Agenda item

The New Community Manager outlined the current plans for inclusion in the Cranbrook Town Centre Masterplan.  The plans identified buildings including key civic buildings and the order they were likely to be delivered which was critically important to support the residents.

The key civic buildings included:

Ø  Cranbrook Town Council’s building

Ø  Leisure Centre and Health and Wellbeing Centre

Ø  Till House multi-purpose building

Ø  Cranbox

Clarification was sought about whether there would be a need for a building for a Fire Station. The New Community Manager explained that following discussions with the Devon & Cornwall Fire Service they had advised that although there would be a presence it would co-locate in another building so a separate building would not be needed.

Ward Member, Councillor Kim Bloxham welcomed the report and the masterplan advising that Cranbrook needed facilities and this would be an opportunity to move forward the delivery of the town centre that had been anticipated for too long.

Councillor Bloxham expressed the importance of a leisure centre and decent health provision as the Younghayes Centre were barely coping and would be outgrown within the next year. She accepted that whilst the basic town infrastructure would be delivered by developers through the Section 106 Agreement there was an argument that the town should benefit from bidding into the current Community Infrastructure Levy pot, bearing in mind that Cranbrook is delivering approximately half of the current strategic housing need. 

Councillor Bloxham welcomed the move that the delivery of the town centre was to be under the Council’s control but stressed the delivery should be sooner rather than later to avoid the frustration of the community that had been shown towards the Consortium as they had been very slow to deliver key infrastructure and had failed to deliver the town centre road, pavements and crossings.

In response the New Community Manager advised that for the expansion of Cranbrook it is detailed in the Cranbrook Plan and the Development Planning Document that there is an expectation for developers to make capital contributions towards facilities including a leisure centre and a health and wellbeing centre and they will contribute £3m towards facilities for DCC to operate their services from.

Comments made by Committee Members included:

·       Heartening to see so much support from the residents for the town centre as well as for green space, social space and active travel.  It would be good if residents could get an opportunity to have a look at the Masterplan to envisage what their town centre would look like with an opportunity to provide any feedback.  The Chair advised Committee that suitable communications could be done if Members endorsed the recommendation.

·       Ward Member, Councillor Kevin Blakey advised that the proposed layout for the town centre was in line with what the Town Council and Ward Members had envisaged but reiterated the point raised by Councillor Bloxham that delivery was the key issue.

RESOLVED:

That the Cranbrook Town Centre Masterplan be endorsed as an evidence document for use by project teams looking to develop facilities on the town centre land and by the Local Planning Authority as a material consideration of planning applications on the land subject to minor changes and corrections to be agreed in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Strategic Planning.