Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive Apologies for Absence from Cabinet members. 

There were no Apologies for Absence. However, the Leader reported that Councillor Dr. Aidan Van de Weyer would arrive late.

Councillor Dr. Tumi Hawkins declared a non-pecuniary interest in Minute 10 (Bourn Airfield Supplementary Planning Document) as the elected Member for Caldecote Ward, in which the site of the proposed new village was located. Councillor Hawkins also declared that she lives on West Drive in Highfields Caldecote, which lies directly east of, and next to, the new village, meaning that her property is one of those closest to the boundary of the new village.  Following concerns raised by Bourn Airfield site developers, arising because of Councillor Hawkins’ previous participation in the campaign to stop the inclusion of the airfield in the Local Plan, and having sought and received legal advice from South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Monitoring Officer, Councillor Hawkins stated that she would make a statement as the Ward Member to represent the views of her residents in both Highfields Caldecote and Bourn, because such was her duty to do so in their best interests. Having done so, Councillor Hawkins said that she would withdraw to the public gallery, take no part in the debate and would not vote.

To authorise the Leader to sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 1 May 2019 as a correct record.

Cabinet authorised the Chairman to sign, as a correct record, the Minutes of the meeting held on 1 May 2019.

In Minute 3 of those Minutes, there was a typographical error. ‘Orchrda’ should be ‘Orchard’.

There were no announcements.

There were no public questions.

Report attached from the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Scrutiny and Overview Committee.

Cabinet received and noted a report summarising the discussions of the Scrutiny and Overview Committee at its meeting on 21 May 2019. The report referred to

·         Bourn Airfield Supplementary Planning Document

·         Strategic Risk Register

·         2018-19 Quarter 4 Performance Report

·         Scrutiny ICT Working Group Update

In connection with the ongoing issues with ICT, Councillor Brian Milnes (Vice-Chairman, Scrutiny and Overview Committee) reported that he had met with the new Head of 3C ICT and discussed the preparation of a ‘priorities report’. He anticipated that this would be presented to, and discussed at, the Scrutiny and Overview Committee meeting in July 2019. Cabinet recalled that the Local Government Association would be providing five days support, and the intention was that the Head of 3C ICT would be engaged so that South Cambridgeshire District Council could get best value from that support. 3C ICT operational issues were ongoing, most recently due to problems (not revealed in testing) in the roll out of Council Anywhere in the Planning Department. 3C ICT staff were doing their utmost to resolve these issues in what remained a fragile ICT environment. The Leader acknowledged the efforts of the ICT Working Group.

Cabinet noted the report and observed as follows:

·         There would be value in benchmarking performance of the Contact Centre with that of similar functions at other Councils, and in securing better sucession planning

·         There needed to be a tightening up of the process for paying invoices

·         Names within the In-flight tracker should be updated, and possibly replaced with job titles or service responsibilities

Cabinet received and noted a report containing a statement of the Council’s Quarter 4 position regarding its key performance indicators (by exception) and an update in respect of the Council’s in-flight projects. Members noted that reporting this way gave them, and Officers, the opportunity to examine any areas of concern and to decide on appropriate action.

Councillor Philippa Hart (Lead Cabinet Member responsible for Performance) highlighted the importance of using standard deviation to identify trends.

Those present discussed the report in general but made the following specific points:

·         There would be value in benchmarking performance of the Contact Centre with that of similar functions at other Councils, and in securing better succession planning, perhaps through maintaining a “rolling advert” and making better use of apprenticeships

·         There needed to be a tightening up of the process for paying invoices

·         Names within the In-flight tracker should be updated, and possibly replaced with job titles or service responsibilities

·         The challenge of making sure that statistics reflected both online and offline customer contact

Cabinet approved the draft Strategic Risk Register attached as Appendix A to the report from the Head of Shared Internal Audit.

Cabinet considered a report on the Strategic Risk Register.

Cabinet noted that South Cambridgeshire District Council had a Risk Management Strategy that had been approved by the Audit & Corporate Governance Committee. This required the Council to have a Strategic Risk Register that would be reviewed regularly to make sure that it stayed up to date and reflected its latest Business Plan.

Cabinet approved the draft Strategic Risk Register attached as Appendix A to the report from the Head of Shared Internal Audit.

Cabinet

(a)          Reappointed the Brexit Advisory Group in order to continue to provide the Cabinet with options for the effective management of any impact of Brexit on the economy of South Cambridgeshire;

(b)          noted that the terms of reference of the Brexit Advisory Group currently provided for that Group to consist of five Liberal Democrats, two Conservatives and one Labour or Independent Member, together with the Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council as an additional member and three co-opted Members from Cambridge City Council; and

(c)           appointed the following Members to serve on the Brexit Advisory Group:

Liberal Democrat Group: Councillors Philip Allen, Dr. Martin Cahn, Peter Fane, Geoff Harvey, Peter McDonald and Bridget Smith

Conservative Group: Councillor Peter Topping *

Labour Group: Councillor Nigel Cathcart

Independent Group: Councillor Deborah Roberts

(* The Conservative Group agreed to cede a seat to enable both the Independent and Labour Groups to serve on the Advisory Group)

Co-opted from Cambridge City Council: Councillors Rod Cantrill, Haf Davies and Anna Smith

 Cabinet considered a report inviting it to re-appoint the Brexit Advisory Group so that that Group could continue to advise the Cabinet on managing the impact of Brexit on the economy of South Cambridgeshire.

