Agenda item

Budget Setting 2019/20 and Quarterly Monitoring Report

Decision:

The Executive Board:

 

a)    APPROVED the GCP’s 2019/20 budget, as set out in Appendix A to the report, which included proposed changes to the previously agreed budgets as set out in section 21 of the report.

 

b)    NOTED the proposal that Form the Future and Cambridge Regional College would be contracted to start work on the Greater Cambridge Apprenticeship Service as soon as contracts had been finalised.

 

c)    NOTED the progress across the GCP programme.

 

d)    ADOPTED the County Council’s new Fibre Ducting in Transport Schemes policy, tabled for consideration by the County Council’s Economy and Environment Committee on 14th March, as detailed in section 16 of the report. This would support the deployment of fibre ducting in all GCP commissioned transport schemes going forward.

 

e)    APPROVED the investment of up to £400k to support Stagecoach to purchase two low emission buses to operate on routes within the city centre.

Minutes:

The Head of Strategy and Programme presented a report which updated the Joint Assembly on progress across the GCP programme.

 

Councillor Bates:

·         Thought that South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge City needed to be more ambitious regarding affordable housing, whilst linking this to the revised Local Plan.

·         Queried where electric buses would be charged.

·         Pointed out that the biggest call for S106 funding was for schools, health and transport infrastructure.

·         Pointed out that if the GCP was successful in securing the next £200 million of funding following the second Gateway Review, due to the £50 million funding shortfall referred to in the report, this would actually be £150 million.

·         Informed the Executive Board that the County Council’s Economy and Environment Committee had been looking at grid capacity and initial proposals from the group were emerging. The agenda for this committee’s 4 March 2019 meeting, at which a relevant report was discussed, could be viewed at https://bit.ly/2XGoOQB

 

Councillor Van de Weyer informed the Executive Board that now that the Local Plan was in place, rural exception sites for affordable housing were being focussed on.

 

Claire Ruskin:

·         Expressed support for the work of the Economy and Environment Committee regarding grid capacity, as this would stop a lot of development if not addressed.

·         Expressed support for the smart places work and in particular the work on fibre ducting.

·         Thanked officers for bringing these issues to the attention of Board members. She queried whether the numbers regarding housing were high enough, as the region was growing faster than had been anticipated. It needed to be ensured that housing was connected adequately.

 

The Executive Board was informed that:

·         The work Cambridge Regional College would be undertaking on skills, would link apprentices with businesses and vice versa.

·         Regarding S106 funding, there were unknowns regarding some of the amounts but City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Councils were working on this.

·         The budget assumed success in the first Gateway Review and the release of the next £200 million of funding.

·         The GCP was working with Stagecoach on the charging arrangements for electric buses. The range of these buses was 150 miles. The new managing director of Stagecoach was interested in developing the bus network in the wider region.

 

The Joint Assembly Chairperson recognised the importance of education and transport in relation to S106 contributions and that affordability of affordable housing was essential in the planning process. He hoped that South Cambridgeshire District Council continued to balance affordable housing and S106 contributions wisely for new strategic developments.

 

The Executive Board:

 

a)    APPROVED the GCP’s 2019/20 budget, which included proposed changes to the previously agreed budgets as set out in section 21 of the report.

 

b)    NOTED the proposal that Form the Future and Cambridge Regional College were to be contracted to start work on the Greater Cambridge Apprenticeship Service as soon as contracts had been finalised.

 

c)    NOTED the progress across the GCP programme.

 

d)    ADOPTED the County Council’s new Fibre Ducting in Transport Schemes policy, tabled for consideration by the County Council’s Economy and Environment Committee on 14th March, as detailed in section 16 of the report. This would support the deployment of fibre ducting in all GCP commissioned transport schemes going forward.

 

e)    APPROVED the investment of up to £400k to support Stagecoach to purchase two low emission buses to operate on routes within the city centre.

Supporting documents: