John Coombes – Putting Fylde First

We will embark on one of the most important Borough wide public consultations for years in the near future.  The development of the Councils Local Development Framework (LDF) and Core Strategies will involve residents and local businesses alike and will give the Council an opportunity to develop it’s long term vision for development based on local needs and understanding.

At present there is a negative view on new development in Fylde, with some groups advocating that Brown Field sites only should be used.  This is fine in principle, but over the next two decades, where then do we develop new industrial sites and therefore jobs?

Sandgrown un’s will remember the mid 70’s prior to the building of Hall Park and South Park when we were blessed with Woodland and Green fields, other’s will remember the day’s before the new housing stretching from Wildings Lane to North Houses Lane where there was a rifle range and dune type landscape existed.  Those rural readers will remember the 80’s before Hillside was developed in Newton and significant housing was built in the 1990’s in Kirkham and Wesham.

Development has remained a constant in Fylde, especially Lytham St Annes since it rose from the dunes in the mid 1800’s.  The latest population figures show that the Fylde’s will grow by 7500 residents by 2020.  Most will agree that there is already a shortage of affordable homes and ALL agree that the policy adopted by the Council in the 90’s to allow greater density on sites, may have slowed the development of open land, but had a devastating effect on our local heritage and was the major factor in the proliferation of Apartment blocks, which saw many grand houses lost and the character of the coastal strip changed forever.

This is why we must all work together to accept development will come, but in the future it must be on our terms and, the Borough’s infrastructure should benefit from it.  We need to consider Schools, Roads, Doctors, Dentists, Public Transport and Jobs to name a few.  Improvements to these and more will only come about from growth, not Government grant.  Industry will only come if there are homes for workers, schools will only prosper and develop with families moving into the area.

I am often challenged about Blackpool’s intentions; let me assure the reader that Fylde’s land will be used for Fylde’s housing need.  That said, we cannot stop people from Blackpool or elsewhere moving into our Borough.  Recently my daughter was forced to put her foot on the property ladder by buying an affordable property in South Shore, as she could not find one in St Annes.  Whilst this is good for her, it has by default removed the opportunity of owning an affordable home from a young person who has been raised in Blackpool.  The reality is housing has no boundary.

The challenge for us all is not to look back, but forward.  Development will come either as a result of the community agreeing a vision for future generations, whilst at the same time receiving community benefit, Or, it will come at the insistence of Government with no regard for local opinion or community benefit, as happened with Cyprus Point. 

These are important times and we must accept, that if it were not for development, many thousands of us would not be so lucky and live in this beautiful Borough today.

Our petition urging Chancellor Alistair Darling not to increase the Tax on Beer in this weeks budget has received a fantastic response.  12 Local landlords took up the challenge to collect as many signatures as possible in just 48 hours.  The petition was coordinated by Ansdell Councillor Elizabeth Clarkson and with Liz I was delighted to receive the petition from the Landlords of both the Links and Station Tavern pubs.  Liz has bundled them off and sent them priority to Michael Jack who has kindly agreed to walk the petition over to 11 Downing Street and will raise the issue in his budget response this week.

Land on Heeley could now be sold to Town Manor Developments after an 11th hour increase in it’s bid for the site.  Late yesterday Cabinet members were made aware of the bid which has seen the value of this piece of land yoyo over the past few months.  Initially valued at £285,000 then de-valued to just £250,000 after a second valuation at the start of the downturn, was demanded by opposition Councillors through the call in process

The Cabinet meeting, called today to discuss the initial £310.500 offer made by the developers a few weeks ago, was supposed to debate whether to sell the land to Town Manor or to go ahead with the planned sale to Muir Housing Group in order to meet the council’s objectives of providing supported accommodation to the homeless.

The Council were all set to finalise the sale to Muir, which has attracted some concern around the amount the land was to be sold for. However faced with a massive over market value offer from Town Manor the Cabinet concluded that it had no choice other than to accept their offer, subject to tight terms and conditions. 

