Agenda item

To receive a report from the Leader of the Council in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 2.4.

During his report the Leader covered the following areas:

·  Council staff were praised for their work in accommodating 120,000 visitors to the District over the bank holiday weekend.

·  Between 1 April 2017 and 31 August 2017, car parking income had increased by £92,000 compared with the same period last year.

·  During August, 63 outlets were inspected by Environmental Health officers to ensure public health, and 284 littering fixed penalties were issued.

·  A task force had begun work in Cliftonville West, in collaboration with the A Better Cliftonville community group, to promote responsible tenant and resident behaviours.

·  The Council presented its work to address rouge landlords at a London conference in July 17.

·  There was cross party support for the continuation of the Winter Shelter programme.  Last year 23 of the 25 regular users had successfully found permanent accommodation; those involved were thanked for their effort.

·  There had been 42 reports of traveller incidents this year, compared with just five, five years ago.

·  The Council was the first in the South East to obtain funding from the migrant impact fund.

·  Thanet had more empty homes than any other Kent district, however the Council’s action to address this made it the highest performing Council for bringing empty homes back into use in Kent.

·  In 2016/17 the Council bought 126 empty homes back into use, and the Council worked in close partnership with Kent County Council’s No Use Empty initiative.

·  The Chief Planning Inspector had recently indicated that any Local Plan not filed by 31 March 2018 would be subject to a new method of calculating housing numbers.  It was important for the Council to adopt a Local Plan by this deadline because, given the national political appetite to build more houses, it was possible that the new calculation method would require more houses to be built in the District than the current method.

Councillor Bayford as Leader of the Conservative Party responded with the following points:

·  He welcomed the positive news highlighted in the Leaders report and echoed gratitude to Council staff for their efforts.

·  Concentrated visitor numbers in certain areas of the District could give rise to public safety issues.  A review to manage the negative impacts of tourism maybe required.

·  While it was right to highlight the need to adopt a Local Plan by the 31 March 18 deadline, this should not be used to pressure Members into agreeing a Plan that they were not happy with.

·  In addition to the points covered in the report, it was good to note the opening of the Weatherspoon’s pub on Ramsgate seafront, it was an impressive transformation of a previously sad looking building.

The Leader replied to Councillor Bayford’s comments with the following points:

·  The Weatherspoon’s pub had received a lot of publicity recently.  The property had benefited from £4.5 million of investment, and it was hoped that 120-150 new jobs would be created from its opening.

Councillor Matterface as leader of the Labour Party made the following points:

·  Manual road sweepers were required in addition to mechanical sweepers as roads that were busy with parked cars could not be mechanically swept.

·  Would the anonymous donor that had previously helped to fund the Winter Shelter project do so again this year? Credit should be given to the volunteers and agencies that helped to run the project last year.

·  Was a review carried out following the programme last year?

·  In addition to empty residential properties, consideration should be given to empty retail units, particularly ones owned by the Council.  Was there an update regarding the Fort Road Hotel and the newly closed Store 21 in Margate?

The Leader replied to Councillor Matterface’s comments with the following points:

·  All options would be considered regarding the Winter Shelter project for this year.  It was believed that the anonymous donor would assist again.

·  A review was carried out following the Winter Shelter project last year, a copy of the report would be sent to Councillor Matterface.

·  The Leader expected the Fort Road Hotel to be included in a report on assets that Cabinet would consider in the near future. He offered to look into the closure of Store 21.

Councillor Grove as leader of the Independent Group made the following points:

·  It was good to hear of the empty properties that had come back into use through the Council’s intervention.

·  The seafront at Ramsgate still needed attention, although the opening of Weatherspoon’s was good.

·  It was frustrating that the legal process required to move travellers from a site was required to restart every time a new vehicle arrived.  This could lead to spiralling legal costs for the Council.

The Leader replied to Councillor Grove’s comments to note that he shared his frustration regarding the law around the moving on travellers.