Agenda item

The Leader welcomed new Members to their first Council meeting since the Annual Meeting.  He referred to the full cycle of the new advisory boards and committees that had taken place and thanked both Members and staff for embracing the changes introduced since May.

At the meeting in April the Leader had reported on the Council’s response to the loss of Aylesford Newsprint.  He indicated that whilst service delivery to residents had not been affected, the immediate financial impact of the closure was significant.  In respect of paper recycling income, new arrangements had been put in place with the Council’s main waste services contractor Veolia and a report would be submitted to the new Housing and Environment Services Advisory Board. 

In respect of future impact on business rate income, the Leader said Members would be aware that he had recently written to Marcus Jones, the local government minister, seeking his support for the Treasury Review to take account of unpredictable economic factors, such as the closure of Aylesford Newsprint.  Due to the business size and rateable value, closure would have an extremely detrimental impact on a small local authority which was supportive of local business and invested what it could in helping grow the local economy. 

The Leader reported, however, that there had been some very good news for two local businesses in winning awards at the Kent Excellence in Business Awards.   Winterdale Cheesemakers in Wrotham had been successful in the Business Commitment to the Environment and congratulations were due to Robin and Carla Betts for their achievements with the business in nine years.  The Kent County Football Association based in Ditton had won the Business Commitment to the Community category.

The Council was advised that 13 July marked the start of a county-wide Love Kent Hate Litter campaign that would run to the end of August.  This year’s campaign would focus on road-side littering with the strap line “Have a great summer - not a rubbish one – Take Your Litter Home”.    In Tonbridge and Malling, signs bearing the strapline were being placed in prominent places around the Borough to encourage people to dispose of their litter responsibly.   The Leader also indicated that the impact of litter was reflected in the £1.2 million cost of street cleansing, hence the need for the message to be pressed home.

The Leader referred to the administration’s commitment to the realisation of junction 5 east facing slips, an infrastructure improvement that would do much to alleviate the air quality issues for Platt, Borough Green and Ightham and all communities along the A20.  Two years ago, he was successful in lobbying the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to include such a scheme within its own strategic plan.  The South East England Councils had also included the project in its ‘Mind the Gap’ transport plan for the south east.  The Leader was therefore pleased to confirm the undertaking given at the last meeting of the Planning and Transportation Advisory Board that, following representations made by Councillor Steve Perry, the Council would contribute an additional £1,000 to the £5,000 committed before the election towards a Kent County Council feasibility study.   

The Leader commented on some good news for the health and wellbeing of residents:  according to an Active People Survey, recently carried out on behalf of Sport England, the number of adults in the Borough participating in at least one 30-minute, moderate intensity sport per week was the highest in Kent.  The survey not only ranked Tonbridge and Malling as top in Kent but also placed the Borough 17th nationally.

Members were then made aware of ongoing discussions about the future of the South East LEP which presently covered the whole of Essex, Medway, Kent and East Sussex but with a federated structure whereby local authority leaders, businesses and education providers met as the Kent and Medway Enterprise Partnership.  Experience to date indicated that the sheer geographical coverage of the SE LEP was unwieldy, lacked focus and decisions had been frustrating.  The Leader stated that Ministers had hinted that they would consider the redrawing of LEP boundaries and consequently the Kent and Medway Enterprise Partnership had formally proposed a new LEP for Kent and Medway.  He indicated that, ironically, those were the arrangements originally promoted by all Kent districts and hoped to report the outcome at the next meeting in November.

Finally, the Leader invited Councillor Martin Coffin to make a presentation to the Council of the RoSPA Gold Medal Award in recognition of its approach to occupational health and safety.  The award had been received as part of the annual scheme run by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents at a ceremony at ExCel in London.  In presenting the award to the Mayor, Councillor Coffin reported that this year a prestigious Gold Medal had been awarded to the Council for maintaining Gold Award standards for five consecutive years.