The District Council is now controlled by a group consisting of the 22 Conservatives and 2 Independents who have a joint group meeting. There are Labour [15], Independent [4] and the Liberal Democrat groups [Christine Rose Sutton-on-Trent, Julian Hamilton Southwell East and Upton and Peter Harris, Southwell West]

There are usually no meetings of the Council during September. However, at the start of the month this year they was an extra-ordinary meeting after the Cabinet meeting earlier in the day. This was to ratify the Cabinet’s decision on the Housing Site Allocations in the District.

Despite significant issues raised by Southwell residents, the Cabinet, after virtually no debate, agreed to the allocation of sites as published in the Housing Allocation map. To make matters more difficult, the Cabinet also agreed to make some of the sites in Southwell ‘strategic’.  This in effect means that they cannot be altered by local views expressed in a Neighbourhood Plan as any NP has to be in accord with the strategic plans of the Local Authority. Whilst it was accepted that the overall number of houses in the LDF was a strategic element of the Plan, it is discouraging that the Cabinet [with not one local member] then decided to allocate some sites as ‘strategic’ when they knew that the allocation of the sites was a matter that the Southwell NP was likely to be predicated on.

This is the new plan for housing agreed by the Conservative District Council. There is real disagreement in Southwell with the Tories – they promised no new housing estates saying there was no need for them – yet look at how many they now propose!

The Housing Sites originally identified by the Conservative controlled Council for development – all around the edge of Southwell. 290 houses will go onto these sites over the next few years. They consulted on these – there were hundred of objections and see how much they listened by seeing what they now propose above.

The cabinet’s decisions was then taken to the Council meeting and ratified by 32 votes in favour and four opposed. The Labour group supported the Conservatives’ proposals.

On the development of NPs the Government has allocated £25,000 this financial year, and subsequent years, to the N&SDC, to finance their support for local NPs across the District. Only two communities have indicated that they are wish to develop an NP, Norwell and Southwell, and only Southwell have asked for the publication of the area of the NP to be defined. Adverts for the area were published on Sept 9.

The Cabinet also decided to press ahead with the building of a new sports and leisure centre in Newark. I cannot reveal the discussion as it was taken in secret, but I am concerned about the significant cost of the centre. The original promise was that the sale of land for the new Asda supermarket would provide the new centre. I think that this is now highly unlikely and that there will be a considerable subsidy from residents Council Tax across the District for a new Leisure Centre for Newark.

Although Julian Hamilton [my Southwell Lib Dem colleague] was unable to attend the External Relations O&S Committee I attended. The N&SCCG attended the ERO&S meeting. I asked questions relating to the commissioning of services in Southwell – as there are differences between our community’s needs and those of other areas in the District. The CCG will attend a future meeting of the STC to discuss their commissioning policy and its implications for Southwell.

At the same meeting there was a report from the East Midlands Ambulance Service. There were some concerning statistics revealed. It is clear that EMAS respond in Southwell a lower time than expected for life threatening calls [such as stroke and infarction] – where response is required within 8 minutes of the call  and for emergency but not life threatening calls where there should be response with 19 minutes in nearly every case.

In Southwell the 8 minute target was missed for 1 in 2 cases for 7 months out of twelve. The target of 80% of cases reached with the critical 8 minutes was only achieved once all year. The 19 minute target missed in every month except April. This performance must be improved. EMAS claim that the closure of the Newark Station will allow an ambulance to be located at an off road location in ‘Newark North’ which they anticipate will address their failures. The STC will need to monitor this too.

The N&SDC is looking at four areas where it is commissioning services, Food inspections, Tourism, Palace Theatre, Growth Investment Fund.

I have been appointed one of the monitors of the GIF which will lend money to SMEs that are now finding it difficult to borrow from banks. There is evidence that the retrenchment of the banks has created problems for some SMEs locally, and I support the use of £2m for this purpose. Applicants for the GIF will have external independent assessment and is not intended to support zombie firms but to allow viable SMEs to borrow money at 8%APR to encourage local business growth.

Tenants in Southwell will be pleased to hear that despite some calls to the contrary, Newark and Sherwood Homes will continue to deliver housing management for the Council’s tenants, as an independent company. Its profits, currently standing at £1m, should be used to build new ‘council houses’ in the area. The Housing Stock Working Party will report to the Cabinet next month. There will be some changes to the structure of the NSH company, especially in sharing backroom services with the Council to save admin costs. NSH, set up under the guidance of fellow Lib Dem Cllr Brendan Haigh when he was Cabinet member responsible, is one of the lowest cost housing management companies in the country, but one of the best performing.