The City Mayor will be at the meeting to discuss progress with:-
a) establishing the future use of Braunstone Hall; and
b) the Connecting Leicester programme
Minutes:
Sir Peter Soulsby, the City Mayor, advised the Meeting that agreement on the future use of Braunstone Hall was close, but had not been finalised. He reminded the Meeting that a potential purchaser was proposing to provide hotel and conference facilities at the Hall. The draft site plan included the provision of a new cafe in the park and toilet facilities and initial estimates had been made for cost of the necessary road works.
Draft legal documents were with both parties’ solicitors and the City Mayor had been told he would receive a report to approve the contract in November 2012.
It was likely that a planning application for the proposals would be submitted in January 2013. Ecology and environmental surveys would need to be completed and other details finalised, but as they could be done after the formal planning application had been considered, it was likely that work on them would start in the Spring of 2013.
In the meantime, the Council was maintaining the property as best it could. For example, unsealed asbestos had been discovered in the basement and removed and dry rot in the main hall had been treated. The City Mayor stated that he was very confident that the Hall could be brought back in to use.
The City Mayor then explained that a consultation was underway on proposals for the Connecting Leicester programme, which had been initiated to reconnect the various parts of the City. For example, the underpass on the inner ring road, (which had been dug through a Roman forum), split the centre. Ways therefore were being sought to reconnect with buildings and places such as Saint Nicholas Church and Castle Park. So far, there had been a very positive response to the programme.
In response to questions and comments from the community, the City Mayor responded as follows:-
· It was proposed to move the meat and fish market, possibly to the current Market Corner area, and rebuild it on the scale of the old meat and fish market;
· An archaeological excavation had been carried out in the area below new part of the current market building when it had been built. In view of this, and as there currently were storage areas below the building, it was unlikely that further excavations would be carried out there;
· Some buildings from the 1960s were worth preserving, such as Vaughn College and some buildings previously associated with Leicester University;
· The City Mayor undertook to look in to a concern that Highcross had been built on top of a Roman mosaic floor;
· More should be being done to light the facades of some of the buildings in the City centre, as there were some beautiful buildings there. Such lighting needed to be done sensitively;
· The City Council could not, in general, control shop window displays, but it was working with local businesses to try and improve shop fronts;
· It was unfortunate that the open top bus tours of the City centre had stopped, but they had been a commercial operation, so the Council had not been involved in the decision to stop them;
· Unfortunately, the City Mayor had very little control over buses in the City, so could not stop services being cut, or influence which services operated from which bus stops. Efforts were being made to encourage the government to grant additional powers to the City Mayor in respect of bus services, but in the meantime, the Deputy City Mayor had established a Bus Users Panel and was in regular contact with the bus companies;
· There were five Medieval churches in the City Centre, but the Cathedral was the only one that was known well;
· One problem with the envisaged Connecting Leicester programme was that there were many things that needed doing and the Council had limited resources;
· The view that pedestrianisation in the City centre had provided some places that could be accessed safely and were good to sit in was welcomed;
· There already were more people living in the City centre than there had been for many years and it was recognised that using areas above shops as flats would bring more life to the City centre;
· The walled garden was open to the public and would remain so. A lot of people did not know that it was there, but it was hoped that this could be remedied;
· When Braunstone Hall was redeveloped, parking would be available for people visiting it. Fortunately, there was sufficient space around the Hall for people to be able to park without encroaching on the green areas. When the planning application for this development was received, care would be taken to ensure that the proposals would not lead to visitors to the Hall parking in local streets; and
· Although it was possible that work on Braunstone Hall could start before the required environmental surveys had been carried out, it was felt that this was unlikely to happen in practice.
During the discussion, concern was expressed about the condition of Gilroes Cemetery and the poor standards of maintenance there. In response, the City Mayor, advised that serious discussions had been held about this and he had been advised that there had been particular problems there this year due to staffing issues and the weather. However, it was recognised that the Cemetery needed to be better maintained.
Concern also was expressed that the covers of boxes installed by suppliers of cable services, such as television, often went missing, which could be dangerous when the boxes were on footways. The City Mayor undertook to look into this.
In summary, the City Mayor reminded the Meeting that views on the proposed Connecting Leicester programme were welcome, including ideas for how further connections could be made.