Apologies for absence had been received from Councillors Peter Jeffree and Iain Sharpe.

There were no disclosures of interest.

To submit for signature the minutes of the meeting held on 19^th June 2012

The minutes of the meeting held on 19 June 2012 were submitted and signed.

Update on Charter Place and Watford Market

The Property Section Head provided an update on the Charter Place development and proposals for a new Watford market.  The presentation set out information about the management handover to Capital Shopping Centres (CSC), the options for a new market as discussed with the Sub-Group and the vision for the preferred option at the T J Hughes Car Park site.  He included details for inclusion in the design brief, including those raised by the Sub-Group.  The final slide provided an indicative programme for the new market at T J Hughes Car Park and CSC's new indoor market.

Location of new market

The Property Section Head informed the Working Group of the four locations which had been presented to the Sub-Group.  He explained the difficulties with some of the proposals and how this had led to the preferred option of the site at T J Hughes Car Park.  Officers had found only four realistic sites in the Town Centre.  He explained the capacity at the current location and the proposed stall size at the purpose-built enclosed market at the T J Hughes Car Park site. 

The Chair of the Market Traders' Association stated that many of the traders had more than one unit.  Another Trader asked about the height of the new site.

The Property Section Head explained that the new proposal was in addition to the stalls available in the CSC's new market.  The new market could be as high as necessary.

A Trader was concerned that if there were only 35 units in total, this might mean only 12 businesses could be located in the new market at T J Hughes Car Park. 

The Property Section Head responded that the first action was to get a vision for the market which would link to CSC's proposals.  Following this it would then be possible to consider the transition from the existing market to the new sites.

The Chair, Mayor Thornhill, advised that originally the proposal had been for the market to only be located at the CSC site.  Following discussions with Members and other interested parties it was recognised that further market space was needed and officers had looked at additional options.  This had been an extensive piece of work. 

Following a question about completion dates, the Property Section Head confirmed the proposed completion date for the T J Hughes site was late summer 2013.  He could not provide a date for the CSC market, but the company had indicated that it would be part of the early phase of the development, which could potentially be in 2014. 

Traders were concerned about the fragmentation of the move from the current location to the new markets.  They felt it was preferable to move once rather than to the new market at the T J Hughes Car Park and then to the market in Charter Place.

The Chair suggested that those moving into the T J Hughes site on a long term basis should be a priority.  With regard to the other  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

To be confirmed

The Managing Director suggested that the next meeting should take place towards the end of the calendar year.  He added that he valued the work undertaken by the Sub-Group.