Preston City Council, full council meeting Thursday 29 February 2024

Preston City Council, full council meeting which took place on Thursday 29 February 2024

www.preston.gov.uk

Afternoon everyone please remain standing whilst the mayor’s chaplain offer prayers thank you in the name of Allah the most merciful the most kind we the members of this chamber have been honored with custody over the Earth its oceans green spaces and its builtup areas and in our

Hands our Lord has placed sacred power and accountable Authority there have been many from the Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve who have become drunk with power and turned their merciful hand into a fist of tyranny we ask you our Lord to help us remain humble servants who work in the

Shade of your Divine Mercy human humanity is indeed unite a United being as described by God’s messenger upon him be peace United in themes of equity compassion and morality so that no no matter where upon God’s green earth Humanity bleeds the whole of humanity feels the pain until the cut is

Healed and also wherever a part becomes diseas diseased Humanity will ever be weakened until the cancer is removed we ask you our Lord to give us the wisdom to see past the new Cycles the sound bites and shifting political expediencies and grant us the wherewith all to seek out truth and support it

From the chambers of our hearts I end by seeking forgiveness from you oh Allah for my shortcomings and seek your protection from being overwhelmed by the weakness of my baser self may we all be guided by compassion common sense and foresight amen thank you please be seated now item number two Declaration of

Interest are there any Declaration of interest can members indicate if they have any disclosable Peary interest or personal and prejudicial interest in the items being discussed on the agenda now I need to remind you that officers are recording the public part of this meeting today which will again

Be uploaded to the council’s YouTube Channel after the meeting there are no plans for a fire alarm test if you hear the alarm please leave the building by the nearest exit please ensure mobile phones are Switched Off restrooms are located on the all floors but please ask a member

Of staff for details should you require one members of the public members and offices you are reminded that under the openness of local government bodies regulation 2014 the press and public May film audio record photograph and use social media whilst the meeting is in progress for

Part A items only and as long as no disruption is caused to the meeting anyone filming is asked to focus their attention on elect members rather than other visitors firstly I have the sad news to report the death of former mes anid Hood who died recently age 97

Years and it was the wife of the late former leader and mayor Joe hood and together they were miror and mest twice in 19 77 1978 and 2000 and year 2001 on behalf of the council I send my sincer condolences to Mrs Hood’s family

At this very set time can I ask now that we will stand for a minute silence as a mark of respect thank you now may I remind members that they must not vote on any business relating to the calculation required for the setting of the council tax and related matters and any decision

Which affects the council tax calculation if they are in areas of council tax at least two months since it became payable finally depending on how we get on with time I may at some point agend the meeting for a comfort break thank you Mr Mayor I would like to remind all

Members and substitutes of the planning committee that if the report at Agenda item 11 is approved today that in order to participate and vote on the planning application for the Ashton Park Sports Hub members must be able to go to that meeting with an open mind and not to have predetermined the application

Before them thank you Mr Mayor thank you uh ran item number two um Declarations of Interest are there any Declarations of interest can members indicate if they have any disclosable pecuniary interest or personal un prejudicial interest in the items being discussed on the agenda Mr Council B thank you Mr Mayor

Um on item 11 uh I’m a trustee of digging which is the Veterans charity which is located on the park consel this say Thank you Mr Mayor um item eight the agreement with wood Holmes um I was a member of aan quest which was a precursor to onward and they’re also um

A lease holder for me thank you uh Council reporter thank you Mr Mayor yeah I have a a personal but not prejudicial interest in the budget item item six because I am a trustee of the intax center which has made a budget response any more Peary interest thank you as previously notified paragraph

10 five and six of the code of conduct states that a member will not have a prejudicial interest if the matter relates to the setting of the council tax as there is an exemption additionally due to a dispension granted by the standards Committee in June 2022 in relation to members disclosable

Pecuniary interest due to their interest in land in land members will be permitted to debate and vote on the business to be transacted additionally I’m advised that counselor Mrs V has the benefit of a dispension granted by the standards committee on the 20th of March 2023 due to her employment as a Parish

Clerk and she is permitted to debate and vote on the business to be transacted thank you minutes of the last meeting item number three which is minutes of an ordinary meeting of council held on 25th January and an extraordinary meeting held on 31st January 2024 our members happy that I

Sign the I signed the minutes as a true correct record thank you item number four is questions from members of the Mr Mr B sorry I raise a point of order Mr Mayor um but I thank the chief executive for clarifying the position of those of us who are on the planning

Committee in the sense that on an application from the council where all members of the council including members of the planning committee can vote on the principle of an application and are then able when he comes to the planning committee to look at it in purely planning terms I raise this now because

The the next item on the agenda is a question from the member of the public the Reverend bill rign so I can see across the Chanel from me who has posted on social media criticism of yourself deputy mayor council mean and myself questioning whether or not we should

Serve on the planning committee on this application so I’m grateful to the deput to the chief executive for clarifying that position thank you Mr May Mr Mayor I believe the uh the item has been questioned and answered by the advice I passed on to council Clarity around members on planning committee and

It’s the the same advice for any decision that comes with planning committee members must be able to um have an open mind in making that decision not to have predetermined it uh in order to be able to transact the business on that agenda hopefully that answers the the question from Council Bor Mr

Mayor thank you Mr Philips thank you councelor borrow you want to come in councelor h okay thank you item number four is questions from members of the public and we have had one question submitted from Mr reign of Preston once Mr rain has asked his original question he may ask a

Supplementary but it must be related to the topic of the original you will of course receive an email response to your question in due course Mr rain can you please ask your question which is directed to councelor Bailey thank you Mr Mayor the Ashton Park Sports Hub

Proposal is currently the subject of an active planning application would councelor Bailey confirm that today’s vote on this proposal is a redetermination of the whole issue and not merely a rubber stamp of the decision taken last December yes thank you for your question yes is it a redetermination of the uh of The

Proposal my supplementary is most concisely put in the form of a thought experiment imagine last year the council had um held a consultation before they submitted their bid to the leveling up fund which is the natural and recommended thing and then they went to the leveling

Up fund and said here’s our plan about the 3G pitch in Ashton Park yes we’ve consulted Park users lots of interest uh excuse me Mr R can you ask him a supplementary question please certainly thank you would under those circumstances would the leveling up fund have approved the money would the football Foundation

Have wanted to become involved in a project which is manifestly unpopular and if you can’t answer yes to those questions why do you want to vote Yes today we are just redetermining this decision thank you yeah thank you uh Mr Reigns that now concludes question from members of the public today Mr Reigns

Can I thank you for coming to the town hall today to utilize this facility an officer will now escort you out of the building or to the public Gallery should you wish and of course if there is a space thank you item number five is a question to

Cabinet members and chairs of committee and representative of outside bodies members are entitled to ask a question of any Cabinet member or chair of the committee within their portfolio or terms of reference there may be only one supplementary question asked provid it it is relevant to the question we haven’t received any written

Notification for questions for members appointed to serve on ourside bodies if anyone has any question to ask on any for information only items they should do so at this point as another opportunity will not be given when we reach the item members should also note that more than one question may be asked

On a different topics but if that is the case your second question may be placed at the end of the hour thank you councelor borrow please a question to the deputy leader um I’m sure Deputy leader has seen a lot of theover coverage that I’ve seen this last week from the local government

Information unit and from the LGA about the projections for bankruptcy of local authorities across the country going ahead obviously we are in a much stronger position than the vast majority of local authorities but if you combine that with looking at the treasury projections Beyond 2425 which shows that the uh budget headings such

As defense and NH spending will be uh protected in real terms but other budget headings will be subject to considerable reductions including local government um does he share my concern in terms of future local government support unless something major is done to build this right going forward we the government in

Its projections hasn’t made any decision in terms of the projections for local government spending uh they’ve left that till after the election presumably they’re expecting somebody else to pick up the mess thank you it’s difficult to really comprehend how any Chancellor or any government could consider cutting local government

Any further especially given the figures that David’s referring to uh when half of councils suspect that they could be in trouble over over the life of the forecast um local government has been cut to the Bone uh I was going to save these figures for the budget speech um but our

Budget in 2010 when the Coalition came to power was 30 million a year um if you look at average inflation over the 14 years since the conservatives and liberal Democrats came to power in 2010 it’s just under 4% on average of over that period obviously fluctuates wildly year to year um if you

Compound that year on year on 30 million our budget should now be 48 million pound a year and it’s 24 it’s it’s exactly half of what it should be according to inflation uh there’s other factors involved in that of course um but it but it just shows you how much money has

Been taken out of of councils and that’s just this Council which is a relatively small Council uh compared to you know others around the country we’re a big District but we’re still relatively small Council in in real terms and if you add up each year how much we’ve lost

It’s over a 100 million pounds over that period that we haven’t been able to spend on the people of Preston now what what the conservatives have done instead of the create competitions that we’ve had to join in with if we want to get some money back the town’s fund the

Leveling up fund um we didn’t have to join in with them um we shouldn’t have to compete with other towns every town needs stuff every city needs facilities and regeneration desperately now with the underinvestment um but we chose to join in and and we put quality bids in and we

Got some money back and we got 20 million towns fund 20 million level leveling up but as as you can see from the figures I’ve just given you it’s it’s a fraction it’s nowhere near what we’ve lost so I just I just find it hard to comprehend that any Chancellor could

Could say that they’re going to cut Local Government funding when so many are considering um put an a form into government say we can’t we can’t make hands meet thank you do you have any supplementary m councelor b councelor d please thank you Mr Mayor um a question

Again to the deputy leader um I would like to ask for an update regarding the use of the guild hole foyer as I think members and members of the public are aware there’s been unforseen circumstances regarding the Guild Hall as an as a venue itself but as a first

Step to reopening the venue whilst we Traverse those circumstances uh we do aim to reopen The Guild hole for you I believe so I’d just like to ask the deputy leader if there’s any update please despite all the things I just said there’s an awful lot of good news

In Preston at the moment Guild Hall is probably the most frustrating aspect of of what we’re doing right now um but there is a lot happening at the Guild Hall um there is work going on there uh if you read soci social media um you would think it’s been abandoned and uh

Left to right it’s absolutely not it’s been looked after it’s been upgraded in some aspects especially the safety aspect while we um work on the other problems on reopening it uh and we are working on those uh the good news is that we we may be able to reopen uh the

Bar under the theater which is known as the Guild Hall foer which was being used as a as a venue in it s um during the previous ownership uh with with with some success of that aspect of it and it we believe it might be able to hold up

To even 500 people so that’s a significant size venue and we are doing everything we can to bring that back online this year if possible um and all the other aspects um that are keeping the place closed are being looked at they being worked on and progressed thank you do you have any

Supplementary no thank you thank you uh councelor Morgan please thank you Mr Mayor uh my count uh question is for councelor Peter Kelly uh following on from councel rollin’s comments about the really positive things going on in Preston at the moment I was wondering if councilor Kelly could

Give us an update uh and some more information regarding the summer events program in Preston I have one here I don’t I don’t know how that happened um yes so actually this morning we had a meeting with the businesses we had a business breakfast where we presented last summer activities because we want

The businesses to get involved the local businesses to be involved in a lot of the activities um a couple of things just to take you through we got the Caribbean Carnival on the 25th 27th of May down of Mo Park um we’ve got the Euro fan Zone uh 16th 20th in the 22nd

That’ll be on the flag Mar with a 33 M screen um in a in a can in a really nice environment with Spud the Spud men as well The Potato Place there anyone had a potato recently 20 million views on on Tik Tok and everything else so they a

Lot of our business are now getting involved in the events and I think that’s really important that we that we get Preston we got Preston City 6 M and wi R 7 but can I publicly say that all of this has been put together by the event team and Preston city council

Which I’m incredibly proud for and I will shout and publicly say we can’t do this without our staff and their commitment um to to often being there at 6 o’clock in the morning setting up and still there at 9:00 at night and uh to the to the support of the of the

Executive and and and the team that’s there so um we do this with a very small amount of people and we achieve a lot and to Nick for helping with the Christmas trees and uh which again is very important so if you know me I love

My I love a Christmas tree um so yeah so we got lots on and then encounter again will happen in uh towards the 21st and 22nd of September look forward to seeing you all there thank you councelor Kelly um have you any supplementary councelor Morgan no thank you Mr Mayor thank you

Moving on to item number six achieving president priorities budget and policy proposals 20242 in order for us to set a legal budget today we have to understand the effect and proposed amendments may have on the budget on your seats you should have a cabinet resolution on white paper a conservative resolution an amendment

On blue paper on a liberal Democrat resolution and Amendment on yellow paper you will also find on your seats details of a response to the budget consultation exercise for information if any further amendments are moved during debate on the budget item the section 151 officer will have to do the necessary calculation please

Be patient and bear with the officer off officers if this is the case I’m proposing to wave Council uh procedure rule 14.4 to allow movers and seconders of budget motions to speak for longer than the normal six minutes is this seconded thank you please note that when we come to

Vote on the substantial motion when all amendments have been voted on a recorded vote is required under the local authorities standing orders regulations 2001 as this is a budget meeting councelor rollinson will you be moving the report and the council tax resolution which is in your seat on the white seat thank

You um unusually we’ve got quite a few items on the agenda today he’s gone why it tends to been just budget proposal maybe one other thing but we’ve got quite a few things so um yeah I might be a little bit shorter than uh normal we’ll see um so today uh

Preston labor are proposing a balanced budget for 20242 with no service reductions or job losses in in fact it’s quite the opposite um we’re proposing approximately 450,000 extra spending in 2425 for a council tax rise of 2.99% which raises approximately 300,000 a year so we’re actually giving back more than we’re

Taken uh part of those those proposals are an extra 50,000 to develop decarbonization projects portfolio holder may want to tell you more about those at some point obviously still a high priority for us since we declared a climate emergency it is a difficult subject uh for this Council we we’ve already done

Projects on this subject before we even declared a climate emergency we’ve had solar panels for years and uh we need to make sure that we’re progressing the right projects that have a major impact on that and that does cost money we’re also proposing 50,000 extra for Community wealth building projects um there’s a

Lot going on in that portfolio councelor wise finds herself at times um unable to do what she wants to do and we want to support that of course we do um we’re also including funding for extra jobs and increased capacity to address issues outline by the peer review which includes improving performance monitoring

Professional staff to enable delivery of our huge Capital program and 50,000 to expand recruitment of graduates recruitment to skill post is one of the biggest challenges facing the council and the whole country in fact we are also creating a new antisocial Behavior officer post to help with the ongoing issues in the city

