 White, good morning everybody So this is a Cabinet meeting Of Southdoor Central District Council My name's Bridget Smith and I'm the leader of the council Could people who are online please make sure they keep their microphones muted And could people in the Chamber please keep their phones on silent Mae'r cyfnod y cyfnod yw ychydig yn ei gwybod bwysig, ac mae'n gofio ar y traddwl. Felly, byddwn i'r gweithio'n gwybod bwysig yn welith yma, nid yw ddim yma yna os ymddangos gyda'r proposal. Yn y fwyfyrdd hyn, ac o'r cyfnod cyfaint, mae'n gofio'r gweithio'n gwybod bwysig yn y cwm ni, mae'n gwybod i'r gweithio i'r gwybod a'r dwi'r gwybod a'n gweithio'n gwybod bwysig. Mae'r bobl yn eich cyfrifio i'r ddechrau. A ddych chi ddim yn dechrau, mae'r bobl yn eich cyfrifio i'n ddod o'r cyfrifio i ddod o'r gweithio, ac mae'n ddod o'r bobl yn ei ddod o'r bobl, mae'n gweithio'r chat o'r bobl yn rhan o'r ddweud, a'r gyffredinol yn teimlo i chi wedi gweld yn ei ddau i chi'n gweithio i chi'n gweithio i'n gweithio i'r ddweud. Felly can I just check that the meeting is Corin leads? Yep, the meeting is Corin. Thank you very much indeed. We've got various non-cabinet members present in the meeting today and the members in-public. You're all very welcome. Well to see you all and various officers present both in the Chamber and virtually. Rydyn weithio yr ymdano, un o'r ffordd gweithio ddau iawn, Jonathan. ac sydd o'r ffordd i hyn, mae'r ffordd i hyn o eich hoffi ni? Rwy'r gwych yn hwnnw, ddweud. Rwy'n feidio'r ffordd i hyn o'r ffordd i hyn o un o'r byn o'r byn o hanlwys yng Nghymru, ac yn ymddangos i'r meddwl mewn cyflau i'r meddwl a'r r Vitamin C, am yw Peter MacDonald, yng Nghwyl Llywodraeth, y mae'n gweithio ar y cyfrifio cyffvernol, ac yw Llywodraeth Llywodraeth, yr ahead ddod o'r llygodau i ychydig yn ond o'r cymanydd. Efallai, ac efallai. Rydyn ni'n gweithio beth oedd y peth yn arweinydd i'r hawdd? Rydyn ni'n gweithio beth oedd yn ychydig o'r cyfrifio cyffernol, yw'r cyfrifio cyfan bach dewis? Rydyn ni'n gweithio beth oedd yn ymryd i'n gweithio, ac mae'n gweithio beth oedd yn etymol, eich gwirionedd o gyhoedd. Ie, byddwn yn yn gynnwys i chi, os ydym ni'n symr i'ch gwirionedd o'r eich gwirionedd o'r gymr rentol, gyda i'ch eich gwirionedd o'r ysgrifennu hynny fel y gwestiynau? Yn ei wneud', yn ymellig, yn ddwy'r gwirionedd o'r eich gwirionedd o gwestiynau? y ddweud fel hwn? MS. Mae arddangos. Mae'r ddweudach. Rydw i'r ddweud? Rydw i go aheadwyd. Okay. Arnaf yn ei ffrindwyr. Okay. Rydw i'r ddweud y ffrindwyr, o cook, ond rwy'n go aheadwyd fel oeddiwch arnaf eich cydnodd yn brydiol yn fgladoedd. Rydw i'r ddweud yw'r ffrindwyr. Cymru. ymwneud y BBC NG1e phosibol. Maen nhw'n eitem iau a fydd yw y gefnodau a gael i nad oedd wrth dweud gwahanol yn cael jwg i'n rhywbeth yn ymgyrchol maen nhw'n mynd i ymdrygu'r ffordd. Felly dyna i'r ysgol yn fawr o'r mwyaf, ac yn ddim yn rhaid i ni'n ddigon nhw, ond heddiw. Felly, mae'r bywyd yn allu'r ysgol, byddwn i'r ystafell, I shall... Sorry, councillor, go off, apologies. I'm calling council house declaration. I declared my county council seat in the declaration interest, but I probably should just... In purposes, there's nothing to state that. Councillor Milnes, you've got... You want to make a declaration too? Yes, so if you like me, we are declaring membership in the county council. Thank you. That will be noted. Okay, so if anybody is in the chamber, on the team's meeting in the chamber, please make sure your microphone is off so we don't get this feedback loop. Thank you. Okay, so moving on to minutes of the previous meeting, I would like to propose that the minutes are correct, and I believe that's going to be seconded by Councillor Brian Milnes. Yes, I second that. Thank you. So, do members are asked to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 10 January 2022? I move the approval of those minutes as a correct record. Do members agree to approve the minutes? Does anyone wish to abstain? And anyone wish to vote against? Cabinet therefore agrees the approval of the minutes as a correct record by affirmation. So, we're now moving on to public questions, and we have one public question today from Mr Daniel Fulton. Thank you, Mr Fulton, for attending in person. Would you like to ask your question? Yes, I would. Thank you very much, councillor. With the permission of the chair, I do have a substitute question that I do not believe the chair will object to. Over the past four years, I have consistently criticised this council for its lack of transparency and its failure to provide access to information which, by law, must be public. Mr Fulton, as is quite correct, you have submitted a question, which is quite clear here, and the question relates to the Conservative Party opposition budget and the addition of an additional enforcement officer. Would you please restrict your introduction to the substance of the question that you have approved? I will not take anything other than direct, directly related text relating to that question. Councillor Smith, I have been given three minutes to express my political views. No, Mr Fulton. If you would like to restrict that speech, you wouldn't even object to what I was about to say. Right, Mr Fulton, I'm giving you one last chance to restrict yourself to the subject of the matter of the question that you have submitted, after which we will respond and then I will happily take a suitable supplementary question after that. So I'm asking you the last time, please, to restrict yourself to the subject matter of your submitted approved question. I have no further comments. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Fulton. Moving on. Right. Isam 6 is the issues arising from the Scrutiny and Overview Committee, and Councillor Judith Ripeth is going to present the report. Councillor Ripeth, do you want to do that now, or do you want to, you know, submit the views of the Scrutiny and Overview with committee within the body of the agenda? I'll do that now. I wasn't able to be at the last Scrutiny and Overview committee meeting, but I have liased with Councillor Grenfill Chamberlain, the chair, and therefore the report is as read and there's nothing extra to add. Thank you very much. If you pass our thanks on to all of the Scrutiny and Overview committee, who dealt with, I think, a pretty substantial agenda, we're very grateful for their input. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so moving on to item 7, which is the council's business plan, and Councillor Neil Goff is going to introduce the report and move the recommendations. Thank you. Thank you, Leader. I just want to briefly introduce this business plan. It's my pleasure to do so. Obviously, this is to be read really with the budget because essentially everything in this business plan has to be funded through the budget, and I can assure Cabinet that all objectives which are in this business plan have been identified and funded in that budget. The focus of this plan continues to be on the four overarching objectives, which we specified at the outset of the business planning process for the period from 2020 to 2025, and therefore this plan is another year of continuity and further delivery against those objectives. Most important in this business plan is, in fact, the delivery, the notes of what has actually been achieved, which has been really quite remarkable given the year and the period of time we've had with the complications of COVID, quite remarkable that the council and the officers have continued to deliver so successfully against the last business plan. You will also recall that last year's business plan contained a particular focus on the issues of community and supporting business post-COVID. That remains critically important, and I'm pleased to say that that's contained within the business plan. I would like to recommend this to Cabinet as another example of how we are delivering for the residents of South Cambridge who are against these objectives. Thank you. Thank you very much, Councillor Goff. I'm very happy to second this. Would anybody like to comment on the business plan? Anybody on the Chamber? No. We've got no questions. I hope that's a vote of confidence in this. I thank officers for the tremendous efforts that they've put into the business plan. I look forward, hopefully, to being able to build on the success of the last business plan and deliver even more for South Cambridge. I'm sorry. Councillor Bradman. I'm sorry. Thank you, leader. I'm sorry to be slow off the mark. I just wanted to thank very much the Councillor Goff for presenting the business plan, and I'm very encouraged by it. As chair of the licensing committee, I just wanted to endorse thoroughly the undertakings under supporting businesses through COVID with health advice and support, and in particular the two aspects to do with the street trading sector. We're revising our policy on that to try and make that more holistic across the whole district, but also support for private hire and Hackney carriage sector through our upgraded policy. I think the drivers and the business owners have certainly had some challenges during this time, and I just wanted to thoroughly endorse our wish that we want to support the trade and to enable them to run their businesses profitably during this very difficult time. So thank you very much, chair. Thank you, Councillor Bradman. Okay, so if there aren't any more questions, and Councillor Rippers has summarised at the beginning, so the recommendation is set out at paragraph 6 of the report. It's A, to consider the proposed 2020-25 business plan at Appendix A with the Action Plan primarily focused on delivery for 2022-23, and recommend it to council for approval with any amendments as required, and B, authorise the chief executive to make any minor wording changes required to final drafts in consultation with the deputy leader. So do members agree with the proposal? Does anyone wish to vote against? And anyone wish to abstain? So cabinet therefore agrees the proposals by affirmation. Thank you very much. And item 8 is an interesting one, so civil parking enforcement in South Cambridgeshire, something that's been long-muted. So Councillor Neil Goff is going to present this item as well. Thank you, leader. I'm really pleased to be able to present this. This is a very important milestone, and a milestone which has been long coming. I've been involved in this matter personally back to 2018 with a meeting with Councillor Fein and Councillor Sample, who raised the issues of antisocial parking and problems of parking in Shelford, which precipitated a very extensive report from the officers on options which were available to the council. That report concluded that there was a fundamental barrier of unlocking the problem of introducing civil parking enforcement because of the statutory guidance on funding, which, because we did not have any sources of revenue associated with parking, was really very difficult for us to overcome without an external source. I'm now very pleased to say that, as a result of our discussions with the Greater Cambridge Partnership, the Greater Cambridge Partnership has now stepped in and unlocked this problem by agreeing to fund the deficit for the first five years. Thanks to the Greater Cambridge Partnership for doing that. The county will now be leading on what will be a formal application to the Department of Transport for the introduction of civil parking enforcement. But this item seeks our support for them doing that. The process is by no means immediate, and it's certainly very intricate in terms of the further steps in the process, and we're probably looking at least to the second half next year for a reasonable timing implementation. Nevertheless, the sooner we get started with this, the sooner we finish, and I hope we'll enthusiastically support this proceeding to the next step. