Regeneration and “cleaning up the streets”: North East Lincolnshire Council’s priorities

North East Lincolnshire Council leader Philip Jackson has expanded on how his party, bolstered by the recent elections, will tackle their priorities going forward, including further regeneration and investment in the borough, and cleaning up the streets.

The authority’s first in-person Full Council meeting, and its Annual General Meeting, were held at Grimsby Auditorium on Thursday evening due to social distancing measures.

The leader of the council, Conservative Councillor Philip Jackson, said his party’s election result in May, which saw them gain eight seats, showed “the electorate had confidence in what we’ve been doing in our first two years” and that they had “clearly spoken”.

“We’ll be continuing to focus on regeneration of the area of economic development, bringing in more jobs, investment and prosperity, and we’re seeing at last some major improvements in Grimsby Town Centre, so we’ll be continuing to keep our foot on the accelerator pedal,” he said, pointing to recent funding totalling £38million in investment.

“We’ll also be looking at further regeneration initiatives in Cleethorpes, again supported by government grant money, but also ensuring we attract more private sector money into the areas where we can’t do everything we want to. The work we’re doing in the area will bring additional confidence.”

A further priority would be to tackle a doorstep message that people “wanted cleaner streets” and easier recycling.

North East Lincolnshire’s socially-distanced Full Council meeting was held on May 27. | Photo: Daniel Jaines

“We know we’ve got to make sure our streets are safe and clean for the vast majority of people who are law abiding citizens and want a nice clean environment in which to go about their business,” he said.

He said plans included “more enforcement [on littering, dog fouling and fly-tipping] to make sure that people are very clear that these sorts of these sort of actions are totally unacceptable”.

A further £1million spend on CCTV systems across the borough, as well as work with partners will look to reduce anti-social behaviour.

Councillor Jackson said the authority was ensuring it was a “listening council” and said the hope was that once COVID restrictions end, the public will also be able to attend cabinet events across the borough.