Agenda item

The Mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones, made the following announcements:-

 

Mayoral Plan

 

“We are now 2 years into this council term and it is an appropriate time to review progress and identify some short-to-medium term activity that will act as key stepping stones towards overall goals in making a Safer, Stronger, Cleaner and Green Doncaster for all.

 

Long-term ambitions for 2030 have been published both in the Doncaster Delivering Together borough strategy and in a suite of supporting strategies that sit beneath it. It’s important that we celebrate the significant progress that has been made and recognise the added scale of these achievements in the light of such difficult circumstances from the Covid pandemic to the current cost of living crisis.

 

These achievements do not belong to just one organisation, but to the range of partners that have navigated through sometimes conflicting individual priorities to find common ground and come together to use collective insight and resources to make a real difference to the lives of residents.

 

I would like to highlight some of the key developments to date, but to note there are many more achievements

 

•           Locality-specific plans and budgets have been developed, based on resident insights and priorities; and have refreshed the Council’s Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion framework to ensure it is an integrated consideration in all decision-making processes.

•           Residents have been supported through the cost-of-living crisis through information and advice and provided practical support in the form of a Household Support Fund. The Council have welcomed over 225 Ukrainian refugees to settle in Doncaster following the invasion of their home country by Russia.

•           Going forward, a Fairness and Wellbeing commission will report later this year their recommendations as to how the Council can go further to ensure equality and equity across the borough.

•          More resources will be put into targeted activity in certain neighbourhoods - to tackle antisocial behaviour, as well as to support access to parks, and leisure and cultural opportunities for the more vulnerable members of the communities.

•           Launching a kindness platform – celebrating the positive and inspiring stories of kindness across the borough and developing and enhancing early intervention support services through the creation of a new Community Prevention Service.

•           Significant investments in homecare and supported living to increase capacity to support people in their own homes and facilitate quicker hospital discharges.

•           The Council have invested over £9million in leisure facility improvements at Hatfield Outdoor centre and campsite, the Dome cycle circuit, and Armthorpe, Askern, and Rossington leisure centres - and a further £5million investment is ongoing at Thorne leisure centre.

•            The Council have brought together over 60 primary schools to form a Physical Education and Active schools network leading to increased physical activity for Doncaster children throughout the day,

•           Over £3million of investment planned as part of our Parks improvement programmes - which includes work in Denaby, Campsall, Town, Hexthorpe, Edlington, Mexborough and many others.

•           Over the last decade, we've seen 15,000 new jobs created and almost 10,000 houses built (this included over 1900 affordable homes, of which over 500 were new council homes). Employment rates have increased from around 65% to almost 75% and Unemployment rates have fallen from 11% to less than 3%.

•           In addition to continued housing delivery by private developers, a key priority I have for the next two years is to add over 250 new homes to the council housing stock - these will come from both new build programme and acquisitions programme.

•          Focussing efforts to ensure supported housing for vulnerable people is up to standard and seek to work with landlords to ensure standards in the private rented sector improve.

•           There has been over £200million of new investment in Doncaster and over 1200 jobs created or safeguarded in the last year alone - this is particularly impressive given the struggles many businesses have experienced during and following the Covid pandemic and whilst operating in different circumstances following the UK’s exit from the EU.

•          The Council want to continue economic growth across the coming decades and so two key priorities for the next 2 years are to support the re-opening of the international airport, and to deliver on city and town centre regeneration programmes which will include work at the Waterfront site, St James' baths, the city gateway and in Stainforth at the Head stocks, rail station and the high street.

 

Mayor Jones went on to mention work on Sustainability and tackling climate change

 

•          Doncaster has seen around 100,000 trees planted since 2021, and over 1.6 million square metres of land has been allowed to naturalise to help with our biodiversity improvement ambitions. Dozens of council fleet vehicles have been replaced with electric vehicles since 2021 and over 150 new electric vehicle charging points have been installed since 2022 - all of which will continue to be priorities going forward.

•         Over 850 council and privately owned homes have been fitted with external wall insulation, loft insulation and new roofs since 2021; and 118 SMEs and micro businesses have been assisted with low carbon grants during 2022-23.

•          Property-level flood resilience measures have been fitted to over 400 residential homes following the 2019 floods; and Environmental implications will now be included and considered as part of all Council decisions.

•          I will continue to push the Council to recycle more, and to support residents and businesses to do so too.

 

Further details on the priorities can be found in the partnership strategies, and the specific detail and timing of any planned activity is set out in the various partner corporate plans and service plans.

