 Roeddais fan hynny'r cymryd. Mae'r company wedyn yn gwneud. Yn cwestiynau, ac ymwinell yw oed Colleg, oherwydd, gydig yn ôl i ddweud. Mae'r company wedyn gynnwys, cyngor a phobl a'r company wedyn yn ymwinell o'r cymryd sydd ymwinell yw oed y cwestiynau. Yn rhaid i'n ei ddechrau sut y cifenill gymuned mewn Cymennol. Mae'r cyfeiriwyr Brydget Smith. Yn cyfeiriwyr Brydget Smith a hefyd yn ymddiddau am y담 yn cerddol the chair of the cabinet, I'm in my kitchen because it's the only warm room in my house. So, for the information of members of the public, the cabinet that is made up of myself and eight lead cabinet members is responsible for most of the council services, such as preparing the budget, and the council's major policies and strategies for consideration by full council, which is made up of all the district council elected members. As usual, we'll start off with a few housekeeping announcements, please make sure that your device is fully charged, that your microphones are on mute unless you are invited to speak and when you are invited to speak please unmute your microphone. When you finish speaking please then turn it off straight away. If you could speak slowly and clearly and don't talk over or interrupt anybody else because that makes it impossible to understand what's going on and could you switch off or silence any other devices you have so that they don't interrupt the proceedings. So the normal procedure at cabinet is to take votes by affirmation and we will continue with this tradition. When we move to the vote on any item I'll ask if members agree with the proposal and if any member wants to either vote against the proposal or abstain then we'll take it a roll call of all members of cabinet. I'll then ask each member to speak into the microphone so their vote is clear both to cabinet and to those of you who are watching and members should respond or against or abstain when their name is called please. So there's business on this agenda which is confidential and this is referred to as exempt business and if the committee agrees to exclude the press in public at item 12 on this agenda the live video stream will end and I'll let members of the public know when this is about to happen. So cabinet members present, I'll now invite each of you to introduce yourselves. Members after I call your name please turn on your microphone say your name and your lead cabinet role so that your presence can be noted and members of the public can see who you are. So if we start off with councillor Aiden Van Derwire. Hello, good morning, my name is Aiden Van Derwire, I'm the lead member for Susie Planning and Transport and the Deputy Leader. Thank you Aiden, councillor Neil Goff. Good morning, I'm Neil Goff, I'm the Deputy Leader. Councillor Bill Handley. Good morning Bill Handley, I'm the lead member for Community Resilience Health and Welfare. That's quite a new cabinet position. Councillor Tumie Hawkins. Good morning everyone, I'm Tumie Hawkins and I'm the lead cabinet member for Planning. Thank you, councillor Peter MacDonald. Good morning everybody, I'm Peter MacDonald and the lead cabinet member for Business Recovery and Skills. Thank you and that's another fairly new cabinet responsibility. Councillor Brian Milnes. Good morning everybody, it's Brian Milnes and I'm the lead member for Environmental Services and Licensing and Member for Soulston. Thank you very much, councillor Hazel Smith. Good morning, I'm the lead cabinet member for Housing. Thank you and finally councillor John Williams. Good morning, I'm John Williams, I'm the lead cabinet member for Finance. Thank you, busy man. So I can confirm that the meeting is quarret. So we've got councillor Grenville Chamberlain present, I believe, as the Chair of Scrutiny and Overview Committee. I'd like to say hello. Good morning, Grenville Chamberlain, Chair of the Scrutiny Committee. Nice to see you all. Thank you, lovely to see you as well and your deputy. So are there any non-cabinet members present this meeting? If you could just kind of take it in terms to say hello. Difficult to take it in terms if we don't know if anyone else is speaking. I'm councillor Douglas Delacy, I'm the Chairman of the Council. Hello councillor Delacy, welcome. Following on from Douglas, good morning everyone. I'm the Vice-Chairman of the Council. I'm Anna Bradnam, Member for Milton and Water Beach. Good morning, thank you. Good morning, I'm Judith Ripper, Member for Milton and Water Beach. You just referenced me as Grenville's deputy, Vice-Chair of Scrutiny and Overview. Thank you. Good morning everyone, I'm Claire Dalton. I'm one of the members for the Foundesson and Fullborn Ward. Thank you very much councillor Daunton. Hello, I'm councillor Ellington from Swaithsea Ward. Thank you very much councillor Ellington. Good morning, I'm Bunty Waters from the Barhill Ward. Thank you and good morning, nice to see you. Right here, is that everybody? I'm here, I'm Richard Williams, Member for the Wittlesford Ward. Hello councillor Williams. And councillor Jeff Harvey, I'm the Member for Borsham. Thank you, that's a good turnout. Thank you very much for giving up your morning to join us. Is that everybody? Nothing, right. Okay, so moving on. So we have various officers present. Officers are going to keep their cameras off unless we call on them, but our Chief Executive Liz Watts is present, our Head of Finance, our Director of Planning and our Monitoring Officer and various members of Democratic Services without whom these meetings would not happen and to whom we're very grateful. So moving on, are there any apologies for absence? Jonathan, please. Thank you, Lady, we receive no apologies for absence. Thank you very much indeed. If anybody hasn't got their muton, could they please do that? And coming on to declarations of interest. So do any