Agenda and draft minutes

None. 

The minutes of the meeting held on 21 January 2010 were agreed as a correct record, subject to the amendment of the first sentence under the heading “Discussion of rural and urban issues” on page two to:

“It was noted that provision would be made for a joint body to receive parish plan presentations.”

Engaging parish councils

It was noted that this event had been scheduled for 31 March 2010.

Membership of the Joint Local Strategic Partnership Board

It was reiterated that the membership of the joint Board would be subject to a gap analysis to ensure that all key groups were represented.

Representation on Cambridgeshire Together

It was understood that the joint Local Strategic Partnership Board would have two representatives on Cambridgeshire Together and these would be the Leaders of the two Council’s represented on the Board.

John Williams of the Fulbourn Parish Plan Steering Group and Chris Comins of Fulbourn Parish Council presented the Fulbourn Parish Plan to the Board and then responded to questions.

Beechwood Estate

It was noted that approximately 25% of the residents of the parish of Fulbourn lived on the Beechwood Estate. The returns on the questionnaire from this Estate had been disappointing, with only 30 returns from the 470 sent. It was noted that there were no facilities on the Estate itself and the majority of its residents went to Cherry Hinton for their local services. John Williams explained that although the recommendation of the boundary review was for the residents of the Beechwood Estate to be moved outside the parish of Fulbourn, it had been decided to use the existing boundaries for the Parish Plan.

Consulting youth

It was recognised that young people had a lower return rate of the questionnaire groups than older people. It was noted that a large proportion of those aged 18-21 were away at university. Mary Gyte stated that it was important to ascertain the views of young people on the health service and fear of crime, as well as the views of older residents.

Faith

It was understood that there had been no comments on the questionnaire from non-Christian groups regarding their religion, although these groups were present at Fulbourn.

The Chairman thanked Mr Williams and Mr Comins for their presentation and their informative answers.

The Chairman presented this report on the meeting of the Cambridgeshire Together Board on 25 November 2009.

Making Cambridgeshire Count

The Chairman explained that South Cambridgeshire District Council had withdrawn from the Making Cambridgeshire Count initiative, although the authority continued to work with its partners on two of its workstreams: Shared Services and Gypsy and Travellers.

The LSP Board NOTED the Briefing.

David Spreadbury of Cambridgeshire ACRE presented the Cambridgeshire Together Rural Strategy, which would go to Cambridgeshire Together for agreement. He invited comments from the Board.

Protecting and enhancing rural services

It was suggested that the policy of encouraging people to buy locally should be encouraged. This had been in Fulbourn’s Parish Plan.

Access to healthcare

It was agreed that it was important to ensure that young people had access to health care, particularly for sexual health.

Rural 80 and Rural 50

It was noted that the term Rural 80 was used to describe areas which were 80% rural, whilst Rural 50 was used to describe areas which were 50% rural.

Quality parish councils

Some concerns were expressed at the cost of achieving quality parish council status.

The Board NOTED the Strategy.

Jeremy Smith, Transport Strategy Manager at Cambridgeshire County Council, gave a presentation on the Local Transport Plan and the impact that Government cuts were likely to have on the service provided. He explained that the Government had not made it clear what the level of cuts would be, but it was likely that the Highways Authority would have to choose between repairing existing roads or building new infrastructure.

The hope was expressed that more resources would be provided for improving alternative to car transport than into measures such as traffic calming, which made it more difficult for residents to use their cars. Jeremy explained that traffic-calming measures were introduced if there were clear safety concerns and that small schemes such as improving local cycle routes were more likely to receive funding than larger ones.

It was understood that this issue was being discussed at the LSP Boards first and then at Cambridgeshire Together.

The Chairman thanked Jeremy Smith for his presentation.

Iain Green, Environmental Health Officer, gave a presentation to the Board on the draft Strategy to Tackle Health Inequalities in Cambridgeshire.

He explained that the rural nature of the District brought its particular health challenges, such as a rate of Road Traffic Accidents above the national average.

Iain Green explained that the District had small pockets of inequalities, which were harder to identify and alleviate than larger areas.

It was understood that areas of new build had a comparatively high birth rate, which tended to remain above the national average for 10 years after the final construction had taken place. It was also noted that the settled community were concerned that established local health centres will be overwhelmed by the influx of new residents from the new developments.

It was noted that the recent Marmot Review highlighted how health inequalities were linked to other social and economic inequalities. An annual report was expected from Liz Roben.

The LSP Board NOTED the draft Strategy on Tackling Health Inequalities in Cambridgeshire.

Paul Howes, Corporate Manager for Community and Customer Services, updated the Board on the status of projects supported by the LSP as of the third quarter.

It was noted that one element of the Energising Inclusion Through Learning project was significantly off target and so was being monitored closely.

Gemma Barron reported that funding for these projects ran until March 2012 and it was suggested that if funding was not going to be continued a good exit plan was required. It was agreed that this was an excellent scheme, which provided good value for money and that every effort should be made to ensure that it continued.

The LSP Board NOTED the report.

District Councillor Tom Bygott presented this report which provided a progress update on the LPSA Reward Grant funded project to establish and develop the South Cambridgeshire Sustainable Parish Energy Partnership.

The Strategic Sustainability Officer stated that the scheme was reliant on volunteers of which there were currently 50-60. It was understood that this was a three year scheme with a budget of £200,000.

Richard Hales advised that tenants should ask their landlord if their property had an energy performance certificate and if not, request a reduction in rent to pay for the increased energy costs.

The LSP Board NOTED the report.

Stephen Moir presented this report on the impact of the economic downturn on South Cambridgeshire communities. He reported that there had been a 0.7% increase in unemployment in the District from January to November 2009, which was lower than both the County and the national average.

It was noted that the Cambridgeshire bid to the Future Jobs Funds had been successful and would result in the creation of 15 jobs in South Cambridgeshire for long term unemployed young people and others who faced significant disadvantage in the labour market.

It was understood that the £12,100 awarded under the South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Hardship Rate Relief Fund, was only a quarter of the relief provided, with the Government bearing the other three quarters of the cost.

Stephen Moir agreed to ascertain whether there had been an increase in repossessions during the previous year.

The LSP Board NOTED the report.

Stephen Moir presented this report on the results of the recent Comprehensive Area Assessment. He explained that Cambridgeshire had received one green flag and no red flags, which was something to be proud of. 

The first Joint South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge City Local Strategic Partnership had been scheduled for Wednesday 21 April at 2pm, although this still needed to be confirmed.