 I now have to read out the declaration of acceptance of office, I, Peter Fein, having been elected to the office of chair of South Cambridge District Council, declare that I take that office upon myself and will duly and faithfully fulfil the duties of it according to the declaration best of my judgment and ability. I undertake to observe the code as to the commandant, Peter Fein, having been elected to the office of chair of South Cambridge District Council, declare that I take that office upon myself and will duly and faithfully fulfil the duties of it according to the declaration best of my judgment and ability. And in case you didn't hear that, the first time somebody else will say it again for me. Members of South Cambridge District Council and I shall now sign that declaration. And in case you didn't hear that, the first time somebody else will say it again for me. There's a cost to electing me as chair. I'm going to do a very short chair of speech of acceptance. It is quite possible. I'm about to do two speech of acceptance. We'll see how the system is working. Later on, I get the opportunity to refer to the engagements I've attended as your chair, which I very much enjoy and appreciate. You're going to do a very short chair of speech of acceptance. It is quite possible and I'm about to do two. You can decide for yourselves which version you prefer. Later on, and I just want to mention two that are not on that list. On Monday, the vice-chair and I both attended the RAF and Army Cadet Force in Campbell, and it reminded me of a theme from this council, which was taken up in the form of a working group last year of the scrutiny committee, which is that of youth engagement. I think members I will pause there. It's very unusual for me to get to hear my own speeches, which was taken up in the form of a working group last year of the scrutiny committee, which is that of youth engagement. I think members I will pause there. Thank you members. I shall take that privilege of being interrupted by myself as an indication that I should keep my acceptance speech very short. Conscious to the fact that the current vice-chair isn't worth it. That reminded me of the youth engagement theme we had last year, which was very much reflected in our 50th anniversary celebration just two months ago, when we said that this is not just an opportunity to celebrate the history of Southcams, but also to focus on the future of Southcams and the challenge of youth engagement. You may recall that last year I announced that my charity for the year was to be the Camborn Youth Parkship. I did stress to the youth parkship that that was as much about engagement as it was about raising funds for them, which is perhaps fortunate because I have failed abismally on raising funds for them. That is not, however, the only reason that I'm proposing that they should be the chair's charity for the year again, because I think that is a continuing theme. I said that that celebration was about the history of Southcams as well as the future, and I was very glad that three of our long-serving officers were able to speak on that occasion. I learned a lot from that, as I did from another event I was invited to attend yesterday, where I was given the opportunity to present one of the awards at the Staff Excellence Awards. Again, I learned a lot from in particular the videos showing all of the little victories, the little achievements that the staff here are making. I just take this as an opportunity to emphasise how important, and I think this to all of us, that relationship with the staff and our reliance on the commitment and dedication of our staff here at Southcams is to us. I think that is enough for me, and I shall then proceed to next business. Thank you members. Let's go into the formalities for a moment. My name is Councillor Fane. Thank you for letting me chair with Councillor for the forthcoming year. As usual, this meeting is being live streamed and recorded. We also allow recording, filming and photography. So long as the meeting is not disrupted, I would urge members to ensure that their phones are on silent. Please would members keep their microphones switched off until invited to speak. If participating remotely, yes we have some participating remotely, invited to address the meeting, please make sure your microphone and camera are switched on. And when you have finished addressing the meeting, please turn your microphone and camera off. Members attending might be should indicate their wish to speak through a chat message in the teams meeting and those present in the Chamber should indicate their wish to speak. By raising their hands, I will ask the vice chair in due course to note the order of speakers. The chat facility should not be used for any other purposes except when necessary to write down a simple amendment, complex amendments should have been shared with democratic services in advance of the meeting. When we move to a vote on any item and there is not clear affirmation, I will state that a recorded vote will be taken. Members in the Chamber will then vote electronically selecting for against or abstain on the microphones and the result will be displayed. The meeting is quarried so we will proceed. I would add one other thing, this is the annual meeting of the council and the agenda for the annual meeting is laid out in our constitution focusing on the administrative functions of the council. It does not include questions and motions from councillors or from the public. So I proceed to item two, which is the appointment of a vice chair. And in accordance with the constitution, the vice chair will also be elected by secret ballot. Are there any nominations for the office of vice chair of the council for the 2023-2024 municipal year? Well, I am going to nominate councillor Peter Sanford myself as vice chair. So can I ask for a seconder for this nomination? Thank you councillor, Tumie Hawkins. It's for the year 2024-2025. Very good point. This was a test put into my notes for me by the democratic services to see if I was awake. And a test that you will notice I have failed but councillor Bradman was fortunate. I'll get more practice at it. Thank you members for your patience. So councillor Peter Sanford has been nominated by councillor Dr Tumie Hawkins. Are there any other nominations for the role that I see none? So I then invite councillor Sanford to leave the room. Members, I declare that councillor Peter Sanford, having been the only candidate, also received the most votes. So I'm therefore able to go ahead and then councillor Sanford you will need to read out the same declaration of office to be signed by the chief executive if you would. Thank you. I, Peter Sanford, having been elected to the office of vice chair of South Cambridge District Council, declare that I take that office upon myself and will duly and faithfully fulfil the duties of it according to the best of my judgment and ability. I undertake to observe the code as to the conduct which is expected of members of South Cambridge District Council and you'll be relieved to hear I'm not proposing to do a speech of acceptance. We'll just wait while the vice chair signs his acceptance and that is count signed and then we will proceed with the meeting. Right members, we'll now proceed with the business meeting. Further business meeting item three, apologies. Are there any apologies for absence? Yes, thank you chair. There are apologies from councillor Henry Batchelor, Bygot, Drew, Earl, Garby, Hales, Macdonald, Nietto, Ripeth, Banderwire, Warren Green, Wilson and Jackson Wood. And are there any members who are participating, participating remotely? I think we have councillor Natalie Warren Green and councillor Henry Batchelor online and I understand councillor Mark Howell also gives us apologies. Any other apologies? councillor Batchelor. Four, item four. councillor Batchelor has injured herself or has been injured. Well, perhaps we should note our concern and best wishes for her. Item four, declarations of interest. Do any members have any interest to declare in relation to any item of business on this agenda? I should say that if an interest subsequently becomes apparent during the meeting, members should raise it at that point. So any declarations of interest? I see none. Item five, I'm sorry, councillor Heather Williams. Just that I'm members of the Greater Cambridge partnership assembly. Five minutes, you'll find these on pages nine to forty four. And there are two sets of minutes, and I propose to take them separately to firstly to approve the minutes of the meeting of the council held on 27 February 2024, which as I say is on page nine. Do you have any issues of correct? I believe that there are some very minor corrections in relation to the attendance of one member which is not recorded in one of the votes. I have drawn that to the attention of democratic services I don't propose to go into that unless members want me to. So may I take those minutes as an approved record of that meeting? Can I do that by affirmation? I think I can. Those minutes are approved. And then the minutes of the meeting on 21 March, you will find on page thirty seven of your printed papers. And again, there is one minor amendment. I see councillor Richard Stobart first. Thank you. I'm not sure. It was an extensive discussion about the arrangements around South Cambridge Investment Partnership, so I'm a director. But beyond that, I don't think there's a concern. Members, councillor Stobart declared his interest and removed himself from that section of the meeting. So I don't think we need to record that. Councillor Dr Martin Kahn. Simply on page forty, it's a typo I think on the third paragraph from the bottom of the page. You said the monitoring officer advised that while the vote on the substantial motion would be held. I think that probably was meant to be substantive. But councillor Dr Richard Williams. Thank you very much chair. This is not the comment to correct the minutes but I've been advised this would be the right place to raise this. Just on page thirty nine, there are two references to things I said. Firstly, I made reference to some comments that were made about the conservative briefing. I just wanted to put on record that I was satisfied with the explanation I got from that. I was satisfied that it was inadvertent and I think it's important that I put that on the record. And I was very pleased with the candor and the openness about that issue. Just on the section 151 on the point I also have raised, I'm very happy with the way that's been dealt with as well. I just want to put down on the record. Thank you for that. So, I think in relation to the voting records we can leave it to democratic services to adjust the numbers accordingly. And with that, can I take it that we can approve these minutes as a correct record of the meeting on 21st of March? Agreed. I take that by affirmation, those minutes are approved. Announcements from the chair, I have no further announcements. Item 6A, we then move on to item 60 announcements from the leader or from cabinet. Leader, do you have any announcements? Yes, just a couple of brief ones. You'll see later on in the papers under the section on appointments to outside bodies that an advisory council has been established sits under home England and that provides input into Cambridge 2050 as it stands at the moment to see what the future holds there. And as far as I'm aware the only confirmed members of that thus far are myself, the leader of city council, the leader of the county council and the mayor. There will be other people and I don't know who those are. So just one other thing you will see also in the papers that councillor Bill Handley is going to stand down from cabinet after five years of really selfless service. During that time we're throwing just one crisis after another at Bill into an already very, very complex and extremely busy portfolio. There was COVID, there was Ukraine and cost of living. So Bill has expanded his attention in a quite phenomenal way to meet every challenge and he's done so much to make a very real difference to the lives of so many people in South Cambridgeshire. Bill, I'll miss you as will all your other friends on cabinet. It's been a real privilege working with you. Item 6C, announcements from the head of paid service, none. Item 7, appointments to cabinet including statutory deputy leader, leader. Thank you very much indeed, chair. So the statutory deputy leader will be Brian Milms and in alphabetical order. Members of cabinet will be Henry Batchelor who will be taking the community's portfolio. John Batchelor will remain on housing. Toomey Hawkins will remain on planning. Peter MacDonald will keep economic development and business support. Our new member, huge welcome to you, councillor Natalie Warren-Green will take on environmental services and John Williams will continue with finance. Thank you very much. Thank you leader. We then move on to item 8, the allocation of seats on committees and appointment of committee chairs, pages 45 onwards in your printed papers. I call on Andrew Francis, the elections and democratic services manager to present the report which you will see starting on page 45 of the agenda pack. I think there are some minor additions to the names listed. Andrew Francis. Thank you chair. Yes, members, largely as the report, it is to set the size of committees for the forthcoming year and the allocation of seats on those committees. The nominations of the group leaders to who's going to be on each of those committees, to the appointment of the chairs and vice chairs for each of those committees and to confirm the scheme of delegation for the forthcoming year. As the chair has just pointed out, we have in the last couple of hours published a supplementary item to fill a couple of vacancies and to turn a few things around by understanding what we already know about that. But hopefully it's all relatively straightforward. At this point, I'd just like to remind members that, as said on page 48, there are mandatory training requirements in respect of the planning committee and the licensing committee. And so members may only sit on these bodies once they have received the necessary training. Training for planning officers will be available on 5 June. I'm not