Secretary of State Michael Gove may visit North East Lincolnshire in the new year, it has been revealed.
Council Leader Philip Jackson revealed the possibility to the chamber at Grimsby Town Hall, at the recent full council meeting, in response to a public question asked by Independent councillor Steve Holland.
Coun Holland said: “Speaking in the House of Commons on November 21, the MP for Great Grimsby stated that ‘Great Grimsby secured the first town deal and we have also had Future High Streets Funding, but we have had some of it for two and a half years now and things are not happening quickly enough on the ground.’ She then urged the Minister, the Rt Hon Lee Rowley, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to commit to coming back to Grimsby to ‘make sure we can push the Council forward to get things happening on the ground’.
“The MP is clearly frustrated that lots of Government money is being directed towards Grimsby but not being spent, with some planned projects appearing to be falling behind. I’m sure that the council would welcome such a ministerial visit to help push things forward and I wonder if the Leader could confirm as to whether a date for the visit has yet been set?”
Coun Jackson replied: “I know we all want things to progress faster in Grimsby town centre and are frustrated when there are delays, so let me set out clearly where we are currently.
“Firstly, the Freshney Place leisure scheme. We bid for £25 million and received notice that we would be awarded £17.3 million on Boxing Day 2020 – great news, although it meant we had to redesign the scheme right in the midst of Covid and resubmit proposals to Government. A partnership approach continued to be followed with Arreal (the bank funding Freshney Place) and Capreon, representatives of the owners.
“A variety of survey works were undertaken to more accurately understand detailed design implications. All was proceeding well but given the backdrop of covid and impact on retail asset values, Arreal made a strategic decision in Autumn 2021 to withdraw from UK retail centres and accept losses on their loan book. Arreal advised of us this in advance given we had formed a close relationship with them.
“There was immediate engagement with the appointed Receivers but this significantly slowed everything down. Following option appraisals, it was concluded the only viable way to bring the scheme forward was if the Council owned Freshney Place. Thereafter followed a long period of engagement with the Receivers and Agents which ultimately resulted in the council taking ownership in August 2022.
“Ironically, Cllr Holland was one of a small number of elected members who voted against the purchase of Freshney Place. If he had had his wish, it is very unlikely that the leisure scheme would have progressed and Freshney Place would have continued to decline, blighting the town centre.
“Since then, the team has remobilised and we have seen support from DLUCH by switching the Future High Streets Fund monies to support buying Freshney Place, undertaken a public consultation event, prepared and submitted a detailed planning application and gone out to tender. That’s a lot of activity in a short time and is reflective of the fact we’ve had control.
“Stage one tenders are due on January 25 and we expect to be at Planning Committee in February or March. Any perceived delays are almost entirely due to the centre being put into Receivership and that, in itself, was largely due to Covid, which no one planned for.
“Now turning to the Towns Fund projects. Following the development of the Grimsby Town Centre Masterplan and Town Investment Plan (the document setting out how we would spend Towns Fund) and subsequent approval in October 2020, we received notification of £20.9m in March 2021 (again, in the midst of Covid). All funds must be spent by March 2026.
“As per government requirements, we then had to complete very substantial Full Business Cases for each project. The final ones were submitted in March 2022 and with the exception of Alexandra Dock, all have now been approved, the last being November 3.
“The Activation and Community Engagement Fund was launched in November 21 and amongst other things, has supported Our Big Picture to acquire and open their new premises on Bethlehem St, contributing to one of the key aspects of the masterplan being diversification.
“After complex legal matters, St James House has now been acquired by efactor to refurbish and create managed workspaces and conference / meeting facilities. Again, more diversification and e-factor has already commenced enabling works.
“Riverhead Square design has been approved and tenders are due back on December 23. Subject to tender, we expect to be on site early in the new year.
“Background work is being undertaken on the public realm, and connectivity strand and there will be engagement early 2023 and the schemes will commence in 2023.
“The library building – it was always expected that this project would follow later in the programme and further work is being undertaken on the business case with support from One Public Estate while the technical elements of the core works are being scoped. We expect to commence initial works 2023.
“Alexandra Dock phase one – as with the library, it was always planned that this would be later in the programme. Detailed work is ongoing with strong support from Homes England and soft market testing has been undertaken. Enabling works would be anticipated to commence late 2023/early 2024.
“Throughout, we have been in regular dialogue with civil servants, so they are well aware of progress, challenges and delays. As much as it may frustrate us, getting schemes to the delivery point takes a lot longer than it used to and that’s common across the UK. We are certainly ahead of many other areas.
“Secretary of State Michael Gove visited North East Lincolnshire twice in 2022. He is impressed and supportive of the work we are doing here and with our ambitious plans. He is also appraised of the delays and frustrations. All the indications are that he will visit again in the new year.”
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