Center and around the city now it’s the conservative police and crime commissioner who who’s really responsible for that but we find ourselves having to employ extra Community safety staff to help with that um he supposed to be having a Crackdown but um issues are ongoing and until the youth zone

Opens um we feel that’s much needed obviously talk about usone that’s starting uh that will be up and running in a year or two that will make a huge difference in Preston one of the few places that doesn’t have this kind of facility that’s supposed to be conservative run and a County Council

Responsibility that we had to resurrect it um that is it’s an incredible achievement I think that the you s stands out for me as as a real achievement in our program because um it’s not something we should be leading on but because those that are supposed

To lead on solving these problems um you know providing new Services um dealing with antisocial behavior um it’s not working so we’ve stepped in and it’s just uh as I said it’s a brilliant achievement will it certainly will be similarly most of our social social justice portfolio

Exists uh n is not here but she now has one of the biggest portfolios Cashwise and it exists because we’re trying to combat public sector cuts that that portfolio didn’t exist in 2010 um Matthew brought loads of policies forward for labor group over the years we created the portfolio the

Took it over it’s expanded and expanded because there’s so much to do and it’s the same for the community wealth building policy it exists because the economic model that we once relied upon wasn’t working um we encourage inward investment in this city there a myth that we don’t because we do community

Wealth building we don’t want it it’s rubbish it it’s it’s a false narrative created by those against uh Community wealth building but we encourage him with investment but we no longer rely on it like we did before and our Capital program just proves that this really is

Preston doing it for itself the cash that we’re using for our regeneration schemes is either Council taxpayers money it’s borrowing based on our borrowing power or it’s Lottery money which is public money as well or it’s a grant from the government that represents a fraction of what they’ve taken office since 2010

Um so to to do all that um on our own effectively to lead on that um in in a at a time when other councils are going cap in hands to the government they can’t balance their budget uh it’s an incredible achievement as I said before our budget

Was 30 million in 2010 it should now be 48 million and it’s 24 our budget today would would be 26 million but for the city deal we’re paying all our new homes bonus across to the city deal because we chose to invest that money in economic growth for the city and

City Deals not without issues cost issues like everything else but it’s been successful um if the city deal wasn’t there uh the current government formula for funding they would have to make that money up because we’ve got this core spending power aspect so although we’re balanced

In 2425 there is a deficit showing in the forecast that would be wiped out if City deal wasn’t there in fact it would it would more than cover it again if if we get the animate borrowing slightly better than forecast and we put you know uh a conservative forecast then if you

Like but um if we get it slightly better than forecast again that deficit will disappear without is really doing anything so a million pounds a year although it’s significant amount for this Council um there are there are aspects to our position which show that it’s not a grave concern and we also have

Contingency pot for savings to go to the the things we don’t want to make savings on but that’s that’s all that’s been there for years and we can go to that in a hurry if we needed to so this council’s financial position is very solid and it’s really a credit to this

La group and the officers for getting us to that position Capital program is now 120 million a year which is you know it’s huge on a on an annual budget of 24 we’ve just had a full Assurance from the audit committee on our treasury management which is a very important

Function at the moment because obviously with the interest rates going up we’re getting more cash in from Investments that’s been put away to help with the borrowing um some of it’s managed in house some of it’s managed externally and um according to the Auditors it’s being run extremely

Well so I just want to thank the officers for the um extensive report that you see before you again and I’m going to move the items at 2.1 and 2.2 thank you is that seconded yeah it’s up to you councelor brown yeah thank you any questions on this item

So is anybody wants to have a debate on this item yeah you can come back Mr Brown thank you Mr M I just want to formally second this as leader delighted again with the work Martin’s done and I want to thank also the rest of the cabinet our officers all our labor

Members as well um it’s pretty amazing Martin’s been at this for about 13 14 years I think as Cabinet member for resources and again we’re going into a budget we’re not making a single cut we’re actually spending in parts of the council what to spend on no job losses

And contrast that with some authorities that have sex 114 notices and are basically on the verge of going bankr up we’re doing very well indeed but we got to remember we’ve had it tough as a labor Authority and this city has it has had it tough we had we’ve had austerity

Imposed on us which was a political Co Choice since 2010 by conservative governments on workingclass communities like these and the diverse workingclass communities where we got a very mixed population and uh diverse communities which we all need to represent and treat everyone equally and that was a political Choice it didn’t have to

Happen only the the financial crash it was imposed on councils like us we have much bigger Cuts than the more wealthy councils in the southwest of England the fact we’ve actually managed to do what we do is pretty amazing in those circumstances and I say year read the achieving prence priorities document

Because that said everything that we’re doing and for a council our size as Martin says a district Authority what we are achieving is pretty amazing so the things we’re doing are based around core principles firstly how we regenerate our city center we don’t sing to the tune of corporate developers we actually threat

Our own destiny and you’re seeing 120 million pounds with City regeneration Cinemas museums being done up youth zones business space B for local businesses but crucially the vast majority of it’s going to be owned for the City by the city so it’s going to be an investment by this Council and for

Its people going forward trying to make the city more equal so we have a cost of living crisis these are political choices with food hubs paying and promoting the real living wage making more homes more energy efficient and delivering record levels of new affordable homes a community wealth building agenda that’s definitely taking

Back control whether it’s worker ownership the new digital Cooperative we’re looking at Community Land trusts Cooperative Energy insourcing Services or Community ownership and music venues and yes we will continue and are continuing to establish the Northwest Mutual whether it’s a cultural relance through reimagining the Harris or new

Events for people to enjoy or bringing the Guild Hall foyer back into use as a first step of reopening the Guild Hall or delivering for all our communities whether that’s 1 million in employment and skill support a new volun volunteering Center tackling obesity investing in Leisure and sporting facilities and more community events

Forever so we’re supporting our diverse communities could imprest them and then obviously as Martin said tapping the climate crisis is something we are doing multi-million pound investment record investment in our Parks including including replacing the old tram Bridge planting thousands of trees new cycle of walkways cycle higher scheme that was in

Our Manifesto I’m quite looking forward to that i’ not been on a B for some time that gives me the opportunity to do so electric vehicle charging and helping businesses to move towards net zero on the rest State and what they produce now obviously ideas are brilliant and our policies are good as

Well but what is actually delivering on the ground so the latest figures for new affordable homes are published which I just got a hold of yesterday Mr M 2022 23 519 affordable homes the majority affordable social intermediate intermediate rented within Preston that was a high highest number in Lancashire

The second highest in the Northwest out of dozens of councils even surpassing Manchester and Liverpool much bigger regions with the amount of affordable homes we be delivering and that’s down to our agenda but we want to go further including because we’ll hear from Valerie later today how we can actually

Deliver our deliver Council housing in addition to what we’re doing already with that we’ve had 4,100 Preston workers uplifted to the real living wage we want to make Preston a living wage City we want to double that figure to uh 8,200 and not more we’ve got an employment rate which is above the

Northwestern GB average and we want more people in decent wellpay jobs and crucially having a Live and Let Live feeling Preston I remember in 2011 just before we took control we had a Tory liap Dem Coalition that refused to raise the rainbow flag above the town hall we

Now celebrate our diversity we support Pride we support anti-racism uh initiatives and we support many things that actually means that everyone as as as as is as equal as each other in this city and is equally valued and we have strong Interfaith engagement which we promote as well and we want to go

Further tackling the climate crisis and we want to go further in terms of our cultural Rene sance so obviously this is what keeps me going is what keeps all our members going what I say matters the people who get better better jobs who get a job who live in an affordable home

Who can experience an event who may suffer less discrimination and hate crime these are people in our community we are privileged to represent and everything we do in this Labor budget and have done is there to look after them and we prepare to do things very differently because obviously we’ve had

Situations before where this council did basically it was much close too close to Big developers and big business who were singing the tune about how we should regenerate ourselves we now taking that mindset on and doing things very differently but as I said last year if everyone remembers we probably we

Will not I think the big story in this is how a progressive labor council is actually working with communities we have our churches members of The Traveler community and our Force forcing forces Community establishing housing Co-op projects and Community Land trusts our anchor institutions like the NHS

That we work with they bought masks from Preston companies during the pan pandemic they’re recruiting residents in the most deprived areas into decent well paid jobs they’re even buying private care facilities Care Homes which now become part of the NHS family we’ve got whing graduates for prisoners and

Members of our minority community and Community organization members who are forming businesses beond themselves so actually take control of their own destiny that way we’ve got our environmental activists forming Cooperative energy schemes and we’ve got a representative climate jury who are making rep represent recommendations to how we as an authority tackle the

Climate emergency and that is going to the people and getting their ideas about how we do this really because it’s children and grandchildren they have to think of it’s their future we got to make sure we tackle the climate emergency as well then local businesses we’re engaging with them at the

Grassroots when you see the city center being redeveloped what you see is local businesses doing it it’s small construction companies mediumsized construction companies and through the supply chain you have Preston based people and people nearby to Preston doing this work primarily and that is creating lots and lots of jobs and

Keeping the wealth within our community while the artistic Community putting venues into music ownership as I said before or the voluntary faith and Trade union organizations have expanded the real living wage and F working practice so change often comes not necessarily from National politicians or even local politicians it comes from politicians

Like us working with communities to bring about that change and everything we’ve done since we got in charge in 2011 especially in the last few years is to actually bring about change that every everyone can benefit from so we’re generally taking back control for people in this community it’s difficult because

We have a consern government which which deprives of the money it centralizes those who are finding a way to actually move forward and build this city on and reverse years of decline have a bright future for everyone so thank you Mr M for today thank you very much thank you

Councilor Brown um any further question on this if not then um the conservative group have an amendment to the cabinet budget proposal on the council tax resolution and these are on the blue seets councelor lless will you be moving the amendment thank you yeah thank you Mr

May I liken to do it it’s the second year I’ve had to do this speech it’s a really poison chalice you know um and I liken when I was younger I used to watch an eccentric conservative Chancellor Ken Clark I sort of feel I’ve got the sort

Of eccentric look in the suit and the scruffy jumper but I’m lacking A Fine Malt Whiskey and a Natty pair of usies um that was supposed to be funny but never mind um my first job um as with uh the deputy lead is to thank uh Jackie Wilding uh particularly for her

Patience uh and her due diligence and in looking after the council finances and putting up with a conservative amateur like myself briefly and also to thank particularly Lee Hurst who again gave of his time to uh help us put our budget together and put it in the correct format yeah um reading achieving

Preston’s priorities is rather like a pro very fine prospectus to come and live in Preston um it reads very well um there is an awful lot uh the first thing Jackie always says to me when I go for my meeting there’s an awful lot going on in this city um which involves very

Heavy duty Financial commitments um you know you you can’t do what we’re doing in Preston or what the administration is doing in Preston without there being an element of uh risk in terms of you how much it costs to borrow to do the projects like uh animate uh and all the

Many well the huge number of other things that involve large sums of money um yeah there are uncertainties as I’m always warned when we start sort of putting a budget together uh there’s still uncertainties in the calculations of the new homes bonus and the city deal

And how much money is still going to come in in the future and it does make doing a budget especially over the forecast period quite difficult and quite precarious um a lot of this with with this this in mind um you know when we decided to

Propose our budget it it has to be done with uh with with you know be you know it has to do prend some sort of prudent budget and a budget that strives to get the maximum out of council resources and over over the forecast period and look to make long-term

Savings it doesn’t sort of leave for any money available to do a great deal of extra growth items which uh one or wants to do um main the other thing we have to accept which is not a consider that the increase of to 2.99% in cter we have no

Choice it’s just the only way we can go forward it puts owners particularly extra owners people expect it now on band de and above tax payer uh Council taxpayers who you know a majority of Liv in our our rural Wards and what have you but we have no choice to go along with

That um down to the to to be brief and and concise down to the nitty-gritty of our amendment in principle there’s a lot of growth items within the uh labor group budget that we we whole hly go along with uh the transformation uh the money for carbonization

The the capacity for Le to improve legal Finance make it more effective um the council tax Staffing that’s a highly important area you know it’s absolutely vital that uh we improve our collection rates The Graduate train traine program and we support obviously the uh antisocial Behavior enforcement coordinator however um in our Amendment

We don’t want to support the uh Community wealth uh building officer and the community wealth Building Development uh we’re not convinced by this and we’re not entirely convinced what the money is used for um instead we propose to extend the uh funding for member Champions uh we want to give a

Small uh piece of funding to all four member Champions abs incl ining the Armed Forces Champion for to be it’s not a lot of money but it’s to be used for something that can be useful um in pursuing their roles we thought it was only fair that all four got an equal

Amount to be able to use and the other thing we wanted to do um is we have a we have a a problem in the outer lineing areas of Preston in in and one of the biggest thing when you go out and talk to people in our area areas is the fact

That there there is a lack of Youth provision or lack of things to do for young people growing up this has become more evident in the fact that we have a large amount of new housing developments up around our rural areas and there really isn’t okay there’s a par you know

There’s play Space put in or whatever but there’s no organized sort of activity or way of trying to promote you know children been out or older children been out to go out and do something constructive and what we want to do is put money aside uh I mean the

Idea came for me from we had a fantastic thing in gner on gner Village Green last year where they created a a a football a five aside football pitch and the council sent up a youth worker to encourage you know football football training what have and it worked really

Well it was really appreciated in the community uh and it was the first time you know for Fraser got a really good deal of positive response so we want to extend this scheme for to the surrounding areas uh so we put money aside for that uh on savings we PR we proposed to

Remove the capital investment in the Community Bank surprise surprise um this will uh reduce Revenue borrowing on the cost of £100,000 a year um and we also uh propose or would like to move to four yearly elections there’s a big debate on on on all all everything

To do with with changing from one yearly to four yearly elections but what what it produces is a saving or a substantial saving at the end of the forecast period uh which goes to help um you know in long-term production of savings I think that really sums up our

Changes um it’s a sensible budget it’s a safe budget and all I can say is uh thank you very much for listening thank you is that seconded I’ll second that Mr Mayor and I reserve the right to speak thank you thank you any questions any further questions on this amendment councelor

So thank you Mr Mayor and thank you Mr councelor landas I just have a question for you and I’m fascinated about the youth services piece that you’re proposing um I I wonder if you have the figures because I don’t um on on how much Lancashire County Council has cut

Youth Services across the county and the city and Northern parts of the sorry coun supposed to stand up forgive me excuse me I’ll ask the question again so so councelor landas I I don’t have the answer of this and I’m hoping that you might since youve proposed this in your budget I welcome

The notion of uh the council investing in Youth Services in fact they are aren’t they the president city council investing in a youth zone but I beg the question the role of these Youth Services is generally under the um authority of langi County council do you know the amount of money that langi