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Brian Mills, I believe you're going to second this. Would you like to comment at this stage? Yes, thank you, leader, and thank you to Councillor Gough for explaining the background to this, and I was myself also involved in those conversations about this pernicious problem of being considerate in illegal parking across the district. And we know that Councillor Richard Williams presented a motion to council to support our seeking of civilian parking enforcement in the district. I think since the police abandoned enforcement, the problem has got horrendous in many places, including my own ward in Sourston, where we see illegal or inconsiderate parking permanently. So, I welcome the intervention of the GCP with the funding. As Councillor Gough says it, I'm unlocked the situation. And the only thing that I would say in reflection to that is that we've got several bodies involved in this. We've got ourselves, we've got the council and we've got the GCP. And there is a question, I think, of governance. And perhaps, as part of this process, we can just give some attention to that, so that we make sure that we're in control. We want a light touch implementation of the GCP and County Council have agreed to that general terminology. So welcome and support this report. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Mills. So, do we have any questions on this item? Councillor Ellington, how nice to see you. Thank you. I certainly would welcome this. I think it is something that we've all hoped would go ahead. My only concern is when it gets to a point that the traffic warden has to impose penalties in order to fund his own job. And I just want reassurance that after the five-year support that you are getting, this is not going to fall into that category. Thank you. Councillor Goff, would you like to respond to that? I think nothing would delight us more than at the end of five years for there to be no parking violations and therefore no enforcement officers required. So I think that the objective of this is to eliminate the problem. It's not to create a self-sustaining layer of activity of the council. Thank you very much indeed. Councillor Richard Williams. Thank you very much, leader. I just not so much a question just to comment really. I just wanted to thank everybody who's been involved in this. It's good to see a sort of Shelford source and Wittlesford triangle involved in this. Those of us in the south. I just wanted to thank the officers as well very good in keeping me up to date in what's going on. So thank you. Thank you very much indeed. Councillor Bill Handley. Thank you. I just want to speak in support of this. I think it's very good news. My village, villages both like many villages around the district suffers very badly from illegal and inconsiderate parking. This will be very and I've been consulted or he's been spoken about in my parish councils for many, many months. So very, very pleased and thank you. Indeed. Councillor Claire Daunton. Thank you, leader. Yes, I like others. I'm very pleased about this and I'm particularly pleased that in due course problem parking around our schools will be dealt with through this. I'm sure it's an issue across the district. I know it's an issue in our ward. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed for the positive comments. Councillor Heather Williams. Thank you, leader. I also want to urge that this is an opportunity to see more action actually implementing double yellow lines and the like because a big barrier to that has been enforcement and that steps aren't taken by councils before and please because there has to be a reasonable assurance that they can be enforceable and as a leader most probably aware in Arrington as it's nearby has now double yellow lines throughout the village essentially because of the this year just absolute chaos of the parking and dangerous parking there's been but it only works if it's enforced so hopefully it will actually unlock more action on our roads as well. Thank you very much indeed. Councillor Anna Bradner. Thank you, leader. Like others I absolutely support this and I'm very glad that we're doing it and it's a credit to everybody involved because I know how complicated it has been to get this far but what I also wanted to ask was that we are involved in or have some say in how this will be managed and who will monitor the as it were the ethos of the scheme. I know it's been said that it's ideally going to be a light touch approach but I'd like to know who will be managing the system such that it doesn't has cancer Ellington raised become a heavier touch at any stage so that the whole principle of how it's done will be managed in my own village I'm concerned that in due course we might get displacement parking from the northeast Cambridge site and as we already have displacement parking from Cambridge Science Park in my village of Milton so I just want to be sure how the ethos of the scheme is going to be maintained between the three and who are managing it. Thank you councillor Bradman bring up an interesting point councillor Garth. Thank you very much so I think in terms of the answer to that question the officers of the three bodies the county council the GCP and south Cambridge represented by Gareth Bell in large part who's on this call have really worked very co-operatively together on this it's not, while the county is notionally leading in terms of the application this is not an effort where we've anything other than being heavily involved in it so I would say that that is going to continue in the future and we will be sort of shaping this and working with the other constituents councils as it goes forward. And Leida, thank you very much councillor Goff, could I just say just declare my own interest as a county councillor as well since others have thank you. Thank you councillor Bradman so if there's no more questions so we all know parking's perennial problem in all of our villages there's no village where we're in, particularly over my driveway but I think this is a really good news story and my thanks in particular go to councillor Mills and councillor Goff who put considerable effort into this over years now it has not been an easy nut to crack my thanks also in particular to officers of GCP who have been creative in unlocking it as councillor Goff has pointed out I think this demonstrates the best in partnership working very optimistic that this is going to make a real difference to every village in South Cambridgeshire including Arrington where I was last week for a funeral and it was good to see that the double yellow lines there are at least allowing emergency vehicles to go through which was a bit of a risk before oh right okay sorry so that's my apologies can I move to a vote on this councillor Daunton you wanted to come on this yeah only briefly to declare that I am also a county councillor so that everybody has declared it thank you thank you, thank you for that okay lovely alright so a good news story councillor Bachelor sorry to come in so late but I think we need to manage expectations a little bit here we're some way off from being in a position to actually implement because there's a huge amount of work yet to be done and I think we're not likely to see this being implemented I think for two years probably thank you the voice of reason as always I think it's 2023 isn't it before this is implemented but it's a very encouraging start anyway okay so the recommendation is set out at paragraph 5 with a report which is to support an application by Cambridgeshire County Council to the Department of Transport to introduce civil parking enforcement across South Cambridgeshire and grant delegated authority to the head of transformation in consultation with the lead cabinet member for strategic planning and transport to provide feedback on behalf of the council to the application for CPE civil parking enforcement to the Department of Transport and the funding agreement between the county council and the greater Cambridgeshire partnership so do members agree with the proposal thank you anyone wish to vote against and anyone wish to abstain so cabinet therefore agrees the proposal is by affirmation thank you again and item number 9 is the authority monitoring report for greater Cambridge 2020-2021 and it's over to Councillor Toomey Hawkins to present this substantial piece of work thank you leader good morning everyone the authority monitoring report that you have before you this morning is one that government requires us to publish every year it shows how well we are doing in terms of the number of homes delivered compared with the number that we have stated in our adopted local plans that we will deliver just as a reminder adopted local plans of 2018 or both councils city and ourselves south Cambridgeshire set a housing requirement of 33,500 homes built between 2011 and 2031 for greater Cambridge this means the average housing delivery rate is 1,675 dwellings a year in greater Cambridge today I'm happy to report that for the year 2021 we have not just met that target we have exceeded it by delivering 1,752 net additional houses some will ask so I will say that 1,335 of those are in south Cams and 417 in Cambridge City and also of those we have 362 being affordable homes 311 in south Cams and 51 in Cambridge City it is good news for those who like their numbers I will refer you to table 1 on page 207 of our gender papers which shows the housing completions that we've had from 2011 up till 2021 and furthermore if you want more information table 2 shows the breakdown in terms of the settlement hierarchy in south Cams in particular I'll just mention that 1,332 of the sites delivered from 2011 till date is from the 5 year land supply sites prior to September 2018 when we were able to adopt the current local plans one other thing I'd like to highlight in this report is the housing delivery test which is measured over the previous 3 years against the housing requirement for the district for that same period and as you might remember there are penalties for those councils that under deliver so whichever way you look at it we have to make sure that when we set targets we actually try and make sure we deliver on those targets for the last for the 3 year period 2017 to 2020 which was published last year the figure was 176% for Cambridge and 114% for south Cams however the last published report we just published last month for the period 2018 to 2021 the figure was 133% for Cambridge so less than what it was in the previous 3 years but for south Cams it's gone up to 145% this actually confirms the build out strategy that we have employed between both councils where in the early part of the local plans Cambridge was delivering at much higher levels because of the sites that on the edge of Cambridge so the sites within the city boundary were delivering higher and now they are done the sites in south Cams boundary are being delivered as well as sites in the new settlements in south Cams also I think for the first time is that we have been able to collect and secure within the year so for this last year the planning service secured 3.2 million of new investment to be spent on future community projects but also in the same year it received 3.5 million as existing planning permissions were built out and some of the projects that have been delivered include two new pavilions one at Hoxton and one at Willingham a new village hall in Cottenham and we also have a strategic green buffer zone in Melbourne and contributions towards the great river who's improvement project at over there's a lot more in the report this is just an example in fact there's also something about the Falmer round moat in so there's a lot happening and I'm glad that we're able to provide such facilities in our villages we are doing well with neighbourhood plans we've designated 19 neighbourhood areas and we've made four neighbourhood plans in the last year and I think I just signed off a couple of referendums as well for the ones that have been designated so there's a lot of work going on in those areas I just hope that people will take time to digest information as we have created this year's report in a format that enables you to see what's going on in a clearer way we are definitely fulfilling our commitment to tackle the housing shortage and provide more affordable homes for those in most need and also finally that we consider policies to support climate change and have a positive impact so I propose the