Transcription
We get started in just a moment or two now, 07:00. So at some, we'll get started. Good evening. Welcome, everybody. Thank you so much for coming, along to our meeting tonight, all those people, in in the public part of our our, Guildhall tonight.
There are no fire alarms planned for this evening. Should the alarm sound, please leave via the nearest available emergency exit, two of the closest to outside Cafe des Amis. Members of the public are welcome to make their own recordings of this meeting using whatever nondisruptive methods they think are suitable. I'd like to remind everyone present that this meeting is being filmed, made available to view in live and archived form by the council's website. If you're seated in the public gallery, it is possible that the cameras may capture your image.
If you wish to avoid being filmed, it's recommended that you make a member of staff aware, and you can be directed to sit somewhere where that won't happen. The Westgate Gardens, gates on the riverside are locked already at sunset, so members of the public must leave the Guildhall by the side exit that's behind the glass doors in the glass porch there. Okay. So just gonna make the next bit out, which sort of sets the scene for the way that meeting will run tonight. I understand that we're full members of the public making representations to the cabinet this evening.
Thank you so much for coming to address us. We very much appreciate it. And you're some of the first speakers to take this opportunity, and we very much welcome this opportunity for people after you to come as well. And tonight, you're very welcome, of course. I just need to remind the speakers that while the cabinet will be listening intently, it is very keen, and it's very keen to hear your views and the points that you want to make.
They would not be discussing any of those tonight. This is especially important when comments are made or a quest holding on or will consult on in the future. It would not be right to prejudice any of that by expressing our opinions tonight. So I'm now if we're all ready, we'll just take a breather. And the first public speaker is gonna be, Julia Kirby Smith.
Okay. So please please make yourself. Good evening, councilors and officers. I'm here to talk to you about the level of public demand for conserving the Bleen ancient woodland. In October, a group of residents from Canterbury and Whitstable set up a petition on change.org.
It said, we, the undersigned, urge the protection and enhancement of the Blean Landscape And Woodland Complex as a vital hub of biodiversity benefit of future generations. To realise this vision for the Blean land and wildlife conservation initiatives, investment in biodiversity and nature based carbon projects, promotion of sustainable agriculture and formal recognition of the Blean landscape project's boundaries to safeguard its ecological and cultural significance. By the February this year that petition had more than 23,500 signatures And this is what it looks like when you put them all on bits of paper and print them out. We have a copy of the petition and the thousands of signatures to give to you this week. We'd like to draw your attention to your own policy, SS 110, which makes a clear commitment.
The council will continue to work with partners to support the extension and improved connectivity of the Blean Woodland Complex. The Blean Woodland Complex is a truly unique area, not just for its wildlife habitats and biodiversity, but also for its heritage. It is here that the first ever passenger train in the world was built. The line and the famous Invicta locomotive, both created by pioneering engineers, Joel Heritage and Ancient Woodland, you will lose a huge amount of support in Canterbury, because the Blean Woodland is being developed by the University of Kent, Kent Wildlife Trust, and many other partners. And we urge you to consider deeply the public demand that is conveyed by this petition for conserving the blean.
Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. Really appreciate that. Thank you so much. Okay.
We'll let Julia settle down now. And because the next speaker is gonna be William Rollinson. Thank you. And William, when you when you're ready, everyone. Good evening, officers and councilors.
Hopefully, by now, you'll have received a letter from, parish councillor Anja Bobrovich, member of, committee member of Save the Bleen, about the Bleen Biopark. In it, she outlined how a Bleen Biopark would support neutrality, biodiversity, heritage, open space, and landscape. I myself work at the University of Kent, and I'm also on the committee of Save the Blene. And we have been working with the university to create value out of the unique features mentioned by Julia, the previous speaker. And our approach is about reducing risks for the university by not putting all their eggs in one basket and to help them use their land holdings in parcels that are deliverable and financially achievable.
And also for releasing money faster so that the university can reach financial stability. Importantly, the Blinn Biopark plan aligns with the university's emerging research, innovation, and teaching strategies, which have a focus on food, agriculture, life sciences, and con right to food initiative, to becoming a nature positive university, and to its commitment to civic responsibility and to sustainability. The Blean Biopark also strongly align in brief, the Biopark combines green capital solutions such as biodiversity net gain, nutrient neutrality, and wild carbon, Reforestation and biodiversity restoration. Nature friendly farming. Celebration of local history and heritage.
Regenerative tourism. Community well-being through access access to green space, activities, learning, and suchlike. Collaboration with local partners to maximize impact and to establish financial resilience. Kent Wildlife Trust and other partners recently held a workshop with the University of Kent. About half of executive group were present.
And it was a very fruitful meeting. And the ideas and options that came out of the workshop are now going to be presented to the whole of the university's executive group and then hopefully from there to the university council. We hope to be able to share the maps, the financial vision, the funding plans, and greater detail with all of you, counsellors and officers, soon. It is such a huge opportunity for the district, for the University of Kent, and for you as city counsellors and officers to create something fantastic, a great positive legacy for Canterbury City Council to take with it into a new unitary authority. So we'd like to know what we can do to help to get the council to consider seriously this and to support the innovative and inspiring vision for Canterbury.
