To receive any announcements from the Leader.
Minutes:
The following are the latest service updates from various Council departments.
The Local Plan Preferred Options Consultation for the Borough has now been open for 4 weeks.
The Council has extended its public consultation on a new Local Plan for the Borough, which sets out proposals for where housing, employment and other development will be built up to 2035. The original consultation period already exceeded the statutory minimum 6 weeks to take account of the Christmas break. However, the General Election wasn’t originally expected and therefore we’ve again extended the period within which local residents can respond.
The consultation will now run until Tuesday 21 January 2020 and gives another two weeks for residents to give their views on the proposed allocations and policies.
Four public events have been held to provide further information to residents and interested parties and a further three events are planned in December and if needed in the New Year to ensure everyone is fully informed and can have their say.
The Council met with senior officials from the Ministry of Homes, Communities and Local Government to express the deep concerns over the very high housing figure calculated for the Borough using the Government’s standard method for calculating ‘need’. Using this method, the figure for Spelthorne is 603 homes per year. Like many local authorities in Surrey, it is incredibly challenging to find sites to meet that need. Spelthorne is 65% Green Belt and 17% is water. In fact, 26% of our Green Belt is made up of the reservoirs. The Council will continue to push the Government to bring this figure down so we can deliver a Local Housing Plan that is acceptable to our communities.
On Monday 11 November a Remembrance Ceremony was held here at the Council Offices and we were joined by veteran Bill Sykes who helped plant a Red Oak tree outside the Council offices on the Green in readiness for the commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of VE Day on 8 May 2020.
Spelthorne in Bloom celebrated its 30th year on 4 November, where winners were presented with their awards at Shepperton Studios. There were so many beautiful and imaginative entries this year. Thank you to the volunteers and gardeners for all their hard work ensuring another successful year and congratulations to the finalists and winners.
The hard work and sporting achievements of local players, coaches and volunteers was celebrated at the annual Spelthorne Sports Awards at Shepperton Studios on Tuesday 19 November. The winners, and everyone nominated for these awards, are a credit to Spelthorne and to sport. Thanks to everyone who helped to organise the event and many congratulations to everyone who received an award.
The Council has announced that it will be offering Council Tax exemptions from April 2020 to young people leaving care aged between 18 and 25. Care leavers have often had their childhoods affected by instability and trauma.
After much public support, the Council is pleased to share the news that the ‘silent soldier’, which was vandalised last month has now been repaired and put back in its rightful place in Memorial Gardens, Staines-upon-Thames.
The Council has produced a written response and local impact report for the Southampton to London Pipeline Project. The proposed pipeline will pass through the Borough and while we understand the national need for the infrastructure project, our primary objective must be to ensure that sufficient protection is provided for our community and environment. The Council is looking for Esso to engage with us and our residents constructively, to put in place the specific protections we seek.
Spelthorne Borough Council has launched a public consultation on the draft framework for our new Homelessness Strategy, which will address homelessness and rough sleeping in Spelthorne for 2020 to 2025. The consultation opened Monday 2 December and runs up to midday Monday 6 January. The overall aims of the strategy are to ensure nobody sleeps rough in Spelthorne, ending the use of bed and breakfast accommodation, reducing the length of time people stay in temporary accommodation, increasing the use of the private sector for homelessness prevention and investing in staff training and development to improve the Housing Options service.
This week the winter edition of The Bulletin has been delivered with articles on tackling rough sleeping, festive recycling and local seasonal events. This Bulletin is a special edition which includes an 8 page Local Plan Consultation insert informing residents on why we need a new Local Plan and a map for each area across the Borough showing proposed site allocations.
Christmas in Stanwell is back on Friday 6 December with the annual Christmas light switch-on and lantern parade. Everyone is welcome to join us for a mince pie or two!
As Leader of Spelthorne Borough Council, I attended a Council meeting at Grand Port Mauritius on Friday 15th November to formally mark the 10th anniversary of our Twinning Charter. The visit was entirely self-funded and reflects my personal desire to reaffirm the decade long twinning. Taking time out from his annual vacation visiting family on the island, the Chief Executive - in his own time and at his own expense - also joined me on 15th November to mark this occasion. We both participated in a working session in the Grand Port Council Chamber with District Councillors and Heads of Department. The Chairman and Chief Executive of Grand Port then publicly reaffirmed the relationship between the two boroughs in signing a 10th anniversary Charter declaration which will be displayed in our public vestibule outside the Council Chamber. The Chairman and Chief Executive of Grand Port will be visiting Spelthorne early in 2020.