County Council under service Administration has cut for Youth Services across the county and the City of Preston do we have an idea of how much it C you know you talked about organizing activities for young people and particularly older young older uh young people I agree with you I think

Those are really great ideas do you know how much or how many staff youth workers and and play workers Lang County Council cut over recent years and the cost of that I think those are very legitimate questions to pose to you because it’s all very well and good inflicting you

Know proposing these things but the coun the Lang County Council which has responsibility for this area of work has been slashing slashing slashing and pressing council’s having to pick up with the very little money that it’s got available to it to make up those mints thank you yeah thank you

Um yeah I was advised that um this is U about the president City Council budget so we should not discuss uh some be related to lanaster Count Council thank you any more questions yeah councelor Thompson thank you Mr Mayor yeah um Council Anders would you agree with me

That the problem is that in the past the uh president City budget has been too much focused on the uh certain part of the center of the city and has not been look and the broader picture is not often been reflected in the spending yeah thank you councelor uh poter

Please thank you Mr Mayor uh thank you Harry for moving this amendment um there’s not much in here that the liberal Democrats can disagree with because a lot of it is in our Amendment as well and some of it has been in previous budgets over the years um it I

Mean it’s strange that Mr may you ruled out uh Pav’s response because it is actually fundament Al to what this item is about whether who has capacity to deliver those services and again it should be pointed out last week I put forward a motion for more youth workers

Which the Tories including the person next year voted against so you can’t have it both ways um but in regards to it but again I’m not going to be cherish about it having extra youth workers whether they come from this Council County Council England and tanton neighborhood Council has invested in a

Youth worker in our Parish to be able to help with the issues there as well so I think we should welcome that so the liberal Democrats will support this amendment and we urge other people to do so as well yeah councelor wise please M Mr May m wasn’t a question I

Want to actually oppose the amendment can I do that yeah it’s yeah yeah this is a debate so obviously when voting take place yeah thanks yeah I want to oppose this amendment not surprisingly um and particularly the point about the reversal of the uh policy office of community wealth

Building um which obviously is also in the liberal Democrat Amendment it was interesting wasn’t it at the overview and scrutiny committee when Professor Ben barain to speak we actually showing uh the impact of community wealth building in Preston that the only opposition member there was actually councelor Sue witam councelor Potter who

Keeps going on about Community wealth building wasn’t there to be asking questions and nor was councel landless there to actually hear that presentation because it was a really interesting presentation that actually showed how Community wealth building is making a real difference to the people of Preston particular L the people of Preston

Represented by this side people who haven’t got a huge amount of money who have been suffering from ill health who have had poor mental health because what that presentation showed was because of community wealth building mental health uh has improved medication for mental health has gone down and so um and we’ve

Done loads in terms of community wealth building and I can assure you there’s lot that I want to continue to do uh whilst I have this portfolio so I just think it’s really shortsighted and perhaps what you’re doing is looking after your people whereas we’re looking

After our people who are the people that are benefiting from Community wealth building so the fact is what will the officer be doing well one thing is um about our social value procurement policy it’s no point just having a social value procurement policy if you’re not actually monitoring it to see

It’s effective and that’s one of the jobs of this person all Al we want to very much become a living wage City I have to say the person that’s been holding this post has made a huge difference in terms of the progress that we are making on this and that we very

Much expect in the summer to become a real living wage City and advocating that more and more employers actually start paying the real living wage in Preston because it makes a difference to the people that we represent on this side um so the fact that um I just feel

The fact that we we want we need Community wealth building precisely because both the conservatives and of course let’s not forget when the liberal Democrats were in power with the conservative government having austerity we’re actually having to show in Preston there’s an alternative to the economics that have been pursued by this

Government and no doubt would be pursued if the liberal Democrats were also in power so I’m totally opposed to what’s being suggested and fully hope at this side we’ll reject those amendments so we can continue our good work on community wealth building thank you Mr Mayor thank you uh councelor Steven wam

Please thank you Mr Mayor rather strange comments made there actually and I’d just like to ask councelor wise whether you consider withdrawing that com comment about your people and our people because I labored under the misapprehension that we were representing the people of Preston and I think that is a Despicable

Comment any further question on this item amendments uh do you want to come back sorry Mrs wh to Second Mrs Wht uh are you uh seconded this item yet or are you come back yes thank you Mr Mayor um yes I was at the community wealth building event uh and I

Think we’re all aware that some work has been done by the professor which we heard the work that was being done on the mental health but equally there was a lot of um information regarding the lack of knowledge that people had about Community wealth building and the

Secrecy a lot of times surrounding what exactly you’re going to do with the money and I think Valerie I know you’ve come out and said I want to do this and I want to look at this I think think it would be good to share that at times and

Also we don’t agree with banks so that was the reason we’ve taken that out the youth project isn’t for youth workers and I saw what was it says project it does not say youth workers so please understand it was not about that it was about having taster sessions in mainly

The rural areas we’ve got already got buildings community centers Village Halls that we can get young people either doing overnight camping foraging getting them into doing something over the summer period so it wasn’t going to do funding youth workers and there are a lot of outside organizations and experts

In this who can do that for the amount of money we have put forward in our budget I think it’s important you know we’ve always supported the youth zone on this side of the chamber so and we still do but we’ve said before youth isn’t just confined to the city center and and

The surrounding Wards it’s right across and Council landus has explained the amount of new homes we’ve got and the amount of younger families which is great for Rural those you moving into the area and that’s what we need to provide something for them so is a project not actually funding youth

Workers Council anothera I don’t know your answer to your question because that’s not in my budget it was about us doing a project so I’m sorry you’ll have to ask that question to at Lan County Council um so basically we tried to be sensible here we recognize money is

Tight and it is tight for a lot people um we’ve put forward something that doesn’t have any vanity projects it’s just basic um and we just commend this budget to you so thank you Mr Mayor yeah thank you uh is there any further question on

This if not before we move to vote uh councelor rollinson we do you wish to reply on the amendment both these amendments that that are coming we’ve had one there’ll be another I’ve come way too late for us to consider them properly um to take them seriously and that’s

Without even looking at the content um I understand what council of wise was saying uh we do want the Hall of Preston to thrive without a doubt um but just just like this country there are wealth divisions um in Preston just like there is everywhere else and you know this

This Council over the years uh has done loads of improvement schemes to Green spaces in the suburbs and in the rural areas and we’ve got uh play areas in the inner urban areas that are awful look at obviously we’ve got the money now for Waverly Park but it’s been dreadful for

Years and there’s been schemes come forward in our green spaces and for play areas in the suburbs and in the rural areas because they’ve got groups with more capacity to pursue them and um so there is there is a wealth Gap in Preston just like there is in the

Country and in the world um and and and it’s a fact so we have to live with that and we have to recognize it but obviously we do want the whole Preston to thrive and um there are ways and means of of getting more facilities and more activities in

All areas and I hope we and find those ways for course every area needs those um you know there’s a there’s a very big report on this agenda today about providing more facilities that people desperately need and I hope we can do that uh for everyone uh and move forward

Together right now if um there’s no more question we can move to vot on the conservative Amendment although those in favor please show all those against any exstension yeah the amendment is defeated so we now move to liberal Democrat groups Amendment to the cabinet budget proposal and the council tax

Resolution uh which is on the yellow sheets councelor Darby will you be moving the amendment yes Mr Mayor thank you um first of all I want to Echo the same sentiments as Council and thank you very much for the officers in particular uh Jackie and Lee for all of their hard

Work um to to make it possible to to have these uh amendments come for forwards um an awful lot of what’s uh what’s being proposed by us same as with the conservatives is very similar to what is in the full uh full budget proposals that have gone forward and so

Uh in the interest of trying to be as concise as possible I’ll Focus instead on where we have the the differences um so what we’ve had since 2011 since labor took control of this Council the the biggest production that we’ve had has been for excuses and delays overall excuses of Public

Services are being chipped away and delays to making difficult decisions uh backing themselves into Corners as their indecision costs grow and they prevent more meaningful intervention across Preston all the while blaming someone else as we’ve heard so often already today but very soon you’re going to have

No one else left to blame but yourselves and the labor party for all that we hope that there is a change of government this year if it’s an incoming labor government there’s been nothing but a deafening Silence from K starma and Rachel Reeves on local government

Funding when it boils down to it the cavalry are not coming and yet as you salami slice the Frontline services and delay difficult decisions you continue to commit precious funds to pet projects and vanity schemes such as Bailey’s bank for example um over recent years we’ve seen increasing number of councils across the

Country going bankrupt not just from starvation from funding from the conservative central government but from overreaching and investing in areas where they have little or no expertise um energy companies for example property portfolios or in the case of Preston we’ve got the bank it’s hardly going well there have been

Questions over its operations and by far the largest partner Liverpool city council are under investigation since the banking crisis we’ve become accustomed to Banks uh becoming in trouble being investigated but it does have to be a record for a bank to be subject to both even before it’s

Launched we’re calling for Preston to get out now which will save one .3 million over the life of this budget similarly insisting on running the avenham Park Cafe for example is a choice that we can’t afford of almost 00,000 per year I’ve had the chance to

Eat there many times over the last few years I have to say I can’t overstate the Excellence of the staff there it has been brilliant however we can’t continue to justify uh paying taxpayers money to running it the staff can be looked after and tped over as we transfer it to a

Company or charity with experienced in the field of running cafes at a profit I know that councel rollinson sometimes has like to paint out the cafe as a a uh a failure of the market which is why it’s come back into Preston City Council of course that is not entirely

True it was one of the previous owners of the cafe unfortunately had fallen ill to cancer which is why it came back to us meanwhile the cost of running the cafe nearly matches the cost of holding the price of brown bins at this year’s rate I start started before about

Talking about Labor’s delays and it’s been said in scrutiny committee recently that this budget in many ways is a holding pattern as we wait to see whether or not we will have a new government and a new funding settlement and yet while labor are waiting for godo

They’re happy to put up cost for residents for 14% on the brown bins higher even than the peak of inflation that we’ve had recently and all the time they’re still leaving almost two million uh black hole in the account at this point in time nine out of 10 of the best councils recycling

Across this country a lib demem run and at the moment labor is very uh sorry Preston is very sadly running behind that despite the lip service that we pay towards the environmental crisis and recycling we should be doing more to encourage people to recycle not providing a disincentive and hitting

Those who can least afford it the most is not the right way forward on this the libdems stand firm behind this Council Declaration of the climate crisis and we demand firm action to follow follow through on this so on top of holding down Brown bin fees we also want to

Introduce a program of tree planting with funds available to plant trees in every Ward across Preston from the suburbs of Forwood and cotum to the urban city center and ribbleton not only are trees our best engines for carbon reduction but it’s also proven that planting trees and having green streets

Are excellent for people’s mental health so it’s a win-win for the environment and a more pleasant Preston so it’s probably no uh surprised that Labour supported a very similar um amendment that was put forward at the County Council last week I hope that you’ll support it

Today finally I come to the heart of Preston itself the Guild Hall for over 800 years Preston has had a Guild Hall a focal point for public life the core of our cultural offering and the historic Hub of our city the current closure or partial closure I should say to be

Accurate is not unprecedented of course we were without a Guild Hall between the time of the Town Hall fire in 1947 and the building of the current Guild Hall in 1973 however we do we are aware that times are tighter now than ever and we

Must be prepared if we don’t want to be the generation who lost the Guild Hall and with it almost the Millennium of Preston Pride while we’ve got the rack issues still on the moment and we hope that they will prove resolvable we do already know that there is a tick and

Clock on the lifespan of the building itselfe to the materials that it’s built from with this Council already at a stretch with projects such as animate and the Harris fantastic projects not knocking that at all but we have to acknowledge that we’re unlikely to be able to fund the future of the Guild

Hall ourselves and so we do have to look forever field again as we have done on other projects large scale funding particularly from government has shifted in recent years to favor plans that are already in place and just waiting for the funding projects such as the cotton

Rail station and the old TR Bridge show the benefit of having plans prepared and ready to go projects such as Ashton Park show the importance of making sure that we bring along the community with us on these plans and therefore we propose that we start thinking about the Guild

Hall now with a feasibility study looking at the future for not just the building but for the nature of the Guild Hall do we want a conference center a multi-use venue do we want to once again be able to host music and events to a national and international caliber let’s

Lay the foundation for our future success by getting plans ready begin the conversation about what our city wants and needs for the next Guild Hall while we hope that the current building has years of life left yet and none of this is to detract away from what we’ve

Already heard about what is going on in the guild hole at the moment this is talking about the future it’s important that we plan ahead for a Guild Hall that will take us not only into the second half of this Century but into the next so in conclusion our budget proposals are for

A Preston for the future making responsible decisions caring for our people and our environment and building a city for tomorrow thank you thank you councelor D is a seconded yes Mr Mayor I formally second Reser I to speak thank you any any question on this amendment yeah councelor h

Thank you Mr Mayor it’s just uh I get I find it so frustrating listening to the Liberals very often like saying that uh what we’re doing in office uh with all the hard work and the success that this labor group have had since they’ve been in office to say that we are just

Blaming people seems utterly absurd coming from the Liberals that blaming people is the Paradigm of liberal Democrats politics that’s all they ever do the last liberal government was 1918 so they’ve had hardly any opportunity to do very much else uh even my father couldn’t remember Lloyd George and

Apparently he knew quite a number of people uh waiting for godo says well who are what are the Liberals waiting for just to blame us and sit there throwing the mud saying that we’re going to fail continuously when we are manifestly not doing that at all the trees we on this

Side of the house have created a Cabinet member for a climate change with a view to doing as much as we possibly can not the greenwash of the Liberals that are trying to in every Council in every seat they have they try to greenwatch to try and take the green vote because they’re

Struggling to get any votes at all finally Mr councilor do is a very talented and Charming young man uh and uh has a lot of talents that he brings to this Council all I can recommend to him and to all of the Liberals is why don’t they stop blaming other people why

Don’t they join us on these benches and do something about it thank you um thank you for your presentation councelor DWI please thank you Mr Mayor well I just want to say I’ll go back to something that’s been mentioned earlier because I think we’re looking at um arguments of this

Side and that side and I know that’s previous Amendment but I think I think it relates to what we’re talking about now which is that it isn’t a case of our people versus their people their people versus our people I agree but what it is is a matter

Of I think this was misinterpreted uh by others when they listen to council wise I think the fact of the matter is it’s not about our people ver their people it’s about people who need things most in Preston we do represent the whole B of Preston and each of us are very proud

To represent our each individual wards that should be true of all of us of all parties here the reality is however and it’s a reality that has been born of several governments now beg of course with the two parties that face me opposite and rest currently with only