quite sure about arrangements for licensing committee at this stage. So, thank you Andrew Francis. Is there a proposer for this item? Councillor Bridget Smith, thank you. And the second after these proposals, Councillor Brian Mills. Does anyone wish to speak on this item? Leader, please. Thank you very much. So, can I just thank Councillor Heather Williams for organising her group membership to participate in a lot of these very important roles. But also thank all members for their contributions. We couldn't run the organisation and serve the residents of South Cambridge without all of you. So, thank you to everybody. Members, can we take these proposals by affirmation? Thank you. These proposals are approved. I should ask, does anyone wish to vote against the proposal? Anyone wish to abstain? The council therefore agrees the motion by affirmation. We then have item 9, appointments to Cambridge and Peterborough combined authority on pages 75 onwards. Members, we have been invited to approve the appointments to the combined authority. Also invited to delegate authority to the chief executive to make amendments to these appointments in the event of any change in political balance across the combined authority area. Leader, would you confirm the names of your proposed appointments? Thank you. They are as in the papers. Is it all right if I say that? We haven't read them all out. Thank you. They're printed on the outside bodies list. The appointments proposed to combined authority board, Councillor Bridget Smith, substitute. Can I come to you in a moment, Dr Conn? Thank you. Just wanted to consult my phone. Please go ahead, Councillor Conn. 81. On page 81, the colours are misplaced upon the political balance, and I thought we should just note that. I think that's in your section that you're looking at. Thank you for... If I can move one line out, isn't it? It's confusing. Thank you for bringing up to our attention. Now, because there was so uncertainty about this, let me just read it out. The appointments as proposed were combined authority board, Councillor Bridget Smith, Councillor John Williams, a substitute. Audit and Governance Committee, Councillor Jeff Harvey, Councillor John Williams, a substitute. Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Aidan van der Veier, Councillor Martin Kahn, with Councillor Richard Stobarton's substitute. And maybe there's a second substitute for the Audit and Governance Committee. I've just gone blank on every side. I was looking at you just hoping you were going to nod and help me there. Yes, so Councillor Peter Fane has offered to be the second substitute on Scrutiny. Thank you for reminding me. Thank you. Is there a proposal for this item? Thank you, Councillor Bridget Smith. Can I ask for a seconder? Can I ask for a seconder? Yes, second. Thank you, Councillor Williams. Does anyone wish to speak on this item? Members, Councillor Bridget Smith. Thank you. Can I just take this opportunity to thank Andy Francis and all his team for the considerable effort he has to put into chasing us all up, because we don't make it easy for him. So thank you very much indeed, Andy, and all your team. Members, are you content to take this decision by affirmation? Agreed. Does anyone wish to vote against the proposal? Anyone wish to abstain? The Council therefore agrees with the motion by affirmation. And we then come to item 10, appointments to outside bodies on pages 83 onwards. Members, we're invited to approve appointments to outside bodies. You can see the full list of proposed appointments, starting on page 83 of the agenda pack. That list is in two parts. The first is a list of council appointments, which is what we are looking at now. And the second part I'll come to. That is the appointments made by the leader and shared here for reference. So I will present this item myself. And Councillor Williams. Thank you, Chair. It's just on page 84 on relations with the Swavyty Internal Drainage Board. And you see there's a vacancy with a Henry Bachelor and a vacancy. But Councillor Ellington is normally on there. So I'm just wondering if the leader would mind making that alteration. Absolutely. If she's normally on it, then that would be very helpful. Thank you. Right. Well, with that one amendment. Council Member, hands up. It's just for the email. It's okay. Okay. Any other amendments? Council Member, Dr Timmy Hawkins. Right, Chair. It's just that there's supplements that have updated all these allocations. So looking at the main papers, there's supplements that need to be looked at for the right people. I'm not quite sure what is being proposed here. Councillor Anna Bradman. Thank you, Chair. I think the point is that in the papers that went out as the printed pack, there are some vacancies still listed. Whereas in the supplementary pack that's been issued by email and on the website, there are some additions that have been added in so that there are in fact no vacancies. So I think it might be helpful to draw people's attention to that. I'm going to turn to Andrew Francis just to clarify this point. Thank you, Chair. As Councillor Bradlund just mentioned, we did publish a supplementary item to update a list of some of the vacancies within the last half an hour. I think Councillor Ellington wasn't on there, so I'm not sure why she's dropped off the drainage board in pregnancy, but I think it's standard that Sue is normally on there. So I think that should be built into an amendment, I think, here to get that added back in. And as Councillor Hansrager, I think it was mentioning her names on that list of supplementary items. Sorry that wasn't circulated, but as Councillor Smith did mention, some of these things have only been confirmed within the last couple of hours, so that's why it's fairly late. With those amendments, including in particular Councillor Ellington on the Swavesy... Sorry, which internal drainage board was it? Sorry, I dropped that as a by-ways advisory. Swavesy internal drainage board, Councillor Ellington's name added to that. That is the list we're now considering. I see I have some further interjections. I'm going to... What order am I taking on? Councillor Dr Timmy Hawkins. Thank you. On the most recently published update supplement to this particular item, we've got Henry Batchelor, Councillor Batchelor, and Councillor Hanley's name on Swavesy internal drainage board. There's going to be two people, then one name has to drop off. Okay, so to clarify in relation to the Swavesy internal drainage board, the proposal, regardless of what may be in your paper versions, is that the representatives on that be Councillor Henry Batchelor and Councillor Sue Ellington. So please ignore... It shouldn't be Henry because Henry's moved to community. So it should be Sue Ellington and Councillor Warren Green. If there need to be two of them, if there don't need to be two, then we'll just be poor Sue doing it by herself. There do need to be two, so that's the two it needs to be. Sorry, I haven't received the updated... I'm going to pause. Do we have copies that can be distributed to anybody who would like a copy of this before we move to a vote? And while Henry