Cllr Roger Small said: “the amount of money Town Manor offered was very impressive and it could  have been seen as irresponsible of us to turn it down. With the capital raised from the sale the Council can fund improvements and developments around the borough. And we still have the opportunity to locate, was is universally agreed as a much needed scheme at an alternative site” 

The proposed sale will gain the council £400,000 in capital funding.  However the council says it will not ditch the proposals with Muir Housing. Councillor Patricia Fieldhouse, Cabinet Member for Social Wellbeing said: “We still have a duty to provide accommodation to people who find themselves homeless. With the economic downturn having such a detrimental affect on people and recent figures already showing locally a 19% increase in court orders for property repossession when compared to the previous year, we are expecting an increase in the numbers of people coming to us for help as they cannot afford to maintain rent or mortgage payments and risk losing their family home. 

“The Muir Group themselves were ready to invest nearly £424,000 into the scheme, the total value of which was approaching £1.7 million and we will not be letting them down by simply walking away. We will now have to look at alternative sites and come to arrangement whereby the scheme can be developed.”

This should not be celebrated as a victory or success by anyone. From my own perspective I feel this is a sad day as I cannot help but feel that cash has been put before compassion and that everyone involved in this scheme, whether for or against, has today let some of our most vulnerable residents down, in favour of property developers.  Whether we want to acknowledge it or not Fylde for all it’s splendor has people already living in temporary accommodation, including B&B’s across Fylde. This housing scheme would have given the Council and it’s partners the opportunity to help these people get back on thier feet in a more settled home environment.

Town Manor has promised a 10 per cent non refundable deposit to guarantee the sale of the land on Heeley road,  with the transaction expected to be complete by mid May.  It was agreed that at any point in the sale process Town Manor failed to meet the Councils timetable for completion, then the Council would immediately sign the contract to start our original proposals.

Lytham St Annes - The nations epicentre of St Georges day celebrations

Residents will be aware of the forthcoming celebrations for St Georges Day, the festivities now scheduled to start at 06:30 am in Lytham Piazza with live TV coverage on GMTV!!  Today we found out that Lytham has won the top TV slot over Manchester and presenters will be cutting live to Lytham from 06:30, with Lytham and Fylde receiving National coverage.

At 10am the Flag raising ceremony will take place on Lytham Green opposite the Clifton Arms Hotel with a Military march through Lytham and then Brass Band in the Piazza.

I urge as many residents as possible to turn out from 06:30 this Thursday to take part in marking our National Day, this event has taken a massive amount of planning and I take my hat off to David Haythorthwaite, Phillip Aindow and all other involved in making this celebration happen.  I’m sure that due to all this hard work the event will grow each year, not only putting the Borough on the map but ensuring that Lytham becomes the place to be on the 23rd April.

The Council and police have also played their part in ensuring this event goes off without a hitch, I lok forward to seeing many thousands of Fylde Folk on the streets of Lytham on the 23rd, 24th & 25th

As Councils across the country start their budget setting process, the headlines will be full of examples of service reductions, pool closures and crumbling public realm.  As the Government plans to raise another £100 Billion to bail out the frivolous banks, well run, effecient Councils such as Fylde are “required” to make additional “Gershon” savings to help Government coffers.  In 2008 Fylde Council set a controversial budget which included the closure of the St Annes Pool.  Although a difficult decision to take, the closure allowed the Council to balance it’s budget and build in some financial capacity to invest in other key services, whilst at the same time keeping Council Tax low.  Since March 2008 a number of significant factors coming out of the economic downturn and the unknown potential bill for Concessionary Bus Travel have wiped out the financial strategy put in place in 2008.  The estimated final bill for bus travel is expected to be £280,000 and with the resultant loss of car parking income as residents and vistors took to the bus reaching £120,000 the last thing Fylde needed was a Government target of £300,000 worth of  “cashable Gershon savings” and the imposition of a capping limit.

Below is a link to an article on Fylde Borough Councils website:

http://www.fylde.gov.uk/Category.aspx?cat=1798

Below is some of the text, but please use the link to see the graphs which prove that Fylde is not only delivering some of the highest quality services for a Council of it;s size but, it is doing so at a cost per head of population, far less than the majority of District Councils in the UK!

Local authorities across the country spend in the region of £70 billion per year.  They are responsible for ensuring that they have put in place the proper arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness when spending this money.  The Audit Commission is tasked with checking that local councils are delivering value for money.  To do this the Audit Commission examines in detail the performance and financial management arrangements that councils have in place.

The Audit Commission examines this through a combination of programmed audit work and the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA).  From work carried out across the country the Audit Commission has put together an online service that allows anyone to examine and compare whether their council is delivering value for money.  This facility can be accessed using the link on the right of this page.

