All Decisions

Cabinet were asked to:

To agree to the surrender of the current lease in its totality,  and regrant two new independent leases for Hartsdown Leisure Centre and Ramsgate Leisure Centre.

To give delegated authority to the Interim Director of Property, to enter into the relevant Agreement(s) for new leases with Your Leisure on terms to be agreed.

To give delegated authority to the Acting Director of Finance and Operations to negotiate the sharing agreement with Your Leisure for the wider provision of services provided through Your Leisure.

To give delegated authority to the Acting Director of Finance and Operations to negotiate the service concession agreement with Your Leisure for the wider provision of Foreshore related activities.

To give delegated authority to the Director of Legal and Monitoring Officer to sign all documents necessary to give effect to the surrender and subsequent leases.

The original lease dated 1999 between Thanet Leisure Force (Your Leisure) and Thanet District Council, covers various premises, which have gradually been surrendered back to TDC.

The existing lease covers Northdown House, Margate Winter Gardens, Hartsdown Leisure Centre and Ramsgate Leisure Centre. The Winter Gardens was taken back on 14th August.

The  recommendation and Heads of Terms being negotiated with Your Leisure is influenced by four key factors:-

1.Financial implications of the coronavirus pandemic and future viability

2.The lack of Local Authority funding to provide the required operational subsidy

3.The ongoing and substantial maintenance, repair and refurbishment costs

4.The opportunity for TDC to utilise money from the Margate Town Deal Fund.

There will be separate leases for both Ramsgate and Hartsdown Leisure centres and the HOT’s include mutual break clauses should the financial situation become untenable for TDC and ‘Green Clauses’ to ensure the properties meet the council’s net zero pledge by 2030.

Councillor Pugh proposed, Councillor Jill Bayford seconded and Cabinet agreed the following:

1. To agree to the surrender of the current lease in its totality, and re-grant two new independent leases for Hartsdown Leisure Centre and Ramsgate Leisure Centre;

2. To give delegated authority to the Interim Director of Property, to enter into the relevant Agreement(s) for new leases with Your Leisure on terms to be agreed;

3. To give delegated authority to the Acting Director of Finance and Operations to negotiate the sharing agreement with Your Leisure for the wider provision of services provided through Your Leisure;

4. To give delegated authority to the Acting Director of Finance and Operations to negotiate the service concession agreement with Your Leisure for the wider provision of Foreshore related activities;

5. To give delegated authority to the head of legal and Democracy to sign all documents necessary to give effect to the surrender and subsequent leases.

The Margate Winter Gardens is owned by Thanet District Council and has been a vital part of Margate’s year round offer, providing space for concerts, events and community gatherings. It is a valuable asset to the Council and its communities, and the Council understands that it is much loved by the local community with a great deal of interest and passion about its future.

As an important asset, through the Margate Town Deal, £300,000 of revenue funding has been secured to carry out  research to inform the Council on the next steps for the delivery of the Margate Winter Gardens.

1.  It was noted that the Margate Winter Gardens was handed back to the Council on 14 August from Your Leisure Kent Ltd, and has subsequently temporarily suspended operations.

2.  Cabinet noted that a Petition signed by over 2,000 signatories was submitted to the Council requesting a Public Meeting, in order that the public can show their support for the Winter Gardens and hear about the plans for the future.

·  It was recommended that once the Council had received further information, a public meeting would be held.

·  It was recommended through the review of the night time economy that engagement with Thanet’s communities be undertaken to understand how they would use the Winter Gardens.

3.  Cabinet agreed the next steps in delivering the Margate Town Deal Winter Gardens project, including, but is not limited to:

·  commissioning experts to complete a costed structural survey of the Winter Gardens;

·  commission a complete set of drawings for the site;

·  identify all legal requirements in relation to the Margate Winter Gardens;

·  commission a team of multi disciplinary consultants to review the night time economy in Margate and the Winter Gardens role in that - this will include engagement with Thanet’s communities to understand the audience potential for a venue.

4.  Cabinet gave delegated authority to the Interim Director of Property in consultation with the Economic Development Portfolio Holder and the Director of Regeneration to market the leisure opportunity at the Margate Winter Gardens, in order to identify potential interest from operators and/or a commercial partner.

Cabinet were asked to:

1.  Give the Property Director authority to dispose of the property via freehold transfer to the owners of Ramsgate FC at £265,000 with restriction on the use of the land, limiting it to uses as a football club and associated purposes only. Should the owners wish to sell or re-develop the land at a future date The Council will seek an overage provision of 50% on any uplift in value following a change of use. 

The Council  commissioned an independent valuation of the premises to assess what the current market value would be. The valuer provided a market value of £250,000.

We are aware that parcels of land like the subject property rarely come to the market,

and especially on an unconditional basis. The property is located in a residential area of Ramsgate and therefore we believe any prudent vendor would not sell the land “as is” at the above prices of say £250,000 without protecting their position for any possible uplift in value. It is our belief that a prudent vendor would include one or both of either:

·  An overage provision on any uplift in value following a change of use, or

·  A restriction on the use of the land limiting it to uses as a football club and

associated purposes only

Members agreed that if the property was sold immediately after sale for redevelopment this would not send a good message about how TDC valued the importance of The Football club being on it’s present site for 70 plus years and providing a service to the community, encouraging children to play sport.