Francis is doing that, I believe there was a further interjection from Councillor Anna Breddon. So if anyone would like a copy of this list, indicate to Andy as he passes you. I'll see what comes back. Any other members who would like a copy of the amended list for clarification, those helpful amendments, I see that I was about to read them out anyway, but so I propose that the list of appointments be approved with the amendments we have discussed and I have proposed. Is there a seconder? Councillor Bridget Smith, I think just briefly ahead. Does any member wish to speak on this item? Councillor Anna Breddon. Thank you, Chair. I'm very confused, but I think my understanding is that for Swaybacy internal drainage board, the noted members were intended to be Sue Allington, who's been on it forever, and Bill Handley, who's the local member. I believe that it's the Henry Batchelor name that might be there in error. I just suggest that as a reason to perhaps defer this particular one for consideration. Thank you, Councillor Breddon. What I'm going to do is, before we move to a vote, I'm just going to ask the leader and in discussion with Councillor Bill Handley who's name should actually be on this. We've established it isn't Henry Batchelor. Should it be... So, no, Councillor Sue Allington and Councillor Warren Green please. Thank you. So, Councillor Breddon, I'm going to stick to the version we were considering. I'm not proposing to take further comments on this list. Members, are you content to approve this list by affirmation with all the amendments as agreed? Thank you, Members. Anyone wish to vote against that proposal? Anyone to abstain? That proposal is, therefore, approved by affirmation. We then move on to the designation of the Scrutiny and Overview Committee as the Crime and Disorder Committee, a designation we need to renew each year in accordance with sections 19 and 20 of the Police and Justice Act 2006. Can I ask for a proposer for that recommendation? Thank you, Councillor Graham Cohn. Is there a seconder for that? Thank you, Councillor Santa. Does anyone wish to speak on this item? Members, are you content to take this decision by affirmation? Agreed. Does anyone wish to vote against the proposal to abstain? The Council, therefore, agrees that motion by affirmation. We then come to the annual report, item 12, annual report from the Scrutiny and Overview Committee, which is on pages 89 onwards. Members were invited to receive the Scrutiny and Overview Committee annual report, and I call on Councillor Graham Cohn, Chair of the Scrutiny and Overview Committee for the past year, to present that report. Thank you for that, Chair. I'll be very brief because all the information is in the report. Really, I just wanted to thank my Deputy Chair, Councillor Drew, and Ian Scenia particularly for working very hard to make sure that the committee runs smoothly, and I've tried very hard to listen to members of that committee so that things are brought to it where we can really add value and improve the policy coming through the Council. I'd also like to thank Councillor Milnes and Councillor Smith for attending the triangulation meetings and being very collaborative in helping us making sure that we are scrutinising things that need scrutiny. So I'd like to thank them both for taking the time to do that and give scrutiny the importance that it deserves. Other than that, I would just like to mention young people's task and finish group as well, which was chaired by Councillor Stobar, and just to thank him particularly for chairing that, but also all the members of that task and finish group that worked hard to improve policy in that respect across the Council. I think that has made a difference, so I just wanted to add that as well. Thanks very much. Members, I'm just going to invite you to receive the report. I'm then going to move on to the annual report from the Audit and Corporate Governance Committee on pages 97 onwards. Again, we're invited just to receive the report for 2023-24, and I call on Councillor Atkins, chair of the Audit and Governance Committee, to present the report. Thank you, chair. Similarly, I don't have a great deal to add to the report and agenda, so I won't take much time. The finance team here at the Council have continued their hard work in bringing our accounts and reporting up to date, and we as a committee have continued to support and scrutinise their work and also the reports of our internal and external auditors. Just to bring the report right up to date, I'm sure many members shared my immediate reaction to the announcement of a general election yesterday, aside from the lack of umbrella, which was what will this mean for the system of local government audits, which you may recall are in a state of suspense awaiting legislation which will confirm backstop arrangements for historic audits. For us, the affected accounts are for the years 21-22 and 22-23. These accounts are fully prepared but are awaiting an audit of some form or other. Unfortunately, we're still waiting to hear whether the necessary legislative arrangements will be passed before the House rises next week, but we will keep all members informed in the coming months. For their work in the past year, I'd like to give my thanks to the vice-chair, Councillor Sanford, Councillor Heather Williams, as lead opposition member. Indeed, all the members are substituted to the committee and the many staff who have supported our work led very ably by Mr Maddock and Mr Tully. Thank you very much. Thank you for that report, and I invite the council to receive that report. Item 40, the annual report from the Civic Affairs Committee for 20-23-24, which is on page 111 onwards. 109 onwards. As chair of the Civic Affairs Committee for the past year, I present that report myself. I would also like to thank my vice-chairman, Councillor Paul Bear Park, who has rather more experiences and has been able to help guide me through procedures, and Patrick Adams of Democratic Services, who has done an awesome amount of work to support the committee. I would just draw attention to the role of the committee, includes bringing forward substantive changes to the constitution for consideration by the council, that work will be brought forward in due course. Looking to page 112, we had considerable amount of debate on the appointment of an independent member to the audit committee, and the appointment is currently underway. That concludes the report. Can I invite council to note that report? Thank you, members. We then come to item 15, which is the leader of the opposition's annual statement, and I invite the leader of the opposition, Councillor Heather Williams, to make her annual statement. Thank you, chair. Members may be happy to hear that I said it had to be even in 10 minutes, and if we get anywhere near that, I've gone very off-script, so I'm going to try and keep it a bit briefer, and hopefully you'll only hear it once. So, chair, when starting this speech, I reflected on how privileged we are to represent this astonishingly beautiful district, which is full of honest, hardworking families. It is our duty as a council to provide