Last week, Conservative councillors called-in the Mixenden Hub scheme. The reason for doing so is that the current proposals no longer reflect the original proposals put forward over a decade ago. Residents in Mixenden are dismayed at the lack of progress made on the Hub, and the facilities do not provide what they were promised.
In 2014, Cllr B Collins, a former Labour Councillor for Illingworth and Mixenden, and ex-Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Strategy, once commented at a ward forum: “the Council should be ashamed that nothing has been done on this project so far” and he apologised to residents. It is a shame that since then, the Labour-run Council has failed to deliver this project and has stripped it of its promised facilities.
Nikki Kelly, a local community campaigner has told us that the community are fed up with the excuses from their Labour councillors, “it is appalling how Labour can continue to promise the delivery of the Mixenden Hub every year just before election time. The planned facilities don’t deliver on what the community wants, and they are not interested in the views of residents. It’s about time that Labour stopped leaving Mixenden behind.”
It is for the above reasons that the Conservative Group took the decision to call-in the scheme. We believe that if we are to deliver the Mixenden Hub, the scheme must provide facilities which are most important and desirable to residents in Mixenden and will bring the optimal benefit to the community.
The current proposals lack many of the facilities once envisioned in the scheme, including, but not all at one time: houses, a post office, medium-sized supermarket, library, GP surgery, pharmacy, and community room. The current scheme includes only a library, pharmacy (no tenant in place), health clinic and community garden. This is far cry from the original proposals.
The scheme has faced numerous financing challenges. The revenue from the supermarket retail development was expected to provide much of the finance for the development in the original plans. In the Cabinet report, the Council is expecting to finance the scheme with additional prudential borrowing, which will need to be incorporated into future budget setting, and if no tenant is secured for the pharmacy/retail unit, further subsidies from the revenue budget will be required.
The Conservative Group is calling for:
- A full consultation with residents in Mixenden to find out their views on the current proposals, and which facilities they would have liked to see at the Mixenden Hub.
- To consider alternative revenue streams, grants, and facilities, in order to guarantee that the scheme is financially sustainable, and to ensure that the project is a success and catalyst for regeneration in the Mixenden area.