Cabinet agreed recommendation 1:

The preferred and recommended options is to dispose of the property via freehold transfer to the owners of Ramsgate FC at £265,000 with an overage provision of 50% on any uplift in value following a change of use, and a restriction on the use of the land, limiting it to uses as a football club and associated purposes only.

However, it will be expressly stated in the legal documentation that TDC will  not give consent to the sale of the land for any other use or purposes within 5 years of the sale.

As part of the Margate Town Deal the Theatre Royal Margate has an allocation of £2,000,000 to deliver much needed works to the Theatre. This funding will help unlock other public and private match funding in order to develop a hub of performing arts in Margate.

This is an exciting time for Margate’s creative industries and the Theatre provides a significant opportunity to build on the performing arts for Margate and the wider area.

Delegated authority was given to the Director of Regeneration in consultation with the Interim Director of Property to market the proposal for the Theatre Royal and 19 Hawley Square in order to identify an operator/commercial partner.

Authority was provided to the Interim Director of Property and Interim Head of Legal and Monitoring Officer, in Consultation with the Portfolio Holder to negotiate the lease heads of terms and all other ancillary documents.

The finalised lease heads of terms and relevant ancillary documents to be brought back to Cabinet for final approval.

Approval was provided to submit an application for a Development Phase Grant to the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Authorising the Director of Regeneration to agree the final submission documents, based on approval from the S151 Officer.

Approval was provided to commission the urgent works to the Theatre Royal, as set-out in the surveys completed in 2021 funded from Historic England.

Thanet District Council called a Climate Emergency on 11th July 2019. Officer and cross party councillor working groups were formed to create and initiate actions on a first environmental action plan. All of the actions within that action plan were completed and in December 2021, the councillor working group was changed to the Climate Change Cabinet Advisory Group to produce this strategy and action plan, focussed specifically on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

An updated TDC pledge which includes actions to address District wide emissions is recommended to the Cabinet by the Climate Change Cabinet Advisory Group. This net zero pledge is as follows:

To do what is within our powers and resources to:

·  make Thanet District Council net zero by 2030 in our core carbon footprint (this includes emissions we have direct control over e.g. the estates and activities that we own and manage)

·  address emissions that TDC has partial control over (those outside of the core carbon footprint e.g. projects, procurement and social housing) as soon as possible, and by 2050 at the latest.

·  support KCC, the Government, business, industry and the community to make Thanet as a whole net zero by 2050.

In order to make these targets possible we will:

·  call on Westminster to provide the powers and resources to make the targets possible;

·  continue to work with partners across the county and region to deliver this new goal through all relevant strategies;

·  investigate all possible sources of external funding and match funding to support this commitment

The strategy shows how we will meet our net zero pledge and is split into addressing emissions in TDC’s core carbon footprint, wider TDC emissions and Thanet wide emissions.

The data for TDC’s core carbon footprint and Thanet wide emissions has been calculated and 12 priorities to address these emissions have been agreed.

Each of the 12 priorities are described in the strategy document and then specific, immediate actions to 2024 are set out. The actions have been agreed with the relevant TDC directors and officers across the council and the action plan will be monitored monthly by the Cabinet Member for Environmental Services & Special Projects, the Director of Finance and Climate Change Officer, and every two months by the Climate Change Cabinet Advisory Group. It will also be externally audited, the report submitted to the OSP and cabinet on an annual basis.

Option 1: Approve the recommendations 1-4:

1.  That the Cabinet approves the proposed amended wording of the TDC pledge;

2.  That the Cabinet approves the Net Zero Strategy 2022 for public engagement

3.  That Cabinet notes the additional sentence included in the strategy following the receipt of feedback from OSP and CC CAG (see 2.17);

4.  That the Cabinet recognises that the strategy cannot be fully implemented without external funding being available and agreed, in accordance with the pledge, to lobby external agencies and government

Cabinet were asked to consider endorsing the housing delivery paper which was attached to this report through annex one. This asks central government for legislative and regulatory changes to better balance the delivery of new homes with the needs of the community, and for additional national resources to increase the delivery of new affordable homes. 

The report highlighted the mismatch between the type and affordability of new homes that have been built in the district and the needs of the community. Specifically, identifying flaws in the way in which housing numbers had been allocated across the country.  The report referenced data published by the council in 2020 through the Housing, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy and concluded that the cost of housing needs for affordable homes and pressures placed on homelessness services over the last two years have been significantly impacted through economic pressures. 

The report drew attention to the urgent need for the delivery of more affordable homes.  Urgent changes were needed to ensure better balances between the new homes which were to be built in the district and the needs of the community. It is the Cabinet's intention to lobby central government for urgent changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, funding arrangements relating to affordable housing delivery and financial support for housing costs for those residents on low incomes. 

The following Members spoke under Council Procedure Rule 20.1: 

Councillor Whitehead; 

Councillor Albon; 

Councillor Garner; 

Councillor Austin; 

Councillor Everitt; 

Councillor Bailey. 

Councillor Jill Bayford proposed, Councillor Pugh seconded and Members agreed that Cabinet endorses the Housing Delivery Paper, and the specific asks of the Central Government for legislative and regulatory changes to better balance the delivery of new homes with the needs of the community and for additional national resources to increase the delivery of new affordable homes.