One of them which is the fact that we need to Target we need to Target what we’re able to offer in very ult circumstances for local government up and down the country reality is that Preston is a council a labor Council that offers an alternative model to delivery it offers an alternative

Economic model to delivery and labor overall is the largest party in local government across the country and councils Beyond just prestent offer alternatives to current conservative and previously Li con government that is a fact and we’ve looked to we’ve already discussed Youth Services and how that can be targeted

And how actually a youth zone isn’t just for the city center the a youth zone opens up a network across the city now I’ll move on because I know we’ve already discussed that Amendment looking at the liberal Amendment specifically if I may similar to the conservatives amendment I note that we

Have members opposite who are offering their praise for what Preston is able to do and for our many major strategic projects however what is offered as an alternative is taking away from our alternative model our community wealth building our Community Bank our opportunities to tackle what is a system

That simply doesn’t work in government which if you were listening to the opposition you’d think that they would agree with by all accounts it just represents a lack of ambition we have an ambition not just to remain as we are not just to be cautious though we are

Cautious of course because we are presenting a balanced budget one that is reasonable and one that can be accepted by all parties but it’s not just about being cautious about being cautious and optim mytic putting something in for the future Council Derby talked about the future and as two young councilors I

Think we’re both concerned about the future of the city but the facts the matter is that what you’ve alter what you’ve provided as an alternative is pretty much already happening and that’s with Community wealth building as part of our agenda we already are seeking the future of the Guild Hall we’ve already

Heard Council rollinson mention what’s coming for the Guild Hall we’re potentially opening up the foer and that will be with a vision two should it be feasible at the opening of The Wider venue as say has stood for many years and is an important part of our cultural

Heritage and present in Preston tree building uh tree building that would be ambitious that really would be ambitious um we can’t challenge nature we can challenge many other things tree planting even we have a strategy in place for the next 15 years and we’ve

Got up to 50 correct me if I’m wrong is it 2,000 or it might even be more than that trees sorry 10,000 trees coming in the next just two years as part of that with social Project funding available we have an ambitious tree planting agenda across Preston we are investing our

Green Space right from the city center right through the suburbs of shag green and right through to the rural areas these are things that are already happening with investment in our alternative model of delivery which is helping us to Target people in most need in our b as such this is a budget

Without Amendment it needn’t have Amendment because even without Amendment it is providing for people across the borough from the rural areas to the inner city to targeting those who need it most with ambition where otherwise it would not be available from central government and the members opposite so I

Would implore that members of this side and I’m sure they will will oppose this and maintain towards the Labor budget which has been proposed today thank you thank you councelor councelor Bailey please yes just before I make the point I wanted to just to maybe add a little

Bit extra on to council dwi’s comments it’s not just 10,000 trees over the next two three years it’s over 15,000 and that’s excluding the investment over the four parts as part of the level and up fund Council Derby talked about black holes but on item agenda item number 11 according to Liberal Democrats

Amendments which we’ll be debating later on their proposal will add an extra 100 up to 153,000 to our budget every single year and that is not in their budget proposal so therefore there is a big black hole in their budget thank you Mr Mayor thank you councelor Bailey councelor suon

Please thank you Mr Mayor I think there’s a few illusions of grer when Council Hall you mentioned to the side of the house uh I think we’re in the council chamber and Council D it is we are a city not a b so just on those two

Little points there um yours is very similar to to our um budget amendment um I think we can always plant more trees there’s you know it’s we’re in a climate emergency as we know uh the only reservation we had was about the Guild Hall because we think it’s slightly

Premature because we still don’t know what we’re dealing with with that but on the on the whole we’ll support your liberal Amendment thank you Mr May thank you councelor duke please thank you very much Mr Mayor I just wanted to come back on councelor dwi’s point about tree planting it’s

Very commendable that there’s 15,000 trees being planted but do just want to point out that that is not across the city that is in labor held Wards only and there is nothing for the other parts of Preston and just to reiterate the point of it not being a Level Playing

Field our parks in GRE friers which is my ward um can’t even get a response from the parks department on many enforcement issues or applications for funding from Friends of Conway Park are being ignored nor and we are losing out on the funding from those very good

People who are setting aside their own time and not using Preston City council’s money can’t even get the support that they need to get the funding they have asked for and it’s very modest funding of up to 5,000 pound thank you second yeah councelor rollinson do you want to come back on

Yeah yeah um if nothing sorry can I just make a point of order on you want to come back councelor B you can’t sorry I was I was um adise that you cannot come back I’m councelor poter yeah thank you Mr Mayor uh thank you everyone for contributing to this

Debate uh let’s just get one thing right what council wise said about your people was out of audit she shouldn’t have said it you know two of our couns here represent inle Ward which has one of the highest percentiles of economic uh deprivation in the country and I am a

Trustee of a community center in the middle of that community so the idea of yours and ours like some diversionist politician you’re better than that and you should be ashamed of that comment but and let’s just go we’re just excuse me so and I also want to point out it was

Very interesting hearing Council rollinson saying the amendments are too late well I’m sorry you run a closed shop on your budget working group are you going to make that cross party are you going to allow other people from the partyday if you’re not you’re laughing about it now so either you were lying

Before or it was disingenuous so don’t say oh it’s too late plus most of this stuff we’ve been talking about for years and you’ve never bothered and that goes back to Connor DWI K councelor dwi’s point was said we’re on it and anyone that was at County last year and I

Remember me and Council me chuckling away because every single Cabinet member from the Tories at County would say don’t worry about the labor or uh libd amendments at County were on it and we all ended up laughing because it became a recurring joke you’re doing the same

Thing you’re saying oh don’t worry about the tree strategy we’re going to get round to it at some point when don’t and I’m sorry councelor Hull you were the chair at the end of the climate uh emergency task and finish Group which took three years had virtually no

Outcomes at the end of it and we’re still waiting for you guys to take it seriously you know you didn’t come you didn’t come up with a climate change officer until we suggested you voted it down and then did it six months later so get off the high horse you’re riding and

Realize that you don’t have all the answers and I’m sorry councelor Hall I have to pick you up on to say what you were talking about failure you’re talking about let’s just not forget and actually pretty fair to councilor Ron he did kind of preference it a little bit

You are losing on average2 million every year through the forecast of this budget we might get lucky going forward in terms of new homes bonus we know from your own report you have 1.3 million pounds worth of savings potentially to be done and the only reason we are not

Making a bigger issue of that is because I trust uh Jackie and the team at scrutiny who said look you need to wait till December when we have a full implication of the interest rates and inflation and how that’s affecting our borrowing going forward that is the only

Reason that you are not being taken to town on that and you should absolutely be assured and Neil raised it in his motion that all this complaint and I’ve been in this chamber for 14 years you have moaned and nagged at the opposition time for that entire time but that

Finishes when a likely labor government comes into power at the end of this year you will have no excuses and I have no idea what Kia starma and Rachel Reeves are going to do with local government Finance because let’s not forget you’re matching T spending plans so again don’t

Let’s not tell lies in this chamber that somehow this is a radical labor government that’s going to change local government your own counselors are telling the local government Association um surveys that they worry that even with the labor government lots of councils are still going to go bust

James have you seen your figures and again councelor rollinson was very clear you are balanced for two years that was what he said two years of this forecast you were balanced for and in that time you have to make massive savings and I hope you can do it because

All of us want what’s right for every part of this city and that goes to what our budget amendments are for and councilor jke was right to raise it about the tree planting and is why I did it in County and it’s why we’re doing it

Here is that we want every area every Ward every division to benefit from a better more biodiverse uh environment and if you vote it down now what does that say about you that you’ve got four dual hated counselors in this chamber those four voted for it last week and

You’re probably going to vote against it this week so what does that say about your decision- making ultimately our budget saves a little bit of money as well you know we’re not we could have easily done the opposition thing just putting RS of all things thinking well

Labor’s going to vote it down anyway it doesn’t matter we are sticking to the principles we believe in and and a really crucial part of this and again goes right back to scrutiny a public meeting where again when you talk about wait until December let’s see where we

Are you are perfectly happy to put off those tough decisions till December but also perfectly happy to charge residents now extra for their Brown bid you can’t have it both ways either the economic situation is so unsure that you can leave these decisions till December but you’re not doing that you’re putting off

Bad decisions till December yet charging Council taxpayers more for their Brown bins right now and it Neil’s pointed out about the recycling you know those libd councils the nine of them that are in the top 10 recycling ones we are so proud of them about the work

They do they are big councils small councils buroughs whatever our recycling rate is less than half of what they are and I and know you guys might say well that’s you know the to isn’t count counil have a problem for it but you guys are failing on that and yet you’re

Expecting Council taxpayers to pay more for their Brown bin despite your recycling rates being woeful and that’s not fair and you should at the very least defer that until December when you have a proper grasp of your figures going forward because otherwise you’re just Hypocrites and the people in shro green will

Remember that hypocrisy at the elections I urge you to change your mind thank you by the way to the conservatives for supporting our amendment I appreciate that uh and I I hope all labor members which they won’t have a change of heart in the next minute uh and realize

They’re in the wrong thank you very much yeah thank you councelor B um as I understand councelor Bailey if you have a point of order can you briefly outline please yes it’s just very briefly from follow councelor J say how we haven’t Le at all with the friends of

Conway park that’s actually not true I received an update from an officer just two days ago and say that they are actually applying to the laner environmental fund for funding and we’ve actually designed it and also done the budget for them so we have worked with them for that and they’ve worked direct

With the officers in terms of reporting certain issues obviously that’s something I don’t really know much about I can chase it up with you but in terms of point of order we have absolutely worked with them and we’ve helped designed their bid V environmental fund thank you yeah thank you councelor Bailey um

Before we go to the vot uh councelor rollinson do you want to come back as as you can see uh what the liberal Democrats say most of the time is just simply not true as as Freddy just just proved um Council of Derby we we don’t make

Excuses we present the facts that that you want to hide from you you can try and keep hiding but we’ll just keep saying them anyway um if you ask them if you ask the lib Dems they will tell you that they are for wealth sharing but

They want they want wealth shared out a bit more evenly and and thoroughly and yet the remove all the community wealth building stuff from from the budget um don’t forget that wealth is power so at the same time you you’re blocking wealth sharing you’re blocking power sharing you you’re anti-democratic you’re anti-equality

Um the the proposal includes Outsourcing privatization you know that’s what they stand for um they are very rightwing this this liberal Democrat group no what see you see what I mean see they they propose privatization and Outsourcing and then laugh and they think the middle of the road maybe even maybe they think

They maybe even on the left you know it’s it’s it’s just hard to to figure um they here pontificating about the Guild Hall their next leaflet will say that they saved the Guild Hall um you know ju just like they they caused an embarrassing u-turn on Preston Guild

Even though I’ve been working on it for two years you know long before the pathetic motion and the Guild Hall is their fault it’s their fault the their party got into bed with the Tories and removed billions from local government that’s the only reason the guild all is

Shot it’s just the one reason nothing to do with the rack that would have been sorted years ago if we’d have owned the guild all right the way through and we had the money to do it it’s their fault do not do not believe a word they say

Everything they say is either untrue it’s misleading they take credit for other people’s work it’s truly awful and I’m really worried about the the amendment they put forward later because it’s it’s really dangerous and I’ll say why later right no more question on this then can we uh move to vote on uh

Liberal amendments please is uh on the uh this is we voting on liberal amend liberal amendments all those in favor please show all those against any extensions uh thank you the amendment is defeated yeah thank you councelor rollinson do you want to come back on your original

Uh motion no so we can uh move to uh named vote if that’s the case so we are voting for um the motion from the uh councilor ring on the U original uh from Council rollinson yeah thank you Mr Mayor councilor Asel Council actar councelor Aldridge councelor Atkins councelor Bailey councelor Bell councelor

Borrow councelor Brown councel close councelor cand councelor Crow councelor Derby councelor Desai councelor jke councelor councelor green councel hindle councel Hull Council ikbal for Council Celly Council llas Council Mamon councilor mean Council midle bro councilor Morgan councilor Patel B councilor Potter yes Council risbeck yes Council rollinson Council Rutter councel saak Senna councelor

Shannon councelor Thompson councel Walker councilor Mr witam councilor Mrs witam councilor wise thank you thank you so we have 224 15 against so the motion has been carried thank you item number seven wood plumton neighborhood uh development plan so item number seven is a report on the wood plumon neighborhood development

Plan councelor abzal do you wish to move the reports I do thank you Mr Mayor through the production of neighborhood development plans communities can set policies for the development and use of land in their neighborhoods a neighborhood development plan forms part of the local plan and is used in the determination of planning

Applications for that neighborhood area draft neighborhood development plans are subject to an independent examination after which The Examiner must recommend that either the proposals are submitted for referendum bodyit modifications are made prior to referendum or the proposals are refused wood Plumpton Parish Council applied for the designation of a

Neighborhood area to cover the whole of the Parish of wood Plumpton the designation was approved by Preston City Council in September 2017 the wood plumton neighborhood plan has been prepared by wood plumton parish council with support from the city council this enables the residents of wood Plumpton to set out local planning

Policies which sets out how they want to see the wood Plumpton and the neighborhood area develop over the plan period between 2023 and 2026 the parish council agreed for the draft neighborhood plan to be modified in line with the examiner’s recommendations following modification offices from Preston Council were also satisfied cabinet considered the

Recommendations made by The Examiner at its meeting held on the 1st of November 202 three The Examiner report and modified version of the neighborhood plan was accepted by cabinet and the neighborhood plan proceeded to referendum on the 11th of January 2024 on the 11th of January this year

87% of the votes cast in woodplumpton neighborhood plan referendum were in favor of the council using the woodplumpton neighborhood plan to help decide planning applications in the neighborhood area the council now has a legal Duty in line with the neighborhood planning regulations following the positive referendum to bring the plan into legal

Force and make the plan into Preston’s development framework therefore the council is now asked to make the following decisions one make the wood plumton neighborhood development plan as set out in appendix a of the report and two authorize the director of development and housing to publish a decision

Statement setting out the decision of the council and the reason reasons for its decision in accordance with the legislative requirements I would now like to move this to a vote thank you is that seconded thank you councelor brown uh councelor middle bro please thank you Mr Mayor uh and this is

Brilliant the neighborhood plan uh and it should be supported I don’t know if anybody’s have been involved in producing a neighborhood plan uh and if so you’d understand the complexities and the difficulties of going through all the phases to produce a defining document and it’s taken Uh Wood Plumpton