Thank you very much. Thank you, William. We appreciate that as well. The next speaker is gonna be Max Skorra. Okay.
And set yourself down. Start when you're ready. Good evening, counselors and officers. I'm here to talk to you about students' views of the role of the University of Kent in the future of this city. But that doesn't mean that we don't care.
When I have spoken to peers about the plans, I'm met with shock. The green campus of Kent is an iconic part of its identity. On open days, when we have such little time to take everything in, the thing that sticks with us the most is the campus. If the land around the university is radically changed, we will lose what makes Kent unique, and students will inevitably choose to study elsewhere. The other thing I hear loud and clear from students is disappointment.
Young people care about sustainability. And a huge part of Kent's draw is its commitment to green led decisions. To some students, talk of selling land to a housing developer feels like a betrayal of that promise. The public image of the university will be impacted by this decision. Because learners increasingly want to go to a university that they feel is prioritizing the environment and sustainability.
On top of this, student mental health is a crisis point, and green spaces are vital to improving student well-being. The Kent Community Oasis Garden exists to support student well-being through access to nature, but it is at risk of being displaced. The countryside around the campus may be at risk of being destroyed. When students are under so much pressure, it makes no sense to take away that our lifeline and make the world around us so much more overwhelming. Quiet disconnected outdoor places are becoming rarer and rarer at a time that we young people need them the most.
It's not only students who would be impacted by the destruction of the blame. I don't know another campus in Britain that has access to such a plethora of rare species. We have a unique opportunity to support the research on wildlife that few have access to. Not to mention a duty to protect the habitats of the most vulnerable creatures in our ecosystem. If we embrace the unique landscape of the baleen and the role it plays in research at Kent, the university could become a hub for conservation research that would boost its income and protect the ecosystem.
I implore you to listen to the young people that make up such a large population of our wonderful city and support the Biopark plan. It will help nurture the university into being a place that everyone wants to attend so it can attract strong student numbers for years to come. Thank you very much. I'm sure this is not our, off our last speaker, but, this is one. It's Les Brown, please.
Make yourself comfortable. And when you're ready, then please start. Right. Thank you so much. A personal matter from my perspective, but I on 12/12/0923 sorry, 2023, I contacted, planning department with regard to a situation where water was rainwater was being diverted onto my property from the neighboring property.
I then had to chase many times to get a response, and I was eventually spoke to by someone in neighborhood management in February who, had nothing didn't know anything about my initial complaint. We we spoke to each other. And eventually, in May, this person agreed to write to the tenant and rectify the problem as it was a canceled property. I then had a situation that after that, I had three months where I responded, tried to respond, left messages, and was told eventually that this person had actually left the organization. And I'd obviously been leaving messages, telephone messages, reception, and on her voice mail, to no avail.
On in August, I will after I then made a further complaint, in August, I was contacted by someone else who, once again, had no idea what I was complaining about. Didn't seem to have any records at all. I had two telephone conversations with this person, who agreed to chase up the Clerk of Works who apparently had already been out without speaking to me. Then after two voice mail messages, further attempts via email, telephone reception, and voice mail again, I got no response at all, just totally ignored. So I complained again.
In November, I tapped me within ten days in result to resolve the issue. I received no response from this individual, and every ten days, I made further complaints for seventy days. At the I'm sorry. In January 2025, I received a letter, stating which did not address any of the issues I raised, but that the, development and the tenant had received written permission from Canterbury City Council to do this. I then escalated, my complaint to a stage two complaint even though I'd already made four complaints already.
And on the February 5, I was actually informed by the complaints department that someone would respond to me within twenty days as per your, yeah, the complaints procedures. After thirty two sorry. After twenty two days, that was on the March 7 year. On the March 21 this year, 32 since stage two complaint, I complained again. And then that was last Friday.
And at that point, I received a hold in email asking for another seven days. I just want, you know, you to know basically that the complaints procedure is is not working as far as I'm concerned. There's no accountability, no information sharing between departments and individuals or individual or citizens. You call me a citizen. Nobody appears to want to resolve any of the issues.
They just wanna get rid of it from their desk. And and basic from my point of view, I've been ignored constantly. I've had failed promises over the last eighteen months well, eighteen months, two years, one year. Missed deadlines. I've been misled totally, not listened to.
And I've got to the stage now where I don't believe anything that any of the staff at CCC tell me. Have you really given a tenant written permission to erect a conservatory and not stipulated which builders they have to use? And the same goes for them, and they've erected a log cabin in the garden, which they were, or the son was, gonna use for Airbnb purposes until I Mister John, I must wind up a little bit. We've run over quite considerably. That's it.
But we're gonna take a short break after that. Thank you again for taking this time to address us. Please don't leave any of you just for a second or two, and we're, we're dealing with that issue to follow, and then we'll start the rest of our meeting. So just take a Thank you, everyone. That's, been amazing.
