Cllr. A. King substituted for Cllr R. King, Cllr T. Gates substituted for Cllr S. Williams, Cllr S. Jenkins for Cllr I. Mullens, Cllr C Howorth for Cllr J. Hulley

Councillor M. Darby

Members are invited to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests or other registrable and non-registrable interests in items on the agenda.

No declarations of interest were made.

By resolution of the Committee, the press and public were excluded from the remainder of the meeting during the consideration of the remaining matters under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that the discussion would be likely to involve the disclosure of exempt information as set out in Schedule 12A to Part 1 of the Act.

Please note that the presentation from Ridge will be distributed following the meeting. 

Representatives from Ridge gave a presentation on the investigations and outline analysis that they have completed as part of RIBA stage 1 for the Parkside project.

Cllr Lewis wished it to be noted on record that housing designs could not be considered until the flood risks had been thoroughly resolved. He stated that there were several roads adjacent to the regeneration area that flood that had not been mentioned in the report. It was made clear by the Interim Corporate Head of Housing that these were simply aspirational designs to show the committee what could be achieved and to demonstrate the link between increased density and provision of community facilities. Designs would be brought forward following further technical work, consultation with stakeholders and liaison with the planning department. 

Several other members also raised concerns about the possibility of flooding. Ridge explained that the flood zone data that had been requested from the Environment Agency had been interrogated by consultants and it had been found that the current modelling was based on incorrect data and most of these areas would suffer from surface water flooding only. The only area that would be affected by fluvial flooding would be the allotments and community gardens(Site H). 

Further questions were raised about the amount and make up of social housing. There will be a minimum that sees no net loss of social rented homes, with a likely increase depending on available grant and the viability of the scheme as a whole.

The Housing Development Manager then presented his report on the Parkside Regeneration and drew committee members’ attention to a couple of corrections in the resources section and assured them that the full Equality Impact Assessment will be analysed by the Council’s equalities group.

Members were assured that residents would be informed of the progression of the project, and that there would be various workshops and public events to keep residents updated. Members also raised concerns about the way in which the risk assessment had been carried out. The Housing Development Manager responded to concerns about three of the risk scores and explained to members why they had been graded as low risk.

Other concerns were raised about spending a significant amount of money only for the project to fail on the flooding issue. However, it was emphasised that the current meeting was only to approve progression to RIBA stage 2.

The Committee recommended that:

1. The Housing Committee approve the progression of the Parkside Regeneration project to RIBA stage 2.