Minutes:
Councillors Lynne Allen, Peter Curling and Robin Sansarpuri attended as Ward Councillors and spoke in support of the petition. It was noted that Councillor Curling sat on the Improvement Panel.
Concerns, comments and suggestions raised at the meeting included the following:
Councillor Douglas Mills listened to the concerns of those present and responded to the points raised. He advised that, as his portfolio did not include issues such as festive lights and highway repairs, he would only be responding to the request to extend and amend the shop front scheme policy.
Councillor Mills advised that 70% of the funding for the shop front scheme had come from the Mayor’s outer London grant scheme and the remaining 30% had been provided by the Council - all of this money had been used for the scheme. If additional funding was sourced for a second phase of the shop front scheme, consideration would need to be given to which shops would be eligible to apply for the funding (e.g., whether the scheme should be broadened out to include the shops in Broadway Parade or whether priority should be given to these shops that had been eligible but not participated in the scheme).
It was noted that, when the scheme was launched, it had been anticipated that approximately 20% of the eligible shops would apply for funding. As the total cost of refurbishing each shop front would be £6,000, the Council was able to estimate how big an area the scheme could be made available to. Councillor Mills advised that, although some of the money had been used for pavement resurfacing, this money could have been used to refurbish more shop fronts if there had been more requests for inclusion in the scheme.
Although there was no prospect of expanding the scheme in Hayes Town Centre in the next 12 months, the petitioners were advised that the Council was in discussions with TfL with regard to future work in Hayes. Whilst the majority of any subsequent work would be in relation to highway improvements, there was a possibility that TfL would promote a more joined up approach to regeneration of Hayes Town Centre and take account of cultural events, pop up shops, shop fronts, etc. A decision on whether or not funding would be made available would not be made until December 2012. Negotiations would then need to take place to see if some of that funding could be secured for shop front improvements. There were no guarantees that the funding would be made available and, if it was, that it would be used for shop fronts in Broadway Parade.
RESOLVED: That the Cabinet Member:
REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATION
To allow the possibility of additional shop front funding for Hayes Town Centre to be kept under review.
ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED
None at this stage.
Supporting documents: