The Leader gave an update on some permanent issues of concern, namely (a) Planning (b) the Sittingbourne Town project and (c) general progress on the Coalition agenda.

(a) Planning

Since the last Council meeting, the Council has had to account to the Secretary of State for the shortfall in meeting Government housing targets. He wished to dispel any illusion that they had an anarchic approach to these targets, by emphasising that there were three key areas to consider: policy, infrastructure and the state of the housing market.

Much as the Coalition would like to make rapid progress on reviewing the Local Plan, the Leader advised that they must rely on the adopted Plan, which many of them opposed, for policy guidance. So, it was proper for the Planning Committee to refuse applications that clearly breached the Local Plan by annexing significant areas of countryside land onto allocated sites. If that led to appeals then the Council had to fight them robustly.

He considered that the Council must respond to Government pressure on targets by pointing out the major infrastructure deficits faced either through lack of Government investment or through the parsimony of ambitious developers.  The reality was that the numbers imposed by the Government were simply unrealistic and whatever the Council did as planning authority, the Leader did not see that the market would be able to deliver.

He emphasised that they were not anarchic and they could work towards targets. Whilst the Council could be threatened with dire consequences for non-compliance,  he could not see the Government carrying out such threats.

b) Sittingbourne Town Centre

The Leader referred to the last Council meeting where he had hinted at a range of past flawed decisions made around the Sittingbourne Town Centre project. He explained that the delay to the Multi Storey Car Park was not reflected in the miraculous rumours circulated in public discourse, but was due to misunderstandings and disputes that had their origins in initial agreements with the construction company. The difficulties had been resolved and the car park was now in operation.

Likewise, as the Scrutiny Committee had heard at its meeting on Wednesday 4 September 2019, progress was being made on the Spirit of Sittingbourne Leisure element. However, there was a little local difficulty and that was that the building did not fully comply with the planning permission granted in 2015 and, as with the car park, there was a little inconsistency between planning permission and contract. He advised that the Council could expect to have to determine a variation to the original permission. The breach clearly happened at the early stages of the development.

He questioned how and why this had happened, and referred to the Planning Committee meeting in March 2015 when planning permission had been granted. He considered that very little evidence had been presented in favour of the application, whilst Member and public objections were ignored. At the break of dawn, the town was full of intrusive billboards telling us all “It’s Here”, so, it was hard not to think that there was something pre-determined about the decision.

The Leader said that he had no doubt that in those early days there was too much of a cavalier approach and too little real scrutiny. Too often opposition questions were met with a dismissive claim that the project was a matter for the Consortium, which of course, it was not, especially once this Council had become the principal funder and now sustained the greatest risk.

Whilst he had no wish to apportion blame, the Leader wished that at the development agreement stage there had been someone to rein in the cavalier spirit.

On a positive side, the Leader advised that they anticipated an income to the revenue budget of about £250K from the Princes Street Retail Park and he hoped that in a year’s time to be reporting income from the Leisure area.

c) General progress on the Coalition agenda

It had been just over 4 months since the local elections, and the Leader referred to the many changes that had occurred in housing, health and community involvement, and he did not wish to debate whether those changes were continuity from before May 2019 or new initiatives.  Amongst other things, the Project Fund would soon produce discernible improvements to the public realm and the environment. He then spoke about capacity issues, referring in particular to a funding gap for next year of over £1.2 million, and so the delivery of an ambitious programme asked much of our staff. He praised the work of the Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Derek Carnell, for the work and organisation of the Customer Contact and Revenues and Benefits staff and his appreciation to staff in general for their adaptability to change.

The Leader of the Conservative Group responded to the statement by acknowledging the recognition of staff, and the way they had conducted themselves in an exemplary manner, following the transition period since the local elections in May 2019.  The Leader thanked the Leader of the Conservative Group for his comments.