LEADER’S REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

Posted By: Alan Taylor
Date Posted: 01/05/2009

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

LEADER’S REPORT TO THE COUNCIL



REPORT OF THE LEADER OF THE COUNCIL TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON 29 APRIL 2009

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Leader of the Council.

I am pleased that the Audit Commission have awarded us a three out of four star rating, although this is no more than our residents and business deserve and expect. The report says that the overall rate of improvement is now greater than the national average, and is matched by improvements in priority areas. It says that compared to other Councils, environmental improvement is significant, including reducing household waste collected, and making use of derelict land. Standards of cleanliness in the Borough are high, and getting better. Recycling rates are improving, and the Borough is becoming safer, with fewer people seriously hurt or killed in traffic accidents, and overall lower levels of recorded crime. Our Adult Care service was singled out for praise, and is now rated as good. I am pleased that the Audit Commission have recognised what has been achieved by hard working council employees, and the actions that are in place to make further improvements.
Speaking of achievements, I was proud to see Margaret Geoghegan, the founder of Springhill Hospice, receive the Freedom of our Borough. She has shown great strength of character and determination, over many years, all for the benefit of other people.
Rochdale’s streets now have two extra members of staff dedicated to taking action against people who drop litter. Two new enforcement wardens have been employed to cover just the Rochdale Township area – after local people said they wanted more action against those who leave their rubbish in the street. This shows that we are serious about tackling litter across Rochdale. If you drop rubbish in the street, there will now be a better chance you will be caught and fined. We want to see more people taking responsibility for their actions and helping to make their neighbourhood cleaner.
This year’s 3.7% council tax increase is the lowest council tax rise for over a decade. Once contributions to the Police and Fire Service are added, the average Band D council tax bill for the year will increase by a total of 4%. The biggest chunk of money - £270Million will be spent on providing services for children – including more than £20Million on improving school buildings. Housing is the next biggest area of spending with more than £110Million due to go into proving housing support and investing in new council housing. Our main aim when setting council tax is to ensure that residents get the best possible value for money, while at the same time continuing to improve local services. The increase on the average household council tax bill this year will be an extra 85p per week to pay for all council services.
The streets of Oldham and Rochdale are set to benefit from a multi-million pound upgrade in street lighting. Oldham Council, ourselves and project managers, the Impact Partnership, have selected a preferred bidder to undertake the work. 55,000 street lights, bollards and signs will be updated over the next 5 years and then maintained for the following 20 years. It will lead to a safer, better lit environment and will utilise the latest in modern, energy efficient lighting equipment to help deliver the opportunities offered by using green energy and reduces the Authority’s’ carbon footprint. It will also help to reduce long term maintenance costs.
Life is getting increasingly harder for burglars, as more people become smart in how to protect their property from theft, and thanks to the many burglar reduction schemes run by the Council and the Police. 326 schemes across Heywood, Middleton, Pennines and Rochdale have benefited from Alley gates, a simple crime reduction measure which involves erecting lockable steel gates to the end of back alleys and passages. The Alley gates are installed, where possible, free of charge by the Council, and are protecting almost 8,000 homes from burglaries.
The Audit Commission says that Rochdale’s rate of improvement in 2007/8 on Crime and Community Safety was greater than any other authority in the country.
Local people are being encouraged to brush up on their skills and learn some new ones when the Rochdale Borough Skills and Learning Fair returns to the Town Hall in May. In the current economic climate, there’s never been a better time to make sure residents have got the rights skills to get the best job possible.
Local businesses are being invited to take advantage of free events, designed to help them during the credit crunch. The latest sessions cover topics including starting a business, becoming self-employed, and marketing your business using the internet. At this difficult time, it’s vital that local businesses get all the help and support that they need. These workshops will offer some really useful information, and tips for helping businesses survive – or even grow.
In February, we supported the Local Government Association’s plea to stop our local high streets becoming ‘ghost towns’. We called for:
* New powers to allow Councils to take over temporary management of empty shops once they have been vacant for three months and the landlord is not taking reasonable steps to find a new tenant.
* A cut in VAT from 15% to 5% on the refurbishment of empty shops to encourage new businesses into them.
* The Government to make small business rate relief automatic to Companies that qualify and give Council’s the power to offer breaks on business rates to small businesses in trouble.
These measures would be aimed at stopping shops from going bust in the first place. We want to do everything we are able to do to keep our existing small retailers in business and to encourage new small local retailers into each of our Town Centres.
The Local Government Association’s aim was to get businesses back into these shops, but at the very least, the Council would be able to make sure that buildings weren’t allowed to fall into a state of disrepair that ends up blighting the whole Town Centre. The Council could step in and use some vacant shops by, for example, providing a one-stop shop for people hit by the recession to get information about jobs and benefit entitlements, or for temporary use by voluntary bodies. The Government’s response, in my opinion, and I hope I’m wrong, has just been another case of window dressing, with lots of promises, but very little money. They’ve put £3million on the table, which I’m told is the equivalent of £22 per empty high street shop. I think the Government’s priorities are wrong, when they can put billions into failed banks when the things that really matter to people are ignored in this way. I hope I’m wrong, but we will pursue every opportunity that presents itself to improve the blight that empty shops create.
On a brighter note, the Town Centre Committee has agreed to start the selection exercise to find a developer for the £200million rejuvenation of Rochdale Town Centre, that will deliver a new retail heart, with leisure facilities, offices and homes. Any proposals will be subject to public consultation towards the end of the year, and the final decision should be taken in Summer 2010. In the meantime, work is continuing to get the Town Centre ready for the new retail developments. Finance has been secured for a £60million municipal riverside development to provide accommodation for 2,600 Council, NHS and private sector staff, along with a new Town Centre Library, training and conference facilities by early 2012. Restaurants and bars will front a new riverside walkway. The demolition of the existing Council offices and the existing bus station will provide space for the proposed Town Centre Retail development.
The site for the new Town Centre Transport Interchange has already been cleared. Greater Manchester Transport Executive has formed a design team to help bring the £11.5million project to life and local people will be consulted on designs this year. Metrolink will arrive into Rochdale Train Station in 2012 and I am still confident that we will get the tram link into Rochdale Town Centre.
Consultations are well advanced on proposals for a new Conference and Arts Centre in the Town Centre, and soon we will be looking at a new Leisure Centre, so that Rochdale can catch up with Middleton and Heywood. We’ve also almost completed the Town Centre masterplan.
There is a huge amount of investment coming into the Town Centre area, including a new Sixth Form College, Primary Care one-stop shop, Health Centres and investment in modern housing through the Housing Market Renewal Programme. Market Research recently carried out by the Council’s commercial advisers, and views from potential developers, shows that by the time we have the redevelopment site cleared in 2012 we will be in a prime position to attract retailers to the Town Centre. We believe that in a few years time, Rochdale will offer the right kind of shopping and leisure experience to make people proud, and attract people from outside the Borough.

As with Middleton, Heywood and Littleborough and our Village Centres, our new Town Centre in Rochdale will not be ‘off the peg’ but distinctive to Rochdale. The aim is to let everyone know they are in Rochdale, not a mindless redevelopment that imposes ‘Any town’ on us.
I’ve spent most of my life as a small local retailer, and when you look at successful Town Centres across Britain, the really successful ones have got that wealth of local business providing a special service to people. That will be part of the plans, I’m sure, but with empty shops we should be doing everything we possibly can to encourage and support our existing retailers, and allow local people to open new retail outlets in our Town Centres.

Councillor Alan Taylor Leader of the Council
15 April, 2009


Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Leader of the Council