If you were watching last night’s Full Council meeting, you will have heard me announce that the Full Business Case for the redevelopment of the Station Quarter has been submitted to Government.
It’s a significant moment for us, and the city as a whole, as this development will transform the station area for residents, businesses and visitors, particularly those who access the city in that way.
It’ll also create new jobs and contribute a significant amount of additional money into our local economy, as a result of more people choosing to visit the city and making it an even more attractive place to set up business.
Overall, the scheme, which is being paid for using £47.85m Levelling Up funding from Government, will create 500 jobs by 2027 and 4,000 new jobs in the longer term, which is great news for residents.
We’ve reached a major milestone and subject to approval we hope work can start later in the summer on the city link, which will better connect people from the current station buildings towards Cowgate.
The plans also involve creating a new double-sided station with a new western access off Thorpe Road that will have a multi-storey car park, enabling commuters and visitors to quickly access platforms from that side of the city.
A new station square will be delivered on the existing eastern side, creating a better arrival experience and a nicer area for people who are waiting. It will also unlock some defined plots for future development opportunities.
Projects of this size are once in a generation, and I would like to thank all involved for their hard work, particularly our project partners at the Combined Authority, LNER and Network Rail.
At today’s Cabinet meeting councillors will be asked to sign off a plan for how we will spend the latest round of Household Support funding from Government.
It’s the seventh round of funding, as part of which we’ll be getting £3.2m. We’ll be using the money to provide school meal vouchers for eligible households during the school holiday – something we know to be a lifeline for many families.
We’ll also continue to work with the community, including faith organisations, to reach people that are in, or heading towards, crisis and have not accessed support available.
It’s the latest in a long line of funding announcements for the city from Central Government, showing their commitment to supporting the city and our residents.
Two of our primary schools, John Henry Newman at Hampton and Northborough Primary, will both receive funding to run breakfast clubs, aimed at improving school attendance, educational performance and attainment.
And £137,000 is also coming our way for improvements at the museum, including a new lift. We are working collaboratively with the Friends of Museum, including to look at how we can bring in additional income, so this extra funding is most welcome.
The Friends have also kindly offered to donate a sculpture as part of our station quarter transformation, to be placed on the walkway towards Cowgate from the station. It is support like this that is becoming endemic in the city, and I am so proud to be part of it.
Last week there was an Extraordinary Full Council meeting to discuss the issue of the size of the land at Ken Stimpson Academy which should be leased to The Four Cs Academy Trust.
It was a productive meeting where members voiced their opinions on this long-running issue and in the end a decision was made, committing us to granting a lease to the school for a smaller area of land than is designated education land, but also to agreeing the area of land to be leased with the academy trust.
It is the latter which may make this decision hard to achieve, but we will once again negotiate with the academy trust. There is also the matter of whether we can legally demise only some of the education land. It is for these reasons, that I suspect this matter may come back to cabinet in the not-too-distant future.
However, last Thursday’s meeting did feel like progress, and I would say we have achieved more in the past 9 months than any of the previous administrations in the past six years! As I said last week, we must find a way forward on this matter as quickly as possible so that the children of Ken Stimpson can once again use this outdoor space.
And finally, this week is National Food Waste Awareness Week. I know there’s a national week for everything it seems, but this one is quite important for our city. There’s the obvious benefit of people supporting our net zero aspirations by recycling more of their waste, but also the financial impact too, when you consider that it costs us £870,000 every year to dispose of food waste mixed into black bin rubbish. Currently 27 per cent of the black bin waste we receive is food waste.
At a time when we are struggling to provide the services that our residents need with the budget that we have available, we could be spending that £870,000 far more productively.
Last year we recycled 4,000 tonnes of food waste in the city and we're on track to beat that this year with 479 tonnes recycled in January alone because of a concerted effort by council staff to raise awareness amongst our communities.
So please, if you’re not recycling your food waste, please make it your mission to do so.