Council and democracy

Leigh Nicholson, Assistant Director of Planning, Transport and Public Protection introduced the report that identified as part of the preparation of the new Local Plan the Council commissioned the Thurrock Active Place Strategy (APS), a suite of studies to act as an up to date evidence base and to help inform future decision-making processes. The Local Plan, once adopted, would replace the currently adopted Core Strategy and Policies for Management of Development and would become the statutory planning document for Thurrock.

The APS consisted of four discrete strands covering Open Space and Play areas; Indoor and Built Sports Facilities; Playing Pitch and Outdoor Sport; and an Active Travel Strategy, each of which included a separate assessment of current provision and a strategy report setting out strategic recommendations and targeted specific actions for how each could be improved/increased/ delivered over the Local Plan period.

The APS had not only been developed within the context of the Council’s Corporate Plan and vision for Health and Wellbeing, but also within the context of consultation with key partners who would share the responsibility for the delivery of the strategic outcomes.

Knight Kavanagh & Page were invited to present. This presentation can be found on-line from the following link:

https://thurrockintranet.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=133&MId=5794&Ver=4

Councillor Redsell thanked officers for the report but stated the Council had been in the same place a few years ago and it had been a shame this had not moved forward and hoped this could now move forward and questioned whether all the key parties had been picked up and spoken to. Councillor Redsell also questioned whether it was quality rather than quantity going forward and also asked about the cycle paths in Thurrock.  David McHendry stated he had met Councillor Redsell before as part of the Friends of Blackshots and that engagement had been undertaken with as many organisations that could be identified by the Council. One of the challenges had been that the process had started some while ago and this was now the refreshed position.

Councillor Fletcher thanked officers for the report and raised concern on the lack of activities in the report being identified for the use by elderly residents and questioned how this was going to be addressed. Councillor Fletcher also noted that there had been no mention in the report of Public Health or any of the aged charities and questioned whether these had been consulted. David McHendry stated that Public Health had been an integral part of the team in terms of the delivery of this project. In regards to the elderly population, the wording of activity space could accommodate any program and should be looked that where those activities would be held. That the walking and cycling infrastructure formed part of the active travel where it had been identified that routes need to be updated and improved across Thurrock. Councillor Fletcher suggested that the element for activities for elderly people needed to be drawn out more clearly.

Councillor Lawrence thanked officers for the in-depth report but questioned whether this was actually going happen and what the timescales would be. David McHendry stated the challenge was now for the Council to deliver in partnership with their partners and stakeholders.

Councillor J Kent stated the report was a useful document as a baseline that told us where we were now and had some useful stats which provided a good opportunity to measure the progress made over the year and had identified these as highly valued. These needed to be preserved and investments made into them whilst encouraging residents to take ownership and improving them. Councillor J Kent stated his disappointment with the report that on active travel there had not been sufficient information as to where the Council was now. David McHendry stated it was very difficult to measure how many people were using an informal network and that the active travel study had been built on the previous cycling strategy. Councillor J Kent stated he understood how difficult it might be to get a sense of how many people were using the cycle paths but when a lot of money had been spent monitoring car journeys it would not have been beyond the Council to physically count the number of users and not particularly difficult to measure the miles of cycle paths and to be able to map these. All of this information was helpful to set a baseline of data and to enable better facilities to be provided. Councillor Redsell agreed with Councillor J Kent that the Council would know the number of paths there were as the Council had put them in. David McHendry stated that document contained a strong evidence base and had covered off the terms of the active travel in regards to the amount of provision the Council had with 150km of public footpaths, 17km of bridleways and 293km of cycle ways and 87km of those were traffic free.

Councillor Rigby referred to the open spaces and the quality in-value percentages and questioned what criteria was used to set those. David McHendry stated those were the standards used within the PPG17 guidance document with the value rating and scoring would be picked up through the consultation work. Councillor Rigby questioned how Thurrock figures rated against national figures. David McHendry stated there were no national figures and stated that Thurrock had its own challenges in terms of the quality of its open space sites in comparison to other similar studies undertaken.

Councillor Hague thanked officers for the presentation and stated that this should not just be a tick box exercise but to take those strategic observations and recommendations and putting those into a delivery plan. Leigh Nicholson referred Members to page 31 of the agenda which referred to the Local Plan and how this study would work with other studies to build up that picture so when growth was made in the borough this was supported by the right infrastructure upfront.

Councillor Fletcher referred to travel to work and requested that the highlights be summarised and for the report to be used by all the departments of the Council to ensure they were talking to each other and to ensure that green spaces were maintained.

Councillor Redsell stated this was a good report but the report had to have a broad range of sports and activities but had to be actioned as soon as possible.

Councillor Lawrence asked for clarification on when items came to planning whether this would be part of S106 money or when in Thurrock, builders would be told what the criteria was and questioned what they could do for the borough without this money coming out of the S106 monies. Leigh Nicholson stated this allowed conversations to take place between landowners, developers and communities about what facilities were needed at a strategic level and to see what was required to support that growth.

RESOLVED

That the Cleaner, Greener & Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted the content and recommendations contained within this report.