Parish Council and everybody uh well over five years to produce this plan with numerous meetings uh continual consultation uh with residents and as last month uh resident has got the opportunity to vote to approve this overseen of course the result overseen by Adrian and his team uh and myself and uh councelor

Thompson uh and it was approved by the residents with an overwhelming majority and I just like to say the success of of actually producing that and huge thanks should go not just to the parish council but in particular to a lady called uh Julie butle who who was the parish

Council clerk uh up until that point has since retired from that position I don’t think the two things are are intrinsically linked however what I would like to say is this neighbor PL is a great example of democracy in action and effective uh Community engagement and I think it’d be

Uh it needs to be supported wholeheartedly thank you thank you councelor for is any any any more questions if not yeah councelor ibal Mr chair Mr Mayor just quick comment really we like Allah certainly like to congratulate for producing this plan Council green fish we said Matthews were

One of the first ones in the country to produce one of these similar plans so we understand what you’ve gone through thank you thank you thank you councelor ibal do you want to come back Mr Brown no thank you are there any amendments if no further question can we

Now vote on this item all those in favor please show anyone against any extensions thank you carried item number eight is a report on the provisions of Council on affordable social chill housing couple of members of approach about the possibility of a break we do have members who have yeah

Weal a bit today so have we take one soon potentially well yes we were actually hoping to take that initiative but if if you want to break now we can have a 15 minutes break now yes so it’s uh just just about quarter to 4 so please

Uh we will be back 4:00 thank you thank you please be seated item number eight is a report on the provision of council own affordable social housing councelor wi will you report thank you Mr Mayor I’m delighted to move item8 on the provision of council owned affordable social housing in our

Manifesto in 2023 we said and I quote labor will help further by securing hundreds of new affordable homes we’ve already heard from the leader that according to the latest government figures for 2223 on additional completed affordable dwellings provided by local Authority area there were 519 completed additional affordable dwellings in Preston as the

Leader says we were the highest in Preston in Lancashire and the second highest in the Northwest in fact Preston provided over a quarter of the additional affordable dwellings in Lancashire which is a great achievement we also said in our Manifesto labor will move forward with plans to develop the First new Council

Housing in a generation as part of the Stony Gate regeneration we also said we would deliver the First Council owned housing impress in a generation and seek opportunities to scale this up in the longer term this report is delivering on that promise when I was last on the

Council we had Council housing and a housing department to run them then 19 years ago in 2005 the council took the decision to transfer the stock to a Housing Association this was largely because the council could not get the investment required to improve the housing stock we want to start having

Council owned housing again here in Preston we need a mixed economy of housing provision in Preston and that must include Council owned housing this report is the start of our journey to achieving this we’re being asked to approve a partnership with an existing Reg should provider onward homes limited

To facilitate the delivery of council owned affordable social housing we’re being asked to approve a memorandum of understanding between ourselves and onward homes we’re further seeking approval for additional funding to bring in external expertise to develop a proposal including applying for registered provider status to an a affordable housing ownership we’re not

Asking at this stage for Capital funding and a business this case will need to be developed and approval obtained at a future council meeting it’s very likely that the general election will take place later this year and again it’s very likely there will be a change in government with the Labour party taking

Power labor has a commitment to build Council housing again and we want to be ready here in Preston to take up this opportunity when it becomes available we know there’s an acute shortage of social housing here in Preston this has inevitably led to more people being put into bed and breakfast

Accommodation paragraph 3.12 says that the council is going to explore opportunities to purchase properties to provide temporary accommodation and I want to elaborate on this in a a little the council is currently experiencing unprecedented demands on the housing advisory Service uh from those presenting as homeless to to support report required to prevent

Homelessness an unprecedented number of people are turning to the council for support when facing homelessness a recent survey by District council’s Network claimed 96% of members had reported an increase in the use of temporary accommodation like many councils we embraced the prevention agenda and while we continue to support prevention we’re

Increasingly unable to provide the service with the reduction in permanent affordable housing in both the social and private rented sector we know the reason why we’re in this position reduction in public sector investment since 2010 of course when the liberal Democrats were part of the conservative government the global

Pandemic brexit the war in Ukraine and a system that is if not at breaking point is broken since the ending of the pandemic lockdowns Etc we’ve continue to see an increase in access to housing advice and the requirement to provide temporary accommodation we’ve seen an increase since

2019 from 80 placements to 195 in 2023 Ben breakfast is now an average of 26 weeks occupation the legislation states that households with children should not be placed in bed and breakfast and only in emergency for a maximum of six weeks I know that from my work in domestic abuse that putting

Women fleeing domestic abuse in bed and breakfast with their children is not appropriate housing benefit can be claimed for placements in temporary accommodation and the figure was set by the government and is currently capped at 83 at 8 p per week per household the average cost of a room at a hotel which

Can accommodate a single person or a four-person household is £450 per week therefore the actual cost to Preston city council is £ 36692 the projected annual spend for the city on this is now five over 56,000 we’re actively exploring acquiring our own properties to provide better quality more affordable homes for

Those in need the waiting list for those in priority need for a three-bedroom house is 55 weeks this is an intolerable situation which is why we need to see what we can do to improve the situation so we’re being asked to uh approve the recommendations that are laid out in 2.1

And I hope that the council unanimously will agree this report and I’m happy to move it thank you thank you councelor rise is there seconded thank you councelor H uh you will have um right to speak on the item later in the debate uh thank you councelor borrow please

Thank you Mr Mayor I’m really pleased to see this item on the agenda today obviously as councilor wise knows this was in my portfolio when it was on the cabinet and it’s been something we’ve been working at and officers I would like to thank officers for all the hard

Work they’ve done to bring this to fruition today the ambition has been to have Council housing again but not simply to have a small number of council housing but to recognize the longer term needs for more Council houses in Preston and as Council Wiis has mentioned were there to be a change

Of government later this year we will have a government that actually recognizes that the private rented sector has failed the number of rented properties private rented properties is going down as landlords are selling the rents are going up in an unaffordable way for many families there’s no security of tenure

The number of no fault evictions is increasing and the Tory government mainly because they are in Hawk to many landlords are unwilling to actually deal with whatever their promises have been in the past to actually deal with all these issues what we desperately need is Affordable social

Housing where tenants as they would have done a generation or two back have security of tenure can afford to live there and maybe sometime in the future have the ambition to own their own property but at the moment for too many families they can barely pay the rent for a private rented

Property they certainly can’t put any money away for a deposit let alone think of buying and as their families grow they stuck with the situation where at the drop of a hat they can find themselves evicted having to look for somewhere else in another part of the city kids pulled out of

Schools their whole lives and support system wrecked because that security of tenure is no longer there we as a council need to be in a position which is what this is all about that if a labor government does come to power and starts taking social housing seriously and Angela Rena has indicated a

Willingness to work with councils as the main providers of new social housing we need to be in a position to take up that offer and I’m not going to slack off existing housing associations and I remember 30 years ago before the uh stock transfers lots of housing associations particularly small ones had

Got very clear views of what they were providing who they were for and very clear objectives most of the big help the aans now are providing lots of houses to lots of different groups what we want want to be able to do as the landlord as the council running Council housing again is

Actually look at the needs of the city look at the types of houses the sort of families that are looking for properties where they need to be and be in a position where we can buy the land build the houses where they are needed in the city that is a function of local

Government that needs to come back and the W I represent at this Council built the larch’s estate and the savic estate many generations ago from scratch with schools with churches with shops with Parkland we need to be in a position where that can be done again for new generations so that new generations

Going forward have got some security of 10 year Touch of irony there but we need to get back to a situation where we can do that once again so I welcome this report thank you Mr May thank you um councelor Brown Please Mr M thank you very much uh

Delighted this is coming forward I want to thank Council wise and Council B previously the work they done in the portfolio to bring us to this position this is something that has been in our Manifesto and has been for some time and we have to prioritize certain things so

We’ve always wanted to do this but we were doing that much it’s been hard to get on with it but we’re now F now we’re fine with done um we’ve got to do this I remember the pandemic and the debate during the pandemic and how we need to

There was discussions about how we should value our key workers and one of the ways we can value them is actually giving them decent affordable social H homes to rent even at the time the LGA labor group chair who was a conservative was arguing we should be building

100,000 social houses as authorities and with houses associations across the country it’s not happened so this is a small start we’re going to start with about 20 but as David and Valerie says we want hundreds we want to use this to make sure that it’s value for money as

Well because councils are facing bankruptcy because of the amount they’re having to spend on things like temporary accommodation because of the social problems which are coming uh from the conservative government at this moment in time I think it’s also a question of democracy one of the reasons why voter

Turnout is down so low in local elections is people don’t have an awful lot to vote for if you go back to the 50s 60s and 70s the main provider of housing this country was lawful government you had Harold M Mill who boasted we built more as a conservative

Government Council houses in CL Atley at the time there was that consensus and we moved away from that so far to the right and people say on this side we’re ideological it’s we’re not we’re actually very common sense and arly sentous by arguing for these things it’s other parties like yourselves who think

That doing things like Building Council housing first class Council housing for communities isn’t something that we should all be doing for people as many of my members have said as well you know we got to make sure that we have larger properties to cater for our diverse communities because we have many people

In our communities have much larger families we have refugees we have immigrants we have a very diverse community that need larger social housing as well as the indigenous po population that need it as well really so it’s all very positive and this is on top of many other things we’re doing in

Terms of actually have trying a really transformative economy making sure our economy and what we do works for working people been left behind for so long and we’re going to do this we’re going to start and we’re going to move forward very passionately and hopefully very radically in terms of delivery the

Numbers that we want the point David made about register social landlords we’re not going to exclude them we’re going to continue working with them very positive the community Gateway a very good one to mention but there are one or two others that have become too large to remote where you find the chief

Executive has been had their salary doubled without any Democratic oversight if we own the houses we’ve got a big say over that and that won’t be happening so this is what happens when you take away the rights of councils to do things like run buses provide C provide housing and other things and

That’s been the story of the last few decades and everything we’re trying to do with Community wealth building and this is trying to bring that democracy back so we can’t do it we want to do it ourselves if we can’t do it ourselves we look at Cooperative models and other

Model where people in communities and working people actually have a control over their own future lives and destinies Rel live so Delight this is coming forward I think it’s a Monumental uh step forward for the council obviously quite Valerie you’re taking taking it Forward because you’ve

Come back and obviously we had a stock when he left and now we’re GNA get one back under you so that’s the irony of all of this but I’m sure you’ll do a fantastic job take this forward so thank you Mr M looking forward to the debate

If this one thank you thank you councelor brown um councelor Hull you show your hand as a secondary so if you want to speak now uh then you won’t be able to come back later thank you thank you h councelor r please thank you Mr Mayor uh I I welcome

Uh this proposal uh any move to towards addressing the problem of social housing for well all of our people your people our people is is a positive thing um I’ve read the report and and listened particularly welcome Council boro’s wisdom they began to give me some advice

On this the other day at planning and it is a positive thing so I just a brief comment really about the the feasibility that I certainly I’ll support um two things really and then one question for you councelor wise at the end uh I hope that the feasibility does go into a

Reason able bit of detail about the pros and cons of all of the options which are briefly explored in the report just to make absolutely sure that all of the options have been weighed up at whilst the outcome May well be what you’re specifically proposing it would probably

Be a positive thing to have a little bit more flesh on the analysis of the Alternatives um and I’d also welcome the idea of that being a cross-party discussion perhaps some people are opposed to that but it it would be good for something as radical as this if all

Parties had the opportunity to contribute at the appropriate stage as you go into to more detail I just have one particular question that the report says uh that there’s going to be full analysis of all of the the the risks and legal implications there is a particular one in the option of council’s

Owning houses that there’s which isn’t mentioned in the report uh there may be a conflict and this is one of the reasons that I’d asked that the other options be evaluated if a local Authority is a housing enforcement officer for example imposing certain standards on housing quality and safety and is also the

Landlord that’s one of the principal reasons that housing associations were invented all those decades ago and one of the reasons that some of the options still exist in your report has that question have you taken legal advice on that resolved that because that seems to be perhaps one of the biggest challenges

To a plan which in principle at least at the stage of a detail feasibility I’d absolutely support thank you Mr Man thank you councelor councelor Walker please thank you Mr Mayor um yeah ideology uh your ideology um your Manifesto um um I just I just don’t disagree with

What you’re saying uh because I’ve had a lot of staff that have come from the the Council of states and um you know the the staff and the families that are that are brought up on these the Council of States uh are very very very worthy um

People and I uh I applaud you know the caliber of the the families that um you know come through uh and and there’s a lot of success as well um however based on your your quantifying your feasibility I think you’ve pitched this at totally the wrong time because we’re

Splitting hers here over a budget and then you wanting £60,000 out right for a feasibility study and then 20 hours is piece of land build some houses it’s not cheap and money’s not cheap to borrow I just feel that you’ve pitched it at the very wrong time uh especially when

It’s the budget meeting and especially when we’ve got this uh issue with um a lot of the um money that’s not available to do projects so I I I don’t think I’ll be voting for this at this time thank you councelor Walker councelor Potter please thank you Mr

Mayor yeah I’m just going to briefly talk of course we support this um oh sorry of course just after he says he’s not going to but yeah we’re going to support it um because um one of the trends you can see from housing building is actually private uh levels of home

Buildershop have actually stayed fairly static and what’s fallen off a cliff are the public sector and Council owned housing that’s why we’ve had a drop over recent decades I should just point out this is um that lib Dem run councils in Portsmouth Cumbria and Kingston have all building thousands of new Council and

Housing Association homes and I would really like uh Council wise for you to have a consider that when York City Council was run by the lib Dems they put forward a proposal for zero carbon Council homes and actually let’s too many of our housing stock at the moment

Is woful inadequate in terms of um emissions actually having let’s have our Council houses at the highest possible standard we can and let’s make let’s again talking about the climate crisis talking about everything else let’s have these homes at zero carbon as well thank you councelor po councelor AR

Please thanks Mr Mayor I was just going to make a small reference to um reflection on um on on some lived experience of of young people uh who are in need I grew up in in care uh in a children’s home under Lan County Council

And I remember at the age of 16 16 and a half when I was asked what we you leave your children’s home and you go into an independent training unit and then you move into the community there were no housing there was no housing for people

Like me to move into uh no one bedroom or small you know major Nets or anything like that and as a consequence of that was that we had to go into the private sector and what happens to kids like myself and others I mean I know the

System is much better now thankfully um in relation to kids coming out of care is that they’re often in incredibly vulnerable situation already in their lives and then they’re exposed to very much care limiting uh circumstances I really really will at GC but I couldn’t go to college couldn’t go to college