only the highest quality services to enable our residents to enjoy life here in South Cairns. Looking back on this past year, I am pleased with the encouraging steps we have made when we've worked collectively together as a council. I was glad to see the Young People's Task and Finish Group come to life from the motion I originally submitted nearly two years ago. It is encouraging to discover our young residents' knowledge of council services. I think it went farther than actually probably some of our own age peers, and we now have food for thought of how to help young people and make a real difference for them in South Cairns, because often we see in things such as planning how the decisions we take today, they won't perhaps even impact our lives, but will, if a decade's to come. We have a desperate need for genuinely affordable housing, and I think that's always been supported across this chamber, and that's why we all supported funding the extra 20 million to Erman Street, which, as many members know, does feel like a little bit of our group's baby at this council, and we're very proud of it. I even have the sign in my office, and that will help provide more council houses for working families. All councillers came together to support a variety of motions through the year. The white ribbon accreditation for this council, tackling period poverty, and doing all we can to support care, to experience people in our district, things that have come from every group or non-group of this council. I'm proud of these steps forward because they show that we do not just sit here and squabble and score, play a bit of political football now and then, but together we can make a real difference. I would like to say thank you to my group, and I particularly a few highlights of their year. First of all, to Councillor Cohn for balancing the job that he does, which I think most of us recognise as an emotionally challenging one, and then coming and talking about bins and everything else and his work on scrutiny, and I'm sure most of you will sympathise for putting up with me for the last year. Councillor Ellington, who is passionate about communities and providing things, particularly for those suffering from isolation. She's always coming to us with ideas for our alternative budget, and we included them this year, and I thank her for making sure that we have that section of our community represented. Councillor Waters has faced every challenge that she sent to her from government in her ward with that hotel getting different use every time, and we are incredibly proud of how she has reacted and stood up for her ward. Councillor Mark Howe, as father of our council, his experience and institutional knowledge I think is actually of use to many of us across this chamber. Councillor Williams, for the hours of, he's a glutton for punishment, he's on planning and ADCC, so for your planning contributions we're all very grateful. Councillor Bataecharia, just positivity galore, I'm so gutted that she can't be here today, but her commitment as well to communities, and I know she's very keen on her cookery, and I thank the council's support for her in that, and what she's done of late. Councillor Bygot put his statisticians on the scrutiny to the test, and he apologised leader, he was doing his job, and nobody knows numbers like him, and I'm very grateful for the contribution he makes, and I hope that it does benefit scrutiny as well. And Councillor Nieto, whose environmental knowledge is truly second to none, and a real asset to our group. I'm fortunate to have such a great team with a wide range of skills, and I think as a council, many of us put our skills on residents regardless of party, and I don't believe that an audit committee has ever been loaded with so many accountants as it is right now, so that's always fun for the auditors. We in our group vote for what we believe is right because we care about our residents, something I'm sure all in this chamber do. And with these issues of great significance, we've come together from different political parties to make sure we collectively do the right thing. But there are, of course, ongoing things and projects in this council that, you know, it would be a bit boring if we agreed all the time. As a member of the Greater Cambridge Partnership Assembly, I witnessed what felt like trauma to residents with the Cambridge congestion charge, and it's been well documented how difficult that myself and those on the other side found those debates and discussions. Some in our chamber realised about the unfair charge, residents paying £5 a day to drive in our city in an area that included our fantastic, world-leading adenbrokes and pack of sites, and saw that affecting rural South Cams where public transport links are fewer far between, and despite what the paper said, I'm pretty sure that my small villages on the fringe of South Camershire would not have got a bus every hour. But just when residents breathed a sigh of relief up-popped the mayor's transport plan, and unfortunately, our representative voted to support road-chargering, and from my point of view, triggering congestion charge 2.0 for residents. We have consistently raised our concerns about congestion charge, and will continue to raise our concerns along with the 58% of residents who said no to the congestion charge. But it does appear that that has fallen on deaf ears, which begs the question, why? Why are you not listening to the 58% of residents who said no, and how much more money will be wasted in plans that then don't get followed through, while as grateful as I am that the congestion charge was stopped at that point, an awful lot of money was spent in the process from those hard-working families. Thanks to this administration's refusal to accept that their residents know best, road-charging is still on the table, it remains a potent and lingering threat for our thriving businesses and residents. How disappointing that democracy was not listened to. But as the four-day week has shown, I say this with a heavy heart, but disgraceful seems to be the norm for democracy. The 15-month four-day week trial cost taxpayers over £4 million in salaried hours that were not worked. The administration has turned a blind eye to government warnings of financial penalties plowing on with the trial, yet two best value notices now showing severe concerns for residents are not getting value for their money. Our own staff survey showed over a third of our staff were more stressed under the pressure of the four-day week. An agency staff plus almost 100 officers had to work more than four days to get their work done. And still, despite this, there has never been an attempt to consult residents and 80% of us as councillors, elected councillors, have still had no vote. For the sake of our residents and for the ruling group's namesake with Democrats in it, I believe that that is fundamentally wrong. Using taxpayers' money, which is hard-earned by working five days a week, to pay officers a full extra day off each week does to many fill, like the meanest form of social injustice. Let me be crystal clear when I say officers of this council are