Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive

Presented by the Leader

The Leader announced that the following question in relation to the item had been received from Councillor J Legrys:

A petition signed by 500 people has been presented to the Council to retain Coalville Town Centre Post Office at its current location. Can you please tell me what you as Leader are personally undertaking to negotiate directly with the Directors of the Post Office to keep the franchise at the current location?

The Leader gave the following response:

All council members were made aware of the Post Office’s public consultation on the proposed relocation of the current Marlborough Square Post Office operation to HKS Clock Tower on Ashby Road in November 2016.

I, as Leader of the Council, wrote a letter to the Post Office, as part of that consultation, and the Chief Executive submitted a formal response via the public consultation process.  Subsequently, the petition mentioned in the question was forwarded to the Post Office.

The initial response from the Post Office explained their Network Transformation Programme. This seeks to address the challenging commercial environment in which their service operates and the aim to create a self-sufficient network. They confirmed that the current operator of the Post Office has decided not to continue to deliver the Post Office service on the new terms that they had specified.

The Post Office is conducting a transparent and competitive recruitment process seeking a new agent in Coalville. The opportunity was advertised through a national website. HKS Clock Tower was successful in the initial stages of the recruitment process and was the subject of the local public consultation.

I propose that the Chief Executive, with Cllr Legrys and Cllr Clarke, will seek to meet with Post Office officials to discuss their approach as the recruitment process continues. However we must all be clear that the Council has no influence on the Post Office’s final decision over and above my contribution to the public consultation or any other representations made by elected Members.

Councillor J Legrys thanked the Leader for his response and asked that Councillors J Geary and R Johnson also be kept informed as they had been heavily involved.

The Leader presented the report to Members.  He reported that following a slow start to the Coalville Frontage Grant Scheme, the demand had been higher than expected with many properties already transformed and many more due to start.  The allocation of the additional £125,000 from the Local Growth Plan Fund would ensure the continued support to local businesses.  He explained that some recent grant requests had been for large sums of money and therefore to ensure that funds could be distributed fairly, it was proposed to implement a maximum grant amount.

The Leader reported that the frontage improvements to the Emporium was underway and following a meeting with the owner of the Arriva bus depot it has been confirmed that the development of the site would be moving forward.  The Leader now had every confidence that the scheme would go ahead and believed it would have a positive impact on Ashby Road.  He added that at a recent update meeting, he was pleased to see Members of the Labour Group in attendance and agreeing with the positive progress being made.

Councillor T J Pendleton was pleased with the progress made to date and that the business owners were on board with the project.  He also commented on the increase in jobs and housing in the east of Coalville, both which was positive for the area.

Councillor T Gillard was pleased to see that plans were moving forward with the Arriva bus depot.

The Leader concluded that the project had been very successful so far to date and he looked forward to building on the successes in future years.

It was moved by Councillor R Blunt, seconded by Councillor T J Pendleton and

RESOLVED THAT:

a)        The allocation of £125,000 of the Local Growth Plan Fund to phase 1 of the Coalville Frontages Grant Scheme be acknowledged.

b)        A £25,000 maximum grant amount be applied to phases 1 and 2 of the Coalville Frontages Grant Scheme apart from applications of exceptional scale or impact.

c)        The progress made by the Coalville Project be supported.

Reason for decision: Cabinet approval needed for introduction of a maximum

grant amount in the Coalville frontages grant scheme inorder to ensure it has as wide a benefit as possible.