recommendations in paragraphs 3 and 4 on which put in a very important cabinet thank you leader Thank you very much councillor Hawkins I think councillor John Batchelor is going to second this Yes leader I'm very happy to second this as we've heard from councillor Dr Hawkins is a good news story I'm particularly pleased to see the strength of our 5 year land supply all of us have suffered from the imposition of unwanted developments we'll be very pleased to see that we've got 6.1 years in hand now it's also interesting to see how many houses were imposed on us in that 5 year land supply issue era where it's 1,332 I think we've probably all heard enough numbers but this I would just comment that 340 pages well one I compliment staff for making such an accessible report there's so many complex issues and so many numbers and I quite understand that it's mandatory that we have a monitoring report but you must wonder the amount of work that's gone into this and the amount of time that staff have had to concentrate on this I mean there must be a better way of reducing a monitoring report which is more concise and this time consuming perhaps but I'm very happy to second this proposal Thank you very much and if I could just specifically thank Mark Dee who I gather is the lead author of this massive but actually very very accessible a clearly set out document it's incredibly useful piece of work and you know actually I know it's long but we don't have any choice about that but actually it's surprisingly easy to flick through it and pull out various bits of information so thank you Mark I'm sure the midnight oil got burned on many occasions so questions Thank you leader and yes there's a lot of numbers and I do like my numbers so thank you very much to officers for that it obviously a lot of time has gone into those reports Mine's a question maybe more of a process and practical question leader because we're referring to the figures that we published in April 2021 but at the recent appeal in OVA I think it's over there was 978 got discounted and the inspector found that we had 5.6 so it's a procedural issue really do we take into consideration that appeal and those figures or do we carry on with our own figures or do we have to take that into account because obviously there's quite a difference between the two in any thousand units Thank you leader I'd like to ring Stephen Kelly and answer that in the first Councillor Hawkins wants to answer it I will attempt to if I miss anything I'm sure Mr Kelly will the main thing is that the appeal actually confirm that we still have a 5 year land supply we are currently working on reviewing the sites preparing for the next for publishing the next 5 year land supply figure which we will be doing I think beginning of April so along with that work we'll be looking at the reasons given by an inspector for discounting those things might have changed between where we did the work and now and even between gave his response and where we actually publish so we'll be looking at that very carefully but we have a 5 year land supply 5.6 which means we have a 5 year land supply I'm not sure that there's anything else that we can do in the meantime but the other thing that was confirmed is that using the 5% of a land supply figure actually is the correct methodology so either way we have a 5 year land supply Mr Kelly might want to add to that if I've missed anything Thank you, Stephen would you like to come in? Thank you leader Dr Hawkins has covered actually the key point I was going to make the council's position is as set out in its published housing trajectory which is that the housing supply is 6.1 years clearly the appeal decision is a material consideration and as councillor Hawkins identified we are reviewing the basis for the inspector's conclusion and we'll review the council's published housing land supply position in April once we've had the information that we seek from all developers as part of forming that supply position back but helpfully as councillor Hawkins highlights the inspector confirmed that our approach in terms of the process is entirely appropriate in terms of the 5% buffer, thank you Thank you very much councillor Sue Ellington Thank you I do think this document is very useful and I do congratulate those who have created it I may be being very nitpicky and we in this chamber have got very use to using the term greater Cambridge but greater Cambridge what if you're a resident and you want to get the information that's in this it really does make you think authority monitoring report for greater Cambridge what and I just suggest that it really ought to have something that refers either to planning or housing or building or development within the title so that in future years people can actually find this document when they go searching online Yes we can't deny that so thank you very much indeed councillor Richard Williams Thank you very much leader as everyone said it's very long document I'm sorry for picking out something right in the middle of it so please feel free to respond by email if necessary but I just wanted to ask a question about Brownfield development which is page A217 if that's any help to anyone the percentage of Brownfield development does seem to be going down that does seem to be a bit of a trend and it was 14.2% in 2020-21 so I was just wondering if Mr Kelly or Councillor Hawking's could say a little bit about that is that a result of just less Brownfield development or is it a percentage thing where the percentage has fallen but the amount has stayed the same I suspect there is a deal with availability that we are using it up but Councillor Hawking I can't answer that question so I might ask Mr Kelly to It's an important point that previously developed Brownfield sites in Greater Cambridge are in some cases some of the more straightforward ones that have been developed obviously some of the larger schemes which would count in this regard such as born and north stone and so on are obviously previously developed sites but the place at which they are coming forward is obviously different I think what the AMR probably reflects this year is the build out on a number of those five year land supply sites as people have highlighted already which were by and large greenfield sites as opposed to the spatial strategies Brownfield or previously developed sites like north stone, water beach and so on which will start to figure more prominently I think in the growth strategy as we head forward and in terms of the figures so before looking at the period of time for this report which is 2020 to 2021 obviously a number of our big strategic sites have not really started producing large numbers of homes so water beach things started at the earlier part of last year but we will and we should expect to see those sites making a growing contribution as well as potential sites like northeast Cambridge that I think we've touched upon earlier Are you happy with that council William so do you want to come back at all that makes sense I suppose my follow-up will be I mean are we behind then with north stone and the brownfield sites are they not coming forward as quickly as we thought would be my only follow-up Mr Kelly I don't think we're behind it's a reflection of the kind of monitoring period so for example water beach I suspect makes very modest contribution if anything to this annual monitoring report likewise born airfield where we're intending to conclude the 106 which is another key part of our growth strategy equally doesn't make a contribution in this in this monitoring period and sites like northeast Cambridge and even Cambridge airport in the event that that comes forward in the future which are sizable previously developed sites have not yet started to kind of realise their potential I think delivery on north stone is slightly down where we anticipated but that's a reflection in the actual housing trajectory that we've got rather than what might have been aspired to at the time of the original planning permissions so we are keeping track on delivery and as I said I suspect the majority of the shift in the percentage reflects the build out that we have seen over the last couple of years on some of these five year land supply sites which were all greenfield and making it therefore a substantive contribution to the figures Thank you very much and I think we have to have a sort of post script about COVID to all of this it's actually a small miracle things have kept moving at the rate they have if we remember it wasn't that long ago when building sites were shut down and there was no one on them at all okay so councillor Bill Handley next please Thank you leader I'm just a simple question of when will the annual report monitoring report be published and when will it appear on the southcams website because it's something the public needs to see I hope they've got stamina to read it all Mr Kelly do you want to answer that or councillor Hawkins? Actually we're hoping to do that if cabinet approves this then we can publish as soon as possible making any minor changes that you might require from us That's lovely, if we can just pick up on councillor Ellington's comments about making it if you're doing a search that it does pop up when you do a search for it readily because sometimes it's quite frustrating when documents don't have titles that immediately reflect what's in them so if we I'm sure we will take that into account Yes leader Thank you councillor Clair Dornton please Thank you leader Well actually councillor Handley asked my question so I'll just add to that it'll be great to see it published and available on the website When that is done will it be brought fully up to date because I can see one case there where planning permission was granted since it was published since it's been put before us today so will it be updated or will what is published be the version that we see here Mr Kelly Sorry To me Please come in You can pick that up and I think you want to add something else as well Yes thank you leader Two points firstly in response to councillor Dornton obviously the monitoring period that we're reporting in this report finished in April last year and will be updating any subsequent decisions will obviously be captured in the next year's report for this year and so we won't be updating it unless it's an error you can see on page 49 a request to delegate to me for minor kind of typographical errors and so on that may well come forward so we'll just look into that if you believe we've got it wrong The second point was picking up on Mr Dornton and others comments about accessibility you'll notice in the recommendations that we are also publishing what might be called a more accessible guide to our section 106 monitoring report which will be a much more accessible and visually interesting document as well as the monitoring report to try and help people to understand what planning permission has resulted in through the period of time that document is just getting some design work done honestly at this moment in time so that it is much more accessible and much more readable than perhaps a very long report or indeed a table with a schedule of cost and contributions and so on which is rather flat and uninspiring so we are doing our best to try and make it as accessible as possible Councillor Ellington's point is to do to try and make sure that it's related to planning and people can see that it's its purpose is to try and inform about planning and development outcomes although it does go much more broadly in terms of picking up a wider range of considerations that the district council has an interest in not just planning permissions Thank you very much I'm really pleased to hear about the S106 report it's something that parish councils are always really interested in so I hope we will be making sure that we send them links both for this document but also to the supplementary planning monitoring document as well because it is something that they ask us as local members about frequently Okay so I don't think I've got any more questions the recommendations are that A. we agree Cambridge City Council and South Cambridge District Council's authority