Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Civic Offices, Shute End, Wokingham RG40 1BN. View directions

Contact: Callum Wernham  Democratic & Electoral Services Specialist

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence.

2.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 361 KB

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 29 March 2021

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 29 March 2021 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

3.

Declaration of Interest

To receive any declarations of interest.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

4.

Public Question Time

To answer any public questions

 

A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice.

 

The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the work of this committee.

 

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Committee or an item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

Minutes:

There were no public questions.

5.

Member Question Time

To answer any member questions.

Minutes:

There were no Member questions.

6.

Work Programme 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 380 KB

To consider the Committee’s work programme for the 2021/22 municipal year

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report, set out in agenda pages 11 to 28, which set out the provisional Committee work programme for the year ahead and service priority lists from the Resources & Assets and Place & Growth Directorates.

 

John Kaiser (Executive Member for Finance and Housing), Parry Batth (Executive Member for Environment and Leisure) and Pauline Jorgensen (Executive Member for Highways and Transport) attended the meeting to provide service overviews and to answer Member questions.

 

John Kaiser stated that the Local Plan Update was ongoing, with a consultation due to go live in July or August of this year and the plan to be finalised by Christmas of 2021. There was an original commitment to deliver 1000 homes over 4 years via Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) owned housing companies. This strategy was now more ambitious, and included offering affordable rents rates of between 40 and 50 percent market rate, which was well below the normal rate of 80 percent of market rates offered across the country. In addition, 40 percent of all homes delivered in the Borough would be affordable, and WBC was exploring options to purchase S106 homes to enable them to be offered as affordable rent or shared ownership.

 

Parry Batth stated that the emerging revised Leisure Strategy was entering a consultation period, which would allow residents to have a say on what leisure offerings they wanted to see in the Borough going forwards. The Carnival Hub redevelopment was also underway, which would host both a brand new leisure centre and a library facility. Parry added that the Cantley park renovation was well underway, with a number of 3G pitches and cricket pitches ready to come online shortly, amongst a number of major improvements across the site. Consultations were underway with a developer in Arborfield to discuss whether the facilities in Arborfield Green could be turned into cricket pitches which would be approved by the English Cricket Board. 3G pitches were under construction at a number of sites across the Borough, including in Arborfield.

 

Pauline Jorgensen stated that the Highways programme would see a three-pronged approach in the coming year. Firstly, there would be major road programmes and road improvement programmes taking place across the Wokingham Borough. The second priority was related to drainage, including provision of additional SUDs across the Borough and a flood mitigation scheme on a section of the River Loddon. The third approach would be in relation to sustainable travel improvements, which would include improvements to cycling and walking infrastructure, a bus service improvement strategy and a low carbon travel strategy. Other priorities within the Service included improvements to parking services, which would include a parking strategy pilot in Twyford and the development of a Borough wide parking management plan.

 

During the ensuing discussions, Members raised the following points and queries:

 

·           What were the approximate housing stock numbers owned by WBC? Executive Member response – There were approximately 2700 properties owned by WBC, however there were not many larger 4-bedroom property social homes.

 

·           Where did  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.