not to blame. After all, who of us wouldn't accept a full-time salary for part-time hours? I'm grateful for the support I receive and I'm sure my group are too every single day from the officers in this council. You truly are brilliant and your enthusiasm for local government is infectious, and I'm reminded that there is a whole lot of good in this world when I see many of our officers at work. South Cams would not run without you and you are appreciated. But that is why the administration needs to own up to their decisions and take the responsibility. Do not hide behind officers. Own up to your failings. Do not put them as a bus between you and us. The four-day week has not worked in our view. We should not just be looking to maintain our performance but strive to improve it and the benefit of residents because that is why we are all here. Residents elected us to ensure their council works hard for them all year round and not to only be able to contact on four days a week. Last year, I advised the administration to change course now before it is too late. Since then, we have embarrassed ourselves on the national stage with best value notices hanging from our council's coat of arms. And we are still yet to ask residents what they think. And yet there are no signs of it stopping. It simply carries on. So I may have warned the administration to change course before it was too late. I fear we are rapidly approaching that very point of no return for on top of the reputational damage we are all suffering. Going back to a five day week is increasingly difficult the longer this council gets used to an internal bank holiday. I strongly advise the administration to reflect on why we are here in this chamber today and every other day. Our residents need us at this council more than ever. But a four day week of throwing money into wasteful black holes like road charging is a great hindrance, not a help. For this moment forget political games forget our party differences remember our residents. Thank you chair. Thank you Councillor Williams. I should stress there is no debate or opportunity for questions on that report. Councillor Williams you could go a little over the time you've indicated but I'm sure that will cause savings under item 18 when you get there into the course. 17. Members we now arrive at item 16 and your report on the useless special urgency procedure and decisions where call-in has been waived. Now we're asked to note all the key decisions taken as urgent during the course of the year and also those taken as a matter of urgency without a call-in period since the last meeting of council. Both Councillor Cohn and I were engaged. Councillor Cohn of course is chair of the scrutiny committee in the making of these urgent decisions and I propose that we now note the report. Can I have a seconder for that? I'm happy to second that chair. Councillor Cohn has seconded that. Thank you. Does anyone wish to speak on this item? I see none. Members are you content to take this decision by affirmation and to note those decisions? Does anyone wish to vote against that proposal? To abstain. The council therefore agrees the motion by affirmation. Now I was proposing to take a break in about five minutes time but I think it would make sense to take a break before the next item. Item 17. So I propose therefore that we break until 3.15 just over 10 minutes and resume then. Thank you members. Thank you members, we are now live. We come to item 17 on our agenda for the meeting on 23 May. This is the report on the extension of the best value notice. Now before I invite the leader to present this report which is on pages 117 onwards, I'm going to suggest that if this were a motion of an ordinary member of a meeting of council we would confine it to 30 minutes. We should attempt to do say today perhaps I should say 28 minutes. If we could keep it relatively brief that would be appreciated and that is just guidance from the chair. I would urge all members to listen carefully. I reviewed the meeting in November on previous best value notice and I would urge both sides to listen carefully to the comments from the other side. I do ask members to confine their comments to the best value notices. This is not a debate on the four day week or other matters. We now move on to the report on the extension of the best value notice and I call on Councillor Bridget Smith to present the report and to move the recommendation. Thank you very much chair. I should keep this very short and I will be very mindful of what you said about restricting all my comments to the subject matter of this report. Members will be aware that we've been issued with the best value notice. You'll also be aware that a general election has been called. So in six weeks time we will have a new government and most likely we'll have a new government minister who I hope will accept our invitation to meet with them to discuss the best value notice if it's still in place. Thank you. Do you have a seconder for this report? Yes I second chair and I reserve my right to speak. Thank you Councillor John Williams. Does anyone wish to speak on this item? Councillor Helen. We've been looking this way. It's almost as if it's a script and you were going to have them. I shall start by to claim that we have a proposed amendment to the recommendation and I'm happy for that to be displayed and shared for people to digest while I explain my reasoning why if that's agreeable with your subject. Members happy that we show the amendment which is relatively short on the screen. I don't think we need to circulate a written version of this. We'll take a short pause while we digest that. Do you like me to give my reasoning chair why you do that? We will take a short pause while we digest that. Right. So Councillor John Williams would you like to propose your amendment? Thank you and just for clarity I do have a seconder. This I think I do. There we go. So the reason for this sort of option 3 it will recall when we had this debate before there were three options this time and a lot of this is very akin to the third option that was last time. When looking at the best value notice itself it says it's around the council not yet fully analysing the long term impacts of the trial on future decisions it also refers to the impact of delivery on best value for day to day and a removal of the fifth of the capacity of the council. Now previously it was that we were in a trial and I do believe if I mis-crate the leader of it I believe the leader said it was fit and proper that the trial be finished. We've disagreed in that but that's my recollection whereas now we're at a stage where that trial has ended. There is not a trial but there is continued work in practice and we also know that this best value notice is the second one to be served so in my view that means that there was not enough evidence demonstrated by the council to satisfy the first one hence we are what we are. There's no longer a trial so in my mind believe the trial ended on 31 March and then the agreement of cabinet was that the continued work in practices would go on until there was consultation with final decisions but the