This week represented a massive milestone for Transform Leatherhead, the Council’s regeneration programme for Leatherhead town centre.
On Tuesday, members of the Scrutiny Committee held a special (Extraordinary) meeting to consider the details of the proposal to set up a 15 year partnership with Kier to deliver the redevelopment of Bull Hill (the area which includes Fairmount House, Park House, Station Road and Randalls Road car parks) and the Swan Centre.
As a member of SLT, it feels like one of the biggest decisions that our councillors have been asked to consider for some time – probably of a similar significance to the decision to transfer our housing stock to what is now Clarion in the mid 2000s. We needed to ensure that our members have properly considered all of the risks involved in entering the partnership as well as the benefits. This was always important, but particularly relevant now, as the reports on Woking’s financial situation refer to the finanical risks created through Woking’s property development projects. Some very valid and perceptive questions were raised by the councillors but on the whole the Scrutiny Committee seemed broadly supportive.
The democratic process still involves two more key decisions, a Cabinet decision on 13 July and a Council decision on the governance aspects on 18 July with a view to finalising and signing all the agreements by the end of July.
The experience underlined for me and the team once more the challenges that our members, particularly newly elected members, must face in having to consider topics and matters which are unfamiliar to them, which are often complex. Many of them work, juggle families and caring responsibilities, have roles on voluntary organisations and Council meetings fall at the end of what may have been a long working day.
We provide a lot of support, ranging from member training, private briefings, and of course doing our best to write clear and informative reports. We also try hard to operate a positive culture, one of mutual respect, good communication and honesty between members and officers, which takes account of our respective roles. If you’ve never worked in, or been exposed to a political environment before, this is probably one of the hardest areas to navigate.
Even more exciting for me this week was achieving a long-held ambition to create a degree apprenticeship opportunity – in this case for a chartered surveyor. It provides a great and rare opportunity for someone looking to work in this field to earn as they learn, and we think we can provide a really good introduction to all things “property” over the next five years. We hosted a work experience student this week, and look forward to welcoming two more students next week and the week after.
Looking ahead to the weekend, I have everything crossed for Dorking Halls Plays in the Park (we don’t want it to be too hot for David Walliams ‘Bad Dad’) in its third year, and looking ahead to the Autumn, we’ve just published our latest brochure so please take a look and book!
Emma
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Actually, I think Plays in the Park had its fourth year this year and whilst set up Saturday morning was wet, the Dorking Halls team worked their magic and 5 minutes before the show started, the rain stopped and with just one small shower during the evening performance.
We haven’t done a Transform Leatherhead drop in session for the benefit of our staff since before the pandemic; so if you’d like to know more, please get in touch with Kate Haacke, Amber Preston or me.