monitoring report for greater Cambridge 2021 included as appendix A for publication on the council's website so that answers that question B. delegate any further minor editing changes to the Cambridge City Council and South Cambridge District Council authority monitoring report for greater Cambridge 2021 to the joint director of planning and economic development in consultation with the cabinet member for planning policy and delivery including the final designed version of appendix 3 so do members agree with the proposal? Anyone wish to vote against? Anyone wish to abstain? Cabinet therefore agrees with the proposals by affirmation and once again my thanks to Mark D who hopefully will get out and see some sunshine now because I'm and Jenny, my apologies and Jenny so obviously a formidable team of two so hopefully you can both go outside now and reconnect with nature because you've obviously been stuck in darkened rooms for a long time. Thank you very much both of you. And moving on to another good news story which is the Biodiversity supplementary planning document again another massive piece of work and which is going to be extremely useful to the council so councillor Tumi Hawkins over to you again. Thank you leader. I'm quite excited to present this report to cabinet today and to our residents as we are seeing through the planning process Greater Cambridge is one of the fastest developing areas in the country yet it has a relatively small amount of land that is managed for nature all wild spaces and also South Cubs has one of the lowest tree covers in the country it's therefore important for us that we protect what we already have and enhance biodiversity in our area and that is what this document before you today aims to do to help by clarifying our existing local policies on biodiversity as well as the new updated national policy so this SBD is here today after what is a 15 month journey from when the project was first discussed drafting to member briefings, consultations and all that goes with this type of work we consulted very widely with statutory and non-statutory bodies and members of the public and you will see in appendix a long list of organisations that we consulted with and of course the final drafting includes feedback and suggestions received now the project itself remained in budget and on time for the estimates that we made back in 2020 and hopefully today will be the next step towards finally adopting it just for information we can receive planning and transport committee adopted this document on January 11 a few weeks ago without any amendments requested this SBD will replace the existing South Canada's biodiversity SBD which dates back from 2009 so is well out of hate and not of course representative of the existing policies that we have some of the specific advice which I just want to highlight to you today is it contains guidance for developers on a two-year window to transition from how the biodiversity is currently considered on developments to new rules that will require a 10% increase in biodiversity as a result of new developments and this is in keeping with the environment lack 100% of all new homes will require an integrated nest nest box for species such as swifts and 25% of new build homes will need to include bad boxes fences will need to feature gaps for hedgehogs and other species to rule more freely and we will be encouraging green roofs to create valuable habitat of flowering plants and grasses for wildlife in urban settings and also reduction in artificial lighting which harms not to no species in their habitats, woodland edges hedgerows and wetlands will be required there are several projects ongoing by various organisations that are relevant to greater Cambridge and are aimed at enhancing biodiversity or that provide technical support to focus on measures that will achieve this and you will find those in section 3.6 on page 503 of our papers all of these have been endorsed or adopted by councils and should be used including adopting nature strategy which we adopted last year I think I'd like to mention specifically the work that we have done recently in producing a greater Cambridge green infrastructure opportunity mapping report and that provides evidence base of green infrastructure assets that we have across greater Cambridge it also identifies specific and deliverable opportunities that will enhance and expand the network and we produce this as part of the evidence base for our emerging greater Cambridge local plan also mentioned in the report is the greater Cambridge chalk streams project which I think recently got funding for the from the command authority which seeks to protect and improve our chalk streams in and around Cambridge so as I said there's a lot in there as well but I will conclude by saying that this guidance in the supplementary plan document will be a real help to applicants who are seeking planning permission for their developments by showing how they can meet the policies of our local plans as well as relevant national legislation. It provides clear information on how developments can enhance biodiversity from the outset to ensure it is properly integrated into their projects and not an afterthought so that all developments help the environment I therefore propose the recommendations in paragraphs 3a and 3b on page 349 or for agenda papers to cabinet thank you leader. Thank you very much indeed councillor Hawkins so I'm very pleased to second this and I'm I'm so impressed with the detail this goes into so as well as dealing with a very big strategic issues such as the chalk streams the fact that we're asking for swift boxes and hedgehog holes in fences it's the little things as well as the big things and I think this is a fantastic document and I think it will be welcomed by developers as well many of whom are as enthusiastic as we are to build in high levels of biodiversity net gain into their schemes as well and we've seen some really good schemes put forward by developers but hopefully this will encourage them all to go even further right okay so there was an addendum circulated which has some new oh hang on right so there's new text paragraph one and paragraph three has that been noted? do I need to read through this? oh I see so that's the recommendation slightly slightly changed okay so if you could just note and I will read this out so paragraph three are the recommendations slightly changed so it says cabinet's recommended to consider the main issues raised in the public consultation and responses to the recommendations received and the proposed changes to the SPD are set out in the statement of consultation brackets appendix one of this report and be approved the amended Greater Cambridge by a diversity SPD brackets appendix two of this report closed brackets and to delegate authority to make any necessary editing changes to the SPD prior to publication to the joint director of planning and economic development in consultation with the lead member for planning policy and delivery that's oh I see so the only difference is that under A it said it didn't say appendix one it said appendix A okay fine that's clear okay so just getting back to it so great document thank you very very much to John Connell and Jane Green for really fantastic work here you know I think you've you've exceeded all our expectations with this so thank you again I'm sure you've also been locked in darkened rooms doing it too so going on to some questions now Councillor Heather Williams thank you leader and I think the term you're looking for is Hedgehog Highway as a member of the planning committee we're quite familiar with Hedgehog Highways so it's just just a couple of things and I'm going to do something that you've probably never heard a Conservative council say before but I'm going to quote the Guardian yeah I'm getting jeered at that said that said that biodiversity as a as a concept in a word was only understood by 13% of people when they surveyed and that was in 2010 and the European environmental agency have done a report more recently that says 41% of people out of the 71% that understood or had heard the term actually understood what it meant and I say that because when I look at paragraph 8 about the response rate to the SPD any 40 groups or people responded I do think it is potentially on accessibility grounds because I think there's much more people than 40 interested in it in the district but the words of biodiversity what does that really mean and I think the evidence supports that the majority of people just don't understand what it means or they've heard of it and I think it's very it's very easy here and obviously it is a technical document you know biodiversity comes before SPD even less people will know what an SPD is to what biodiversity is that we could maybe in how when it does go on the website and what have you if we almost try to do some awareness and explanation around it so people actually understand what it is and I would suggest something like this because it is very detailed that the key to it will be the implementation of it so some insurance that as committee members and officers and what have you that we will be given some support in understanding it because if only 10% the population does that probably only means 10% of the councillors do as well Nudah Thank you very much Catherine Williams and there's a points well made and I think we can when we use the South Cameshire magazine it will be a good opportunity to publish some examples of the best in biodiversity enhancement hopefully in your village as well as mine I think we're building a mini forest planting a mini forest in Gamlingey at the moment so it's a good point because actually it's not it can mean all sorts of things can't it, it can mean more swifts it can mean there's all sorts so we'll take that point away and make sure that we we do our best to publicise not just this document but actually what it means in reality and in its implementation so I've got councillor Sue Allington next I'm having a spell at this one obviously I entirely support the concept of biodiversity I very much support a green agenda I have to say I feel that you're preaching green and producing grey concrete but that's my view one of the things that really really bugs me at the moment is the A14 which has millions millions quite literally of nice little trees in nice plastic pots that are as dead as the proverbial dodo and I am resolved to go and walk around one of my bridges and actually count how many live ones there are in proportion but I'll wait until a little later into the spring so that I'm not accused of anything and the other thing is that in my garden I have two swift boxes I also have a recording of swift calls and know that I have swifts that fly over my house quite regularly and none of them have taken of accommodation but so there is a lot of difference between what we'd like to do and what will actually happen and we really do need to monitor what is happening and the outcome and the cost effectiveness of what we're doing Yes, points to Bill May I now have four swift boxes and yes I will hopefully I think they're quite fussy these swift so perhaps you need to paint your swift boxes to make them more attractive and I fear that dead new trees that have been planted are probably a factor of climate change and the fact that we've had very very little rain in the last year but we will take your point about monitoring and I'm going to ask they were planted in June and they were not watered when do you expect that to happen to them? Yes, okay I don't accept responsibility for that because Kelly will comment I'll ask him to wind up at the end and I'm sure he will comment on that and about whether we have any enforcement monitoring responsibility on the A14 which I really don't know about Councillor Roberts Thank you chairman leader and good morning Badgers eat all the hedgehog genre where they don't stand a cut in health jams because there are badger sets all around the RSPB in Falmyr and they just come and decimate I haven't seen a hedgehog living for a long time however I find all this virtue signalling a bit hard to take calling about diversity and how green we are when