To receive any announcements from the Leader.

The Leader made the following announcements:

“You may have read in the press that the Council recently purchased the Elmsleigh Centre in the heart of Staines-upon-Thames which provides around one third of all the retail space in the town. This purchase is a major step forward in Spelthorne Council’s wider plan to regenerate Staines-upon-Thames. Along with our other recent acquisitions which include the Oast House, Communications House, Thameside House and Hanover House, the Council is now firmly in the driving seat to deliver the revitalisation of Staines-upon-Thames.

I am pleased to announce that we have launched a four week consultation for a new leisure centre which will run from 28 February – 27 March. We are inviting residents to come along to the public exhibition events we are holding at the current Leisure Centre on 28 and 29 February to give them the opportunity to find out more. As well as being online, consultation documents are also available at the Council offices, at the leisure centres and in local libraries. To feedback their views, residents can come along to the public event, complete our online survey, email or write to us. Paper copies of the questionnaire are also available.

Local businesses are the lifeblood of our Borough and I am looking forward to recognising their achievements at this year’s Spelthorne Means Business Awards. We have award categories to suit all businesses - large or small - so if you are proud of your company’s achievements, let us know! Entries open on 4 March. 

It was a pleasure to welcome Prime Minister Boris Johnson and MP Kwasi Kwarteng to the Charter Building in Uxbridge in January. Spelthorne purchased the Charter Building as an investment in August 2018 and it is now home to a community of local, national and global businesses. The PM said he was impressed with our investment and was very interested to hear about the Council’s commercial strategy.

Spelthorne Council held a special memorial event on 27 January to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. The commemoration began with a flag raising ceremony during the day and continued in the evening with music, poems, readings and a heartfelt account from Holocaust survivor Marion Strehlow who witnessed the horrors first-hand. Representatives from six religions lit candles to show unity in keeping with this year’s theme, ‘Stand Together’.

The Council has fulfilled its commitment to plant a tree in memory of every local soldier killed during the First World War. The commitment was made in 2018 as part of the centenary commemoration events, with the first 100 trees being planted at the Centenary Wood by Laleham Park. Since then, the planting has continued and all 851 trees – one for every soldier lost – have now been planted as a tribute to the fallen.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The commemorations for VE Day on 8 May and VJ Day on 15 August are significant milestones and provide an opportunity to reflect on the sacrifice of millions of people. Friday 8 May has been designated a national Bank Holiday and a special ceremony will be held at the War Memorial in Market Square in Staines. On Saturday 9 May, the Council and Staines BID will also be hosting a Picnic in the Park in the Memorial Gardens in Staines with live music, food and entertainment. Concluding the weekend on Sunday 10 May, services will be held at St Hilda’s Church in Ashford and St Mary’s Church in Sunbury.

You will all be aware of the decision issued by the Court of Appeal earlier today on the third runway at Heathrow. It failed because the government had not taken into account the commitment given under the 2015 Paris Agreement to reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change.

This Council has always been consistently clear that expansion cannot be at the expense of local communities or the environment. We do not intend to change from this stance. Our environment and our communities, and particularly Stanwell Moor and Stanwell Village, will be adversely affected by the expansion as currently proposed. We made it very clear in our response to Heathrow’s consultation last summer that 16 requirements needed to be met for any scheme to be acceptable.

One of these was that the scheme must comply with the 2019 Committee on Climate Change Further Ambitions Scenario (in order to deliver a reduction to 30 million tonnes CO2 in 2050). In calling for this, the Council has already said that any development must go above and beyond the Paris Agreement. We are saying that Heathrow expansion must deliver a scheme which will limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degree C, not just simply hold global rises to well below 2 degrees C.

The Court of Appeal decision today vindicates our long held position in ensuring that our environment (and our communities) are safeguarded and protected. Our stringent stance on climate change is being borne out by reality.

Finally Members, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to mention our Local Plan, and in particular Green Belt.  This will feature later in Questions and, of course, the petition.  I have two updates.

Following our engagement with the ministry, our MP Kwasi Kwarteng met with the Housing Minister, Robert Jenrick.  He did this on Tuesday of this week.  I spoke directly to Kwasi earlier this afternoon and he tells me his meeting with the Minister was positive and constructive.  It appears that they are expecting the whole matter to be reviewed after the Budget on 11th March.  I am pleased that Kwasi took the time to have the meeting and to brief me.  We will continue to press for a reduction.  Any tangible change will be immediately factored into our emerging Local Plan, with hopefully a reduced allocation.

Secondly, our focus for any developments will be brownfield sites.  However where we are challenged by developers targeting our green belt, we will robustly defend these.  So good are our finances that Cabinet have agreed to ring fence at least £900,000 towards this.  We will be issuing further details in due course, and Cllr Beardsmore, our Strategic Planning Portfolio Holder will be addressing this also later this evening.”