Minutes:
108.1 The Leader of the Council thanked the Mayor for inviting the students from Broadwater school to speak to Council. As one of the two Ward members he advised he would be very pleased to meet with them to continue their ambitions further.
108.2 He also welcomed Councillor Earwaker and thanked the Electoral Services team and other Staff who supported the byelection and their continued work on the Witley and Milford byelection and the Police and Crime Commissioner elections to be held on 2nd May.
108.3 The Leader advised he had attended a number of Town and Parish meetings in recent weeks as well as a planning committee at Alfold parish and extended the Executives usual offer to other parishes to attend to take questions on any matter relating to the remit of Waverley Borough Council.
108.4 The Leader Councillor Paul Follows then said, “Mayor, with your agreement, I would also like to invite members of the Executive to say a few words under this item.
108.5 Councillor Merryweather advised that the Executive were delighted to announce, that on April 10, Lounges PLC, the owner of Lounges restaurants had signed an agreement for the lease with Waverley Borough Council to occupy the front part of 69 High Street, Godalming. A planning application for the commercial part of the development will be submitted by the end of the month and officers and members hosted drop-in sessions in the Bury’s last week for local residents to see plans and give their views on those proposals.
108.6 Many businesses from The High Street popped in to give their encouragement. Residents could view and comment on the plans on Waverley’s commonplace platform which included frequently asked questions. There had been 550 visits to the site in addition to the residents who came in person. The feedback was positive. The key aim was to ensure that the first element of the development happens quickly so that we could move on to the more important development up to 10 new much needed affordable homes on the larger part of the site to the rear. These New Living Spaces will be energy efficient and designed sympathetically to the surrounding area the homes will reflect the council strategy to create more affordable housing in Godalming as well as protecting the environment by using a previously developed site and optimizing the space.
108.7 He advised that a planning application for the housing will be submitted later this year. Cllr Merryweather thanked the officers for their professionalism and thanked Loungers for their confidence in GodaIming.
108.8 Councillor Paul Rivers thanked Terry Daubney, Chair of the Waverly Tenants Panel for running the tenant open meeting last Thursday. It was a worthwhile meeting with Councillors hearing directly from tenants on how effective and supportive our officers are. He encouraged tenants who wish to join the panel to do so. Cllr Rivers highlighted it is the 30th Anniversary of the tenants panel next year and an opportunity for our tenants to hold us to account.
108.9 Councillor Williams advised that Council would be hearing more about air quality issues a little bit later in response to Members questions but that he wanted to take the opportunity to make one observation in relation to air quality which is of concern to all Councillors. He highlighted that it was somewhat ironic, that at a time when it is clear that poor air quality was compromising the health and even the lives of children, the elderly, the vulnerable and others, that DEFRA had announced that the Air Quality Minister, Robbie Moore had used his discretion not to fund the local Air Quality Grant Scheme for the current financial year.
108.10 On a more positive note whilst he didn't approve the government's bidding culture to fund essential works in local government, he was at least relieved that the officers in Waverly are very good at it. He took the opportunity to congratulate the sustainability team, the leisure services team and the housing team on their successful bids to secure £1,545,000 from the public sector decarbonization scheme to fund decarbonization energy efficiency measures to supply new air source heat pumps for the Farnham Leisure Centre. He also thanked the team that put together the bid of £279,000 from the social housing decarbonization fund to help Waverly's half a million pounds project to upgrade some of our most energy inefficient homes through a fabric first approach. He highlighted these represent a real success which will provide real benefits to residents and Council tenants as well as dramatically reducing carbon emissions.