members have any interest to declare in relation to any item of business on this agenda? But if an interest subsequently becomes apparent later in the meeting, could you please raise it at that point? Leader, if I could declare an interest as a member of the Investment Partnerships Board. So that's Councillor Peter MacDonald declaring an interest as a member of the Investment Partnership Board. If that could be noted in the minutes, please. Thank you very much indeed. So coming on to the minutes of the previous meeting, which start at page one and run to page six. I think Councillor Douglas Delacy has indicated that he would like to say something on the minutes. I'm just going to ask, is there any cabinet member wants to speak on the minutes before I bring in Councillor Delacy? Yes, thank you, Leader. It's regarding point 10. Unfortunately, there seem to have been some problems we've cut and past on that particular minute. So I'd like to read out an amendment, please. Thank you. And it's to deal with the second line to remove after noted and to replace with this was about an underspend in some of the council services which was identified, but there was a small overspending finance and corporate services related to additional resources and in facilities to help with COVID-19 related issues. We have also supported the community and businesses through the crisis and it is not clear yet if the government grant will cover the cost to the general fund. Thank you very much indeed, Councillor Williams. Does anybody want to comment on that correction that Councillor Williams has clarified? No, okay. If I could bring in Councillor Delacy now. Thank you very much, Leader. A very small comment under the tendencies. If I am to be graced with my doctorate and Dr Clare Daunton with us, I would like to thank Mr Richard Williams, who ought to have his as well. Absolutely. Thank you. A more substantive point is on item 8 on page 2. I think whoever was taking notes didn't quite understand what I was saying and at the minute at the moment reads, the chair of the council, Councillor Douglas Delacy, was pleased with the detail within each indicator. What I was pleased with was the promise and the detail within each indicator, specifically the contact centre. I didn't hope that there would be comments with all indicators. I was just surprised that there wasn't a congratulatory comment on the contact centre. Liz Watts pointed out that we didn't congratulate ourselves and I think that could simply be removed. Okay, so Jonathan, are you happy to make those amendments please? Thank you. Does anybody like to comment on the correction that Councillor Delacy has made? Otherwise, I'm happy to accept it. Nope. Okay, right. I'll just go through page by page. If there's anything further on page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4 or page 5. Nope. Okay, fine. So, I move the approval of these minutes on the record. Councillor Bandoir, I believe you're going to second this. Would you confirm that? Yes, I would like to second it. Thank you very much indeed. So, do you members agree to approve the minutes? Agree. Does anyone wish to vote against the proposal? Leader, I will abstain since I wasn't present at the meeting. Thank you very much. So that's Councillor Neil Goff will be abstaining because he wasn't present. Okay. So Cabinet therefore agrees the approval of the minutes as a correct record by affirmation with one abstention. Righty host. So moving on to 4b was a written answer related to minute 9 of the previous meeting. So we now, that is present in the papers. Cabinet asked to note these responses. Cabinet happy to do so? Great. Okay. That's fine. Thank you very much indeed. So moving on to public questions and we've got two public questions. Welcome both to Mrs Jane Williams and to Mr Daniel Fulton. Thank you very much for taking the time to come and ask questions of us in person. Mrs Williams, would you like to ask your questions and Councillor John Williams is going to respond to you? Thank you and good morning chair and councillors. I'm sitting as a resident of Southcams and my question is at any time during this calendar year have any funds been transferred from the collection fund to any other account of the district council or have any funds from the collection fund being used for any expenditure by or on behalf of the district council? Thank you. Thank you very much, Mrs Williams. Mr John Williams, would you like to respond to this please? Thank you, leader. I have to say that we weren't entirely clear about what the purpose of the question was and I know that our head of finance did attempt to contact Mrs Williams but wasn't successful. So I will answer the question but Mrs Williams may like to come back and explain exactly what her question is about. So in answer to the question that was put each financial year an amount is transferred from the collection fund to the general fund that is equal to the value of the district council precept and the total of all parish council precepts. This amount is fixed when the budget for that year is set in February of the preceding financial year. The amount of the district precept is used to fund district council expenditure and the amount transferred in relation to parish councils is used to pay their parish precepts. Right, thank you very much. Mrs Jane Williams, would you like to come back with a supplementary question or a further explanation of your original question? Well, I would just like to say is there anything in the public domain that would say whether or not... I mean, the question is at any time during this calendar year have any funds been transferred other than perhaps the ones that Councillor Williams has referred to as it's not possible to see the accounts? Okay, thank you very much. Councillor Williams. No, I think