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PP Business Case to be Discussed in Private

The Princes Parade business case will be discussed in the cabinet meeting on 12th December 5pm. Please put the date in your diaries.

However, notice has been issued that at least part of the meeting will be held in private because of “Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information). ‘Financial or business affairs’ includes contemplated as well as current activities.”

Representations may be made by any person, to the Cabinet, stating why the meeting (or parts thereof) should be held in public. Please submit these in writing to committee@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk or Committee Services, Folkestone and Hythe District Council, Civic Centre, Castle Hill Avenue, Folkestone, Kent, CT20 2QY, by noon on the sixth working day prior to the meeting date.

http://www.folkestone-hythe.gov.uk/moderngov/mgListPlanItems.aspx?PlanId=252&RP=142

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Slides from March 2018 Princes Parade Working Group Meeting

Princes Parade Working Group – March 2018 version A (1)

Slide 6 claims there will be 351276 users per annum ie 960 per day which seems somewhat optimistic. It also claims a “revenue turnaround” of £332779. What does that mean?  profit? turnover? The plan seems to be to outsource the management of the facility to a 3rd party with the 3rd party paying the council £61009 per annum. Slide 7 says that 5 trusts have shown interest in running the new leisure centre but have they been shown realistic figures?

Slide 11 lists some developers who have been approached re the housing land. Slide 12 claims a high level of interest from these developers but states that they would prefer to acquire the land for the whole 150 new homes. (The council’s  Financial Viability calculations assumed that it would be sold off as two separate plots.) The slide also says that the developers would prefer a joint venture/structured land sale rather than a straight land sale.

 

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Update

We have sent the solicitors the information they requested and they are now reviewing it all.

The committee vote is a “resolution to approve” and the 6-week time frame to bring JR proceedings does not start until the Council issues the formal decision notice of the grant of planning permission. We are monitoring the council’s website so that we spot when that happens.

However, the council have given an undertaking to the Secretary of State that it will not issue planning permission until he has had the opportunity to consider whether to intervene.

If the Secretary of State does decide to call in the application we may need legal representation at the public inquiry.

We also need to keep an eye on the progress of the local plan which is due to be examined in public this autumn. As you all know the draft plan does include a development policy for Princes Parade and we need to continue to work towards getting this policy deleted before the plan is adopted.

We won’t call in the pledges or set up the crowd funding page until we have a clearer idea how much money we will need to raise.In the meantime our new fundraising committee is busy coming up with ideas for events which we are sure you will all support.

Re the meeting the council had with the Environment Agency on 22nd August regarding the drainage of the surface water into the Canal , the planning officer told us “Discussions are ongoing and the applicant is preparing a document for submission in order to address their concerns”.

Watch this space – we can still Save Princes Parade!

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Financial Viability

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been studying the financial viability reports. There are lots of inconsistencies in these reports so this has not been an easy task.

Clearly the consultants have inflated the costs of the leisure centre on Nickoll’s Quarry to make it look less viable than PP.

They claim that the leisure centre on PP will need a contribution from the council of £2m after taking into account the income from the housing but that figure has been calculated by cobbling together figures from two different reports which were prepared using different bases and assumptions.

Because of this they have failed to take into account all the exceptional costs that apply to phases 3 & 4 (ie the housing phases) so it’s likely that the cost to the council will be considerably more than £2m.

They have also tried to inflate the income for PP eg by including the £1.4m off site affordable housing contribution from the Imperial Green development.

At this stage so much about the project is still uncertain so nobody can be sure of the exact costs. Therefore from a planning point of view we don’t think much weight should be placed on the viability studies.

From a financial point of view we think the council has a lot more work to do so that they have a better understanding of the risks involved and the cash flow implications of this project.

We have sent a more detailed comment on the FV calculation to the planning dept.

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Film / Webcast Screening

The new managers of The Fountain in Seabrook have very kindly agreed to screen the film Princes Parade: Development or Destruction? at 5pm on Thursday 16th August and then the webcast of the planning meeting from 7pm for those who won’t be able to get into the public gallery (places limited to 37).

This will give you all time to get to the Civic Centre after the film for the protest at 6.15pm and get back to to pub for the webcast without missing too much of the meeting.

If you will need a lift to and from the Civic Centre or will be able to offer someone a lift please let us know.

Make sure you show your gratitude to the Fountain by buying a drink or two while you are watching the film and webcast.

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Write to the Planning Committee

Now that there is more time before the planning committee meeting we think it would be very useful if you would all contact members of the planning committee to explain why you think they should refuse the planning application.
 
The key planning argument is that the so called public benefit of the development (mainly the leisure centre) outweighs the harm it would cause.
 
This harm includes:
 
Harm to the setting of the canal (a Schedule Ancient Monument) and it’s tranquility
 
Loss of open space
 
Loss of the visual amenity/open character of the site
 
Devastation to the wildlife and its habitat
 
Flood risk – even if the site itself is now considered to be in zone 1 it is surrounded by zone 3 and so would be marooned in a flood situation.
 
Please try to use your own words and add something about what PP means to you personally and why leaving PP as open space is more important to you than a new leisure centre.
 
Don’t worry about the financial viability/alternative site for the leisure centre argument – we are dealing with that.
 
Our Facebook posts reached 8000 people last week. Imagine if the councillors received 8000 emails objecting to the development of PP! Surely they couldn’t ignore us then. Especially with local elections coming up next May.

 

However, as far as we know cabinet members will not be allowed to sit on the planning committee because of the conflict of interest so there will be substitutes. (We are in discussion with the council about whether Susan Carey should be allowed to sit on the committee as she is an ex cabinet member.) So we suggest you write to all 20 non cabinet members – that should cover all possible combinations of councillors who might sit on the planning committee. It won’t matter if you end up emailing someone who won’t be on the committee.

 

Here are their email addresses: (note that Carol Sacre does not use screens and so will not read emails. Her contact details are:

3 Pilgrim Spring
Folkestone
Kent
CT19 6QE

Bus. phone:  01303 853493)

carol.sacre@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
claire.jeffrey@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
clive.goddard@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
damon.robinson@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
david.owen@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
frank.mckenna@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
Ian.Meyers@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
janet.holben@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
len.laws@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
mary.lawes@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
michael.lyons@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
paul.peacock@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
peter.gane@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
philip.martin@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
richard.pascoe@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
rodica.wheeler@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
roger.wilkins@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
russell.tillson@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
susan.wallace@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
susie.govett@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
Just for information:

The members of the planning committee are listed here: http://www.folkestone-hythe.gov.uk/moderngov/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=439