we in reality are decimating the countryside around South Cams it's only over just over a week ago when we had a planning committee meeting where we had the protection for rural England people there slamming into us about the unnecessarily building over everything and where we had great concerns about the abstraction of water and its effect and where at Longstanton the effects of Northstone has been that the bond is now empty and I noticed in the Cambridge evening news this morning which I quickly read was bragging again about the shock streams well in an area that relies upon abstraction from underground how long do you think your promises will be believed by our residents when actually they see the shock streams drying up they are going down when I moved to Falmyr they streamed behind where we live was always full in the winter and always had some water in the summer nowadays it's maybe half full in the depth of winter and in the summer there's not a sign of it and this is because we are building far too much houses how can the liberal democrats be so hypocritical to brag that they are being green to their core when they are intending to build 49,000 mainly unnecessary dwellings in this district it's just unbelievable thank you Councillor Hawkins would you like to respond thank you I want fed up with hearing people who should know better tell us that we are trying to build 49,000 new homes in the district first of all that is not true we identified the need for 49,000 homes for Cambridge city and South Kilmyshire district council now of course of that 37,000 are already in the pipeline we just discussed the annual monitoring report rather the authority monitoring report that shows that the current local plan we're building out at an average rate of 16 175 homes that is what is being built that is from the current adopted local plans which the previous Tory administration put together all we are doing is adding 11,500 in the emerging local plan which equates to 550 per year in addition to what is in the current adopted local plan those are the facts and I really would appreciate those who should know better not misrepresenting or misleading the residents of this district as far as the water issues go the local plan authority is not responsible for water supply the water resources east consultation on 17 January they are putting together the plan for water supply in the eastern region and I asked at the planning committee that was referred to the representative was slamming at us if they were going to be responding if they were aware of the consultation were they going to be responding now how do you blame the plan authority for water supply that is not their responsibility you don't you work with the organisation responsible for the water supply to resolve the issue and we are working with them Councillor Roberts you had your say would you please show Councillor Hawkins the same respect thank you so I would urge everyone listening to this the consultation carries on to the 20th of February the water resources east consultation on the water issues facing this region it's up to us to work with them to provide them with our views we will be doing that as an authority and I would recommend that the councillors on the side listening to me now making those accusations do the same thank you leader thank you and I just like to reiterate how pleased I am that the combined authority has seen fit to fund a joint project between us and the city for restorative work on the chalk streams which I think will go a long way to helping give us the information we need about the future and what is possible that also hopefully works with partners to do some really good work to bring the chalk streams back into their full glory Councillor Brian Mills now please thank you chair I think I just wanted to point out that this biodiversity SPD is not just guidance for developers but it has impacts on our own work as well so last week councillor Handi and I were out with our Lee Hillam our drainage manager watercourse manager with one of the local IDB representatives and it was clear there that for example the requirement to clear the water courses so that they function properly has to be finely balanced with the preservation of the habitat because that's potentially one of the things that developers will do is they'll go and clear a watercourse completely which I've had evidence of in my own ward and they stripped out all the vegetation and destroyed the habitat so this is an example and this SPD is a very good example of how those good working practices can be taken on board so that we preserve habitats, we preserve the diversity of species and this policy can percolate into actions thank you thank you very much really helpful points and councillor Heather Williams you want to come back thank you leader yes it's just to say that in the numbers obviously there have been windfall sites as well so there has been allocations just for the clarity that was asked earlier above the local plan and I do think that the local plan currently is this council's local plan leader I do recall the only person to vote against it in 2018 was the Conservative councillor Mark Howe so I do think we sort of need to yes it was you Mark and you know I think it is the council's plan leader thank you if I could just bring in Mr Stephen Kelly to pick up any points which haven't been fully dealt with thank you thank you leader I think a couple of points that were made earlier on around comprehension and understanding yes we're kind of conscious that by diversity is a number of different things to different people the objective is to not only use media type forms but also we will be looking at our website to try and make sure that when people homeowners and others are contemplating development rather than use perhaps exclusive terms like this we are able to give them a bit more of a set of concrete examples and refer to particular bits of the document so we're very conscious about that trying to move away from technical terms in planning and there is an approach to our website review that is ongoing that's trying to improve accessibility on that point in terms of the enforcement I can't comment in details about the A14 certainly it's something that we can engage with highways England on but there is a I think Councillor Owington is right in terms of trying to make sure that the measures that are required by the planning policy and the SPD guidance are implemented effectively and that is about helping people to interpret and understand it and that's partly what our planning advice is geared towards. The other thing of course is we recognise that not everybody will potentially take up or be particularly welcoming to some of the measures that we've put forwards but I think that the objective of the SPD and indeed the policy is to substantially increase the amount of assets that species can take advantage of across the district and to improve even if we can improve the contents of boxes and hedgehog fences and so forth we at least improve the prospects and opportunities for wildlife to thrive with the kind of mindfulness that comes forward if we can create it so we do, we will seek to monitor performance of the policy which the SPD seeks to support and of course as we go forward the AMR will report how successful we are in doing so and will continue John and the team I'm sure will continue to be supporting through the advice that we give what people can do to realise the objectives and indeed some of those stretch goals that we highlight and the ambitions in the SPD Thank you very much indeed Stephen so I've already read what the recommendation is so if there's no more questions do you members agree with the proposal anyone wish to vote against and anyone wish to abstain no so the cabinet therefore agrees the proposal is by affirmation and my thanks again to John Cornel and Jane Green for a really good bit of work beautifully illustrated it made it a pleasure to read lovely little picture of a hedgehog's nose so hopefully Councillor Ellington by May which I think is the optimum time have swifts in our swift boxes so we can compare notes so I think moving on to all things financial the next item is item 11 which is the Summary General Fund Revenue Budget for 2022-23 and over to Councillor John Williams to present this Good morning cabinet members Firstly I wish to congratulate the finance team particularly the Deputy Head of Finance for the way the report is set out we now have the detail presented in service area packs which I hope cabinet and indeed all members will find much more user friendly and easy to understand I present to you a positive budget with plans for the coming financial year from this April that put the environment at their heart and demonstrate exactly how we are working to tackle climate change on a very local level in South Cambridgeshire we continue to endeavour to increase annual income sources and reduce annual expenditure without materially reducing front line services provided by the council this has not been made easier by the government's financial settlement being for one year only instead of the three years councils were promised so I recommend cabinet prove the recommendations in paragraph three and that this budget be put to the meeting of full council on the 22nd of February we know that local people quite rightly expect us to be taking action to deal with the climate emergency that we face and these budget plans have proved of how our ambitions are embedded across the council from our business plan there are also of course important contributions towards our other priorities of providing housing that is truly affordable to live in and growing local businesses and incomes around 40% of the council's annual budget is funded from local council tax the rest of the funding comes from sources outside of the council's control including business rates and grants raising our small share of total council tax by £5 a year for a BAN-D property to £160.31 the equivalent of 10p a week would mean that we can continue delivering key frontline services that residents rely on as well as enabling us to keep working on our ambitious zero carbon action plan and strategy BAN-D represents the average property in South Cambridgeshire with 65,432 such properties in the 2022-23 financial year an increase of nearly 2% on the figure for this financial year we understand that for other reasons beyond the control of this council that households are facing a financial storm this year so I am pleased that we have a number of measures to help residents with their council tax bill if they need support including a local council tax support scheme which I hope we will approve later and one-to-one advice from officers and you will see that as part of our HRA we are proposing two additional housing officers to help our tenants and other residents if they have financial problems and not to get all our council tax payers our council tax charge remains amongst the lowest 25% in the country as you can see from appendix A the council's growth rate for the next financial year is expected to be over £78 million with nearly £26 million to be found after allowing for income from savings, investments pension adjustments and our shared services partners etc before contributions from reserves and taxation and grants the new council tax charge will bring in 10.7 million as you can see with business rates and grants we estimate a balanced budget with some 2.1 million going into general reserve funds sorry general fund reserves including 1.1 million from the business rates pool to the renewables reserve bringing in the total of that reserve to 4 million this is very good financial position to be given the current economic circumstances the total amount expected to be spent on capital costs that being purchased in equipment vehicles and properties is expected to be around £48 million a total of £6.83 million is earmarked for projects services and equipment that tackle climate change on a local level in south canvature through the council zero carbon strategy and action plan it is supporting the district to halve carbon emissions by 2030 and reduce them to zero by 2050 