Councillor Coxshall welcomed Roger Harris, Director and Chair of Thurrock Regeneration Limited Board who provided members with the following update:

A progress report will be provided every six months to the General Services Committee on the up-to-date progress of Thurrock Regeneration Limited. Thurrock Regeneration Limited are in a better position in terms of wider governance, having appointed two additional directors, both had extensive experience in terms of housing development, having worked for local authorities and had brought a high degree of both private and public sector housing experience to the board. There were still two vacancies on the board with recruitment starting soon with the board keen to extend the local representation on the board and to look at wider issues around diversity. Thurrock Regeneration Limited has one scheme in operation in St Chads with the Board of Directors being fully independent of the council which would put Thurrock Regeneration Limited in a much stronger position. Belmont Road was also owned by Thurrock Regeneration Limited with the planning application process being resubmitting. Lessons had been learnt in terms of consulting with and working closely with the community as part of that development. Cabinet had agreed that the Culver Centre should be a Thurrock Regeneration Limited scheme and was pleased to announce that planning permission had already been agreed with the design team in place and referred Members to the timetable in the report. Keen to see Thurrock Regeneration Limited being a close partner for Thurrock in terms of the housing development options going forward, become a stronger organisation with a much stronger independent board with separate financial and legal advice. Roger Harris concluded that Thurrock Regeneration Limited was in a very strong position and looked forward to working with the council over the next few years.

Councillor Massey questioned the timescale on the recruitment of the two additional vacancies to which Roger Harris hoped to go out to recruitment in September.

Councillor J Kent stated there was a lot to welcome from the report and had been glad to see the recruitment of the two new directors and the appointment of the other two directors in due course. Thanks were given for the update on St Chads but referred to the previous attempt to develop on Belmont Road and asked for some confidence that with the same amount of housing, in the same area and same place what would be undertaken differently this time. Councillor J Kent was glad to see that a community consultation would take place and questioned who would be undertaking that and how this time would this development be acceptable for the people who lived around Belmont Road. Roger Harris stated that a lot had been learnt from the previous experience and agreed that Belmont Road would not be easy for development but was well aware of the concerns that residents had during the building stages of that site and access. An independent company would be appointed to conduct some of the consultation. Helen McCabe stated that on the next board meeting an item on the agenda was the consultation of Belmont Road and confirmed the consultation would be undertaken by a third party.

Councillor Coxshall stated that Thurrock Regeneration Limited were wholly independent and should bring forward a planning application the right way, how the consultation was undertaken would be critical and to ensure a reputable company would be selected to deliver this. Had concerns over the timings but there would be plenty of time if the consultation and timetable were undertaken before the planning application to ensure residents had the opportunity to have a good view of access plans during and after the construction.

Councillor J Kent welcomed the proposed consultation and with the independent company putting forward a planning application would allow the Planning Committee to be truly independent. Councillor J Kent concluded that he could not see what would be different this time with the same issues with the siting of the compound, narrow access routes, problems with the school and day to day problems and at this time he still had no confidence in the plans. Councillor Coxshall stated those issues were known but as part of the consultation these would be dealt with in a sympathetically way before the application came to the Planning Committee. The lesson learnt had been independence, had listened and made the decision that a full planning application starting from scratch would need to be submitted.

Councillor Huelin questioned what Thurrock Regeneration Homes Limited, the housing management team, were currently doing now as there was nothing to sell. Roger Harris stated there were two companies, Thurrock Regeneration Limited was the parent company, the development arm, and Thurrock Regeneration Homes Limited was the housing management arm who managed the properties on behalf of the development company. Councillor Huelin questioned as there were no properties to sell what they were doing at this time to which Roger Harris stated Thurrock Regeneration Homes Limited only employed one member of staff which was Helen McCabe, the other staff were all employed by the council. That Thurrock Regeneration Homes Limited was just the company with no other staff apart from Helen McCabe and for any work on the collection of rents, issues around anti-social behaviour or for any other issues such as tenancy management is contracted out. Helen McCabe reiterated that Thurrock Regeneration Limited was the strategic arm looking at development with Thurrock Regeneration Homes Limited was the operational arm.

Councillor Gledhill thanked Roger Harris and Helen McCabe for attending this evening.

Councillor Coxshall thanked everyone for attending this evening and agreed the committee should be updated on progress every six months.

RESOLVED

The contents of the report were noted.

At 7.52pm the committee agreed to enter into exempt session in order to discuss the personal details of applicants.

At 7.52pm, Councillor J Kent and Councillor Worrall left the meeting.