Report to MDTC Full Council 12^th October 2016
from South Kesteven District Councillor Ashley Baxter

SKDC Full Council
The meeting took place at 2pm on 22^nd of September was attended by 46 of the 56 Councillors although only 30 remained to the end at 5.36pm.
The first hour was mostly concerned with the ‘temporary’ overnight closure of Grantham Hospital. An unfortunate situation over which SKDC has no authority and little influence.
The second hour was a presentation about the Grantham BID (Business Improvement District) which was purely for information and no vote was required.
At about 5pm, after a very brief debate, the meeting approved a proposal to galvanise links with the  Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough Local Economic Partnership (GCGP LEP). This is far more useful to people in the Deepings than the Lincolnshire LEP which SKDC is also involved in.
Finally, Members’ open questions included one from me asking about progress (or lack of it) towards devolution.

Full details are available at http://moderngov.southkesteven.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=261&MId=3317

SKDC Communities PDG (Car Park working party)
Following my comments at the PDG meeting on 1^st September, an additional working party was held on 22^nd September to review a revised draft of the SKDC car parking strategy. The most important, in fact the only small but welcome change was the removal of the reference to the potential disposal of Halfleet car park.

Shareholder Committee 3^rd Oct

This meeting concerned the Council’s plans to form a Local Authority Controlled Company to enable it to do works outside the normal remit of a local authority and hopefully to make profits to offset the Council Tax requirement.

Devolution
The dismal response rate and lack of enthusiasm for an elected mayor in the recent consultation has put a ‘bump in the road’ to devolution. DCLG appears to be insisting on elected mayors as a pre-requisite for devolving control of finances from London to Lincolnshire. Unfortunately the consultation showed almost no support for a mayor. All councils are supposed to respond to the government by November. LCC and SKDC are planning extraordinary meetings during October to discuss their responses even though nothing appears to have changed since the last extraordinary meeting.

Library AGM
At the AGM of the Friends of Deepings Library I stood down from the committee having been involved since the Save the Library campaign was launched in response to the County Council cuts. Thanks to the commitment of the Deepings community including the Town and Parish Councils the library is now the busiest community library in Lincolnshire with over 6,000 members and loaning over 2,000 books a month.

Polling stations
A consultation on polling stations is currently being undertaken by SKDC. It concludes on 14^th October. It recommends the use of the Scout hut as a polling station for the new Swine’s Meadow ward of Market Deeping.

Deepings Business Awards
I attended this event on Sept 30^th as a member of the business club. It was brilliant. Really well put together and a celebration of the vibrant Deepings business community.

As ever, if anyone needs any more information, please do not hesitate to let me know.