To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor DJ Benjamin, B Durkin, DW Greenow and PM Morgan.

To receive any details of Members nominated to attend the meeting in place of a Member of the Committee.

Councillor G Lucas substituted for Councillor DW Greenow, Councillor MD Lloyd-Hayes substituted for Councillor DJ Benjamin, Councillor JE Pemberton substituted for Councillor B Durkin and Councillor PJ Watts substituted for Councillor PM Morgan.

To receive any declarations of interest by Members in respect of items on the Agenda.

GUIDANCE ON DECLARING PERSONAL AND PREJUDICIAL INTERESTS AT MEETINGS

The Council’s Members’ Code of Conduct requires Councillors to declare against an Agenda item(s) the nature of an interest and whether the interest is personal or prejudicial.  Councillors have to decide first whether or not they have a personal interest in the matter under discussion.  They will then have to decide whether that personal interest is also prejudicial.

A personal interest is an interest that affects the Councillor more than most other people in the area.  People in the area include those who live, work or have property in the area of the Council.  Councillors will also have a personal interest if their partner, relative or a close friend, or an organisation that they or the member works for, is affected more than other people in the area.  If they do have a personal interest, they must declare it but can stay and take part and vote in the meeting. 

Whether an interest is prejudicial is a matter of judgement for each Councillor.  What Councillors have to do is ask themselves whether a member of the public – if he or she knew all the facts – would think that the Councillor’s interest was so important that their decision would be affected by it.  If a Councillor has a prejudicial interest then they must declare what that interest is and leave the meeting room.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 12 December 2008.

RESOLVED: That the minutes for the meeting held on 12 December 2008, be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To consider suggestions from members of the public on issues the Committee could scrutinise in the future.

There were no suggestions for scrutiny.

To consider the Cabinet Decision to relocate the Hereford Open Retail Market from the Livestock Market to the St Peter’s Street/High Town interface and Commercial Street as from 8 April 2009 that has been called in by three Members of the Committee: Councillors DJ Benjamin, GFM Dawe and MAF Hubbard.

The Chairman opened the debate on the Open Retail Market by asking the Cabinet Member (Economic Development and Community Services) to put forward his case.

The Cabinet Member reported that the subject of the Open Retail Market had been discussed at length at Cabinet on the 19th February 2009 before a decision had been made.  Prior to this meeting, there had also been a site visit to Commercial Street with Officers and members of the Hereford City Partnership to view the intended venue for the re-located Open Retail Market. 

As a result of these discussions, four main alterations had been made to the original proposal:

• That the move of the market to High Town would be only be undertaken as part of a one year trial which would be followed by a detailed study of the effectiveness of the new arrangements.

• That a retail impact study would be undertaken as part of the trail exercise.

• There would be a thorough review of the strategy surrounding the policy of selecting new stallholders and the quality of the retail offered as well as its geographical origin.  The first draft of this strategy had been put together and would be discussed with the Hereford City Partnership.  The Partnership would also be involved in the selection of stallholders.

• The Council would consider using Experion, the footfall performance measuring solutions company, to analyse the impact of the Open Retail Market and any other activity in High Town on the Butter Market in High Town.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member for his contribution, and invited the Acting Head of Environmental Health and Trading Standards to comment on any additional areas that had not been covered by the Cabinet Member.

The Acting Head of Environmental Health and Trading Standards reported that the issues that had been raised in the Call-in document had been considered in detail:

• The concern that shop fronts would be obscured had been addressed by the decision to position stalls a further 1 metre out, so that they would now be 3.3m from shop fronts.

• The draft Allocations Policy had been developed over the last week, and signed off by the Cabinet Member, Economic Development and Community Services.

• The proposal was timely, given the current economic climate, as it would help to energise the City centre, and encourage businesses to invest in the City.

• In reply to a question from a Member, he said that twenty five units were proposed, not all of which would be held by individual stall holders.

The Chairman thanked the Acting Head of Environmental Health and Trading Standards for his contribution, and invited the Central Ward Member to speak on behalf of the Members who had called the Decision in.

The Central Ward Member said that he was a great supporter of street markets, and did believe that they brought vibrancy to city centres.  He was concerned, however, that the consultation process that had been undertaken to support the report to Cabinet regarding the relocation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 95.