Regent Street, Hinckley

Dear Leicestershire County Council,

The FoI request below was initially made to Hinckley & Bosworth (Ref: FoI 3420). Their response was that they hold none of this information and the request should be redirected to LCC.

It was not that long ago that the pedestrianisation of Regent Street was hailed by local authorities and councillors as a very positive move in the Hinckley regeneration programme. Objections at the time came primarily from retailers on Regent St. fearing loss of trade. These objections were however set aside and the project went ahead.

• What has changed to bring about the reversal of that decision and where can the cost/benefit analysis be found?

• As part of the justification process for pedestrianisation objectives and success criteria would have been defined. Where is the review that established that the scheme was not a success and that further cost should be incurred to reversion to the original format should be considered?

• How much in total did the pedestrianisation exercise cost (including all fees etc.)?

• Was the cost treated as capital or revenue expenditure? If there were elements of both, please specify.

• For the capital element, how many years on average was the cost depreciated?

• Given that the reversal decision more recently, what is the outstanding “book” value of the original project and how/ when will it be written off.

Yours faithfully,

Rose Cullingford