Because I couldn’t afford the private rents I was having to pay took me a couple of years before I was unable to go to college and university and you know make a positive contribution to society but I think it’s really important to remember the people and the ambition to support those in our

Community who have enormous amounts to give enormous amounts of growth to have in themselves but also in their communities and I think Council Walker said budget meeting isn’t the meeting to have this conversation budget meeting isn’t meeting to have this conversation I don’t know when it is because this council meeting that a

Budget is about setting our financial priorities it’s about creating ambition for our city it’s about creating ambition for the communities that live within our city and making sure that those with potential are not um hampered are not held back by the fact that they don’t have the stability of a of a roof

Over their heads and I appreciate it’s just 20 housing for the moment but what this is about is about creating the foundations for us to be able to when the opportunity arises and I sin cely hope that there will be a labor government as soon as we possibly can

Because the country needs it as soon as we have a labor government my sincere hope is that we’ll be able to have those Wheels in Motion and this Council will be prepared to be able to accept or tap into the opportunities that arise and that’s why you know I always thought the

Stories were Pro business and investment um I always you know in theory for some um I think it’s important that we invest at this point in order to be able to be ready for when the opportunity arise and that’s really why I think what council wise has brought to the table what the

Labor group has brought to the table it is so you know fantastic and so necessary for the city so thank you very much I support thank you councelor actor um councelor do you want to come back uh thank you Mr Mayor firstly I am honored and delighted to Second this uh

Uh uh uh this Initiative for the council uh if we look at the reason why the there is a poity in housing then we can look go back to the neoliberal economics of the 1980s and 90s under marget fer and uh when what was described by uh

Harold McMillan was when they decided to sell off the council stock of housing stealthily he said that that was selling off the family silver and I tend to agree with him uh now we have a situation where interest rates were low so people were getting a low return on

Their Investments and then it was easier and better and people who had money made more money by Bing to let because the interest rates were low Bing and they got a better return on money for buying to L at the same time people are leaving universities with 550,000

Debts and need to get 10% in order to secure a mortgage in when money was cheap before the crash you could get 120% mortgage now without a deposit sometimes now you need to get 10% deposit so people who are leaving University with £50,000 worth of debts

Are in a a a difficult situation I’m from a lucky generation when I was at University we didn’t have any fees and we were actually paid to go to university it was luxurious time but now young people very often are having great difficulty getting into the housing

Market and uh that that’s a problem that has happened over a period of time uh just one incident when I first came on the council we did have Council housing I went uh someone asked me to go and see someone in my ward on the Kent Street

And they were living in a Terrace House on Kent Street they said there’s damp in the house I went around there was a young woman in her 20s with two children under 10 years of age they were breaking up Furniture to make fire the they said there was damp in the

Kitchen I went into the kitchen and this is honest God’s truth there was a Brook running through the kitchen now why is this relevant I at that time because we had a council stock of housing with extremely experienced wise and empathetic uh officers at the time working in our housing office we got

That woman a good uh Council house on Wi on no square off the Blackpool road that was warm that was Central heated and that wasn’t in the private sector where she was having trouble not understanding the the Machinery of how she could get a house

We could do that and I was proud and I was delighted that we could do that and I think anything that goes towards the uh the problem that we have in and it is outrageous that in one of the richest countries on Earth Mr may we have so

Many homeless people and it’s so easy to go into that if you have debts and you have borrowing and mortgages to pay you’re only two payments away potentially from losing that after three months a mortgager can repossess the house and take proceedings to repossess it we may be

Fortunate uh in our position and of course some of the conservative members Council of walk I find it quite absurd that he’s saying that people on Council states are worthy that you get a lot of staff from Council housing those are not the sort of terms I’m used to hearing in this

Chamber uh I don’t know whether I it’s speaking like Lord rosebury or something you know oh my staff they’re very worthy people well I’ll tell you what those people are bloody hardworking people who deserve better than such condescension quite frankly and I think there’s no

Better time than now to put this in this budget and I think we should move forward with this definitely for all of the people of Preston not your people not our people the whole people of Preston because all of the people of Preston as you know our

Labor so I urge every member of this chamber M’s uh wh chamber I’m not uh I’ve got it right this time I urge every member of this chamber to vote for this initiative and I am delighted and proud to back it and I am also proud of the

Work that David’s done on it and I’m proud of the work that value wise is doing on it and we should take this forward because it is the right thing to do Mr May and I urge all of you if you have a conscience to vote with it thank

You so much thank you councelor Hull H councelor suon please thank you Mr Mayor I did actually have my hand up and then they brought you into second so I was sort of waving frantically so whether it’s the excitement of a possible labor government that’s getting you all going

On that side or maybe it’s a driving force of council wise because yes it’s happening and it’s a small start I agree with you I have no issue with this at all I am happy to support personally but I’m not in the habit of whipping my side

Here so they can all decide themselves what they wish to do on this occasion but I think it’s a good initiative valer thank you thank you councelor uh councelor Thompson please thank you Mr May yeah my initial instincts are no why we’re getting involved in Council houses but um I

Suppose we do have a lot you know we’ve got associations like Gateway and they take care of various things well maybe it’s time to um give the council that option as long as it’s feasible and I think this is a feasibility study so I’m happy to go along with that but it does

Worry me because we did have Council houses before and and there was a lot of failures in the council housing system a lot but one of the things that I think that this uh feasibility uh doesn’t talk about it talks about I suppose what sort

Of um Arrangement will we have um Is it feasible is it Financial uh ago and one of the things that maybe you should think about is this has got to be a feasibility should be integrated into the community a lot of the lower cost housing and lower social economic uh

Residents are there because they haven’t had the educational opportunities that they should have had or they didn’t take advantage of them when they should have had and so maybe looking at a broader uh feasibility study to actually look at what support you can you can drive into

This so that you can create ambition uh from from this particular sector to do something more than just uh uh what traditionally the uh the people do um I don’t think uh councelor Walker was being condescending I think he was trying to say that uh the people that

He’s had working for him on his in his business have been good people and they’ve come from from uh those low socioeconomic uh housing districts uh so yeah so I won’t I’m not I’m going to go with it and support it but there’s a lot of big questions and

Housing there’s we’re just really a small pond this is a national thing and how are we going to sort it out uh speaking with um I think it was one of the housing officers to said said is there an end problem is there an end

Game to this what is the end game we’re going to build some Council houses where is it going to stop what is our objective to do this and I think that maybe if you get in government next time maybe uh you can um you know maybe this

Is something you need to bring up to your uh your F possible future government is where is this going to end because it just seems to be an ever a never ending pool of struggling to build enough forms uh one thing that you didn’t mention was of course the uh

Amount of illegal immigration into to this country which isn’t helping either so I thought i’ throw that one in because I know you probably won’t mention that but anyway that that’s another issue so yeah let’s go along with it and see what you can do but make

Sure that it is an intelligent approach to it and not just a we’re going to sling some Council house is up because we’re labor let’s think about it as a a social project as well thank you Mr Mayor thank you councelor Thompson if there is no any further debates

Councelor wise do you want to Ryan yeah uh thank you and thank you for the contributions first of all can I say that I’m obviously happy to meet any member to discuss this further um in terms of and I want good Council housing I remember when I wasn’t on the council

Uh when I was working here in prent in domestic abuse when I actually uh was contacted by somebody who’ been offered a house by the council and told me about the state it was in it was a disgusting State and I actually went and saw it and

Then I sent Jim car who was then the chief executive the brush and the apron that stunk of actual uh bleach that the woman had used and I do think when we’re letting properties as a council we have to make sure they’re in a good condition because if you treat people like pigs

They’re going to behave like pigs you’ve got to treat people like adults so I can assure you that uh I want to ensure that we’re offering good quality homes and not uh rubbish and I also very much agree that I think we should be looking

At how we can make them zero uh carbon neutral as much as possible um in terms of you know is there a conflict of interest you know be being the landlord and the enforcer actually if you look at paragraph 3.8 there is the regulatory framework um that actually shows that

Certain things have to happen and of course that regulatory framework there for uh housing associations as well as Council houses it isn’t there for private landlords and that’s why I think this is really something that is very very important also um on the point um whatever point it was

4.23 um just a second um yeah and again um the rent payable again is governed governed by the regulator of social housing and the council would be bound by those standards that’s in 4.2.3 um so yeah it it is a start um and so you could think well this is a lot of

Money for 20 houses but the whole point is this isn’t just about 20 houses this is about us becoming uh a landlord again in a in a much much larger way we’ve heard obviously I want to pray Play credit to my predecessor for the work that he’s done and what was said about

The different types of houses that are needed in this city so that we can cater for different needs and different types of uh requirements so yet this is a start um but unless we actually have this feasibility study and I’m sure we can ensure that the options are fully

Explained in there so that we can see and it might be that we choose a different option you know when you the whole point of the feasibility study is that we actually can really see the pros and cons of the different options we can then see what is the best route for this

Council to go down so um and I welcome the support of council wit on this and uh look forward to working with her to ensure that what we’ve got is something really really good for any Resident in Preston who requires Council accommodation so thank you thank you councilor R so if uh are

There any uh amendments on this report no if there is no amendments can we now vote on this item please all those in favor please show anyone against any extensions thank you it’s carried item number nine is a report on the UK shared Prosperity fund councelor Brown do you wish to move the

Report yeah thank you Mr Mayor um I’m not going to be too long because it’s been a very long day so far we’ve got plenty of debate to come no doubt so this is the shared Prosperity fund uh program update so the report is really where we are with it and what we’re

Doing in terms of share prosing funding but it also has some minor adjustments which are 50,000 grants to Preston digital Cooperative deliver basic skills for those who have known a transfer fund to give 69,3 64 to support economically inactive residents but kind of my technical accounting um situation where we moved

10,000 from revenue to capital for our tree planting program which we referred to earlier so this obviously is the money that we received when we left the European Union and we’re spending on many projects just a few highlights that we have we’re planting 7,000 trees at P

L Nature Reserve but be another 3,000 trees planted across 199 sites that are Council own in Preston uh there a process where we’re going to consult the councilors and ask which sites he might want to have there’s going to be a new community center that’s reopening Unity community center after um refurbishment

Which will be a volunteering Center at the heart of Preston we’ve got new Cricket and bowling facilities on Mo Park 27 households received support and been supported to take up Energy Efficiency measures through further investments in cozy homes in Lancer the cycle hire scheme this is in

Here to to move forward with that because the initial uh demographics and topology for such a scheme are positive so we hope we hope to be able to move forward with a cycle higher scheme for Preston then one I’m particularly excited we’re establishing a digital Cooperative with the council taking a

Significant State what that will do is it’ll provide free or low cost Broadband for residents and devices as well so there’ll be potentially free Broadband for the res Prest residents will be able to access in the most deprived communities so we’re doing that through the Cooperative we’re establishing we’re

Supporting net businesses to transition to Net Zero through our decarbonization business support program and we continue to support young people and those who been economically excluded with over a million pounds to uh access skills jobs and employment support Mr M so that’s it inshell happy to say any questions and

Obviously there’s a mind adjustments as well Mr Mayor which are at 2.1 2.2 and 2.3 so me thank you councelor brown um is that seconded thank you councelor wise um any question on this report um are there any amendments you want to say anything okay if there is no amendments

No further questions then can we we now vote on this item all those in favor please show anyone against any Extensions thank you it’s carried item number 10 is a report on the pay policy statement councelor rolinson do you wish to move the reports there is an obligation under the localism ACT to publish this information every year so that’s what we’re doing um it shows the pay of the senior officers

And also the ratio between the highest and lowest paid in the council um I believe the recommendation is something like 20 to1 it should be lower than that ours is less than five to one um if you think about uh the financial sector pay ratio Gap there is at least 50 to1 and

In some cases 200 to1 so I think we’re doing very well here largely because of our living wage policy which just goes to show how it makes a difference is that seconded thank you councelor brown um any question on this report no do you want to speak councelor Brown no are there any

Amendments if there’s no amendments can we now vote on this item all those in favor please show anyone against any extensions thank you it’s carried item number 11 leveling up fund Aon Park business case item number 11 is a report on the leveling of fund Aon Park business case

Please note that an explanatory note has been put on your seats for information on this item I will now bring in the chief executive who needs to provide advice to members followed by the assistant director city solicitor and monitoring officer Mr Mar I just reference the earlier advice regarding members of planning

Committee um obviously we expect and we know members will take that into account and uh the monitoring officer will now add a further comment thank you Mr M thank you thank you Mr Mayor councilors will recall making decision on the development of Ashton Park on the 14th of December

2023 that decision was taken in private as the report and the appendices contained financial and commercially sensitive information following objections the council has decided to resubmit the report outlining the business case for Ashton Park this will enable the report to be represented in the public domain and for

Council members to retake the decision with a Fresh open mind and only in Reliance on the information now being placed before them thank you thank you uh now councelor Bailey do you wish to move the reports yes I do Mr Mayor thank you so you can speak on it thank you very much

So over 100 years ago uh men across Europe went over to the Continental Europe to fight a right up and down the country the government asked women to take the vacancies that the men left behind and that is absolutely the case in Preston in Preston engineering Works dick ker

Women filled the roles that the men left when they went to war and in 1920s they then created the team the dick Kur ladies now the dick Kur ladies went on to play 833 games across their 50y year spam and winning 790 games and only losing in that 50-year spam 28 games

They are regarded as the greatest ever women’s T football team unfortunately 1965 there they came to an end but this greatest ever women’s football team actually trained on Ashton Park and this report wants to aim to carry on their legacy this multi-million pound investment into Ashton Park will create

New foot paths and walkways which will be accessible to all it will increase biodiversity in the park by planting more trees and more plants we’ll be building a cafe which will help reduce social isolation in the area and we’ll be building a space for Community groups

To be able to use we’ll also be creating new grass pitches and changing facilities carry on the legacy of the dick ladies we’ll also be building an all weather pitch which will allow Sports people to be able to play football and other sporting activities all year round which will help increase their health

And also their well-being as as per the report outlines there is a lack of provision of all weather pitches across press in a nearby area and obviously this report does address that and the centerpiece of this report is the community Pavilion which will be provide a platform for Community groups

To be able to use and Community social activities to birth from right in the local area now this project will be cost neutral that is the aim the money generated from the 3G pitch will help pay for the facility and the upkeep after nearly 14 15 years of

Austerity and cuts to local Services we have found a way using this plan toble to invest right in the heart of our local communities which don’t affect the council’s budgets this is also Beacon of the Preston model as well using local Architects local construction firms and also local construction workers to be

