Minute 4: Priorities and Spending Plans 2004/05-2006/07
Cabinet recommend Council
(a) That the following be adopted as a three year programme of annual priorities from 2004/05:
i. ESD and customer service
ii. Affordable homes
iii. Decent homes
iv. Reducing the fear of crime
v. Youth provision
vi. Cleaner villages
vii. The new settlements at Northstowe and Cambridge fringes
viii. Rural Transport
ix. Recycling and waste minimisation
(b) Approval of the three year strategy to address annual priorities set out in paragraphs 13 and 14 of the report and to request Management Team to prepare a more detailed three year programme to enable Members to plan for 2005/06 onwards;
(c) That the Council will address priorities emerging from public consultation (fear of crime; youth provision; rural transport and cleaner villages) in 2005/06 and 2006/07.
Decision:
Council RESOLVED:
(a) That the following be adopted as a three-year programme of annual priorities from 2004/05:
i. Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) and customer service
ii. Affordable homes
iii. Decent homes
iv. Reducing the fear of crime
v. Youth provision
vi. Cleaner villages
vii. Sustainable development and the new settlements at Northstowe and Cambridge fringes
viii. Rural Transport
ix. Recycling and waste minimisation
(b) Approval of the three-year strategy to:
i. address the following annual priorities in 2004/05:
1. Continuing the programme towards electronic service delivery and improved customer service;
2. Establishing objectives and an effective Council-wide approach to Northstowe and other major developments;
3. Affordable housing;
4. Completion of the current integrated recycling / refuse collection scheme;
ii. focus more on achieving change in the following areas in 2005/06 and 2006/07:
5. Developing the capacity of the organisation;
6. Addressing the concerns of the public in recent and previous consultation and in the Community Strategy; and
iii. to request Management Team to prepare a more detailed three-year programme to enable Members to plan for 2005/06 onwards.
Minutes:
The proposed priorities had been identified through public consultation and at the special Council meeting in September 2003. The Council had suffered pressures in previous years from too many annual priorities and this reduced list, to be adopted as a three-year programme with a review each year, would help direct funding.
Concerns were raised:
· Some priorities could be achieved only through partnership work, leaving the Council at risk of not being in full control of resources and implementation;
· The Local Strategic Partnership was in the process of adopting the Community Strategy, so the latter did not need to be retained as a priority;
· The number of lists of priorities considered to this point caused confusion
· Sheltered housing was not on the list;
· Affordable housing should be the Council’s top priority;
· The Council had a duty under the Crime and Disorder Act to seek ways to reduce crime and the fear of crime, both of which were major issues identified through public consultation;
· “Sustainable development” was being used in an economic, rather than a social and environmental perspective when referring to Cambridgeshire, although the Council could require sustainable features such as rainwater harvesting and renewable energy in new developments;
· The low turnout at the public consultation meetings meant that the responses were not necessarily representative of the population and it was impossible to predict the outcome of consultation in future years.
Councillor RF Collinson, seconded by Councillor NJ Scarr, proposed that priority vii be amended to read “Sustainable development and the new settlements at Northstowe and Cambridge fringes”. The amendment was put to a vote and CARRIED.
Councillor SGM Kindersley, seconded by Councillor R Page, proposed the deletion of recommendation (c), “That the Council will address priorities emerging from public consultation (fear of crime; youth provision; rural transport and cleaner villages) in 2005/06 and 2006/07”, on the grounds that assumptions should not be made about the results of consultation. The amendment was put to a vote and CARRIED.
Councillor NN Cathcart, seconded by Councillor AW Wyatt, proposed that priorities iv, v and viii, reducing the fear of crime, youth provision and rural transport, be removed but the implementation of the Community Strategy reinstated, through which these would be addressed. The amendment was put to a vote and LOST.
Council RESOLVED:
(a) That the following be adopted as a three-year programme of annual priorities from 2004/05:
i. Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) and customer service
ii. Affordable homes
iii. Decent homes
iv. Reducing the fear of crime
v. Youth provision
vi. Cleaner villages
vii. Sustainable development and the new settlements at Northstowe and Cambridge fringes
viii. Rural Transport
ix. Recycling and waste minimisation
(b) Approval of the three-year strategy to:
i. address the following annual priorities in 2004/05:
1. Continuing the programme towards electronic service delivery and improved customer service;
2. Establishing objectives and an effective Council-wide approach to Northstowe and other major developments;
3. Affordable housing;
4. Completion of the current integrated recycling / refuse collection scheme;
ii. focus more on achieving change in the following areas in 2005/06 and 2006/07:
5. Developing the capacity of the organisation;
6. Addressing the concerns of the public in recent and previous consultation and in the Community Strategy; and
iii. to request Management Team to prepare a more detailed three-year programme to enable Members to plan for 2005/06 onwards.