To receive petitions and public questions in accordance with Standing Order 9.
Minutes:
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Under standing order 9 the Mayor invited the following to pose their questions:
1 Question from Ms Trudy Clark
With reference to the Town Deal; may I ask what decisions the Town Deal Board have reached concerning the fund and how soon can any decisions be implemented?
Cllr Middleton responded:
The Town Deal Board have agreed the Town Investment Plan covering investment priorities (which includes the asks to government circa £25m) and this has been submitted to government. The Cabinet endorsed the TIP at its special meeting 26 October. Feedback is expected from government in early January, and it is expected ‘heads of terms’ (a broad agreement of those initiatives to be funded, the terms and conditions, and indicative values) will be agreed within a couple of months. This will be a three way agreement between government, the Town Deal Board and the Borough Council. Further detailed business case work will then start. There will be up to a 12 months for this to be completed and finalised with central government.
In relation to the Town Deal Accelerated funding that was announced in July, the Town Deal Board endorsed the proposal to support the School of Nursing and Public realm projects for the submission to government in August 2020. This was approved by Cabinet as the lead authority and accountable body for the funds at the meeting on 10th August 2020. The funding was approved by government in September and delivery of the schemes are now underway.
By way of supplementary Ms Clark asked if any of the money would be spent on the proposed Parkway development. Councillor Middleton responded that there were a variety of items which had been put forward but as some were commercial it was not possible at this stage to divulge the detail as the Government had not yet confirmed the success or otherwise of the bids.
2 Public Question from Mr Alistair Kent
Peat.
There are well documented and serious adverse consequences arising from peat extraction for horticultural and agricultural use, including loss of habitat and biodiversity, run off and waterway pollution and increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Given the existence of viable and cost effective alternative products such as bark, coir and wood fibre, and in the light of the recently adopted policy on climate change, has the council committed or will the council commit to stop the purchase of peat for use in parks and gardens and for amenity planting in all situations, and for all planting associated with the Anglia in Bloom Award, and/or to set a date by when this will be implemented?
Councillor Mrs Nockolds responded: At the moment the Compost we are using contains no Sphagnum Moss harvested from sites of special scientific interest. It is free of chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides or stabilisers as per the EU Fertilising Product Regulations July 2019.
The compost we use contains between 10% to 20% composted pine bark. the total we use is 11 tons.
At present the main ongoing use of the compost is to ensure and assist with the growth rate and quality of plant stock.
Peat based alternative tends to be largely alkaline based, which depending on the variety of plant can promote or delay growth and development.
Using alternatives can be problematic as the compost we use is multi-purpose which ensures all plants no matter what variety have consistent growth to ensure availability for our scheduled planting borough wide from mid-May each season.
Our in-house compost trials which happened 5 years ago which included some from a locally sourced recycled soil, was made up with a high percentage of bark, wood and coconut fibre.
The trial ended with very poor results on plant propagation, growth and size, along with the general standard of plants, some which were not at our expected standard and had to be replaced.
Also 3 out of 4 trial materials required manual sieving to enable it to be manageable to use in smaller sized potting trays and containers.
We believe since then materials have improved therefore we have planned to have a material trial again, firstly within the shrub, grasses and our tree stock and then the use of alternatives for our Autumn and Winter bedding 2021.
The evaluation of the trials can then be used to assess future use.
By way of supplementary Mr Kent asked of the Council would engage with their suppliers to further decrease the use of peat and encourage the use of alternatives and reduction in carbon emissions.
Councillor Nockolds confirmed that was the aim.