Able to build this project and not only that it will also provide uh good good Community uh facilities and good Community projects right from the heart of this this investment will be good for dog walkers and wheelchair users it’ll also be good for people to have a

Kickout with their mates it’ll also be good for people who just want to have a brew and a catch up with their friends and it’ll also benefit young people who want to access services from the new facility we are building it will also benefit the local residents as well building better community cohesion

Reducing antisocial behavior and also increasing the enjoyment and community activities from this park this investment and this report outlines that this will be this will project will create a park that everyone in Ashton and wide oppressing can enjoy thank you Mr Mayor thank you councelor Ry is that seconded thank you councelor Rollin

Said so this this report is about the Ashton Park business case um it’s it’s great for the government uh to create these competitions make themselves look look great throwing large amounts of capital around but large Capital spends tend to create Revenue costs ongoing Revenue costs that councils can’t afford

Anymore so um we need reports like this because this will have to pay for itself um but this is not just about Ashton Park um it’s about the whole of Preston of course leveling up fund scheme is for projects across the whole of Preston Ashton Park belongs to everyone in Preston

Um we don’t know that if the amendment that’s coming forward is passed what the government will do if we have to take this out the scheme we don’t don’t know that we we can’t know that because we’d have to go to them and say we need to change the scheme so

Until then we don’t know the officers don’t know either we also don’t know what the other potential funders will think of the scheme without this as well liberal Democrats certainly don’t know if we don’t know you know so if if anyone here today claims that it’ll be okay

Then they don’t know just like we don’t we can’t know if as we’ve shown earlier we can’t trust what the liberal Democrats say so if the liberal Democrats are Your Heroes you’ve already lost now the whole 24 million pound scheme is in Jeopardy if you pass the amendment because we don’t

Know you’re risking it he that and and if and if you do that you you trade you possibly trading 24 million pounds worth of capital investment in Preston for 2.5% of Ashton Park which is what we you know which is the contentious part of this the conservatives here especially these

Conservative members here need to think really carefully about this because we’ve played your government’s game here um I I didn’t want to put the leveling up fund bid in but this these officers and these members here they will not pass up I I was sick of playing these conservative government games and

Trying to win money off all the councils um but but we did it and we’ve done it to the best of our ability and we put a quality bid in and this is where we are don’t risk losing it all I’m on board now you know I I couldn’t have care less

About the bridge to be hon honest um but it’s important to a lot of people and we did it and and I’ve seen a picture possible picture of the bridge it looks fantastic and all the other schemes 2 million for Waverly Park I live on the edge of it it’s is it’s

Fantastic don’t don’t risk it don’t risk all that money that that’s what you’re doing if you pass the amendment that’s real I’m not I’m not making it up we don’t know what will happen it’s your it’s your government’s policy leveling up is your government’s policy it’s their money we’ve managed to win it

Somehow we really didn’t expect to win it only 20% of bids W don’t risk all this money support this scheme it’s a really good scheme it’s much needed by certain people in Preston who who who need these facilities thank you councelor rollinson any question on this report oh councelor

Please thank you Mr M it’s good that we have the public in this time so we can hear these positive stories about and have this sort of debate in the open so I want to ask a question may not be word for word but pretty much what I asked

Council B last time when we discussed this behind closed doors which is obviously many objections have been raised some more legitimate than others one that has caught my eye though and one which I was glad that you responded to last time so I’d like you to do it

Again while we have public present and so that members can consider it yet again is my context relationship with Ashton Park is as a workingclass lad who’s always ever lived in Ashton I’ve used it since I was a child and I found it to be a brilliant Community Asset but

One that’s been wly underused and under resourced my concern with or rather what was my concern since been laid regarding the 3G pitch is of course the my experience of 3G pitch is that you do have to pay for the use of them and they

Can seem to be per hour or per session relatively expensive I just wanted to make sure that as you say the legacy of Dick Cur and mindful of residents like myself who lived Nation our whole lives Working Class People ordinary people who want to access and get the full community benefit of this

Scheme what are the likely charges for an ordinary person to use it and how will we ensure that all people all communities no matter of background or financial situation can access the full social benefit of this game thank you councelor Atkins please thank you Mr Mayor

Um I’m drowning in all this extra detail and I’m quite quite confused about something so maybe coun ba could clarify some of that um well and and um Council rollinson we’re told that they don’t we don’t know we don’t know one being there’s a blizzard of don’t knows about what could

Happen if we change this scheme slightly but I’m standing here as a backbencher a lowly backbencher and I do know the answers to quite a lot of those questions that certainly councel rollinson would suggested saying he didn’t know the answer to which would actually allay the fears of quite a lot

Of people in this chamber yes we can change leveling up scheme as we have the leveling up scheme themselves are very helpful to recipients of their their money because they obviously can see into the future know that not there will be sometimes hiccups along the road you

Know bump along the road and you need to adjust schemes so that people in the local area can accept them because this is the main problem with the Ashton Park scheme the local area and Beyond thousands really of people um some local some not just do not accept this scheme

In its entirety they would be and I can represent them as well as I can as an individual here their counselor they would like it nothing to happen on the park of course they would that would make it all go away but the majority of people will be more than happy to

Compromise and they have have been offered no compromise I’d really like to ask councilor Bailey and maybe Council olinson why that really hasn’t been put on the table because if it had we wouldn’t be here today and I wouldn’t be saying these things um it’s I I despair

I do really but I don’t despare because actually I’ve been on the council long enough to honestly say that I do trust the Integrity of all the members in this chamber to make the right decision on this I’m not trying to tell them to make a particular decision but I just trust

That they will make the right one um and in respect of that I’d have to quote the mayor’s chaplain just the beginning of this meeting because I thought it was really appreciate it was a wonderful thing he said and he said that we are we have custody of the earth and he

Mentioned this in connection with green space and I thought well that’s a wonderful thing to say because that is what this boils down to really Ashton Park is a unique completely unique wild green space it’s the the only Park in Preston that actually has those qualities left

And I think we need to take our role as custodian custodians of Ashton Park of this green space and be really careful about the decision we make here because once if we decide to over if we overdevelop the park you can’t un overdevelop it and it’s when when things

Are destroyed on the park like even the surface of the park um which has been is part of the deal that we’ll take off a huge amount of top soil and you know in which is a a carbon danger as well not a carbon danger it’s bound to cause

Release of carbon and we’re supposed to be dealing with zero carbon initiatives in the in the council um we can’t put it back whatever we do to it and interfere with the Park’s Integrity We cannot put it back when we change our mind or find

Out we don’t think it works so I’d just like to ask councilor Bailey if he’s taken any of these things into consideration and whether he thinks the risk is worth the scheme to you know why we cannot really mainly why can’t we adjust the scheme and why have we never

Had any response to questions and inquiries about doing that thank you thank you councelor coun coun B B please councilor Atkins I I will answer your question I’m just gonna answer coun councel dwi’s question first and I’ll come back to to yours um so Council D in terms of sorry

U I was advised that you should come back at the end come back at the end for Council right okay thank councelor borrow please thank you Mr Mayor mik this has been quite a difficult process to go through and what I found as a a councelor in Le

Larches is that there’s been a group who have strongly opposed any investment and development on Ashton Park it’s not been about we don’t want this bit it’s been we don’t want anything and ex excuse me excuse me please no no excuse me please um just um yeah can you no more Interruption

Please just remind me Mr B yeah you have to follow the antiquites of the chamber yeah you are here to as just to observe you you don’t take participation does remind me Mr Mayor that behind the clock led a group of residents to to L larches surgery in January and

Subed counselors including women on their own going to that surgery to swearing and abuse Mr Mayor the members of the gallery you are there to observe the proceedings of council you not there to comment or make any noise if this continues we will gentlemen you will have to leave the chamber

Sir sit down please otherwise we will clear the gallery yes you must leave the you interrupting the proceedings Mi Mr Mayor as as you will be aware the business of this council is of the utmost importance and members of the public are able to observe from the

Gallery they are not here to speak or seek to criticize or make allegations against members of this Council I will have to advise you if we continue to get interruptions from the gallery I will have to ask you to amend to sorry to adjourn Council whilst we clear the

Gallery we do not want to do that we absolutely want to have this item considered in public but that is on the basis that members in the gallery members of the public in the gallery remain silent thank you Mr Mayor right I think if you able to proceed Mr Mayor well thank you

Councelor B can you carry on please I think Mr May we’ve seen what’s been going on in terms of B language and a lot of other stuff against those of us inan lers who have been working on this scheme my view is that all the parks in

Preston belong to the the people of Preston Parks the success of parks is measured in part by how much they’re used the fact that they can be used by not just people whose Gardens back on but by people from the wide area before I left my house this morning

I liveed near Mo park I got a flyer about a big pop concert heavy metal in June which will be on all day Saturday and Sunday it will make so much noise that I won’t be able to sit quietly in my back Garden but I accept that because that is the partk being

Used by the public of Preston and there’s a loads of events on a on Mo Park that can be disruptive to local residents but it’s a part that’s shared there are grass pictures that are used there’s Cricket that go go on there’s a skate park that goes on

There’s all sorts of events on that Park Ashton Park because the nine football pitches grass pitches that used to be on that Park have not been drained and maintained no longer has competitive football The Pavilion and changing rooms are derel so for years now that park has been

Underused this schem is trying to put together a scheme which can bring grass pictures back into use instead of those grass pictures being scattered around the edge the most of the residential property are towards larches Avenue Windfield Lane and lar and larch’s Lane it’s focused in the mid

Proposal is to focus half a dozen grass pictures near the middle of the park five of those are junior pitches together with a new Pavilion and because of the problems for car parking with people coming to use those pictures there will need to be a new car park

And there is as councilor B has mentioned a real shortage of all weather pictures in Preston there are two new ones in bambridge that are Chua block with people they’ve got issues as to access and everything else there we need one in the west of Preston I listen to the conservatives

Going on about the need for facilities for young people there is a desperate need for sports facilities for young people so youth clubs and sports clubs can have training sessions F side games can use those facilities most of the park won’t be affected by this most of the park won’t be

Used but a lot of residents have got to the situation where they don’t want anything to happen they regard it as their back garden and they’ve given those of us that representing ear and lar as a significant amount of abuse at the end of the day this really matters for the longterm

Of the people in Preston and every time I get abused I think of those people in their teens and 20s who need sports facilities who haven’t got them and we as a council don’t have the money to provide them this scheme can do that the park is

Underused the key that’s going to happen if this is approved today was it will end up a planning committee I’ve got to say counceling me and the deputy mayor and myself have already had a meeting with the planning officers because we’ve got a list of issues that matter that have planning

Issues access onto ped’s La what the County Council say how is the building process going to be managed and still allow the clinic and dig in and let’s go Preston continue to operate issues around where the car park will be how it’s designed if people have got the lights on will that affects

People issues around the the all weather pitch in terms of flood lighting and how whether that will be obtrusive or not all those issues need to be dealt with is there enough space at the all weather pitch for parent and family to stand and watch without them going onto the grass

All these issues are clearly important and the issue in terms of the rubber infill on the all weather pitch which is crucial but I if you believe if you have concerns over that don’t throw out the whole concept of an nor weather pitch because there is a shortage of all

Weather pitches we need an all weather pitch we’ll sort out in my view the issue of infill afterward to make sure it’s safe but in the meantime for us to throw all this money away and ignore it would be a tragedy you know I’ve been around 30 odd years now and I can

Remember a group of protesters blocking my drive right the end of my drive in the early 90s over an issue I’ve been through it in this instance I yeah excuse me um can you please remain silent thank you yeah sorry Mr Mayor i’ I’ve seen this before I’ve ched public meetings

I’ve taken abuse during the last 30 odd years Brad not going to back down on this this matters this is important to Future Generations thank you Mr Mayor yeah thank youor Mr Mayor I think we need to remind the gallery again that um any further interruptions anybody who is speaking or

Has spoken um it is against the procedures of this Council you are here to observe this meeting and the speaking is done by elected members of this Authority who have a democratic mandate to speak um if people continue to Heckle or speak abusively or speak at all we

Will have to ask them to leave the gallery or to clear the gallery so I hope you can observe the niceties and the conventions and behavior of this chamber in order that you can continue to observe the conduct of this meeting thank you thank you um councelor suon

Please thank you Mr Mayor well it’s it’s always a real difficult decision isn’t it for all of us here and we never never make decisions lightly in this Council chamber we never have we’ve always taken our roles really really seriously if you remember uh Freddy Castle Bailey at the the meeting last

Time when it was below the line obviously I did ask for it to be thir so we could find a cast IR answer to um the changes to the scheme under under getting in touch with the Department of leveling up um I’m not going to ask

Rural today I think we we can’t carry on um going around the houses and waiting it is really disappointing that we haven’t had that answer from the government but it is obvious without this the 3G pitch this scheme is not financially viable and I think Council rollinson what you were alluding to on

The liberal Amendment it’s it’s not just about the grass pitches it’s about the ongoing maintenance which will cost so much um that doesn’t get away from the noise and the parking and all the issues that will come up under planning as Council borrow has said I side we can’t risk losing that

Leveling up money we can’t risk it there is still that risk and it it Ashton is part of that plan but so is the transbridge and all the other benefits that it would bring to people of Preston so we’re really in an awkward place really uh to be honest with you um

Because obviously Government funding is very important so um I personally will be abstaining um because I can’t I don’t want to risk the money uh and equally I can’t see a way forward but we do have to make some kind of decision today thank you Mr Mayor thank you councelor H

Please thank you Mr Mayor I’m very grateful and I’m grateful for the contributions from all sides of this chamber from uh elected members uh I’ve been on Preston city council for over 20 years when uh a similar or not quite the same sort of scheme was done on the

Moore Park which was in St George’s Ward a ward I represented for 16 years uh part of that scheme was to have a conservation area that went from near the North End right round uh along to the garang road and up to uh the Blackpool Road at that end uh the last

Thing I did as council member for for St George’s Ward was have a whole chunk of that conservation taken out of the scheme because uh the people who I represented in St George’s Ward uh didn’t want that part of the area uh as a conservation scheme so that’s

Background in some ways uh we have debated this in uh uh in this chamber and outside this chamber in the town hall because it is a very important issue uh the £4 million pound that we have from the leveling UPS uh fund uh uh some of this of course will be going to

Rebuilding the bridge and other uh developments including wavy park that has been referred to earlier by members of the chamber but uh that it is established uh Mr Mayor that the section of that development which concerns the 99 million which is in marked for uh

Ashton Park can be uh rejigged uh uh in isolation the whole scheme the 24 million will not be in any danger whatsoever and that’s established as far as I know with the people from the leveling up fund but the difficulty is that this the the the the plans that