actual trial itself has ended. I do worry and I did reference it earlier but I do worry for the reputation of damage that this is happening and that the best value notice when we had it last time we said it was impossible to find the data and it was impossible to quantify how much it was going to cost there was lots of unknowns but we know now that there is a cost of providing the data we can see that how we're doing things is not the satisfying government. Now we've been told that the consultation needs to happen after another consultation before we can get a permanent decision but there's nothing stopping us as a council following that cabinet ceasing the current working arrangements and the best value be withdrawn then all council can make a decision as to what the future permanent working arrangements are but right now we are neither in a trial nor at the point of permanent and this I believe would be the correct way to deal with this situation we do not need this best value notice to be over our heads at the moment it's really a shame that this is what it's come to and I would ask you to really consider that option and think what's right for the council because for me that is and then those offices are having to do the weekly submissions and everything else can be doing other things and just to be clear we wouldn't have this had we listened to the warnings at the start so this best value notice has been brought upon the administration by themselves thank you councillor Williams I think I know the answer to this do you have a seconder for your amendment I'm happy to second chair and you wish to reserve your comments to the end I will speak now I'm happy to speak now in just very briefly in that I support the comments that council Williams heather Williams has made and I will be happy to support this thank you councillor leader this is your proposal do you accept the amendment I do not have a debate councillor Michael Atkins thank you chair this is a question of clarification more than anything I just want to understand obviously haven't seen this amendment until just now so the amendment adds a new option into the report I don't know if this is best for the chair a monitoring officer or to have a services to advise so what votes are proposed to be taken because clearly this option could be entered into the report but then the recommendations would not be altered by it so is it proposed that we debate whether or not this option should be in the report and then we take a vote on the three options or if there are further amendments to the recommendations if you could just outline the logistics that would be appreciated thank you for that I'm sure that our monitoring officer will correct me if I'm wrong but my intention is that if this amendment were to be passed we would then move after the debate to a vote on three options rather than on two was that clear up the question so we then move to an amendment to a debate on this amendment does anyone wish to speak against this amendment Councillor Bridget Smith thank you very much indeed so I'm going to absolutely restrict my comments to best value notice so the fact that best value notice has been issued to this council based purely on a political ideology was surprising in the extreme there's a couple of other councils have been issued with best value notices for reasons that are very unusual bearing in mind what best value notices were established for so it's not a surprise to me that this was this was reissued but I still challenge the justification for it being issued in the first place in direct reference to the motion by the 10th of June there won't be a government in order to make a decision about anything so government is going into recess the end of next week so there will be nobody there to make these decisions anyway so it doesn't make sense that way but we have chosen to continue as we have done with the last best value notice in place as far as I'm concerned nothing has changed so we continue now up until whatever happens in six weeks time and there is new government when as I said in my introduction I sincerely hope we have a local government minister who accepts our invitation to discuss this Does any member wish to speak on the amendment before I invite the leader of the opposition to sum up Councillor Dan Lenton Thank you chair I won't be voting for this amendment for the reasons that Councillor Bridget Smith said that there won't be a government on the 10th of June so completely uncertain how this trial is meant to stop if that is the will of this council and the problem from the start has been what appears to be a deliberate attempt to goat the conservative government a waste monster into the actions that it is taking using residences, services and their monies that they to council tax to this council to provide those services we should have had a debate on this months ago we should have discussed the various different models of four in seven working available five days paid for four days worked is not the only model available for example we could have said X number of jobs will be designed, advertised and filled on the basis of four day working I simply think there is no way to stop I invite you to confine your comments to best value notice there is no way to stop the five days pay for four days work model without and that's why I'm not voting for this amendment because I don't think it is practical any other members wish to speak to this amendment I see none, Councillor Heather Williams you propose the amendment thank you and just for clarity although there is a general election we have the situation the departments do keep running and the ministers will be in play to deal with business as normal until the end if that helps clarify things I appreciate the MP side but the government doesn't just stop civil servants don't just stop because of an election and that's for the different reasons and national security quite often is a case that's not really a reason to not support this in my view and if you want we can always make it by the 30th of May if that makes people feel more comfortable but it's up to you if you want us to continue with this over our residents head point of clarification point of clarification so it's my understanding that during this period we are not allowed to make political decisions and this would undoubtedly be a political decision that is a matter of debate and actually best value notices are served in many cases and it doesn't necessarily be political in fact normally it's from the department and we can see here and there are clear reasons we've lost a fifth of the capacity of the council and that's not good use of taxpayers' money I think we need to emphasise that we are about to move to a vote on this amendment I would urge members to just as I'm going to do reread the effects of this best value notice to ask the department that the best value notice to be withdrawn on the provisor that four day working week four day week work arrangements cease by 10th of June and it is the 10th of June not on the other date that may have been mentioned which we are considering as this amendment I think it is now