Issue - meetings

Members gave consideration to a report which presented the Executive Business Plan and the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for 2024/25 onwards. 

The Leader made the following budget speech to Council in presenting the report: -

“As Leader of the Council, I am pleased to present the Budget for

2024/25. 

I present this along with our Executive Business Plan and Medium Term Financial Plan, all of which contribute to achieving our vision of making West Lindsey a great place to live, where people, businesses and communities can thrive and reach their potential.

Our communities have told us that certain things are important to them and we have endeavoured to address these issues when setting our priorities.  As a new Administration we have been able to include priority areas we feel will meet our vision for the District.

We have approved the strategy to take legal action against the Home Office to protect investment, Economic Growth and Regeneration at RAF Scampton which will deliver £300m of investment and prosperity to the District.  We believe this project has the potential to transform our district, creating opportunities for employment in some of the most exciting 21st century industries.  We believe this project is worth fighting for.

We aim to ensure that the investment brought in from the UK shared prosperity fund is maximised, with all its projects due to be completed on time. We have been committed to ensuring that the cinema project is supported and we are delighted that this project is now underway and look forward to it being completed early next year.

Markets are a key priority for our towns.  When they flourish, we believe they add vibrancy to public spaces, provide opportunities for social interaction and support the retail sector in our town centres.  In Gainsborough we are keen that our market place with its market, is developed to become the centre of a thriving Independent quarter of the town.

We aim to continue to grow our monthly farmers market and we are excited to announce that we will be starting a new weekly antiques market on the 30 March. This will run through to October.  Our commitment to culture and heritage will continue. Enabling these priorities to flourish whilst our improvements to the market place are underway, will be a priority.  Going forward we will strive to develop successful partnerships around heritage, culture and the Arts and use these partnerships to increase opportunities for our communities and help revive our town centres. 

Increasing opportunities for participating in sport, leisure and cultural activities is a priority.   Over recent years we have seen a decline in opportunities available for residents of West Lindsey and we are keen to reverse this trend. We have included additional resources for sports and cultural development in this budget, with two new development officers to be recruited. We are working closely with our Leisure providers developing our programmes in Market Rasen and Gainsborough and we are beginning to explore options for our Leisure centre in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71