Issue - meetings

The Scrutiny & Elections Officer explained the various documents that had been presented to Members as part of the review, including a supplementary report covering the villages and hamlets in the Shirebrook area.

The Business Growth Manager presented a review of Shirebrook Town Centre Framework, acknowledging the Committee’s original review plan to take each town area in turn.  The Framework had originally been commissioned in autumn 2015, and had highlighted a range of public and private interventions that could be made to improve the town centre.

As agreed at the previous meeting, officers had produced a scorecard which analysed progress against the various elements of the Framework.  On reflection, the Framework document had not guided development and many elements remained undelivered as the document had been aspirational in nature requiring additional buy-in from Town and Parish Councils to engage in the development plans themselves.  Where funding had not been in place, many ideas had been difficult to deliver.

It was noted that the previous Regeneration Frameworks to some extent also sat outside a wider strategy for development and there was not a bank of costed projects ready to put forward to support the area.  While the intention of the frameworks had been to lever investment, the lack of costed projects had made them almost impossible to deliver.  As there was insufficient evidence base within the document, additional research was now being commissioned in order to evidence and cost the projects that could regenerate the town centre.

Of the seven core delivery objectives, two had been completed, largely as a result of the Building Resilience programme.  A further objective; ‘Remodel of the Market Place’, was ongoing.  This had been supported by local crowd funding for a Miner’s Memorial statue and officers were awaiting the outcome of a bid to the Cultural Development Fund.

In relation to the third objective listed in the Framework, 24 bungalows were scheduled to be erected on the Ashbourne Street/Portland Road site.  Ashbourne Court was also under redevelopment and would be extended creating further independent living provision.

In relation to objective 7; ‘Pleasley Vale Loop’, a lot of work had taken place on trails development with the Tourism Officer and the Countryside Officer from Leisure Services.

The Stepping Stone projects, highlighted to Members, were largely beyond the Council’s control and required action by the Town Council to progress them.

The Business Rates Retention Programme was helping to deliver Shop Front Improvements.  There had been low take-up to date but money was still available for local businesses.  The Programme offered up to 80% of the improvement costs to encourage greater up-take and support was also being provided with building contractors.

The work on additional greenways, within and out of the town centre, had come to a halt as all previously identified routes had proved non-deliverable.

Following the initial updates Members discussed the information presented:

Q: The route down Main Street in to the town centre had an appalling view and needed significant investment.  There needed to be far better  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40