Issue - meetings

An opportunity for the Committee to question the Cabinet Member, Councillor Alan Strickland, on the Economic Investment and Social Inclusion and Planning portfolio.

The Cabinet Member for Economic Investment, Social Inclusion and Planning joined the meeting and gave an overview of the key projects being worked on in his portfolio area.  Key recent developments were the successful negotiations between the Council and the GLA, culminating in a £41m regeneration package for Tottenham.  Also Tottenham Hotspur Football Club were now committed to staying in the borough and redeveloping their ground following negotiations with the Council and GLA. The Cabinet Member for Economic Investment, Social Inclusion and Planning was committed to ensuring that there was a consistent coherent regeneration of the Tottenham area. There would be a report to the Cabinet meeting, on the 7^th February, setting out the priorities for Tottenham which included an initial indicative list of requirements for the area with information on the process to achieve them and a map of what will happen over the coming year.  Following this report, the Council would launch a master planning exercise for Tottenham which will further initiate detailed consultations on the proposals for the Tottenham area with the public and partners.

The Cabinet Member for Economic Investment, Social Inclusion and Planning further spoke of the Leisure externalisation process which was at the competitive dialogue stage and development of community hubs with wrap around services.

 The following information was noted in response to questions

• The Tottenham Hotspur Football Club planning application was due to be considered by the Planning Committee on the 13^th February and the papers were available for public view. They contained an indication that space was allocated for health, education and a supermarket but as yet there were no details on who was proposed to be placed in these spaces.  Previous section 106 funding agreements between the football club and Council were proposed to the Planning Committee for revision. This would enable the redevelopment of the stadium and draw in £400m of investment to the area.  The Committee were asked  to note that,  before reaching this agreement with Tottenham Hotspur Football  club,  the Council had commissioned  specialist advice  which concluded that the Club  had a financial plan that had a reasonable prospect of supporting a viable and implementable development in the Northumberland Park area  and with the  Council’s  public investment had the potential to lever in further wider  investment into the area.

• In response to a question about the how the Area Forums take forward the neighbourhood plans, which are part of the localism act, this was quite a broad issue and there were a number of different officers leading on the   different areas of the localism act. The Assistant Director for Planning, Economy and Regeneration was leading on Neighbourhood plans and they were examining the Highgate cross Neighbourhood Forum.

• In terms of planning enforcement, the Committee were asked to keep in mind the severe reduction in officers working in this area of work. Although the annual monitoring report was indicating that the service was meeting its targets for planning enforcement despite this.  There was an acknowledgement that there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 94