i) Chairman of Council
ii) Leader of the Council
iii) Head of Paid Service
Minutes:
Chairman
The Chairman addressed the Council, referencing briefly some of the events in which he had been involved and attended since Council last met, in what had been a busy period.
These had included attending Civic Services for Lincolnshire County Council and Kirton-in-Lindsey Town Council and the Lincoln College Higher Education Graduation Service.
It had been the Chairman’s privilege to attend three Heritage Art events, these being: the launch of Heritage England's New Beginning Community Scheme, which had been held in the magnificent surroundings of the 15th century Gainsborough Old Hall, held in conjunction with the Friends of Gainsborough Old Hall, who were celebrating their 75th anniversary.
The Council’s own Trinity Arts Centre had also celebrated its 40th anniversary. The Gainsborough Arts Society had held a celebratory lunch and lecture at which the Chairman had attended. Councillor Howitt-Cowan had supported the Chairman at the event and thanks were paid to him.
The Gainsborough Heritage Association had held an evening reception to celebrate their 30th Anniversary. It had been a fabulous evening, attended by a number of Councillors and had served as a welcome opportunity to learn about the history of the town through the exhibits and shows.
2024 marked the 50th anniversary of the reorganisation of Local Government as laid out in the Local Government Act of 1972. West Lindsey District Council had been formed in 1974. In commemoration of this, the Chairman on behalf of the Authority had hosted a Golden Awards ceremony for the staff, a Civic service and a Reception. He considered all three events had been a great success providing current and past staff and members the opportunity to celebrate the successes of West Lindsey. As part of the celebration, a competition was held to design a commemorative flag, which was on display in the Chamber for the meeting, along with a hanging display showing a timeline of some of the historical moments in the Council's history.
The Chairman further advised of an album being created of the Council’s history in more detail. The flag, book and other items would be placed in a special time-capsule to be incorporated in the new cinema complex. The hanging displays would form permanent displays in the Guildhall.
He paid tribute to all the staff involved making the events very successful and memorable and gave them all a round of applause.
Following the motion to Council the previous month regarding an extension to Household Support Fund, the Chairman spoke of his pleasure of learning that the Government had extended the Household Support Fund for a further six months, providing much needed support to those families facing hardship because of the cost of living. The work of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and other organisations was praised, and it was hoped with continued pressure from such organisations and Councils, further extensions would be considered by the Government.
Bringing announcements to an end, congratulations were paid to Gainsborough Trinity on winning their first-round match in the FA Cup, the first occasion in 76 years. They would now play Harrogate in the second round. He asked Members associated with the club to take the Council’s congratulations and best wishes back to the team.
Leader
The Leader made the following address to Council: -
“I have the following items to report: -
RAF Scampton - in recent weeks we have sent a letter to the Minister Dame Angela Eagle calling for an urgent dialogue with ourselves regarding the future of the RAF Scampton and we're still waiting for a response. That was at the time of writing these notes and hoping we do receive a response very soon and I will keep Members updated on that.
Savoy Cinema - a small delegation of Officers and Members recently attended the site visit to see the progress of the building. It was extremely pleasing to see the project progressing on track with the facility planned to be open by June 2025.
Devolution – Devolution has been given the green light by the Government for Greater Lincolnshire. I am attending a growth summit on 15 November to hear the plans for the next stages. We are also working with the seven district authorities on the four seats for the Mayoral County Combined Authority (MCCA) and the other working groups involved around devolution and I will provide further updates on that at future meetings.
The Local Government Association (LGA) conference - I attended the LGA conference, along with the Chief Executive. Attending the conference, provided opportunity to visit both Knaresborough and Harrogate's newly refurbished leisure facilities. This enabled us to further our thoughts and develop our thinking in relation to sports and leisure across the district, and again, that piece of work is progressing.
Peer Challenge Review, January 2025, - we have the next planned peer challenge review in January and we have been working hard with Officers to prepare for that which I must say most likely will involve most Members of the council and Officers and is a really important piece of work for us to do.
And finally, Chairman, the Labour Government's first budget has been announced, £1 .3 million was announced in the budget for local government. The budget gap for the next financial year for local government is £2 .3 million.
So, there's still a further £1 million shortfall. That's just a standstill position. Therefore, across the county, we will continue to see services being cut and fees and charges will continue to increase. £5 million was announced for new housing and we wait to see more detail on how this will unlock more housing locally, especially in relation to affordable housing across the district.
The good news is that UK Shared Prosperity Fund has now been confirmed for a further transitional 12 -month period, albeit at a lower level than previous years.
But that's good news for the authority in terms of the next 12 months”.
In response to the Leader’s Announcements the Leader of the Opposition requested that his Members be fully briefed from the Leader regarding the ongoing work across the Council so expectation could be met in respect of the Peer Review.
The Leader confirmed that the timetable for the planned week visit, would be issued very shortly.
Director of Planning Regeneration and Communities on behalf of the Head of Paid Service
The Director of Planning Regeneration and Communities, addressed Council, on behalf of the Head of Paid Service, and was delighted to start announcements with an update on two areas of collaboration for the District Council that have been recognised through the shortlisting for national awards.
Firstly, the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan had been recognised by the Royal Town Planning Institute having been shortlisted for the National Award for Excellence in Plan-making; wonderful recognition of the ambition of the Local Plan and the collaboration between West Lindsey District Council, North Kesteven, the City of Lincoln and Lincolnshire County Council. The results would be published on the 26th of November.
Secondly, the teams working to support the Step Fusion project in West Burton have been shortlisted in the Collaborative Initiative of the Year by the Institute of Economic Development. The collaboration saw the District Council working
closely with UK Industrial Fusion, Bassetlaw District Council, Nottinghamshire County Council and other partners across the region to realise the strategic opportunity that the delivery of fusion energy right on our doorstep here in Gainsborough could bring to the district. The outcome of the awards would be known within the week.
Opportunity was also taken to raise awareness of two live public consultation
exercises the District Council were currently undertaking.
Firstly, the Budget Consultation, which was an annual exercise that welcomed views as part of the Council’s budget setting process. The consultation could be accessed online. In person events had also been held across the district with the final session being held Wednesday 6 November from 2pm onwards in the Old School Hall in Nettleham.
Secondly, a consultation on the district’s emerging economic growth strategy had just gone live. Views were being sought from all stakeholders, including those who lived, worked and traded in West Lindsey, on our strategic approach
to growth.
The consultation also invited respondents to reflect on challenges and opportunities for the local economy both now and over the next five years, again the consultation could be accessed online.
Concluding her announcements, the Director of Planning Regeneration and Communities took opportunity to highlight the events pages of the District Council’s website which were full of many diverse events across the whole district and within many of the communities including what looked to be pretty spectacular bonfire events over the next couple of days particularly in Market Rasen and Ingham.
Other highlights brought to the attention of Members were the performance of Macbeth at the Broadbent Theatre and a music night hosted by the Rase Heritage Centre. The festive period would kick off with the Christmas lights festival in Gainsborough on the 15th and 16th of November and tickets were now available for the annual panto at the Trinity Arts Centre, with some performances are already sold out.
This brought announcements to a conclusion.