The information in this section of the web site outline how Fylde is performing in terms of value for money based on the facts from the inspection work carried out by the Audit Commission.  These are independent audited facts that clearly demonstrate the excellent value for money delivered by Fylde to every resident.

Value for Money in Fylde

Fylde been a low spending authority for a long time and has consistently set one of the lowest council tax rates in Lancashire and at the same time delivers high levels of performance.  The low spending and low council tax rates is a fact that has surprised many people given the obvious affulence that exists in some parts of the borough.  The Value for Money profiles for Fylde show that many services are low cost to the tax payer and at the same time high performing.

It is possible from the Audit Commission site to select different authorities across the country and compare our performance against them.  Comparisons are often made against neighbouring authorities or authorities of a similar size and make up as Fylde so that ‘like for like’ can be compared.

The tables and charts produced on the Councils link (above) are just some samples of the latest Value for Money comparisons for Fylde Borough Council but you can go to the Audit Commission site yourself and examine all the profiles and see that Fylde offers great value for money.

Please click on the ‘thumbnail’ (pictures) when you go on the link to view the full size image. The bar shaded in red on each of the graphs represents Fylde and the images will open in a new browser window for you to view.  When it comes to delivering high priority services such as benefits, refuse collection and recycling we are one of the lowest spending councils in the region with some of the highest levels of performance and satisfaction. 

But with this comes a “health warning” to other Council Leaders! Beware!  Once you are a lean and efficient organisation, such as Fylde, you have nowhere to go, other than to close much loved and needed facilities!  As mentioned earlier the bus bill is not a Fylde Council policy -but we are having to pick up the bill with no current guarantee that we will get it back.  This single issue threatens the credible plans put forward by the Council for the future of our pools and the much needed investment in Tourism, Economic Development, the Environment and Housing and Planning.

This week Lancashire County Council set a headline grabbing Council Tax (CT)increase of “just 2.9%!” what they didn’t tell you was that it equates to £36.00 per annum on their proportion of your CT bill.  Fylde at present is working on a 4.99% increase, which equates to just £8.32 per annum, or 16 pence per week. 

To enable Kirkham Pool to remain open beyond the 31st March whilst at the same time giving the Council the additional funds to help finalise the re-opening of St Annes Pool under a Private Operator and deliver in some of the key areas already mentioned, we would need a “ONE OFF”  increase of just 12% this year.  This equates to an approximate increase of just £20.00 this year or just 38 pence per week !

Recent consultations in Kirkham and St Annes with residents have proved that local people would pay that amount to see services kept open and maintained to their current level.  The frustration is that Geoff Hoon the Minister for Local Government won’t allow local Councillors and their constituents to make that decision!

Proposals are being put before the cabinet on Thursday which wil ask for further cost reductions, this for me is not an option and I have therefore asked for another urgent meeting with Ministers to fight Fylde’s corner.  The threat of capping is a blunt instrument which will leave Fylde a waste land if it is continually imposed, this I am not prepared to happen so watch this space for future developments!

At a recent meeting of  Lancashire District Leaders the Leader of Preston Council Ken Hudson alerted Council Leaders to a consultation document which had been put forward by 4NW (formerly the North West Regional Assembly) on meeting the Governments targets for the provision of permanent sites for Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople in the North West.  The link provided takes readers to a video produced by 4NW on this subject.

http://www.nwrpb.org.uk/downloads/documents/feb_09/nwra_1234530058_RTPI_2008_Award_article.doc

Currently the suggested figure for the Borough of Fylde is five additional sites.  Fylde residents will be aware of a number of recent private applications which were refused by the Council, all will also be aware of the challenges faced by travelling showpeople, during the “Club Day” season.  This figure has not been agreed by Fylde Council and I am keen to involve as many residents as possible in this consultation to ensure that the potential impact of these sites are minimised if imposed by Government.

Although I appreciate that the Council needs to be mindful of it’s responsibilities to the Travelling community and that, evidence shows,  “Official” sites do reduce the threat of illegal camp sites, the challenges that the Council is currently facing regarding the lack of available land for housing will only make the identification of five such sites more difficult and controversial.

