Yahoo News Council set to control town centre managing firm to boost borough
Basildon Council is set to take control of a town centre management firm, with councillors hoping it will speed up regeneration, boost business and give more power to support the borough's growth. The council’s cabinet agreed to progress the works to give the council control of Basildon Town Centre Management. Councillors said this would give the authority power to run and control areas of the town centre such as car parks, the market area, and public realm spaces.
The transfer of power was discussed at a meeting on November 11. The meeting was told how the changes could see free parking at Christmas, faster regeneration, and measures to help boost footfall and trade for shops. The plans are also set to see the executive director for growth and partnerships and the assistant director of property be appointed as directors of Basildon Town Centre Management Limited should the transfer of control take place. The cabinet agreed to finalise detailed negotiations with the firm and its current shareholders to enable the council to secure a controlling interest in the company.
Adele Brown, deputy leader of the Labour Group and the council and cabinet member for planning and infrastructure told the meeting: "The objective of transferring control this agenda item discusses the proposal to transfer control of Basildon Town Centre Management to an external management body aiming to improve operational efficiency boost local economic growth and streamline decision making.
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"The goal is to create a more agile management structure that can respond quickly to the needs of local businesses while supporting the council's strategic regeneration efforts. I think we are all clear that over time we’ve had a situation where our decision-making process has been made for difficult because of this, and by changing the control mechanisms of it, it enables us to be more dynamic more agile and to take decisions far more quickly that are of benefit when we are talking about the way in which we manage our town centres.”
Kerry Smith, leader of the Independent Group and cabinet member for housing and property, told the meeting: “It’s just common sense to get control of this when you look at the longstanding decline of the retail in Basildon Town Centre and the rise of retail around the A127 and Mayflower, it’s about the parking, now we have options, I don't mean this as a dig but when we’ve seen free Christmas parking in Wickford and Billericay it’s been really good for those shops, people say why can't we do this in Basildon - the council doesn't own the car parks. Now, this is an option should we wish to take that, develop some of the sites, and run the car parks, but again, there will be discussions and consultations. It makes sense to take this back in hand."
Maryam Yaqub, cabinet member for digital futures and data analytics and councillor for St Martin's added: “As ward member for St Martin’s, I think this is the right move I think when it comes down to the market, the car parks, the public realm areas rightfully people look at that and think the council is in control of it and in charge of it and they come to us with issues that we are not able to have a simple direct solution to as we are not in charge of these areas that are really important to our residents.”
