Information

Published, Weekly Bulletin - Wednesday, 12 July 2017 12.00 p.m.

Contact: Patrick Adams 01954 713408 Email: democratic.services@scambs.gov.uk

Items

No.

Item

Meetings and events from Thursday 13 July to Friday 28 July

Date	Time	Name	Venue	Contact
Thu 13 Jul	6pm	Cabinet	Swansley Room	Ian Senior
Fri 14 Jul

Mon 17 Jul
Tue 18 Jul	6pm	Finance & Staffing Portfolio Holder’s Meeting (grants)	Swansley Room	Ian Senior
Wed 19 Jul	1pm	Greater Cambridge Partnership Joint Assembly	Council Chamber	Wilma Wilkie
Thu 20 Jul
Fri 21 Jul


Mon 24 Jul
Tue 25 Jul
Wed 26 Jul	10am 2pm	Greater Cambridge Partnership Executive Board Planning Portfolio Holder’s Meeting	Guildhall, City Council Swansley Room	Wilma Wilkie Ian Senior
Thu 27 Jul
Fri 28 Jul	10am	Partnerships Review Committee	Monkfield Room	Victoria Wallace

INFORMATION FOR DISTRICT COUNCILLORS AND PARISH COUNCILS

Community Right to Bid - Assets of Community Value

The Council has made the following decisions and will amend the asset register accordingly:

Duxford Allotment Site: Moorfield Road, Duxford – Listed as an asset of Community Value

Toft Village Shop: 6 High Street, Toft – Nomination accepted.

Further information about the Community Right to Bid and Assets of Community Value can be found on our webpage:

https://www.scambs.gov.uk/community-right-bid

GENERAL INFORMATION

Media Monitoring

Arising from the results of the Member Communication Needs Survey, many members highlighted the fact that residents found out about SCDC matters through the media.

The Council’s Communications Team will produce a weekly summary of recent news items to be published in the Bulletin to help keep members informed of recent coverage of SCDC.

Contact the Communications Team for further information.

Date	Publication	Details

05/07/2017	Cambridge news	Marching orders for Smithy Fen travellers	P1,8 and 9
05/07/2017	BBC Radio Cambridgeshire	Cllr Wright interviewed about housing needs in South Cambs and need for all areas to play their part
05/07/2017	Star Radio Online	Owners ordered to remove illegal caravans from Smithy Fen after Council investigation	Link
05/07/2017	BBC Online	Green belt homes approved because 'wrong box was ticked'	Link
05/07/2017	Cambridge News	Blundering council officers accidentally approved plans for housing in Cambridge's GREEN BELT	Link
05/07/2017	Heart Radio	Action taken over illegal caravans at Smithy Fen
05/07/2017	Cambridge News online	Have your say on 230 homes (SCDC mentioned due to shared waste service	Link
05/07/2017	Cambridge Independent	Cambourne busway could run to St Neots	P7
05/07/2017	Cambridge Independent	Rural travel hubs assessed	P12
05/07/2017	Cambridge Independent	Sporting Village plans collapse over concerns for Green belt	P14
05/07/2017	Cambridge Independent	Home plan at old school	P21
06/07/2017	Cambridge News	Council error gives ok to green belt housing	P8
06/07/2017	Cambridge News online	Families facing mass eviction from travellers' site say 'lives being torn apart'	Link
06/07/2017	Cambridge News online	Crews investigating possible sighting of giant hogweed in South Cambridgeshire	Link
06/07/2017	Cambridge News online	Council's sympathy for Smithy Fen eviction families but forced into action by unscrupulous landlords	Link
06/07/2017	Royston Crow online	Steeple Morden, Orwell and Melbourn groups awarded funding for community projects	Link
06/07/2017	Cambridge News online	Samuel Porter charged £70 to dump rubbish but is now in jail for fly-tipping	Link
07/07/2017	Cambridge News	This is tearing our lives apart'	P1 and 7
07/07/2017	Cambridge	Flytipper jailed for 14 days	P4
08/07/2017	Cambridge News	Going underground is the 'only solution' to traffic	P1 and 5

Items of Interest from the Local Government Association (LGA)

The Local Government Association provides a list of news headlines relevant to its members. Please click the headlines below for more details.

Thursday 6 July 2017: Times: “Build 50 villages like Poundbury”

Lord Best, Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People has said that Britain needs to build 50 new villages like Poundbury, in Dorset, to tackle a shortage of new homes.

