Minutes:
Devolution
The Chair covered the Government’s intention to abolish Borough and District Councils, removing two tier Council arrangements, and replacing them with unitary authorities. The County Council has signalled their intention to resurrect the 2019 unitary authority proposals, suggesting one authority ran from County Hall. District and Borough Council Leaders have put a separate proposal together suggesting two authorities, one north and one south, for the County. Leicester City Council’s will remain the same under both plans; there were suggestions previously that these boundaries would have expanded including Oadby & Wigston. Within the next three years devolution will take place. The District and Borough Council’s proposal will be publicly consulted on in due course; the County proposal is already open for consultation but the questions ask appear to have a bias toward supporting one unitary authority.
County Budget
The Chair confirmed that the County Council will be increasing their Council Tax by £79.92 per year, Oadby & Wigston increasing by £7.60, the Police precept increasing by £14, and the Fire precept by £5. It was noted that despite the increase in the Police precept that the number of Police Officers is actually decreasing; some PCSOs are also being made redundant. The Police Response Units are now based at Market Harborough with no officers responding from Wigston Station for the Borough. An assistant Police and Crime Commissioner is being recruited at a cost which could be saved instead.
Spion Kop
Railway line to be lowered this year.
Homelessness
It is estimated that by the end of this financial year there will be 100 families housed in temporary accommodation by the Council. Homeless individuals cannot be kept in bed and breakfasts for longer than 6 weeks by law. This year homelessness will cost the Council £1m, from a total budget of £6m. The government will not subsidise accommodation costs for bed and breakfast, and private rentals are not within the Council’s budget. 100 houses on the Newton Lane new build will be coming on to the market in due course but this is not enough to address the problem. The Council’s budget has been balanced this year; the Government has now stated that Capital Receipts (Assets) can be sold off by Councils to aid balancing budgets. Bushloe House has had a £50,000 deposit paid for it, and a planning application is to be submitted for determination shortly, once approved the new buyers will take control and the full income of the sale will be made available to the Council. The Chair noted that another authority is selling a park as an asset, and stated that OWBC will not be doing this. Some areas of land in Wigston town centre can be sold off. Homelessness will increase if the Government does not step in and put safeguards against no fault evictions into law.
Flooding
Flooding in the Fairfield Estate was raised in the previous meeting; this was raised with LCC and officers have been out to inspect sites and undertake works. William Gunning Park is mostly clay with little drainage however so water runs off of the surface; works are being considered that may rectify this. A resident raised flooding she experiences in her garage due to water run off from the park. Large issues are also caused by flooding closing some routes out of the Borough including Crow Mills and the Blaby railway bridge. The County Council is the Lead Authority for flooding in the Borough; some works to address flooding are delegated to Severn Trent whilst LCC handle other works.
Proposal for Blaby Road Park
There are proposals that Members have become aware of to see Blaby Road Park redeveloped to include football and cricket pitches under a private company as a commercial venture, and potentially see the pavilion redeveloped to include a cafe. This is being heard by officers at the Council and Members have not been consulted on this to date. The lease of the park is proposed for 25 years. Members are concerned about the bowls club which is nearly 100 years old, and how the proposals will impact public access to the park. The maintenance of the site currently costs the Council £19,000 per year. There are 14 members at the bowls club, some of whom don’t live in the Borough, who do pay membership fees but the income generated is low. The proposals for the park include FA spec football pitches which would include pitch lighting; this will impact neighbouring properties. This is an ongoing conversation and Members are being open with this as rumours are likely to spread quickly.
Oadby Waste Site
Operating hours will be changing at this site, including later evening openings. The site is currently 9am-4pm, with changes to include being open until 7pm. The sites will still operate a 5-day schedule with changes being made countywide.