climate change related projects featuring in the proposed budget for next year include a 4.2 million plan to install a solar farm at the water beach depot of Greater Cambridge Sheds waste this solar farm would power the council's growing fleet of electric bin loads and support vehicles and vans a £1.3 million to water equipment and activities to help tackle climate change at Greater Cambridge Sheds waste such as the purchase of new bin loys in 2020 Greater Cambridge Sheds waste began using Cambridge's first electric bin loys £667,000 towards initiatives to improve and adapt waste services encourage recycling and minimise waste £500,000 towards land drainage and maintenance of the 275 km of awarded water courses which crisscross the district and the council is responsible for maintaining £342,000 towards the council's zero carbon community scheme which provides financial support to parish councils and community groups to promote greener initiatives and reduce carbon footprint sorry, that was my place problem of working with a laptop right, £150,000 for the installation of electric vehicle charging points in the district and £145,000 to complete the rollout of energy efficient LEDs to the council streetlights meanwhile, the council's £1.9 million retrofit of its campground offices nearing completion this plan includes measures to dramatically reduce energy bills and carbon emissions from this building as the electricity grid continues to decarbonise due to the new and renewable energy generation schemes coming on nationwide, the carbon footprint of the building will reduce to 25% of current levels by 2030 and 10% of current levels by 2050 playing a major role in the reduction of the council's own footprint the work is also expected to help the council to avoid steep price rises in energy costs that are expected this year at the Greater Cambridge share planning service recognising there is a shortage of planners that additional posts will not solve new funding is being proposed towards encouraging more apprentices to begin a career in planning £854,000 is included in the council's budget plans for economic development initiatives and business support and the budget proposes an additional counter fraud post for our full team as to the Greater Cambridge commercial waste which collects business waste it has been targeted with a £25,000 increase in profit vital front line services that will continue to be delivered by the council include collecting recycling and waste from around 66,000 households across south Cambridge and we handle thousands of planning applications every year across a huge range of sites and projects environmental health responsibilities providing homeless support and dealing with benefit claims this budget is a good deal for the residents of south Cangiture who have seen a transformation in the breadth of services now delivered compared to four years ago whilst continuing to pay one of the lowest council tax charges in the country thank you thank you very much councillor Williams I'm very pleased to be able to second this and I congratulate council williams on the finance team for crafting the budget that enables us to deliver the business plans and contains the very exciting projects and initiatives which council Williams has outlined the reality about budgets is that it's important that the gyda'r gyfnod hynny'n oed yn cael cael eu bodi'r modd iawn. Mae hynny'n iddo i'r modd iawn, nad oed yn gallu bod yn gwneud o'r ddau a'r ysgol, ac mae'r modd iawn yn gweithio i'r modd iawn, mae hynny'n oed yn ei bod i'r modd iawn. A oed yn dda'r wneud o'r sylweddau ar y gweithio a'r holl gwybod yn ymddangos yw ei gweithio. Nid yw'r holl gwybod yn gweithio i'r holl gwybod yn gweithio i'r holl gwybod, Felly this is a very, very strong position for the council to be in on. I'm delighted to be able to support it시는 well done to the fine-line team and the officers and the council Williams to bring it together. Thank you very much indeed, Councillor Gough. Have I got any questions on this? Councillor Roberts. Thank you, Chair. I'd just like to have some understanding because quite clearly the National Economy situation is changing dramatically. Not that those of us who read the telegraph didn't realise was going to come, maybe reading the Guardian, you'd get a different perspective of life. However, I'd just like to understand, given the fact that inflation is rising and that the cost of living is dangerously moving forward, actually I'm not sure that you are actually now factoring in what is the reality. I think it's all well or very well and good having lots of ideas and spending lots of other people's money. But if we are going to be in a very bad situation and I think that government should be taking away the increase in national insurance and I think it should be also getting rid of the green levy which is going to cost people a fortune then I'm not actually sure that your ideas in this budget are actually even doable now. And I'd like to understand, are you actually working in what is actually happening now rather than what wasn't happening maybe a few months ago? Thank you, Councillor Roberts. Councillor Williams, do you want to say anything? Thank you, Leader. Well, yes, we are factoring in and we are reviewing this constantly because of the change in economic situation. We are being told by the government that the increase in inflation is a temporary thing and next year we will be back to around 3%. That's what the government says and obviously we have to take their advice and the advice of the Treasury and the Bank of England but we are keeping this under constant review and it's one of the reasons why we are proposing to put council tax up by its full amount, which we can, which is £5 a year in order to offset one of the things called the inflationary tendency of the current economic situation. So it does surprise me therefore that we are going to the next item that the Conservative members are proposing a council tax freeze given the current situation with inflation. So yes, we are very mindful Councillor Roberts of what's going on and we have it under review but I can assure you that this is a very same budget and that we will be able to introduce it and we are not expecting, unless things get very, very bad, we are not expecting to have a problem going forward. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Gough, your microphone is still on. I think the sad fact is that more and more people are going to be more and more reliant on council services as I, every time I go into the food bank across the road from my house, becomes very apparent. So if there are no more questions, I'm not going to read out the recommendations because they cover the whole of page 745 and 746 but approval by Cabinet today is a recommendation that this budget goes to full council. So we just move on. So do members agree with the proposals set out in your papers? Thank you. Does anyone wish to vote against? Does anyone wish to abstain? No, so Cabinet therefore agrees the proposals by affirmation. Now I'm aware that we've been going for an hour and a half and I'm sure people would like a comfort break but actually I think if you would like I will take the opposition group's budget proposals now and then we'll take a comfort break after that otherwise we'll lose the flow, won't we? OK, so we'll move to item 12 and we'll start with Councillor Heather Williams with the opposite opposition, the Conservative group's budget proposals. Thank you, Leader. As they are on page 849, so obviously these have been moved at full council. I'm not moving them today but happy to answer any questions of clarification that Cabinet may have. Thank you very much and all we can do today is note them but would anybody like Councillor Williams? You'd like to comment. Thank you, Leader. I'd just like to comment. Yes, I look forward to the debate at full council but there is one item that I believe I have to respond to now and that is to explain why council tax shouldn't be frozen. At a very first sit for training event I attended I was warned never to freeze council tax. This was underlined by other attending councils which had and deeply regretted it. There are four sources of income for the council, council tax, business tax, grants and investments. Apart from council tax all the other sources are subject to forces beyond our direct control and are more risky than council tax. The government chooses how much business tax is returned for. The grants come from the government and are written offends for specific purposes. Our investment income is dependent upon the economic situation and the government controls on public borrowing. Yes, the level of council tax is capped by the government but it can be pretty much determined over the medium term financial period based on housing numbers and come straight from our residents to us to deliver council services. Any freezing of council tax helps the rich more than the poor. Those who are richer will tend to live in bigger homes and therefore pay a higher council tax ban benefiting from the freeze. Those on lower incomes tend to live in smaller homes where in our case the saving would be just 10p a week or less if they are already receiving council tax relief. We have a number of measures to help residents with their council tax bill including the local council tax support scheme and currently a welfare officer to help those struggling. Indeed our 2022-23 budget provides for money advice officers. The fact that our council tax arrears are very low is a tribute to these measures and to our officer. A zero rise will run down our reserves and we will be facing a bigger deficit at the end of the MTFS period. Reserves are invested in assets and loans and bring in income which augments the council tax income. That is why one of windfalls go into reserves. They can then continue to earn money for us going forward. Using reserves in place of council tax for revenue expenditure therefore lessens the total income of the council and reduces council services not just for the financial year in question but for future years. Now the Chancellor is giving council tax payers in bans from A to D £150 discount and financial support for us to give discretion relief to those above band D. At a time when most councils are struggling we have a very healthy financial position delivering improving services whilst having one of the lowest council tax basis in the country. This is because we have applied sound financial controls and sought to maximise our income and deliver value for money. I therefore ask the cabinet to reject freezing council tax and I hope that the full council will endure costs. Thank you, Councillor Williams. Let's say we can only note it. Councillor Tumi Hawkins. Thank you, Llywydd. A simple question really to the proposer of this. I would just like to know regarding item 4 on what basis one additional officer has been proposed and at that cost because you must have thought about it and found some data somewhere, maybe? Ydw i'r dweud o'r spanghats, William. Thank you. I don't think on Councillor John Williams there was an actual clarification there and obviously this is for noting. I look forward to hearing his views again in the debate when it's moved unless, Llywydd, you would like me to give the merits of the proposal as well, which I don't think you do today. If you want me to move the proposal, I'm getting the shaking heads at me so I think I'm being told not to, Llywydd. But in relation to the question around number 4, the cost, how that cost is calculated, we've taken advice from officers as to what the cost would be for an additional officer, so I might have to pass to why the 42,000 across. The reason that we have proposed this is we feel that we would like extra resources in there, not just because of the amount of cases, but the extra demand that some of these cases are taking. We can see actually on planning committee that certain items have been on there for a considerable amount of time and sometimes years. So it is felt that an extra resource in that area would help not only with the amount of cases, but also the more complexity that there obviously seems to be because we don't