Thursday 6 July 2017: Telegraph: “Ministers are announcing open season on green belt”

The Campaign to Protect Rural England has warned that government plans to force housing schemes on some of the most sought-after parts of the country would make housing problems worse and encourage developers to buy up all developable green belt land, crowding out councils and housing associations looking to build to meet local need.

Sunday 9 July 2017: Observer: Temporary accommodation and housing the homeless

A survey of 273 of England’s 326 councils compiled by the Observer reveals the scale of the nation’s housing crisis.

Sunday 9 July 2017: Times: Builders gag buyers over shoddy work

Buyers of substandard new homes are being asked to sign gagging orders to keep the faults secret and are routinely refused access to technical plans that show how their properties should have been constructed, an investigation by The Sunday Times has found.

Sunday 9 July 2017: Guardian Online: Comment piece: The end of parklife as we know it? The battle for Britain’s green spaces

In a comment piece Rowan Moore talks of a crisis occurring in Britain’s parks with councils forced to cut spending on green spaces to zero and land being lost to developers.

Monday 10 July 2017: Guardian: Rural homelessness ‘hidden crisis’ needs attention, says thinktank

The ‘hidden crisis’ of rural homelessness requires urgent attention from the Government, a leading thinktank has said.

Wednesday 12 July 2017: i news: Council considers leasing parks to a charitable trust

Newcastle City Council is considering handing over its 118 public parks and allotments to a charitable trust in an attempt to save money.

View Planning Applications

To view the list of planning applications that have recently been submitted to the Council, please visit the authority’s on-line Planning Application Search. Once the page has loaded, you can use the Search option to set your own criteria of parish, area and date range.

The system will provide a range of information on current and decided applications since 1948, including a brief description of the development, reference number, decision and the date of decision. More recent applications show the name and telephone number of the council officer who is dealing with the application.

Search results are presented in a collection of pages, the number of which depends on the number of results your search produces. There are navigation tools to allow you to browse your results.

EXECUTIVE DECISIONS TAKEN SINCE 5 JULY 2017

In accordance with the Access to Information Procedure Rules in Part 4 of the Council’s Constitution, any executive decision shall be published normally within five days of being made. That record will bear the date on which it is published and will specify that the decision will come into force, and may then be implemented, on the expiry of 5 working days after the publication of the decision, unless called in for review by the Chairman of the Scrutiny and Overview Committee or by any five other councillors.

A list of decisions currently within the call-in period is available on the Council’s website.

The call in procedure is set out in full in Part 4 of the Council’s Constitution, ‘Scrutiny and Overview Committee Procedure Rules’.

Compulsory Purchase Order - The Tree Public House, Stapleford

View the background to item 6.

The Business and Customer Service Portfolio Holder

AGREED

That officers pursue the ‘next steps’ with regard to undertaking a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) on The Tree, Stapleford, with or without reimbursement from The Tree Community Limited, before taking a report to Cabinet for consideration.

The next steps required in order for Council to make a formal decision as to whether a CPO should be undertaken, taking into account any costs that may be incurred by the Council or The Tree Community Limited. These will include:

A) Making an approach to the owner of The Tree, Stapleford with a view to encouraging a sale to The Tree Community Limited without recourse to Compulsory Purchase powers;

B) Commissioning further appropriate legal advice, which may or may not be available in-house and at further cost to the Authority or The Tree Community Limited;

C) Commissioning further valuations of the property, likely at further cost to the Authority or The Tree Community Limited.

This decision was first published on Friday 7 July and so the deadline for call-in is Friday 14 July at 5pm. If not called-in this decision can be implemented on Monday 17 July.

Business and Customer Services Performance

View the background to item 7.

The Business and Customer Services Portfolio Holder

AGREED to endorse the three indicators set out in paragraph 7 of the report, and accompanying target and interventions levels for 2017-18, as recommended by Corporate Management Team.

This decision was first published on Friday 7 July and so the deadline for call-in is Friday 14 July at 5pm. If not called-in this decision can be implemented on Monday 17 July.

23 Affordable Council Homes on Larger Site at Bannold Road, Watebeach

View the background to item 8.

The Housing Portfolio Holder

AGREED to proceed to contract with Bovis Homes to purchase 23 affordable homes on a larger site at Bannold Road, Waterbeach. To approve the project spend, including the use of £350,000 of commuted sums money, and to finalise the contract terms and legal requirements to achieve actual spend in September 2017 and thereafter until completion of all 23 homes.

DECISIONS MADE BY OFFICERS AND REPORTED FOR INFORMATION

Please click on the link below to find details of decisions made by officers under delegated authority:

https://www.scambs.gov.uk/content/access-information

OTHER INFORMATION

Newly-Published Items on modern.gov