I need to explain what the collection fund is. We are the billing authority which means that we have the task of sending the bill to the council taxpayer on behalf of all those who can set precepts. So the council taxpayer receives one bill and then we receive all that money into what we call a collection fund and then we take out of that collection fund what we have precepted and we take out of that collection fund what the parish councils have precepted so that we can pay them their money. So there is no other reason why we would take money out of that collection fund because what's left in it is there for the other precepting authorities like the council, the fire and the police. So I do hope that explains the workings of the collection fund. We take out of the collection fund what we have asked our council taxpayers to pay for South Cairns services in their council tax and similarly we take out what the parish councils have asked their parishioners to pay for their services and that's it. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you councillor. We have confirmed that I think this is what you're saying that it's only just been the usual I have read up about it and have been looking at it that it is just actual the usual precept money that have come in and gone out past as council would normally do. That's what you're telling me is? Yes. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you Mrs Williams. Moving on to Mr Daniel Fulton. Hello Mr Fulton. Would you like to put your question please? Yes, thank you. The council recently announced that it will be contributing £170 million over the next four years towards new development partnerships with the Hill Group and Belford Bayby. The council's announcement also stated that quote identifying suitable land opportunities will be a core element of work by the partnerships and that target sites are located within South Cambridgeshire. Could the leader of the council please identify the parishes in which these target sites are located and does the leader of the council foresee any potential conflicts of interest as a result of the council's dual role as a profit making land developer and its statutory duties for plan making and development management as the district's local planning authority? Thank you very much Mr Fulton. So you've directed that question to me, so I'll answer it. So the investment partnerships are in the very, very early stages of development and in fact initial meetings with partners are just taking place this month. So any potential sites would be discussed by the council's investment governing board members before any further appraisal work was undertaken. In terms of conflict of interest the investment strategy is clear and I'm sure you've looked at that investment strategy which is a public document. So the potential for any conflicts of interest to arise is one that we take really seriously and as a result we have thought in great detail about the decision making and advisory approach to be taken with regard to the investment partnerships. We've also taken as we always do legal advice and considered best practice from elsewhere where similar models have been introduced and you know this isn't a new model. Therefore at this point whilst we've taken steps to avoid any conflicts of interest arising we would always be vigilant in this regard and we believe that those involved in the process are fully aware of their obligations and will seek further advice if at any point they, we or I believe it is required. So do you have a supplementary Mr Bolton? I do. My concern is that the council is basically attempting to monetise its regulatory function as local planning authority and I'd also be concerned that if the council is going to become a for profit land developer it could also potentially leverage this to give it a competitive advantage over other local developers who are not the local planning authority. Have these concerns been given any consideration at all? Thank you. Thank you very much. So the answer is yes of course but it's quite a complex question so if you would forgive me I would rather take it away because I think if I don't think I should just be answering a complex question like that just on the hoof so I would rather take it away and give you a written response that will appear which you will get as soon as possible will appear in the minutes just to make sure that you get a completely full response to this which will hopefully give you the reassurance that you will be able to do what you are looking for. Thank you very much for your answer and for the opportunity to ask the question today. You are very welcome. We look forward to seeing you again. Righty Ho. So moving on to issues arising from scrutiny and overview committee so Councillor Chamberlain do you wish to speak at this point? Thank you leader if I may I think it would be more appropriate to speak at this point. That's fine. Super which will do that. I think the main issue is the one that's now coming up. So compulsory purchase report so could I ask this is item 7 which is on page 9 so I'm going to ask Councillor John Williams to introduce the report and move the recommendation. Thank you Councillor John Williams. Thank you leader. Firstly I'd like to thank the scrutiny and overview committee for their constructive comments on the proposed compulsory purchase of all the policy. It has not been possible to take all the suggestions on board but all the points made were considered to produce this final version and I would like to add that it will also include guidance on an exit strategy for compulsory purchase powers but that is still in the process of being worked out but will be included in the final version of the document. As I said at scrutiny and overview I think it's right for us to be open about in