In accordance with the Council’s Standing Orders, the Leader of the Opposition shall be given the opportunity to raise one matter relevant to the Borough that has arisen since the last meeting of the Council. The Leader of the Council shall then have the opportunity to advise the Council of matters relevant to the Borough that have arisen since the last meeting.
Decision:
The Leader of the Opposition expressed concern regarding the recent announcement that Waitrose would be closing the Stevenage Old Town store and asked the Leader of the Council whether consideration had been given to the ramifications for the Town.
In reply, the Leader of the Council agreed that she was extremely saddened to hear of the announcement of the closure and stated that it was a huge disappointment for Stevenage to lose such an established brand that had played a key role in the community over many years. She agreed that this was a real concern for residents and businesses in the Old Town.
The Leader advised Council that she had requested an urgent meeting with Waitrose to understand their plans for the future of the site and to open dialogue regarding possible options to relocate the much valued Post Office within the High Street and whether there were options to have a ‘Little Waitrose’ store within the Town. An update with the outcomes would be circulated to Members as soon as possible following the meeting.
The Leader advised that with 97 jobs potentially at risk, this was a time of real uncertainty for Waitrose staff and thoughts were with them at this unsettling time.
Council was informed that the Environment and Economy Select Committee would be scrutinising the provision of Post Offices within the Town as part of this year’s work programme and would also take this matter forward as part of that review.
Due to the change of venue for this meeting, Council then received updates from the Leader on the following urgent items only:
·
Monkswood Traffic Incident - following the
horrendous incident on Monkswood Way,
the Leader thanked the paramedics, nursing and hospital staff who
had worked hard to respond to the incident and said that the
Council’s thoughts were with those who had suffered injury
and trauma as a result. The Leader
advised that concerns had previously been raised by Councillors and
residents with the Police and Herts County Council and regular
contact had been made regarding enforcement of speed restrictions
in the area. Council was informed that
the Leader was working with the Police to consider how these events
could be stopped in Stevenage. An
interim injunction was being applied for and then a longer term
solution would be worked on including making the case for
additional police resourcing in Stevenage. All Members agreed that there were questions that
needed to be answered by the Police in relation to this
incident.
· Daneshill Building Disruption – the Leader reported that early the previous day flooding had been identified in Daneshill House into an area within the building which housed key electrical infrastructure. As a result, a number of measures had been taken to stop the flow of water, shut down power in the location and ensure the safety of the building and those using it. Business continuity procedures had been operating during the incident. It was noted that Customer facing services were continuing to operate including the Customer Service Centre, Housing Options and Planning advice. Operational Services such as grounds maintenance, street cleansing and waste collection had been unaffected.
Council expressed their thanks to all staff involved, in particular Beverley Densham and Paul Ryder from the Council’s Facilities Team for their response to and management of the incident.
The Leader advised that the remainder of the updates would be circulated to Members following the meeting.