I will keep you posted.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1886192561/bclid1886195477/bctid6500874001

The link to the North West Development Agency’s website includes some mall films on the North West and the role that the NWDA is playing in ensurig that the North West attracts additional funding and benefits from it’s great variety.  The Fylde is recognised in the video with BAE Systems featured as well as the Open Golf Championship.

A recent consultation process with a number of residents highlighted the Environment, Economic Development and Tourism and Leisure as areas which should be given additional resources and backing, a significant majority also stated that they would be prepared to pay more in the Fylde proportion of the Council Tax to see these policy areas improve.

I am keen to build on the recent success of the Lytham Fusion Group and I am currently investigating way’s of the Council playing a pivotal role in hosting a new Fylde wide business summit, which would include all sectors of the Fylde business community, from farming to tourism, manufacturing to retail.  The hope being that we can build local networks of suppliers and purchasers, investigate the opportunities around pooling advertising/marketing budgets and to build local strategies of what we wish to see the Fylde’s business sector look like in decades to come.

This group will need to pull together many threads of work going on by various organisations and will need to ensure that in light of recent economic challenges that we are still heading in the right direction.

As ever, staff and resources are at a premium, and this group may also be able to pool together to build it’s own Fylde Project team leader that could co-ordinate the way forward?

I will keep the blog updated with news on this project and I hope that we can get this off the ground in the near future

Keeping in touch with residents is vital to ensure that we continue to deliver on local priorities.  Today saw the launch of a new residents e newspaper called Fylde Matters.
The link below will take you to be publication which will be produced quarterly.  This brings us into line with other Council’s who have their own direct communication medium with residents.  Although there is no funding at present to allow for delivery costs of the newspaper through residents letterboxes, residents are being recruited to receive an e alert each time an edition is published and a stock will be made available through customer service points.  Please visit the link and register for your update and encourage family and friends to do the same.

This link will take to you the publication.
   http://www.fylde.gov.uk/NewsArticle.aspx?id=SX14A7-A7826E07&cat=1524

If you have any comments please let the Council know.  This newspaper will be improved as we go along and therefore any suggestions or comments are welcome

Each year every local authority in the country submits details of their financial spend to the Audit Commission. The information is submitted in the same format so that independent comparisons between local authorities can be made. The latest data available on the Audit Commission website using the web link http://vfm.audit-commission.gov.uk/ shows that Fylde Council provides exceptional value for money. It is possible to look at all the main services delivered by the council including planning, street cleansing, waste collection and benefits and find out exactly how much we spend on each service and compare this with any other authority in the country. It is also possible to look at levels of satisfaction with services and other performance measures so the quality of a service can be put side by side with the cost of the service to demonstrate real value for money. The profiles for Fylde show that in almost every service area the authority is a low spending council with a total of £139.78p per person per year spent on all services with £9.85 per person on planning, £10.38 on street cleansing, £19.08 on waste collection and £2.05 on parks and open spaces. At the same time levels of satisfaction with services are some of the highest in the region, over 42% of waste is recycled and we have some of the cleanest streets in the country. Low spending with good performance means that the residents of Fylde are getting great value for money. However, I am a firm believer in that you get what you pay for and that there is always room for improvement. One of the reasons that the Value for Money profiles shows that Fylde is one of the lowest spending Councils across almost all service areas is because we have very limited money to spend in the first place.

There are many service areas where the authority would like to spend more money to provide more services that are high quality. Fylde has set the second lowest council tax in Lancashire for several years (due to capping in the first instance and short view planning in the 1990’s) with a Band D property of £160.98 per annum or £3.09 per week for all the services offered by Fylde. The average for all of Lancashire is £174.25p for a Band D property or £3.37p per week. If Fylde had access to the Lancashire average spend of £3.37p per week for a Band D property then almost every service area could have significant investment and a whole range of new services and improvements would be introduced.

The Audit Commissions own facts and figures show that Fylde is offering exceptional value for money but I believe that the people of Fylde deserve even better and that they would be more than prepared to pay 28p per week extra which is the average council tax for Lancashire to receive new and improved services in their community.  “The big question is “would the present or any future Government really be prepared to devolve such decision making powers to Town Halls?  Local tax raising, for local priorities, not National Government Manifesto pledges, that is the flexibility we need right now otherwise I fear that cut’s in Fylde will have to be made to benefit central Government coffers”