what circumstances we may seek compulsory purchase orders and this compulsory purchase order policy explains the approach circumstances and conditions for using compulsory purchase powers. To make it clear at this moment in time we have no plans to use compulsory purchase powers. This report before you is purely to establish a policy framework which is clear and transparent to the ordinary person and for that reason it is balancing its approach to provide meaningful information without going into an enormous amount of detail. Its purpose is not to advocate other policies of this council. The proposed policy recognises that compulsory purchase powers should be a last result and provides a clear understanding of the general approach to be adopted. What level of compensation if any that might be offered and the practical guidance and support that this council can provide to those affected. This councillor threatened to use compulsory purchase powers in the past. This was used in Fallbourne to unblock an impasse with the Swift's housing development to deliver meaningful negotiations. But the approach and mechanism for doing it was ad hoc and unclear as the councillor had no policy framework to work with it. Also we have been asked to use a compulsory purchase order to acquire the tree in Stapleford but once again had no CPO policy against which to judge the request. The introduction to the policy on page 14 of the agenda pack explains that the council will consider compulsory purchase powers to acquire the property for the purpose of carrying out development, redevelopment or improvement on or in relation to the land so that it promotes or improves the economic, social or environmental well-being of its area. This could range from the provision of social housing to the creation of wildlife habitat. Under the legislative context section, we explain the powers available to us and in what circumstances we can use them. In particular, the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 gives us a broad scope but as paragraph 13 on page 15 of your agenda pack explains we must not exercise our power unless we think that the proposed development, redevelopment or improvement is likely to contribute to achieving the promotion or improvement of the economic, social or environmental well-being of the area for which we have administrative responsibility. The policy then goes on to explain how we will consult and I cannot emphasise enough that our intention is always to seek a voluntary acquisition and how we will make an offer at the market value for its legal use and how that market value is arrived at. The policy also deals with compensation payments for owners and tenants. Finally, the policy also sets the framework for community assets and bringing empty properties in a poor state of repair or derelict back into use where the owner is unlikely to do so and a clear public benefit would be achieved. This could include the provision of affordable housing, improving the appearance of the neighbourhood and reducing crime and antisocial behaviour brought about by dilapidated buildings. The adoption of this compulsory purchase or the policy would set minimum standards and a consistent approach to this council using its compulsory powers. Therefore, I ask Cabinet to approve it. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed Councillor Williams and I believe that Councillor Hazel Smith is going to second this. Could I Councillor Smith, do you want to say anything at this point before I bring in Councillor Grenfell Chamberlain? Yes bring in Councillor Chamberlain. Thank you. Councillor Grenfell Chamberlain would you like to comment on this please? Thank you, leader. We had a very lengthy discussion and we overview and scrutiny committee regarding this and we made as Councillor Williams is alluded to a number of suggestions which we felt would perhaps improve the final policy. I'm most grateful to Councillor Williams for taking those points on board and I do believe that as a result of that we do have a much improved policy and I thank you. Thank you very much indeed. Would anybody else like to comment on this if you want to speak if you could put it in the chat please so I can pick it up. So I'm going to just add a little bit down to the amendment sorry to the recommendation just to add on the end subject to further minor amendments resulting from the scrutiny and overview committee report and I think that picks up what Councillor Williams mentioned about further work on going to put an exit strategy included into the policy but if we add on subject to further minor amendments resulting from the scrutiny and overview committee review. Have you got that, Jonathan? Is that acceptable to Councillor Williams? Okay and to officers, is that alright? Yep, that's fine. Okay, thank you very much indeed. So the recommendation is on page nine. Cabinet's requested to consider and if satisfied approve compulsory purchase order policy attached to Appendix A as the basis for considering the use of compulsory purchase powers to acquire land or property interest for the purpose of carrying out development redevelopment or improvement where there is a compelling case in the public interest to do so subject to minor amendments resulting from the scrutiny and overview committee review. So do all members happy to approve that? Agree. Does anybody wish to vote against? And would anybody like to abstain? Okay, so Cabinet therefore agrees the proposal by affirmation. Thank you very much. So moving on to what is a hot topic in many committees now which is the response to the government consultation planning for the future white paper. And let me just so that starts on page 23. So Councillor Hawkins is going to introduce this report and I believe that Councillor Van der Waill is going to second it. So