time for us to move to a vote on this amendment and I'm just going to pause this for a moment Councillor Heather Williams Thank you for that clarification I'm proposing to take further clarifications I think it is time to move to a vote on this amendment so I'm going to ask democratic services to set this up we'll take an electronic vote if you are in favour of the amendment has moved then you vote green if you are against you vote red and if you wish to abstain then you vote yellow remembering of course to press the little blue button first Members we are now in a vote has everyone voted who wants to vote I do not propose to re-run the vote unless anyone any member wishes to demand it I appreciate that a member has had difficulty I'll take that if I may as one abstention I have confirmation of that effect does the member concern wish us to take another vote in that case we will have to take another vote I'm advised that I'm wrong I always like to be advised that I am wrong the member can vote against without being able to do so electronically so I would now ask democratic services to just clarify the result for us and read out the numbers Do you want to announce it? Thanks chair, the amendment has been defeated by 23 votes I think to 35 Thank you so members that amendment is defeated and we now move back to the proposal from councillor Bridget Smith Does anyone else wish to speak to the proposal before you on the agenda paper? Any others wish to speak to the proposal? councillor Heather Williams Thank you chair both of the options I'm not chair I'm talking to you Could I just request that the amendment be now taken down? Thank you Give him a chance councillor Bratton Give him a chance to make a short pause for a moment so just to clarify we are still on item 17 and the amendment has been defeated so we are now debating the proposal before us Do I have any speakers to the proposal or on the proposal councillor Heather Williams Back to you I was aware where we were at in proceedings and I did put my hand up for that purpose Both options are not feasible in our view we really do think that this needs to come to end the trial has been done analyse the data but let's get people back to working and not carrying on because we also know from reports that the longer this goes on if it needs to be reversed the harder it gets on officers and everybody else and really it just needs to stop now so no, I'm not going to support these options where you're continuing to do this councillor Lentel you spoke on the amendment but now you want to speak on the motion itself I assume councillor Lentel Yes I think that the attempt to put the genie back in the bottle is going to be nigh on impossible and what we've heard today is that the primary it seems as though one of the primary goals of this whole project was to goad the Conservative Government of Waste Monster into taking the actions it is now taking it is taking these actions and it is using up more council resources because we didn't debate this properly we didn't come up with alternative options and we aren't actually providing best value and the only reason we have done this is to irritate the Conservatives at Waste Monster using people's vital services that is really not a good thing to have done Any other speakers on the I will come to councillor John Williams later reserving his fight as seconder councillor Bridget Smith you spoke as proposer earlier on I think Did you want to speak again? I'll leave it to councillor Williams Any others? No I think then we move to councillor John Williams to give the motion to speak Thank you chair We all know that the first best value notice was issued to us six months ago and we have and this has been confirmed by the letter that we received with the second best value notice that we have complied with the request of the government and that data that we have supplied to the government is on our website it is available to all to see the whole world to see and that has shown that this council is continuing to perform well that there is no reason for us to be issued with the best value notice at all and in fact the government has not in any way criticised the way that this council has performed during the six months of the first best value notice as the leader has said therefore came as a bit of surprise to us to be issued with a second best value notice asking us to continue providing the same data that we provided in the first but I would say that look at one of the reasons why they want to continue with a best value notice is the fact that they want us to properly analyse the long term impacts of the trial before making a decision on the trial so clearly the government doesn't believe that the first six months of information they received is sufficient for them to make a decision on whether or not we are complying with the best value notice we are actually delivering best value and as I asked for the first six months which we are very happy to comply with because we believe we are delivering best value for our residents so therefore to stop it now would actually be premature and would not actually meet the requirement of the government so we are very happy to continue supplying the information and the data that is required under the second best value notice so that we can demonstrate what the long term impacts are of the four day week so I urge members to just note this report and to say that we will continue to comply with the second best value notice Thank you members we now move to a vote on the recommendations that are set out in paragraph 2 on page 107 of the PAC if you support that recommendation you vote in favour and if you oppose that recommendation you vote red against obviously yellow to abstain can we now set up an electronic vote on that proposal has everyone voted electronically who can and who wishes to vote there will be a short pause before we complete the vote has everyone voted who wishes to vote I think so so that proposal is approved by 22 votes to 5 with one abstention Thank you members we now move on to the update from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough combined authority can I ask whether our representatives on the combined authority have any comments they wish to make on those reports which are on page 131 onwards are there any are there any questions for our representatives on the combined authority I see none that item is noted we move on then to item 19 greater Cambridge partnership council is invited to note the update from the GCP on page 155 do our representatives on the GCP have any comments they wish to make nothing to add thank you chair are there any questions for our representatives on the GCP I see none no vote is required item 20 update on the Oxford to Cambridge pan regional partnership there have been no board meetings of the Oxford to Cambridge pan regional partnership therefore for this meeting there is no report to discuss item 21 chairs engagements as listed this draws our annual meeting to a close and the next council meeting on 18 July at which point there will be a new government of one flavour or another so I close this meeting at 1544 thank you members