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In 2013 Terry Cutmore, Leader of the RDC, was also elected to be one of Rochford’s 4 representatives on Essex County Council. We asked Terry to talk about these early days of life on the County Council and you will find that Interview on the County Council pages of Rochford Life.

After he spoke about the County Council we moved  on with an overview of what has been happening in the past year in the life of the District Council. We hope you will find this informative and helpful in bringing understanding to the working of the Council.

2013: Talking with Terry Cutmore, Leader of Rochford District Council

(November 2013)


RL: Can we do a quick overview on the District, the things you think are key or significant things that have happened this year?

Terry: Well one of the things was the expansion of the Airport and the knock-on from that. We will be creating a business park with our colleagues in Southend and we’re hoping to get six or seven thousand jobs coming into Rochford just north of Aviation Way, in what’s called at the moment Saxon Business Park. That is actually moving forward now and we’ve got various organisations, such as MedTech, together with Anglia Ruskin University, who we’re are looking to settle there. If we can get that organisation coming forward, it will be about tying together some of the research that is done at the moment into medical technology. In a centre of excellence there will be training and many parts to this. And of course you get knock-ons from that going forward. We’ve got some very good companies such as Albon Engineering, and Ipeco, who sit on the borders of the airport, not always associated with the airport, but they want to expand over time and we want to accommodate that, and other businesses as well.


RL: Other things?   

Terry:  Yes, the Core Strategy 2009. We’ve been looking at the allocations this year as you may know. We’ve had the public enquiry and we’ve had an initial reply from that, just some of the things the Inspector wanted to alter, very little in fact.  We’re going out on consultation shortly just on those alterations and then that goes back to the Inspector  and hopefully we’ll be in a position to adopt that some time in February.

I think we’re seeing in some of the councils that surround us, applications coming forward in areas that they don’t want developed and they’ve had to create fighting funds against this. They won’t necessarily get the infrastructure they want because it’s not part of their plans because they haven’t got one adopted. I know other councils are in that position. We’re not in that position because we can fight things like Coombes Farm because we had the Plan in place.

Looking to the future, I think you’ll see the development in Hall Road probably coming forward next year. We’re developing at Brays Lane where there are a hundred houses going up and a great deal of infrastructure for the school as far as the connectivity and safety for the children is concerned. We’ve got what we call the Christmas Tree Farm development taking place now and of course we have the Eon site being developed there and that’s all going forward, a very good site; there won’t be any more traffic than when they had the Eon site there. Some of the development in the District is planned up to 2015 so when people talk about 4000 houses, that’s over thirteen years. We’re actually building at a lower rate than we were in the eighties. There will be development but not over-development. One thing we have to look at is the revue of that, to see how we take that forward, and we will be working with some of our colleagues in Thames Gateway as far as that is concerned, in respect of some of the documents that sit behind that.         


RL: And the Rochford Square?

Terry:  The Rochford Area Plan is coming forward now, out for consultation at the present. As far as the Square is concerned there are two options and our officers haven’t gone for one or the other. It really depends on somebody coming forward with an appropriate scheme and we will consider that at the time. I think one of the things that has come forward is that there are far too many taxi rank places that we don’t need.


RL: How about finances?

Terry: Yes, one of the major things we’ve been clearly looking at is our financial side. In the second year of the new government we saved £1.4M, then the next year I think it was £900,000,  and this year, as we are sitting here, I think we’re looking at another £0.5M and we’re all on target to do that.  Next year it will probably be something like £250,000,  but then it starts to go up a little bit.

We’re talking through our budget stuff at the moment and how we work together and how we work with other councils, what we can look at, what we can trim.


RL: And you’re losing your existing Chief Executive.

Terry: Yes, Paul Warren leaves on the 31st December, going for retirement. He’s been there more than fifteen years as Chief Executive, and Amar Dave is taking over. He has excellent innovative ideas for going forward. Paul is working to ease him in.  I must play tribute to Paul; it’s like losing your right arm, because we have worked hip to hip for ten years now and he’s been an absolute godsend to me; I couldn’t have done it without him.


RL: I believe you’ve also been winning awards?

Terry: Our Arts trail has just won a cup for Eastern England, and our legal team has won a national  award relating to the work that they did on the Michelins Farm case, so we don’t do badly with the resources we’ve got in Rochford. There are challenges all the time and it’s about meeting those challenges with the resources that you have, and I think we’re very successful in doing that.


RL: How does your County work inter-relate with your District work now?

Terry: When I go to County now, it’s interesting that I get asked by other leaders about things we do in Rochford, and it’s great to be in that position. It’s nice to be able to go to County and talk to people wider afield. I can go to talk to Bob Boyce, the leader of Maldon, just over the river, and we’ve already had a meeting about some of the things we can do together. We have the Wallasey wetlands coming on. They have the Burnham side and we need to join some of these things together and say, how can we complement each other on this?  One of the things I want to see coming forward as far as economic development is concerned, is actually using the river more. We have an asset there that we don’t really use.


RL: You have ideas about the wider area?

Terry: I’ve got some various ideas about what we can do over at Foulness because we have lots of land there. Some of it is polluted and contaminated, some is prone to flooding and so forth, but it’s something like 26 square miles and a thousand buildings out there.   It’s a testing place and research place, which I’m told would be difficult to duplicate elsewhere, but out there is the sort of compromise that you get because there are also sites of special scientific interest, bird life sanctuaries and so on. That’s part of the deal as far as Wallasea is concerned and it will be 500 hectares by the time it is finished, and all the stuff they are depositing there is coming by sea, nothing over land, only the stuff to build the jetty and the equipment came by land but that’s done.  


RL: You sound like you are concerned for the environment?

Terry: I’m very much involved in the Thames Gateway on the environmental side. There are some good ideas coming forward. Yes we want to develop, yes we want business to grow but, certainly as I see it, it’s my portfolio in the Gateway in South Essex to work on the carbon reduction and environmental side, and I want to make sure there is a quid pro quo so you’re also creating country parks and making them available for people. There is a lot going forward across the Gateway and there is money being spent. Sometimes you can get money on the back of these developments and I see that as an advantage because yes, it will mean there will be more houses and more people but it will still be a lovely place to live.  I think in Rochford at the moment we are 82% Green Belt and that’s not going to go away and if you look around south Essex, we’re pretty unique in this respect.  That’s great and we want to keep it that way but in going forward I think there is a lot we could do. We’ve always tried to be a good partner to those that we work with and I think you’ll never achieve anything without partnership, you always need money or investment or advice or to work together with somebody to deliver something and I think it is how you work together with others that actually shows your mettle.  I think in Rochford we’ve just had another successful year. There are always changes and that requires you to be innovative                


RL: Changes for next year?

Terry:  Not so much for next year as for the longer term. There are already changes coming through as far as housing and other things are concerned. One thing we have got to look at, and every council has got to look at,  is what are your priorities as far as spending is concerned? Are the things you are doing, things you necessarily have to do, or can you give them to somebody else, perhaps the charity side?  Perhaps the charity side is something that is neglected. Charities have always survived and from year to year they go on never knowing what they are going to get next year and yet they can deliver value for money. There are costs, quite rightly, you don’t get it for nothing, but as far as value is concerned you’ve got someone volunteering for something rather than paying someone else to deliver it professionally.  I think there are great possibilities there. Maybe even the Health Service has recognised that now, with things like the befriending service which just wasn’t there before now.



Part 2 of Interview


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