Councillor Hawkins, would you like to start off please? Yes, thank you very much leader. As we know the government is proposing to make sweeping changes to the planning system and is currently consulted on those proposals as contained in its planning white paper. The report before you today contains the responses that this council proposes to give to that planning white paper and we are doing this hopefully in conjunction with Cambridge City. First I want to thank officers for the excellent work that has gone into briefing members previous weeks and of drafting this response which is very much appreciated. Now the paper itself focuses on three key things as we know planning for development planning for beautiful and sustainable places and also planning for infrastructure. In my view the white paper is proposing the wrong solution to the problem of delivering more houses nationally but that's not to say that the planning process itself cannot be improved but blaming lack of delivery on the planning process is definitely not right. Now there are some positive aspects of the proposed changes for example taking the digital first approach to the process which is something that we are already doing and but there's also some very radical changes that we think will be quite problematic in particular in relation to infrastructure provision and infrastructure levy. For example who pays what, when, how and lumbering councils with the responsibility of upfront infrastructure provision causes serious concerns. The paper itself is quite light on many details as you recognise that would help us to understand exactly what is proposed and how to be implemented. The overall tone of the proposals also seems to be taking away some of the powers of local councils and local people to influence their areas and we think that this should be highlighting this as well. So in the responses in this report we have tried to be as robust as possible acknowledging the positives but also being constructive about the areas where we have serious concerns. So as consultation ends on the 20th of October we would like the cabinet's views on the draft responses so we can incorporate them after discussing and making all the proposed changes with the joint director of planning and to authorise me to sign off the final response. So thank you. Thank you very much Councillor Hawkins. So thank you very much to officers who put considerable work into this. As Councillor Hawkins said you know we've gone to huge efforts to try and find something positive to say about these proposals which is and I've sat in numerous meetings over the last few weeks with the district council and network local government association East of England councils and so on and all of whom who have really really struggled to find anything positive whatsoever to say and that's been very much a cross-party approach and I think it's been the position across the whole country as well. So I think you know possibly we've been a bit too kind. In this the sort of finalising this I would like Councillor Hawkins with her officers to cross reference this response with the bodies such as the district council network and the local government association East of England local government association responses which were all just getting signed off last week so you know people probably haven't seen them to make sure that we are in alignment with those bodies as well and I think you will probably find that actually they've taken a more they have struggled more than we have to find anything good to say so it's important that we are in a line with them. My particular concerns are over our responses to SIL and I think that we need to look at that again. It's not that the answers are wrong but I think you know we're making very sensible suggestions but I think our residents, our parish councils are going to be very very worried at potentially losing their control over Dictly section 106 which is used to such good effect in south Cain Gritur so I think there's a that we just need to do that cross referencing but as I say it's a terrific bit of work. I'm going to bring in various cabinet members first so if councillor John Williams would like to speak first then councillor Aidan Van Derwire and then councillor Brian Mills please. Thank you leader and picking up you on your point regarding question 22 which is to do with SIL and section 106. I mean this will have an enormous impact on our parish councils and we don't reference them at all in our answer so I would like to ensure that we do point out that parish councils will lie a great deal on section 106 payments to deal with the local impact of a development. They are the people best place to understand what those impacts are going to be and they need to be involved in the negotiations which they are in the section 106 agreements whereas under the proposals they would be excluded from being able to ensure that their local communities on the impacts on their local communities are properly dealt with and funded and this does concern me. I mean this does the opposite to what the government was trying to do only five years ago and that is to involve local people in developments whereas this does the complete opposite this now cuts local people out of deciding on local developments. It is a bad thing it will not go down well in our communities and we do hope that pressure will be brought by our MPs on the government to get this changed. Thank you Councillor Williams. Councillor Van Derwira. Good morning, thank you. So yes this is a really excellent proposed response. I think there are some sort of tweaks that we can make as we are discussing but overall it really captures I think the some of the really serious implications that are very clear and understandable way. I was saying that the loss of community involvement