The Brexit Advisory Group was informal and, as such, did not need to be politically proportional. The Leader was keen that all political groups be engaged. She said that one important role for the Brexit Advisory Group would be to consider options for utilising the grant funding coming from central Government to ease the impact of Brexit in 2019-20 and 2020-21, and to recommend to Cabinet the most effective way of spending that money.

Councillor Heather Williams asked whether Cambridge City Council would be contributing to the running costs associated with the Brexit Advisory Group, and whether the three Members co-opted from the City Council would have a say in how to deal with the grant funding for South Cambridgeshire. In reply, the Democratic Services Team Leader noted that Cambridge City Council administered the Joint Development Control Committee. The Leader added that she anticipated there being an element of joint working in view of the proximity of the two local authority areas.

Cabinet

(a)          Reappointed the Brexit Advisory Group in order to continue to provide the Cabinet with options for the effective management of any impact of Brexit on the economy of South Cambridgeshire;

(b)          noted that the terms of reference of the Brexit Advisory Group currently provided for that Group to consist of five Liberal Democrats, two Conservatives and one Labour or Independent Member, together with the Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council as an additional member and three co-opted Members from Cambridge City Council; and

(c)           appointed the following Members to serve on the Brexit Advisory Group:

Liberal Democrat Group: Councillors Philip Allen, Dr. Martin Cahn, Peter Fane, Geoff Harvey, Peter McDonald and Bridget Smith

Conservative Group: Councillor Peter Topping *

Labour Group: Councillor Nigel Cathcart

Independent Group: Councillor Deborah Roberts

(* The Conservative Group agreed to cede a seat to enable both the Independent and Labour Groups to serve on the Advisory Group)

Co-opted from Cambridge City Council: Councillors Rod Cantrill, Haf Davies and Anna Smith

Appendices A, C and E have previously been printed as part of the Scrutiny and Overview Committee agenda dated 21 May 2019. They are available on the website by typing this short URL (case sensitive) into a web browser and pressing Enter

https://bit.ly/2QsboVk

Appendices B and D are attached to the printed version of the agenda and also available online.

Cabinet

(a)          Agreed the content of the draft Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) attached at Appendix A to the report from the Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development subject to the recommended changes set out in Appendix B to that report;

(b)          Approved the draft SPD for public consultation in accordance with for public consultation in accordance with Regulation 13 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 for a period of six weeks;

(c)           Approved the consultation arrangements set out in the Consultation Statement (Appendix C);

(d)          Delegated authority to the Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development, in liaison with the Deputy Leader (Statutory), to agree the draft Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and draft Habitats Regulation Assessment (HRA) Screenings Reports for consultation alongside the draft SPD, including with the three statutory bodies; and

(e)          Delegated authority to the Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development, in liaison with the Deputy Leader (Statutory), to make editorial changes to the draft Bourn Airfield SPD and supporting documents for consultation (to comprise minor amendments and factual updates and clarifications).

Councillor Dr. Tumi Hawkins declared a non-pecuniary interest as the elected Member for Caldecote Ward, in which the site of the proposed new village was located. She also declared that she lived on West Drive in Highfields Caldecote, which was directly east of, and next to, the new village, meaning that her property was among the closest to the boundary of the new village.  Following concerns raised by Bourn Airfield site developers, arising because of Councillor Hawkins’ previous participation in the campaign to stop the inclusion of the airfield in the Local Plan, and having sought and received legal advice from South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Monitoring Officer, Councillor Hawkins addressed the meeting as the local Member and then withdrew to the public gallery, took no part in the debate and did not vote.

Cabinet considered a report seeking its agreement for the draft Bourn Airfield Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) to be published for consultation.

The Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development introduced the report, highlighting several aspects. He focussed on access for cars, the village centre and eastern boundary.

Access for cars. The basis for resisting the formation of a new access onto the A428 was three-fold – national policy, the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s proposals for quality public transport between Cambourne and Cambridge, and South Cambridgeshire District Council’s aspirations for a low-carbon future.

Village Centre. The proposed location of the village centre had been determined by the need to relate it to the public transport corridor, school, the early delivery of retail, and community infrastructure.

Eastern boundary. The spatial framework had been revised so that the eastern boundary had a more mediated merging of soft landscaping and built development.

The Leader said that the Scrutiny and Overview Committee would have an important role to play as the process unfolded.

Andrew Taylor, representing Countrywide (developers of a village at Bourn Airfield) addressed the meeting. He said that his company was committed to working with South Cambridgeshire District Council to deliver a high quality development. Countrywide would participate in the consultation process.

Councillor Dr. Tumi Hawkins made the following statement:

“For the avoidance of any doubt, I and residents of Bourn and Highfields Caldecote accept that this new village will be built in accordance with the adopted Local plan. Going forward, we want to play our part in ensuring the harms identified in its inclusion in the plan are mitigated properly through the planning process. This SPD is one of the steps in that process.

Following the scrutiny committee meeting on 21 May 2019 I note that officers have taken some of the concerns on board, as stated in today’s papers. However, these amendments do not completely address those issues, and it is important for residents of Bourn and Caldecote that we continue to press for this.

1: Separation between Highfields Caldecote and Bourn Airfield.

The papers state on page 100 that I have misinterpreted Policy SS/7 para 6b to mean the strategic landscape will all encompass  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

The next scheduled meeting will be on Monday 1 July 2019 starting at 9.30am.

Those present noted that the next scheduled Cabinet meeting would be on Monday 1 July 2019, starting at 9.30am.