Agenda item

(Voting: unanimous in favour)

The Portfolio Holder for Environment and Economic Development advised that the report set out the governance arrangements for the regeneration projects in Chard, Yeovil and Wincanton as agreed in the Council Plan.  There would be challenging projects brought forward to regenerate the towns through the new Strategic Regeneration Board and local projects in other areas could still come forward through the Area Committees. The report also agreed the delegation of spending.

The Chief Executive advised that the proposals would transform the way SSDC worked to become more efficient and deliver on the Council Plan.  He said the market towns were being affected by on-line shopping and so the Council was taking a community leadership role and would work with partners to regenerate the towns and resources would be invested to achieve this.  He noted the proposed funding was significant but a commercial investment approach was being taken.  Although a gross spend budget was proposed, it was envisaged there would only be the net cost to the Council but it allowed some flexibility to underwrite proposed schemes. 

In response to questions raised by the Scrutiny Committee, the Chief Executive confirmed:-

·         Although only 3 market towns were identified, this would not exclude the other smaller market towns in the district from proposing local regeneration schemes through the Area + system and Area Plans.

·         Performance reports would be presented to the Area Committees although they would have to take account of commercial sensitivity.

·         The Strategic Regeneration Board would monitor the cumulative risk and would produce a risk strategy and a risk log for the proposed projects.

·         It was inevitable that membership of the boards would change as there were elections in May 2019 but business continuity would be maintained. 

The Section 151 Officer confirmed that the financial arrangements of the business cases would be tested for robustness and depending on the scale of the proposed projects, external expert views would be sought.

During debate, Members raised a number of points regarding the financial risk, the need for expert opinion on projects, the robustness of the business plans and the future reporting and scrutiny of the proposed regeneration projects.  However, all Members recognised that the proposals needed to move forward and to do nothing was not an option.

The Monitoring Officer requested an additional recommendation be added to authorise her to make the necessary amendments to the Council’s Constitution to reflect the recommendations and this was agreed.  She also clarified that due to the Council’s scheme of delegation, it was necessary to identify an Executive Member or officer to take executive decisions on projects.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to propose the recommendations to Full Council for approval.

(Voting: unanimous in favour)