Questions
In accordance with Procedure Rules 11, opportunity is provided for Members of the Council to ask the Chairman, the appropriate Cabinet Member or the Chairman of a Committee any question about a matter which the Council, the Cabinet or the Committee has powers, duties or responsibilities.
Questions must be sent in writing to the Monitoring Officer at least 3 clear working days before the meeting.
Minutes:
The Mayor reported that one question had been submitted by Councillor Flude as follows :-
The Vision for Crewe
SQW Consulting, The Vision for Crewe, what is the cost of the contract for this work?
The Leader of the Council, in summary, responded :-
One of the early priorities of the new Council was to identify the development priorities for our major towns of Macclesfield and Crewe. The contract with SQW to prepare an economic vision for Crewe has cost a total of £210,616. The work has been jointly funded through the Council and the North West Development Agency.
This work was tendered through the North West Development Agency’s Framework Contract for regeneration work. Seven tenders were considered and the submission by SQW was assessed to offer both the best value for money and be most likely to deliver an authoritative document that would command wide spread support.
As a result, we got some great value for money. Feedback from public and private stakeholders has been positive and SQW need to be congratulated.
Recent quotes from high profile figures include:
Bombardier Transportation UK chairman Colin S Walton said: “As a major employer in Crewe, Bombardier is pleased to be able to offer its expertise and support to this exciting plan to transform the town.
Chris Gibb, chief operating officer at Virgin Trains:
“Crewe is a key part of the Virgin Trains network and we have
been delighted with the growth in customer numbers using the
service in Cheshire in recent years.
"Now we also need to move to another level of customer service at
the station and today's announcement is a clear sign of the vision
that is required to attract more customers to
rail.”
NWDA chief executive Steven Broomhead said of the recent Government announcement: “The decision over Crewe train station is a big step forward – plans for future development can begin to move forward and Crewe can maximise the opportunities of its excellent infrastructure.
Partners must now work together on a single vision for Crewe which will deliver real change.”
Mr Broomhead has said that he would personally like to sit on what ever Task Group we appoint to move things on in Crewe. At last, we are now getting money coming through. Crewe also received a massive boost with the recent government announcements on the £3m National Skills Academy for Rail Engineering, which we anticipate will be based in Crewe and the DfT support of £22m for Crewe Green Link Road. This is sign that confidence in Crewe is growing and that the Crewe Vision work has provided a momentum that did not exist twelve months ago.