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Agenda item

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

To receive petitions, comments and questions from the public.

Decision:

Review of Hitchin Town Hall and District Museum

Ms Jackie McDonald thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address Cabinet and gave a verbal presentation regarding the review of Hitchin Town Hall.

 

The Chairman thanked Ms McDonald for her presentation.

 

The Local Plan

Mr Roger Lovegrove thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address Cabinet and gave a verbal presentation regarding the Local Plan.

 

The Chairman thanked Mr Lovegrove for his presentation.

 

The Chairman advised that two further members of the public had registered to speak regarding the Review of Hitchin Town Hall, but had subsequently advised that they were unable to attend.

Minutes:

Review of Hitchin Town Hall and District Museum

 

Audio recording – 2 minutes 41 seconds

 

The Chairman advised that, repeating the words of the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee when considering this subject, he would ask that speakers act courteously and with respect and refrain from personal remarks or disrespect to any person.

 

Ms Jackie McDonald thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address Cabinet and she made a verbal presentation as follows:

 

·                She created the Future of Hitchin Town Hall and Museum social media group  in February 2016;

·                This was a campaigning pressure group that sought to bring about a lasting resolution to the unopened facility;

·                The project was fraught with controversy, delay and a breakdown in communication between Hitchin Town Hall Ltd, John Robinson and the Chief Executive;

·                It was obvious that Mr Robinson had too much sole responsibility and consequently failed to manage the project properly;

·                He failed to deal with problems as they arose and made it difficult for HTH Ltd to attend meetings;

·                A wall was built across the stage and listed building consent was retrospectively applied for;

·                The Portfolio Holder and Leader of the Council were out of their depth with the project;

·                HTH Ltd and Hitchin Initiative were kept in the dark about progress on the project;

·                She thanked HTH Ltd and HTH Finance for securing 14/15 Brand Street;

·                Much more could have been done to keep community groups informed;

·                Hopefully lessons had been learnt.

 

The Chairman thanked Ms McDonald for her presentation.

 

The Chairman advised that two further members of the public, Mr David Leal-Bennett and Mr Stephen Pike, had had registered to speak although they indicated that they were unable to attend this evening.

 

The Local Plan

 

Audio recording – 7 minutes 51 seconds

 

Mr Roger Lovegrove thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the Committee and gave a verbal presentation as follows:

 

·                He was aware that it was hoped that the Local Plan would be adopted early in the new year;

·                NHDC should consider deleting the 5 proposed new estates on the outskirts of Stevenage, Hitchin, Luton, Letchworth and Baldock;

·                NHDC should consider developing a new town in place of these estates;

·                The new estates would be unlikely to meet current sustainability expectations;

·                Since the Local Plan was initiated in 2017 a lot had changed including;

·                Parliament had declared a climate emergency;

·                NHDC had declared a climate emergency;

·                Extinction Rebellion had woken everyone up to the need to take urgent action regarding climate change more seriously;

·                NHDC had a number of new Councillors;

·                Parliament had 109 new Conservative MPs;

·                The new Government came to power on a manifesto of climate change

·                The sites were chosen for what could be built in the timescale rather than any measure of sustainability criteria;

·                There was a new Oxford – Cambridge rail line planned;

·                Most occupants of the new estates would likely be commuters and would likely have 1 or 2 cars per household. This would increase parking problems locally and cause more issues at the bottleneck on the A1 at Welwyn;

·                In a new town residents could be within walking distance of a town centre and train station and be more conducive to social housing;

·                A new town could be built in Ashwell, but a better site would be Tempsford in Bedfordshire;

·                The A1M and rail bottlenecks at Welwyn had not been mentioned in NHDCs response to the EEH Outline Transport Strategy Consultation;

·                NHDC should ask the Government for an extension to the Local Plan in order to plan, in conjunction with Bedfordshire a new sustainable town.

 

The Chairman thanked Mr Lovegrove for his presentation.