seem to be closing down cases. So it's an attempt to seek that, and also that we would hope if we had the resources then we could start implementing some random selection checks so that we give more incentive to developers to actually play by the rules. So that's why, I hope that answers why that's there, and I will move it and give all my views on council tax volumes at full council leader, because if not, I think I might lose the floor. Keep your powder dry, okay. Councillor Roberts. Yeah, I think I'll try and keep my powder dry. However, I utterly support having a freeze on the council tax. There's an awful lot of, there was some comment about rich people. Oh, dear Lord. In fact, you know, not everybody is a taxpayer. There's a huge amount of people who don't pay income tax, and what's happening in this country is the burden of taxation is falling on those people, and it's hard working people who go out and earn a living to look after themselves and their families, and they are being blasted in every direction. As I say, I'm not approving of the rising income tax in national insurance. I think we need to start cutting back in this country and doing things right rather than trying to pretend we can do everything for everybody, and it's the same in this council. You need to cut your cloth according to the size, and we're not doing that. Instead, we're saying, oh well, there's people out there in something over a bandit, well, they can pay a few more quid, can't they? And of course they'll be expected to pay a few more quid on their parish council money. They will be expected to pay a few more quid on their county council money and also the police money as well as everything else. I think we need to start cutting back in this council money to look after ourselves and our people, so in general, our honor fixed income. Don't you liberal democrats ever think about that? Don't you ever think about really ordinary people, not the people like yourselves in your educated ways and your titles and this, that and the other, but the ordinary person out there in the street. You should be cutting back. You should be asking for taxation on nice, normal, ordinary people. It's a time to cut back in this council. If things start improving in the next few years, and I don't think it is, I think we're now setting something for the next two or three years, and I see inflation rising, I think it will go up. And when you have a Bank of England head who's saying that people shouldn't be asking for wage rises, you do wonder if we've been run by the lunatics in the asylum. So you really ought to be re-considering this and cutting back this year and next year and see how it is in a little while. Think about the people we are supposed to be representing, not yourself, not your plans, not your virtue-sigling ambitions. I've got a question, Councillor Roberts, please, because speaking in cabinet is at my discretion. It is meant to be questions, please. Yes, why will you not consider the people who have been burdened with so much increase on their cost of livings? Why do you think you are entitled to ask them to give you even more money for your little prize ideas? Councillor Williams, do you want to respond? No, all I can say is I gave an explanation as to why I don't think we should be freezing council tax, and I also pointed out that so far as this council is concerned, the Bandy council tax payer who represents about half the properties in this district will be expected to pay another £5 a year, that's 10 people a week. The government has cut universal credit by £20 a week. Yes. Councillor Cathcart, could you turn your mic yourself and turn your mic off, please? I'll just point out that the government has taken away from ordinary people of low incomes, £20 a week from their universal credit to complain that we are putting our council tax up by 10 people a week for those people. It is absolutely beyond belief. I would ask the councillor to direct her fire at the government, not at this council. Thank you. We're going to move on, as I say, speaking rights in Cabinet. The rest is at my discretion, so we're going to move on now. Members of Cabinet, we are asked to note the proposals. Agree? Right, thank you. Moving on, the Labour Party has also, slightly later in the day, but they're very welcome, submitted an alternative budget. Councillor Cathcart, would you like to present the budget? Thank you, yes. Very briefly, I think what we're trying to do, can you hear me? Yes, we can. I'm trying to build on the many ways that your budget, which does have considerable merit, but just widen it out a bit and to, if we can, to improve and build on the quality of life, also to recognise things we did some years ago, which perhaps we should revisit again. But also, trying to do it in a way which is consistent with our financial circumstances and not actually put unnecessary additional financial burden upon the taxpayers. I don't really want to enter the debate about the council tax, but we're certainly not proposing a freeze, because I recall some many years ago, when we actually had a very low council tax, and to some extent we struggled to recover and the difficulty about freezing a tax, as you might have to book it up very considerably in future years. So, I don't think you're doing the taxpayers any favour by going down that route, but I think I'll look forward to the debate on our proposals in the full council. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Cathcart, and thank you for your submission as well. Does anybody want to comment on the Labour Opposition Group's budget? Cabinet, we're asked to note the proposals, so they are noted. I'm going to stop at, so it's almost 10-2, so we will reconvene at 12 sharp, please. Everybody can have a bit of a comfort break and grab a coffee. Thank you very much. Right, welcome back. Everybody is comforted and watered, so it's really good. Moving on to Item 13, which is the Housing Revenue Account Budget, and Councillor... Let me just get this right. John Williams is presenting, and Councillor John Batchelor is going to second it, I believe. So, Councillor Williams, please. Thank you, Leader. As you know, the Council's Housing Revenue Account has been fenced for the Council stock of around 5,500 council homes, and therefore has its own budget plans. By law, we can't subsidise our council housing revenue costs from the general fund, and therefore, broadly speaking, must rely on rents from our tenants. This is why we have increased rents by 4.1% to enable us to meet the inflationary pressures we are experiencing to continue to provide good service to our tenants. This includes the creation of two new staff roles who will be focused on providing money and housing advice. They should be a source of support to residents who continue to place pressure on household budgets, particularly due to the impact of COVID and rising cost of living. These new staff will work closely with the Council's existing advice officers, such as those working in benefits. Additionally, the proposal suggests investing £17 million next year on continuing to build new energy-efficient council homes as part of a business plan priority to bring forward housing that is truly affordable to live in. In 2019, it was agreed in the Council's business plan that the number of new council homes being built will be doubled by 2024, and during 2021-22, 89 new council homes were built. This compares to the 36 being built in 2019-20 and 64 being built in 2021, a total of 189 new council homes in three years. During recent years, these new homes have been built in places like Caldercock, Water Beach, Walsham, Longstow, Great Harrington, Hardwick, Foxton, Westwickham, Invington, Cumberton, Sallston, Castle Camps, Melbourne and Tevesham. During the coming years, there were plans for more council homes in many more villages across South Cams. I ask the Cabinet to agree to forward this plan to full council for its approval. Thank you. Thank you very much, Councillor Williams. Councillor John Batchelor. Yes, thank you very much. I'm happy to second this proposal. Nothing very much to add to Councillor Williams' account, other than perhaps to make the point that in all practical senses, the government actually fixes the amount that housing rents can be raised. I would also make the point that we're still trying to recover from the situation where the government forced a 1% reduction over several years in the past. So this is a sensible way forward. So happy to commend this proposal. Thank you very much indeed. Do we have any questions? Nope. Okay, so I shall move on to the recommendations. Again, which I won't read out because they're very long on page 851 and 852. So are there... So do members agree with the proposal? Anyone wish to vote against? Anyone wish to abstain? Okay, so Cabinet therefore agrees the proposals by affirmation. And so therefore the recommendation will go on to full council. Lovely. Moving on now to item 14, which is the Capital Investment Programme. Councillor John Williams is going to propose this and I think Councillor Brian Mills is going to second it. So over to you again, Councillor Williams. Thank you again, Leader. This paper basically revises and takes into account the Capital Programme and the changes to it that were made on the 6th of December by Cabinet. Also, if you'll see paragraph 11, there have been a number of revisions to schemes and there's been some re-profiling. As a result, our total expenditure for the coming financial year, 2223, will be over 43 million. And I'd just like to highlight some of the schemes that that will cover. First of all, the Water Beach Solar Project. That's obviously for our depot at Water Beach, which will enable us to completely electrify our refuge fleet. It also covered the purchase of more electric refuge vehicles. And then in Norse, though, it will ensure that we can start in the Civic Hub, the Sports Pavilion and the Community Centre. So I hope that once again I recommend Cabinet that we put forward to Paul Camser. Thank you very much indeed. Councillor Brian Mills. Thank you, Leader. I just want to add my support to this and second the report. And particularly personant to myself is the electrification of the refuge fleet that Councillor Williams referred to and the solar farm project for alongside. And I was particularly welcoming of the CPCA grant towards the cost of that, which will enable us to provide the electricity that the grid does not support. And this is a very important factor in terms of electrifying some 48 out of the 58 vehicles that we have of the refuge vehicles. Thank you. Thank you very much. And that's to be welcomed. And I certainly welcome progress with the facilities in Northstone. So any questions? No. Okay. Therefore, the recommendation set out paragraph three of the report. Recommend a full council to revise general fund capital programme outlined at Appendix A. Do members agree with the proposal? Anyone wish to vote against? And anyone wish to abstain? Okay. So Cabinet therefore agrees the proposal by affirmation. And moving speedily on to item 15, which is the treasury management strategy. Councillor Williams is proposing this and Councillor Neil Goff is due to second it. So, Councillor Williams. Thank you again, leader. In item 15, the changes that we have made are in red. And I would draw your attention to paragraph 10.3, which highlights the explains the strategy for this. And also paragraph 12.1 item F, which explains the yield that we are now expecting from our investments. