To advise Members of the annual activity in Rural Regeneration within Herefordshire.

The Committee was advised of the annual activity in the Cabinet Member Portfolio for Rural Regeneration and Strategy.

The following are the principal points from the ensuing discussion:

·         Concern was expressed at the number of empty shops in Ross on Wye and the Cabinet Member was asked what he was doing to improve the situation.

The Cabinet Member shared the concern that the Member expressed and stated that whilst there were some schemes in place to help traders in Ross-on-Wye there were still some empty premises in the town centre.

The Market Towns Officer informed the Committee that there had been 16 applications for shop front grants from traders in Ross-on-Wye which had resulted in the Council approaching Advantage West Midlands for additional funds for the scheme.  He also highlighted that Business Rate relief was available to new traders for three months.

A Member of the Committee felt that schemes such as these were insignificant.  He felt that Ross-on-Wye was in serious of need of complete economic regeneration.  He stated that out of town shops were detrimental to the town centre and that planning policies should be amended to prevent further developments.

It was suggested that tourists visiting the Ross on Wye and Monmouth areas were more likely to visit Monmouth than Ross on Wye.  He thought that the Committee should consider investigating tourism in the County.

It was noted that there were many empty shops, particularly in Widemarsh Street, Hereford.  This was again seen as a serious concern.

The Director of Adult and Community Services added that an Economic Development Strategy for the County would be published soon.  He suggested that shops could widen their portfolios by branching out into web sales.

The Head of Economic and Community Services stated that investment was taking place in Hereford.  She explained that Marks and Spencer were set to complete a major refurbishment of its Hereford store in the future.  It was also noted that Asda was set to increase its opening hours.

·         It was noted that Bromyard Town Council was developing a Parish Plan and had recently formed a steering group to facilitate the process.

·         The Chairman called for the development of a night-time economy in Hereford City Centre.  He felt that the Council could provide grants to City Centre cafes to remain open into the late evening.

·         It was noted that the livestock market would probably be the subject of a separate meeting and any questions on the issue could be addressed them.

·         In response to a series of questions the Cabinet Member explained that some small parts of the Council’s smallholdings estate had been sold. 

He also explained that many of the properties within the Councils ownership would require a lot of maintenance expenditure.

He gave an example of a property which contained a listed wall that would have cost £70,000 to repair.  However, it had been possible to sell the property and the £70,000 bill was avoided.  He explained that it was his intention to continue with this policy.

In response to a plea not to sell off the Council smallholdings estate as it was a valuable asset the Cabinet Member informed the Committee that whilst the entire estate was worth over £30m it had a relatively low rental income at £400,000 per annum.  The majority of this rental income was spent on repairs, then officer costs with a small sum uncommitted.  He felt that as the estate did not contribute significant amounts of money then parts of it should be sold when the opportunity arose to fund other projects.

He explained that around half of the estate’s tenants had lifetime leases.  The majority of these were owned by farmers and the average age of a tenant was 59.

RESOLVED: That, the report be noted.