and it really undermines as well our ability to create the places we want to create places that meet the needs of our area and also to meet the ambitions particularly on climate change carbon emissions and biodiversity and nature. One of the interesting aspects that is one of the interesting aspects of being discussed here is about this idea of infrastructure levy to replace SIL than section 106 agreements and I think there might be a little bit of change of emphasis that is needed but overalls I think the infrastructure levy does have the potential to address some of the problems with SIL and S106 but by building in the values that are needed to provide the infrastructure early on in the process so that they are included in land prices and we don't have this arguments about viability and also to take into account strategic issues that are not currently we are not currently able to do through section 106 an example given here is about the electricity network capacity but I hope that whatever comes out of this some sort of reform of section 106 and SIL does take into account our comments that we have so having set them out so clearly I think that would certainly help government when they're reviewing this take our comments seriously. Thank you very much. Thank you very much indeed. Councillor Mills and then Councillor Smith please. Thank you. I just wanted to make a couple of points because we've got a very constructive and formal approach here but it perhaps doesn't isn't the vehicle to stress the this concert amongst the general population that this might give a developer free for all once an area was placed in a growth area category and picking up on other points that Councillor Hawkins and Williams has mentioned about the involvement of local neighbourhood plans village design guides and contribution it's not clear where those contributions are going to be able to be made and then we've also got the whole issue the repeated vision of property technology but we see from recent events how questionable algorithms can undermine such policy and we've already seen that the current algorithm would deliver a smaller housing need than previously calculated so there's Councillor to me Hawkins said there's a whole slew of unanswered questions in matters of significant detail but also over who will be the arbiter of quality and beauty and good design which are all subjective items and it's not clear at all where those questions will be answered so I think as well as this more formal approach I think we should just be cognisant of those wider issues and clearly this is a politically motivated process that isn't really designed to do what it says it's going to do which is address absorption rates that were clearly shown in the latwin reports just a year or so ago and we don't have a problem delivering the number of houses we have a problem with the developers not building out if we've got a million properties that have applications approved and not being built out there's the core problem thank you thank you councillor mills I must say some of the questions that were asked what three words do you associate most with the planning system in england I mean and I've said councillor Smith thank you leader yes I agree with everything that's been said but it's still way short of being a sensible discussion of the problems and the solutions I can see that still might be a way or a new infrastructure levy might be a way to stop the number of affordable homes being squeezed in our new developments which would definitely be a good thing but talking about beauty when actually the more important thing is low carbon homes and the more important thing is to live in and actually ensuring that we double nature is much more important I would say my question about question 26 we haven't said anything about protected characteristics we have a lot of travellers in our district and their families grow and we do need to find more land for permanent traveller sites there is nothing in this consultation in the green paper about planning for traveller sites and how it fits in with the existing legislation and I think that does need to come in there under question 26 so that it's given some consideration at least thank you I quite agree councillor Smith anyone else from cabinet which to say anything before I bring in councillor Delacy right councillor Delacy will you like to ask your question thank you very much leader it seemed to me as I read this that there were two glaring emissions one is as has already been said the problem of things like land banking and we mention it in our response but I think we really need to highlight as councillor Hawkins said this is the wrong answer to the major question and I think we could say a lot more on that the other was developer profits I was told in a briefing in the JDCC firstly that developers can expect to have something like a 20% profit on their developments and this is because of the risk they take now one of the things they say about this new proposal is that it should reduce developer risk and therefore I think we ought to challenge them and say if that is true then we would expect that their profit should be less and that should provide more money for the sort of things we've already talked about it's a great response I do congratulate officers but I think we could try and get more about land banking and something about developer profits I'm also concerned on the replacement of section 106 and SIL we've had one major issue with contaminated land and we mentioned this on page 36 of the report but I'm left very unclear as to what would happen if a development discovers something like contaminated land or unexploded ornaments or something like that will this approach mean that the council would be put to huge expense because the developers aren't