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Goff. Just very, very happy to second this and see it go forward to council. And questions, Councillor Heather Williams. Thank you, leader. It's just a question on the yield that was referenced, whether that threshold will be judged on a per investment basis in order to make sure that one well-performing investment doesn't outweigh against another. Councillor Williams. Yes, all our investments are judged on their individual merits. Okay, any other questions? Nope, okay. So, recommendations set out at paragraph 3 of the report. Recommend to council the updated Treasury management strategy attached of Appendix A to report which sets out the policy framework for the council's Treasury management activity, including one, the Treasury management policy statement, two, the minimum revenue provision policy, and that should be a three, not a two. Maybe that's just in my paper. Treasury indicators. Do you members agree with a proposal? Anyone wish to vote against? Anyone wish to abstain? Cabinet therefore agrees the proposals by affirmation. Item 16, capital strategy. That's Councillor John Williams. I think I'm seconding that one. John Williams. Thank you, leader. I think this is the last item that I am proposing. I will be pleased to hear. On this item, again the changes to the capital strategy are in red. The reason for the changes is because we now have to divide an infrastructure funding statement, which is explained in paragraph 6.5, and of course there's been a change to the public works loan board borrowing rules, which is explained in paragraph 9.3. So I'd ask you to approve this. Thank you. Thank you very much, and I'd just like to take this opportunity at this point to thank for all the previous, many of the previous items, both Peter Maddox and Fazzana Ahmed, and the rest of the team in the finance department for all their hard and very high quality work. So thanks to them. OK, so the recommendation, again, set out at paragraph 3 of the report. I'm sorry, while there are any questions, I'm leaping ahead here, I do beg your pardon. Any questions? OK, thank you, my apologies. I recommend to full council the updated capital strategy attached to the appendix aid to the report, which sets out the policy framework for the development, management and monitoring of capital investment, including prudential indicators. Do you members agree with the proposal? Anyone wish to vote against? Anyone wish to abstain? Cabinet, therefore, agrees with the proposal by affirmation, so we're almost on the home straight. So local council tax support. Oh, yeah, it was me. Yes, it was you there and it's not me. That's still you. Yes, and I'm sorry, Councillor Mills, you were going to second the last one, and I hopped in. I'm sorry about that, but I will second this one. Councillor Williams again. Thank you, my excitement of completing this. Yes, this is basically rolling forward our current local council tax support scheme, and I hope that you will agree with me that it's been very successful. I'm very grateful to our officers, to the residents and residents team, and this has proved, given all the difficulties that we assumed with Universal Credit, this has actually been a really good way of dealing with those changes of Universal Credit and has shown to be a very workable and practical scheme. So I do hope that you will support this scheme continuing and being rolled forward into the next financial year. Thank you. Thank you. Again, my thanks to Peter Maddox and I think it's Dawn, isn't it, who's the other, Dawn Graham, who leads on this very, very ably. So, Councillor Heather Williams, you've got a question on this one. Thank you, leader. Probably more of a comment, but the first time I actually sat in this chamber for a workshop was the localised council tax support, and I think it's like your first love, isn't it? It means actually something more. The first thing you're involved with as a councillor does have a significant importance, and for me it's this. When we were talking and the workshop was progressing, there was a real passion and desire from people like myself and other councillors. I think Councillor Bradnan was there and perhaps Councillor Hawking, he really wanted to see something that gave people security, and that would only work if it was something that was implemented over a long period of time, and what we didn't want to see was things changing year on year on year. So, very much hoping that you do go with option one, which I think you're going to. Bless you. We stick with that format. There will come a time when it does need to be changed, like the previous system needs to be changed because of the introduction of universal credit, but I think to change it now would alter everything that we strive to do that day. Thank you, leader. Thank you very much. Do you want to comment on that? Yes, I agree with you. People need certainty and they don't need chopping and changing. Any other questions, please, on this item? Nope. The next item is the recommendation again set out at paragraph 3. Recommend a council at its meeting on the 22nd of February 22, the adoption of option one comprising the LCTS income ban scheme currently in operation with an operating of calculation figures in line with the consumer price index. Do members agree with a proposal? Anyone wish to vote against? Anyone to abstain? Next item, the proposal is agreed to by affirmation. Item 18 is the housing revenue account asset management strategy which Councillor John Batchella is going to propose but I'm afraid Councillor John Williams, I believe that you're seconding it, I haven't entirely got off the hook, I'm afraid. Thanks very much, leader. I would just comment on the quality of the reports there's been a lot of quite long ones but all accessible and packed with information and again you've got a similar one now, which is the asset management strategy for next five years and then on to covering the next 30 years loads of information here so I just highlight that nine priorities are set out Ac y ddefnyddio deall hon, wrth gwrs, yn gofyn ar gyfer carbyn nhw, bydd 2050. Ac mae'r cyfnod yma mae'r 443 miliwn pwysig y mae'n cael cyfnodd ar y cyffredinol. rydym ni, byddwn ni'n dweud i chi gynnwys. Rydym ni'n dwy'r gweithio gyda'r ysgrifennidau oherwydd yna i'r ddweud yma, a weithio gyda'r cyfnodau ar y tîm ymogi. Mae'n gweldio addysg, mae'n dechrau i'r cyfnodd yma, ac mae'r cyfnodd gyd, a gallwn ni'n gwybod i'n holl o'r cyfnodd yma yw Peter Campbell, mae'n cyfnodd i'r cyfnodd yma sy'n ôl. Gwybod i chi'n gwybod i'n gwybod i'r cyfnodd. prize I will hold this very short. I mean housing's the largest asset of the camp so this policy is meant to capture the principles of what we do how we do and why we do it. We have a, the policy has existed in various iterations is quite some time now, and we've had extensive consultation with iawn ffordd,얼ag i'n rsiwun cyfrindydd cyffredig, o'r rhan o'r gweithio'n g어야id, a'r hynod wrth gwrth, o ffaisio'r cyfrindid, i'r cyfrindid yn gondrygu, oherwydd unrhyw yn presbyddu i'r ddau iawn. Dwi'n rhan o'r Gymru gyda'r syf yma sy'n credu diogel eu cyfrindid, ac mae'n ddiddordeb llwydd o'r gondrygu gwahanol. RAFILI fridgeddio gyrfa ar gael ef i os ydi'r cyfrindid yna'i cyfrindid. Thank you. Peter, and my thanks to you and to Julie Fletcher for the work you've done on this. I'm picking up on Councillor John Batchelor's points. The accessibility, the ease of read of reports is a pleasure these days, albeit that's over a thousand pages in total today, which was challenging for the best of us, but thank you very much. This is very, very sound work. Councillor John Williams. Thank you, leader. I just wanted to point out that I think sometimes people assume that we don't have a big influence on the quality of housing stock in the district. However, if you look at the report and you look at the section regarding housing stock, actually we account for around 10% of the housing stock in our district. We do actually have the opportunity here of influencing what happens in our district. Also, that doesn't include urban street. Actually, we have more than 10% influence on the quality of housing stock in our district. Therefore, it's very important that we do not only grow our housing stock, for people who, on low incomes, cannot afford decent housing otherwise, but we also ensure that that housing stock is absolutely at the top of the highest quality and that will then encourage others in the housing market to meet our high standards. So, this is a very important document and leads the way really for others to follow in the district. Thank you very much indeed, Councillor Williams. I absolutely agree with what you say. I'm going to take Councillor Milne's versus Cabinet Member. Thank you. I'd just like to reinforce what Councillor Williams just said. In Slawston, we've just taken delivery of two apartment blocks, but that is quality. There's no differentiation between what we're providing and what the commercial market is providing. In that case, we had advanced heating systems, so they had mechanical ventilation heat recovery systems in their solar panels. So, we're at the charging point outside the building too. This is just another example of the evidence of very high quality in council stock. Thank you. That's nice to hear. Councillor Williams. Thank you, Leader. Just a couple of things, but on what Councillor Milne's and Councillor John Williams have said, actually a big thing that's been done on planning, and many of us have spoken myself on council Hawkins, is about 10-year blind in the planning process and just touching on that, I think it's really key that we continue to do that as a planning authority and that it plays a big part in making sure that that is the case. In relation to the document, and I agree with the layout, it is very accessible, so thank you for that to officers. But I did note that it's census 2011, and at some point hopefully we will have the data for the most recent census. Just whether this, at some point, will be reviewed to update it with that census data. That's my first question. And then the second question is just on page 1002. Yes, it has been a lot of reading for us all, hasn't it? That on the graph, figure 4, it says the category is age 0 to 10, and then it goes working age 65 plus. That would suggest that the working age starts at 11, which I'm sure isn't the case. So I'm wondering if it's a bit of a typo, or perhaps that information isn't available or separated, but I thought that probably should get clarified at some point. Yes, hopefully we've moved on from the Victorian times. My kids would have said it did start at 11, actually. Thank you. Shall I come to Peter Campbell about the question about this being updated in light of the next census data? Well, we are actually in the process of doing our own review as well, but I'm sure Peter can update us on that. Thank you. Yes, this is intended to be very much a living document. So we will be updating it when the census data is available. But we won't be waiting for that information before doing an update. Members will notice that one of the references made a number of times is the need to carry a stock condition survey. And certainly one information from that's available will be revisiting the business planning aspects in response to that. Councillor Daunton. Thank you, leader. And thank you for the report. Thank you, Peter. I'm pleased to see on page 1050 a note about the communal rooms and the attention that's going to be paid to the communal rooms and also specific mention of external areas, the maintenance of external areas. And also pleased to see the note about the garages that alternative options for some of these are being explored. So thank you for that. So this is because the next items contain information which is commercially sensitive. Members of the public advise that if Cabinet agrees to exclude the press in public, the video stream will end. I therefore propose that the press in public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business that are being discussed with section 100A brackets 4 of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that if present there would be a disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of part 1 of schedule 12A of the Act brackets as amended. Is that seconded? Councillor Neil Goff, thank you. Do members agree with the proposal? Does anyone wish to vote against? Anyone wish to abstain? Cabinet therefore agrees the proposal by affirmation. So members of the public who are watching the webcast, this means the video stream will now end. Thank you for joining us to view today's Cabinet meeting. I note the next meeting of Cabinet is scheduled to take place on Tuesday the 22nd of March 2022 at 10 o'clock. And we look forward to seeing some of you at that. Thank you.