To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor KG Grumbley.

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

Councillor JHR Goodwin substituted for Councillor KG Grumbley.

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

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 6^th December 2010.

On considering the accuracy of the Minutes, the following amendments were made:

That the final bullet point on page 3: ‘The Golf Driving Range, reported in the capital programme, would be an asset to the Council’ be changed to ‘would be a net financial asset to the Council’.

RESOLVED: That the minutes for the meeting held on 6 December 2010, 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.

Mr M Wilson said that there had been an article in the Hereford Times on a local businessman Mr John King who was prepared to offer assistance to Herefordshire businesses, without a consultancy fee, but that the Council had not been supportive of the idea.

He asked that the Committee would therefore consider calling for an update on what the Council was doing to support local businesses that were needed to fulfil the aspirations of the Local Development Framework and the review of the Joint Corporate Plan 2011 -2014.

The Cabinet Member (Economic Development and Community Services) replied that he was not aware of any dialogue with Mr King but would arrange for someone to contact Mr King to explore his offer further.  A note would be available to Members advising of the outcome of this discussion.

The Chairman said that the questions that had been submitted by Mr JL Faulkner regarding the Report from the Scrutiny Review of the Strategic Direction of the Edgar Street Grid would be addressed during the discussion of the Report.

To receive a report on the Scrutiny Review of the Strategic Direction of the Edgar Street Grid Project.

The Committee considered the findings arising from the Scrutiny Review of the Strategic Direction of the Edgar Street Grid Project.

The Regeneration Programmes Manager presented the report.

A Member said that he was disappointed with the report, and felt that it did not do justice to the work undertaken by the Review Group.  There was a lack of background and evidence to support the Recommendations which, as a result, he believed where incomplete.  The key questions that the Group had set itself had not been addressed, and there were matters that had arisen as part of the Audit Commission’s Annual Audit Letter 2009/10 that would need to be addressed.

The Chairman suggested that a Working Group be set up to address the concerns that had been raised and to produce a further draft of the report. 

Mr L Wolverson commented that there was a common thread that had emerged from the review was the importance of constructing the Link Road from Edgar Street to Commercial Street before any works were undertaken on Blueschool Street and Newmarket Street.  The timing of works on Blueschool street was crucial, as the City would become gridlocked if this was undertaken before the link road was in place.

RESOLVED:

 That:

(a)         in light of concerns expressed by Members, the Committee would not approve the report of the Review Group.

(b)         a Working Party, which would consist of Councillors TM James, KG Grumbley, DW Greenow, MAF Hubbard, SJ Robertson and RH Smith should be set up to formulate an additional draft of the report; and;

(c)         The Report would be submitted to the meeting of the Committee to be held on 7 March 2011.