So, really great to have speakers. I think it's the first time, isn't it, we've had to that number of speakers, isn't it? It's absolutely amazing. So I'm delighted that's happened. And may there be many more evenings when we actually have members of the public talking to us, in in a similar way, and that's amazing to do that.
So, thanks to that. And so so pass pass the word out there, please, all of you. That's it's been good too. Okay. Let's let's move That's the shiny white paper on the on the people's stuff.
That's fine. Now the, the meeting, the proper part of the meeting, the agenda part of the meeting, should we say that's really so this is a meeting of the cabinet. The cabinet is part of the council's, that is part of the council, and that's me, Anna Bulldog. The other cabinet members are as follows. So we've got councillor Sowell, who's deputy's leader, and cabinet member for finance.
Councilor Dixie is cabinet member for property and performance. Councilor Hazleton, cabinet member for housing. Councilor Dawkins, cabinet member for environment and climate change. Councillor Charlotte Cornell, cabinet member for council services, culture, and heritage. Councillor Chris Cornell, cabinet member for economic development and inclusion and the coastal towns champion.
Councilor Ricketts, cabinet member for tourism, transport, and is the rural champion, and councilor Nolan is community engagement, safety, and enforcement. The cabinet collectively, provides strategic leadership to the council. So the first thing we can do is just check out is have you got any apologies for absence? There's no apologies this evening, chair. Thank you, Lauren.
The second bit is declarations of interest by members or officers. Any been entered already? We've got none in advance, chair. Any of you want to raise a a okay. Marie Marie Royal?
I'm a director of Kinenco. Okay. That's great. So we got those all logged here. That's fantastic.
Okay. So this is a chance now for cabinet members to update us with announcements if they wish to. So I'm gonna I know Pip was first Pam was first up, then Connie, and then then Alex. So over to you, please, followed by the alarm, please. That and then Mel.
Okay. That's good. Thank thank you, Alan. I wanted to get my hand up first because I've got some really good news, which I think has been in the public domain for a couple of days, but I wanted to be able to officially announce it, you know, in in the Guildhall tonight that, we've been awarded, a massive grant, of a warm homes grant for social housing, in Kent. We're adding to that with, over £11,000,000 from our own housing revenue account, which will basically retrofit, basically, by insulating, homes, high performance windows and doors, and replacing or upgrading heating systems.
And, because, basically, we've got have the political will to get officers to work on this, to prioritize this. We've, over the last couple of years, employed, surveyors to be able to assess the the the condition of the stock. And, actually, the previous administration, that hadn't been prioritized. So because we now have that data, we've been able to do it. And I pay tribute to the officers and particularly the hard work of, one of the officers, Colette Wells, in in getting that through.
And because we know that devolution is on the horizon as well, we're determined to pass on warmer, healthier homes that will save our residents money on their heating bills and at the same time, you know, facing our climate change, you know, commitments and and and those demands of its own. But it feels like a little bit of an afterthought. We have also been awarded £1,500,000, from a warm homes grant, which is, so that, poorer households in privately owned or privately rented accommodation can make applications to upgrade, you know, poorly insulated homes at a EPCD or or below to bring them bring them up to standard. And that in its own you know, on its own is, you know, is something that's that we really welcome. But, you know, it's an £18,000,000 package for our social homes plus another 1,500,000.0, grant pot.
So, good news. Good news. I'm really pleased to be able to announce it. Thank you. It's been amazing, hasn't it?
It's a bit to keep quiet about it, didn't we? That was even harder, wasn't it? But so thank you, Pip, for for summarizing that, and it's absolutely fantastic news. And, I know Mel's smuggling smiling over there, aren't you, as well? So that that's really good.
Okay. And and Connie next well, I think it was Connie next, wouldn't it? Yeah. And Mel. Yeah.
Thank you. Just two things. First of all, we we are winning the war on the, cyclists cycling down, the high street during ten and and 04:00. Winning the war with the dead bikes, and I've given them the thumbs up, and they've looked at me as if to say, who the heck is she? But there you go.
Thank you for doing that. We still got a lot to go because now we've got members of the public whizzing their way through. If I feel that I've got my lanyard of power on me, I do actually gently stop them and say, I'd hate for you to get a fine. Did you know? And and they say no and get off.
Sometimes they they gesticulate. I think they're they're saying sort of peace peace be with you, round the wrong way or something. But it but it's it's heartening that the message has got through. And I have to pay tribute to, Maccasap, and he had a meeting with, the delivery companies. And I think because it came from him, it, it sort of had had more, authority.
But, you know, we we were asking him to do that, so so that's good news, that's good news. And I've got absolutely terrific news. I'm fairly bursting with pride here. For two years of lobbying Kent Cricket, we've actually got Kent Cricket sponsoring kids cricket, as a as a as a pilot, which is going really well. And they their their own words is historic because, they were quite concerned that we wouldn't get a good take up.
31 children. 31 children. And they were they would run it with but, yeah, that's that's something we can get around. And and I've got talking with them again about running disability cricket and also rolling out in other deprived areas of the district. So I'm absolutely bursting with pride.