needs to support Swale Borough Council, as the latter is one of the least well-off Councils in the county;
• money is extremely limited and efforts should concentrate on what is achievable. A major issue would be to consider what could be done in the interim before larger plans could start; and
• it is crucial that development at Queenborough and Rushenden is of good quality.

 

Mr M J Whiting, Local Member for Swale Central, supported the comments made by the Committee.  He added that Sittingbourne was seen by local companies as a good area to locate their business, and the regeneration of Sittingbourne would benefit the rest of Swale.

 

THANET

• ‘Providing jobs for local people’ should be increased to a High rating;
• Margate has the potential to be a top destination for tourism;
• it is important to learn a lesson from the effect which the Westwood Cross development had had on Thanet’s town centres.  Members were advised that both the KCC and Thanet District Council had fought against the development but it had been allowed on appeal;
• Westwood Cross had brought good quality shops to the area, as well as jobs; Thanet’s shopping had previously been poor;
• traffic networks in Thanet had developed in a haphazard way, with no coherent plan; and
• Thanet needs an economic climate which will attract private sector investment and high quality development.  This investment could be attracted by a high speed rail link to bring Thanet within one hour’s journey time to London.

 

TONBRIDGE AND MALLING

• ‘Changing the image of the district as universally affluent’ should be deleted from the priorities list.

 

TUNBRIDGE WELLS

• ‘Addressing localised problems of congestion on the A26 and at North Farm and the need to dual the A21’ should be increased to a High rating;
• the Local Enterprise Partnership (Tunbridge Wells, with Tonbridge and Malling, was part of the East Sussex LEP) might be able to put some weight behind raising the priority of the A21 dualling; and
• to address congestion and keep traffic moving freely would help both town centre and out-of-town shopping.

 

3.         The Cabinet Member, Mr K G Lynes, commented that the discussion of priorities had given him a valuable opportunity to take an overview of the regeneration and economic development concerns across the county.  Major economic and political changes would inevitably have an effect as they had altered funding streams and freedoms.   He said he saw the KCC’s future role being largely one of encouraging businesses and partners.

 

4.         For each area, Members either agreed the provisional priorities as listed in the report or agreed changes to them.  These are set out below:-

 

1. Ashford (date of visit: 30 April 2010)

 

 

2.  Canterbury (26 February 2010)

 

 

3. Dover (15 December 2009)

 

 

4. Kent Thameside (12 March 2010)

 

 

5.      Maidstone (1 October 2010)

 

 

6.      Sevenoaks (25 May 2010)

 

 

7. Shepway (1 September 2010)

 

 

8. Swale (2 November 2009)

 

 

9. Thanet (26 July 2010)

 

 

10. Tonbridge and Malling (28 September 2010)

 

 

11. Tunbridge Wells (28 September 2010)

 

 

5.         Members then offered the following as their overall priorities for the whole of the county:-

 

• a Third Thames Crossing
• dualling of the A21
• a high speed rail link to Thanet
• Sittingbourne Northern Relief Road
• attracting private investment into the county
• improving the Tourism offer across the whole county
• creating a system to raise aspirations in training, skills and jobs
• transport links of all types (planes, trains and automobiles)
• Broadband, particularly in rural areas
• Town Centre regeneration.

 

6.         RESOLVED that:-

 

a)         the priorities listed in paragraph 4 above represent the agreed priorities identified from the year-long programme of visits;

 

b)         a feedback report be produced which responds to the comments made by Members during debate and the changes made to the priorities, and this be submitted to a future meeting of the POSC; and

 

c)         Regeneration and Economic Development officers be thanked for accompanying each of the visits, for preparing notes and updated information since each visit, and for attending the meeting to answer Members’ questions.