I'd like us to ask for clarification on that I've also noted a couple of typos but I'll email those to John Dixon if I may. Thank you very much Thank you councillor, I see very well made points which I know councillor Hawkins and officers will take forward Certainly on the issue of risk the district council network response has a lot to say about the fact that the risk now seems to have transferred from the developers to the local authority and you know we cannot we cannot have that because you know if we don't have the if we get all the risks but we don't get any of the money to mitigate that risk then we aren't going to be building great places councillor Anna Bradnham next please Thank you leader I have two or three points I'd like to ask one is can I encourage the council to acknowledge the fact that it's holding its nose about a lot of this and actually be stronger where you disagree be clearer where you disagree you've been very good you've said yourself that the responses are written to try and find ways where we can find every possible thing to agree with but actually I don't think it's strong enough on the things that you object to so I would like to see stronger language there the other thing second thing was digital first whilst I absolutely accept that have you actually checked with all of the parish councils and all handle that and if they can't we need to make provision for them and also for individuals who may find it more difficult to interact with a digital platform and finally I wanted to urge that the council you mentioned yourself leader that we would be cross referencing with other authorities can I urge that you cross reference with the county council too to make sure that none of those aspects which kind of lurk across our boundaries get missed out because we're not wanting to tread on each other's toes for example clearly flooding goes across and drainage matters whilst there one might think of the county council as being the local flood authority actually it affects our ability to build houses which parts of land might be suitable for housing but also the sufficiency of water to make sure and that goes across our boundaries too and and is driven by the fact that geology is not constrained by administrative boundaries and we need to make sure that we're not missing out the opportunity to raise those concerns water has been raised just briefly under question 13 on page 25 where it refers to map based documents identifying land in three classifications growth renewal and protected but of course the aquifer and the geology may cross underneath those and also just a kind of along with that making it stronger I'd quite like to see a bit more Anglo-Saxon in there a straight forward language with good examples because sometimes my initial comment when I read it through is excellent touching on the points but it's caught it's captured in rather conceptual language and I would like to see it more direct and interestingly at the county council the environment and sustainability committee is drawing up its own response and it was looked at on the 15th of October and I find their language more down-to-earth and I would like to see our response in that down-to-earth way as well but thank you very much for doing an excellent response if you can take those points down thank you excellent questions from you so I think we've already had a discussion today about the fact we're possibly being too polite and that's a reflection of the fact that we have got lovely polite and virtuous officers and I think our job is to get some of that Anglo-Saxon in there because certainly a lot of the meetings I've been in there's been a lot of Anglo-Saxon flying around much of which has not been principal on this subject so obviously we've got to find find a balance there digital first obviously that's something that we're managing across the board anyway and you're quite right to highlight we should be referencing the county response but actually it reminded me we should also be referencing the combined authority response and your reference to cross-border issues the government are proposing that we take out the duty to co-operate that is just such a nonsense particularly somewhere like South Cambridgeshire where we have so much development and so many propositions that go not just across our boundary with Cambridge City but with Atlesford with Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire and so on so I'm kind of stepping on councillor Hawkins' toes here so I'm going to if there's no one else who wants to speak I'm going to let her come back to me If I may say so just to clarify that I also meant the boundaries between those classifications of land growth renewal and protected the geology also runs across and beneath those potential different classifications I'm going to let councillor Hawkins come in thank you very much councillor Braden Thank you leader I think councillor Claire Daunton has just put her hand up Oh right I haven't seen that councillor Daunton would you like if you could indicate on the chat if you'd like to speak then it's easy for me to see that so councillor Daunton please come in before councillor Hawkins winds up I just want to really confirm what councillor Braden has said and direct her remarks to page 46 the response to question 20 and really the contradiction in terms between fast tracking and beauty beauty is a concept you can't fast track a concept and I think that we could be more robust and more questioning on that response Thank you very much indeed a point well made and we will take that on board Thank you councillor Hawkins Thank you very much leader and thank you to all the councillors who have made comments I appreciate that I can assure you if I had written this myself it would be not just Anglo-Saxon but it would be very Nigerian