Went forward uh would in a sense taken off a shelf and it’s something that we wanted to do uh timly and expeditiously as possible because of deadlines now that may be the case Mr Mayor and I appreciate the difficulties that our members uh and uh officers have in achieving those deadlines but

Nevertheless uh the issue with regards to the 3G pitch which is a negotiable Point within that because I had difficulty at first because of the positional side as David referred to earlier where some people had an absolute position nothing should happen and then at the Other Extreme it seemed

That uh the some of the councilors and the officers said it the whole scheme or nothing now there is a wiggle RoR negotiating within that uh that those two positions and that has been addressed at points and it is possible that we could look again at the uh uh

Part that’s uh ing Ashton Park and that we could possibly get a Time extension in order to do that but the it is fundamentally one of the points that’s been referred to by uh the uh my uh uh honorable friend who represents Ashton as well uh uh Liz Atkins is that it is

An environmental issue and that is something that’s very hotly contested and of great concern not just to the Liberals but to all members of this ch chamber and we have the uh park has has been said on trust for future Generations unfortunately Mr Mayor once trust is lost sorry means nothing and we

Need to maintain the trust of those people to use this development for the best interests of the whole town certainly but the people who live in close proximity to it who use it more often than other people I understand that the football Lobby is a strong Lobby and I appreciate and have

Relatives who have children who play football in the leagues around Preston for penam boy cadley all these teams are very well established and uh the the Sunday League uh that that uh some of our members playing Freddy players in the Sunday league as far as I know but

That that those people need to have uh more football grounds but we we can can’t just run Ru Shad over the interests of other people who for instance may want to play netball American football hockey or whatever and I have personally have had representations as councilor for Ashton

Ward from uh people who think that it is very football Centric uh and that’s another uh uh uh difficulty that I have with it uh so there is a second option that could be negotiable and I think we still have framework and times in which to do

That it’s with a heavy heart that I uh unfortunately I’ve been given a license to this by the part but I cannot uh uh vote with this motion and I shall be abstaining Mr Mayor thank you thank you councelor Kelly please ready um you’re a dad I’m a

Granddad um I just went out and played with with my three-year-old grandson on a concrete playing uh play area because there’s there are no there are no places for kids to play and we and I’m just wondering if you can comment just how important it is for our kids and this is

What we’re doing here to have a legacy a place where they can practice sports where their health their well-being and everything else comes into it thank you councelor Brown please Mr thank you I’m not going to speak for that long but I just want to reassure everyone that is here observing the

Labor group does take concerns put forward very seriously we’ve had an internal debate within debate to get different views and obviously we’ve arrived at a conclusion and we feel this is the best conclusion within what’s in front of us uh we’re not pushing this through we’ve looked at it extensively

Looked at it in detail the report isn’t saying Ashton Park today is going to go ahead it says it goes head under certain circumstances which is around the business case being sustainable around a planning application going through and that needs to happen but also securing the football Foundation grants so those

Are the conditions that make it happen but the reality the reality is is that we’ve tried for years and years to get decent investment into communities like Ashton and it was mentioned about kids from ordinary backgrounds so how austerity priv a facility ities you know throughout this city and Beyond and it

Was cities of the North like us the less off cities that actually had the benefit of that lifechanging cuts with sports facilities Leisure facilities Health Facilities Child Care Centers facilities like that going and this is our opportunity to to move that forward and do something about it now the reality is

Is obviously one of the most controversial parts of this is the 3G element of the deel well so work we do everything we can to make sure it is more sustainable because I know the European Union passes some legislation around that we’re very concerned about that we’ve got a strong environmental

Agenda and I do trust that councilor Bailey and others to actually make sure that when we when it is delivered that 3G pitch will be uh as beneficial to the environment as possible and additionally what we’re missing out is that other parts of this part we going to be a

Goodest part of this really so obviously this is a situation where we’ve had a healthy debate internally and Beyond in this chamber and it’s the best we can do and I do think once it is developed P will be alleviated and it’ll be a first class facility for our for our children

In those communities because you know we’ve got to think of future Generations we’ve got to think of making sure that kids have access to these facilities and we’ll make sure we mitigate any concerns from the community and internally going forward into the m so thank you for listening any more questions on

This if not uh can we now move on to uh Amendment submitted by the liberal Democrat group and a copy has been placed on your seat councelor Derby would you like to move the amendment yes Mr Mayor thank you um it’s interesting a lot of what we’ve

Proposed in our in our Amendment it maintains the respect of the legacy of as Park uh it maintains most of the pros of uh of the uh proposal that initially been put forward and that it also provides for the community however any Community Asset has to bring along the

Community with it we have to listen to the community and we’ve got to maintain trust as Council Hull very rightly said the proposal that we are putting forward we see as the best option it is a compromise exactly as again councelor Atkins had said and it’s the compromise

That we need to try and move forward you say that we don’t know what the risks are about losing the funding as councilor witam said it was asked back in December could we postpone making decisions so that we can ask these questions and find out if we don’t know

The answer now two months later why don’t we know that it’s anyway the proposal that we’re putting forward it takes away the concerns over the 3G pictures it takes away concerns over flood lighting it reduces the car park it reduces the size of the clubhouse but

At the same time it does bring in the much needed investment that we want to the park it provides the pictures it provides the facilities that we’re trying to provide to the community as has been said it also resolves the drainage issues that has caused so many

Problems for Ashton Park and the pitures there that we’ve already been talking about it makes those pitches usable for much more if not all of the year than most of it and that’s what we’re trying to achieve here what we want of course is more people especially kids to be able to get

Involved in sports whether that’s football or whether that’s something else it’s good exercise it’s good for physical and mental health it’s team skills leadership everything that we want kids to be able to grow up with is what you get from Sports and our proposal our Amendment provides it just

As much as the initial proposal does we want people to be happy in the park we want people to be able to use the park but equally we need to bring along the community residents need to be happy in their homes as well as on the park we’ve

Heard lots of claims about most people support this side most people support that side at the end of the day we’ve got to do what we think is right and I think that the amendment that we’re putting forwards keeping the grass pictures but not having the 3D pictures

Making it a much more modest scheme but still providing a real asset to the community is the best way forward on all sides thank you Mr Mayor thank you councelor Derby is that seconded councelor s you want to speak on it yeah thank you councelor olinson we’re not making the rules of this

Game question is why don’t we know because we’re not making the rules it’s not our game we’re we’re playing a game here that the lib Dems actually claimed credit for in their leaflet saying they were pushing us to make a bid and they’ve supported this scheme all the way along until today I

Wonder why let me just clarify what I said earlier right if the lib Dems are Your Heroes you’re struggling already now let me just clarify I I didn’t say we couldn’t change the scheme I said if the amendment goes through and we go back with a change scheme we don’t know what

Will happen that’s still the same there’s no I I fully expected some members to muddy the waters to try and confuse it and to say oh why don’t you know and yeah it’ll be all right or or whatever we don’t know the answer to that it’s not our game we’re just we’re

Just trying to get this this huge amount of money for Preston this this is what’s there we we’re doing what you told us to do so get on board any any speaker no you can come back later councelor Bailey if no more speakers can I bring counselor Shen

In oh sorry counselor B please um I’m not quite clear why the lib Dems are opposed to the 3G pitch or the all weather pitch is it to do with the surface and the environmental concerns over that or are they in principle against an all weather pitch on Ashton

Park so I hope that when they when one of them speaks next we can clarify that particular point if there is no more uh questions then can I bring councelor shenon please thank you Mr Mayor um I think the the the issue is we all want an

Immunity we all want progress we all want something that people are going to be happy with and the issue is that at the moment there are diverse opinions because of different issues environmental impacts to Residents in terms of progress in terms of what people want but I think we can

Honestly say the majority of residents the majority of counselors want something that is going to provide an amenity and it’s going to provide progress and it’s going to provide something of a continuity in terms of the history of that particular site I do have a personal um opinion if

You like I used to live near Ashton Park I used to use it a lot um it was a long time ago but I remember using it um and I remember it being a good amenity at that point in time but it needs to it needs to progress it

Does however the plan the proposal is not allowing people to coales to have a cohesive understanding of what is actually going to you know be right for everybody and and that’s actually where we need to get to councelor Atkins councelor Hall have both both suggested that there is leeway in terms of where

We go with this um Council rollinson has suggested we don’t know there’s an awful lot of we don’t knows well we have to go on what we do know we have to go on something that is going to be cohesive to those communities and it’s not an All or Nothing

Issue the amendment that we’ve proposed is is a compromised position yes but it’s something that everybody can get on board with it’s something that everybody can cooperate around and compromise yes but cooperate around and that’s important that’s what we need to do as communities in in our

Areas that’s what we need to do as counselors to be able to actually do things properly for the for the residents so I would suggest that as a best solution that our Amendment uh that you vote for our Amendment if that’s not the case then I would suggest that you think about that

Compromise and you think about how we’re actually going to move this forward because at the moment it isn’t really moving forward adequately thank you thank you Mr thank you thank you gor s councelor Bailey please it is quite interesting because I do think the lims are really trying to do

Some politicking with this at first they printed out a leaflet and distribute it around areas of press and saying they absolutely supported this scheme and I mentioned previously councelor ex councelor juel had a photo wear in a 1980s Brazilian top with a football Ash in park saying that they’ lob with the

Labor group to put this football pitch on the park in terms of in terms of whether this is a compromise or not it’s not a compromise what you’re suggesting we are proposing a good project you’re proposing proposing a bad project and the reason why I cannot support it is

Because because at the end of day you don’t address the lack of 3G pitches and all weather pitches across the city you also lose the social aspect that comes with the actual design so you lose all the community benefits that will come with this project and on top

Of that it will cost this Council up to 153,000 per year we then also have the risk as Council rson has mentioned of losing not just the money for Ashton Park but the risk of losing the all the 24 million for the others and yes it is still a

Risk that is why I cannot support this and therefore our proposal makes Common Sense we will still deliver the community aspects that we promis residents at the not costing this Council money the Lim proposal it was cost negative and has little impact in terms of the local area therefore I

Cannot support their Amendment thank you Mr Mayor thank you councilor Bailey now uh can we vote on the um Amendment submitted by the liberal Democrat group all those in favor please show all those against any extensions defe yeah thank you amendments defeated Mr Mayor we need two requests for a

Named vote and to proceed I’m happy to second that that’s we will move with a named vote when we come to the vote on the substantive motion Mr Mayor yeah that’s okay thank you councelor H uh councelor Bailey do you want to come back before we move to the

W yes I do yeah sorry to I guess take all more people’s time which it’s just to come back on some questions that were directed at myself regarding the actual scheme so Council dwi’s question regarding regarding the usage and financially affecting uh families in the nearby area so obviously these grass

Pitches we are going to be draining and recreating they’ll be able to be used by anyone across Preston any time of year free of charge the actual 3G football pitches I don’t think there’s been a lot of misinformation on on social media and the internet regarding the pricing of 3G

Pitures now most of the time when people hire reg pitches it is paid for by the actual clubs the football clubs now most of these football clubs that I have previously been involved with years and years ago before I was a counselor they always offered Financial incentives to

People and families who could not afford for their kids to play football without reducing their sub fees on a monthly basis or not paying any subs at all and they have that confidential agreement with the clubs themselves these are the clubs then be using this Asher Turf

Pitch to to for their kids to play on and therefore you got kids playing on this arguably for free it’s the clubs that are playing and then when you hire out an ash Turf pitch if 22 people want to get together to have a kickabout and they hire it and they

Split the cost it is cost effective so I just want to alleviate uh Council dwi’s concerns on that just coming to council Peter Kelly’s comments in terms of Provisions for young people yes we need more sporting facilities for young people and obviously this address this addresses this along with the other

Three Parks we are invested in but also as well there’s a clear need for more pitches so people to be able to play on all year around far too many times across the city from from February from sorry from from October all the way to February March Time football matches

Every weekend are canceled training sessions are canceled therefore kids young people old people Everyone who who get involved in sport cannot go and play football or other sporting activities which means they are at home not exercising and potentially affecting their mental health and then obviously just coming on to the question Council

Atkins ask regarding a compromise in theory if this Council rejected uh this proposal the compromise will be what the LI Dems amended watering watering it down and looking at another option but that option which we have considered as a labor group and everyone as a council here has considered in the report here

As I previously mentioned would mean it doesn’t have the same effect that our proposal does it still doesn’t mean it doesn’t address the needs for young people and people right across the city to have a place where they can exercise and also key it doesn’t actually affect

The effects of austerity that we are trying to do and trying to invest in our communities at a cost effective point of view therefore we have looked to that and in terms of overd development I led to believe that many many years ago in hland park there was a a swimming pool

That I did not know about and apparently there’s still no remnant of it there because once that Parks evolve and obviously when that outdoor swim pool is no longer needed the park changes its use so we have looked at all the other options and at this moment in time this

Is absolutely a good scheme and we will deliver on it we’ll make sure that we invest in the communities the direct communities and I can guarantee this will be a good scheme once it’s being produced thank you Mr Mayor thank you um now we can um we will vote

Uh on the original motion named W thank you thank you Mr mayor council Asal councilor actar councelor Aldridge councelor Atkins against councelor Bailey councelor borrow councelor Brown councelor close councelor kand councelor Crow councelor Derby councelor Desai councilor Juke Council DWI councelor green councelor hindle councelor Hull councelor ikbal Paul councelor Kelly councelor

Mcmah councelor medle Bru councelor Morgan councelor Patel for councelor Potter Council rayback Council rollinson Council rter councelor Shannon councelor Thompson your vote counselor councelor Walker councelor Mr witam councilor Mrs witam councilor wise can I just check if I missed any members hopefully not thank you yeah so the regarding the original

Motion uh in favor 18 against 9 abtin six therefore the original motion is carried thank you yeah so item number 12 is the notification of changes to membership of the Committees are there any changes to be reported thank you item number 13 is a leader report

Councelor Brown do you wish to speak on this item thank you item number 14 is a special urgency decision but there are none to report to this meeting item number 15 the date of the next ordinary meeting of council is Thursday 18th of April 2024 at 2 p.m. in the town hall

Preston item number 16 now we need to consider passing the following resolution that the public be excluded from this meeting meeting during consideration yeah that the public be excluded from this meeting during consideration of the following item of business on the grounds that there is likely to be a disclosure of exempt information

Which is described in the paragraph of schedule 12a to the Local Government Act 1972 which is specified against the heading to the item and that in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweigh the public in in disclosing it are you all happy to agree the uh

Exemption and move to Part B show of hands thank you