 

As always, residents, businesses, and the communities they make up will be at the forefront of the plans. They also help shape the way the Council deliver the services and projects developed; ensuring that the benefits are enjoyed by all.

 

I will be bringing forward a Team Doncaster document later in the year that will fully present my Mayoral Plan alongside the achievements in the first couple of years of the Borough Strategy and looking ahead to the next two years.

 

I'd like to close this statement by taking the opportunity to thank all elected members for their continued support and challenge so far and would encourage and welcome it to continue both from the point of presenting your own valuable insights, but of course, in your role as representatives of the residents, businesses and organisations across Doncaster. Together we have made huge progress towards our ambitions, and it’s by working together that we will continue to do so”.

 

Corporate Peer Review

 

“I reported to Council on our Local Government Association Peer Review progress in July 2022.

 

A lot has happened since then:

 

·         We have brought the children’s trust back into the Council

·         We have become a city

·         We have worked tirelessly on securing a future for our airport; and

·         We have helped residents right across our borough with the cost-of-                   living crisis.

 

All whilst delivering essential services day in day out, it certainly has been a busy time

 

Built into the peer review process is a further review 6-9 months afterwards. I am pleased to inform Council that this review took place in April this year, and we have now received that report from the Local Government Association. It further describes the progress we have made as an organisation...In particular, I would like to share these observations:

 

·         The Peer Team was pleased to see the positive way in which the council addressed the recommendations of the Corporate Peer Challenge of 2022.

·         The peer team was impressed with the progress made so far…

·         The peer team was pleased to see the positive profile Doncaster is beginning to get locally, regionally and nationally and look forward to learning about and celebrating its achievements and successes in the future

 

This report is now live on our website for all to access.

 

This positive recognition belongs to all of us. When I became Mayor in 2013, I took over a dysfunctional council that was seen as a basket case by national government.

 

It has been the hard work of this council that has turned the ship around and we are now seen as a strong and credible council in the eyes of government with a number of services that are used as exemplars across the country. As a labour council we are delivering for the people and businesses of Doncaster despite the many challenges being faced.

 

However, whilst we should rightly take stock and celebrate the feedback we have received, we must remember we are on a journey and there are still many areas in which we can improve.

 

We will do that, as we always do, together”.

 

Councillor Nigel Ball, Portfolio Holder for Public Health, Communities, Leisure & Culture made the following announcement:-

 

Article 4 – Doncaster Sheffield Airport

 

“This morning I have approved a new planning measure which will help protect and preserve Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

 

Subject to the call-in period for the decision, the demolition of any building at the airport will require planning permission to be granted permitting it. The measure, known as an immediate Article 4 direction, allows the Council to remove certain rights which would otherwise be permitted without needing to apply for planning permission.

 

Prior to this, the Council’s powers to act, should the airport operator wish to demolish a building, were limited.

 

With an Article 4 Direction in place, any proposal to demolish a building at the airport – including the terminal, control tower and runway – will need to be assessed via the full planning process. This therefore allows the Council to scrutinise the principle of development against the development plan and other material considerations and opens up the possibility that demolition of buildings at the airport, if proposed, could be refused.

 

I have deemed it necessary to take this step immediately to preserve the proper planning of the area. There are grounds to be concerned about the intentions of the landowner to remove buildings and infrastructure at the airport and promote an alternate use for the site.

As we all know, the airport is a key infrastructure asset for this City, South Yorkshire and the North of England, and something we as a Council are fully behind seeing re-open.

 

The airport brings numerous benefits to Doncaster, its residents and its businesses, including access to international travel, and of course, various quantifiable economic benefits. It allows for access to and from international markets for trade, business and tourism and can act as a driver to stimulate growth in higher value sectors

 

The Article 4 Direction I have approved can help maintain the airport site and its operational ability, with a view to re-opening as a fully functioning airport.

 

As part of this process, an informal consultation was undertaken, which received over 96% support from the public for the measures I have approved today.

 

The decision will now be subject to a call-in period. Following and subject to this, the Direction would be made and we will need to follow the relevant legislative requirements to progress this, which would include further consultation and a six month period to allow us to decide whether to confirm the Direction.

 

With the Article 4 Direction in place, the airport will have an additional protection in place which will help with wider efforts to re-open the airport and recapture these benefits in future. This is part of wider work the Council are undertaking with regards to the airport, including wider negotiations about acquiring the leasehold, and progressing with the preparatory stages of a compulsory purchase order.

 

This is part of wider work being undertaken by this Council with regards to our airport, including wider negotiations about acquiring the leasehold, and progressing with a Compulsory Purchase Order.

 

The Article 4 Direction supports these measures by helping to preserve the airport site and its functionality”.