because that is my background and we do say things very directly There's a lot in here for us to take in but I can assure you that we will be doing that and some of the things which involving local parishes local people, neighbourhood plan these are the things that I think we have discussed in the past which has come up in various other discussions Thank you very much we will take this away and we will make sure that all that you have brought forward are also input into the document itself and definitely we will be as Anglo-Saxon as we possibly can Lovely Thank you councillor Hawkins Just to have the last word I had the fortune or misfortune to talk directly to the housing minister last week where I challenged him about this issue of beauty as actually being meaningless and that we should be talking about housing standards and houses that fit to live in and what was very disappointing about the presentation I sat in from him was that this is all about getting more houses built more quickly and his answer to that is to give more leeway for SMEs to build Now as a council we are very very supportive of SMEs but the reality is that land values in this area are a huge hindrance to SMEs really being able to build as much as they want so we've got to make sure that we have the freedoms and the finances to be able to support our SMEs to start playing a much fuller role there So we've got recommendations on page 23 and it's recommended that Cabinet A note and consider the initial response to the government's white paper as set out in Appendix A so we agree to delegate the Anglo-Saxon wording of the final joint response and any individual response with the Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development in full consultation with the lead Cabinet Member for Planning, Policy and Delivery So Members in agreement with the proposal Agreed Anybody wish to vote against? Anyone wish to abstain? So Cabinet therefore agrees the proposal by affirmation So moving on to Item 9 on page 55 which is the review of pre-application charging schemes and update on pre-application service So Councillor Hawkins again in the limelight Yeah it's my morning today Thank you leader I think one of the planks of improving our planning service is the revamp of our pre-application process We've been up till now both Southcams and the city we've been working on two different charging schedules and processes and we'd like to streamline that and also the advantages of a good pre-app service is well known in that the earlier engagement of applicants developers with the council and the community delivers the best developments for all concerned Now we do recognise that in the past we have not provided as good a pre-app service as we would like but we know that if we can get it right this time then we should see further improvements in the service we provide to our customers I think once again I want to thank our officers for the excellent work that has gone into putting this document together there's been liaison with other councils similar with the councils there's lots of discussions with me with the executive councillor from the city thank you for what you've put together here Now the paper before you today outlines the plans and the pricing for the new proposal service as you still know appendix 1 on page 66364 Now this is based on identifying the cost of the work that goes into a pre-app that our planners have to do and also working with other departments whose input is needed but also we will be looking at using technology as appropriate for example for householder applications we are thinking about using teams to record the meetings so that that is something that can be used as a record it does speed up the response because that's one of the things that I can say that they don't get the final response from us in a timely manner but as you will see from the table this costs have also been discounted to what we consider is a level that will make it attractive to use whilst still enabling us to recover some costs but I'm sure the question will be asked in terms of people we would be supporting our planners to prioritize pre-app and give them the supports that they need to be able to make this a priority because we recognise that if we can iron out issues with an application at the front end then it gives confidence to applicants that the application when it does come in will pass through the process more smoothly and obviously our planners will have less objections to deal with we do propose to review this revan process in 12 months to see how it works so that we can use it to improve our performance and also the service that we do provide therefore asking cabinet to authorise this so that we can start using it as from next month. Thank you Thank you Councillor Hawkins I think Councillor John Williams is going to second this Yes I'm happy to second although I would ask leader that with regard to paragraph 15 on page 58 where we refer to officers having a discretion with regard to charities I would also like to see parish councils included in that as well please Okay Thank you and I would too so we'll put that in there thank you very much indeed I think this is an excellent bit of work my thanks go to Andrew Jennings who I gather is our officer responsible for putting this together so excellent piece of work having a really outstanding pre-application service available is what our ambition is it makes planning just go so much more smoothly and it's what applicants want they want clarity from the outset it takes the guests work out of planning and so it's very very important to me personally that we have a really exemplary service on offer here which is value for money but worth paying for because it is such good quality so is there anyone else on cabinet that would like to speak on this Councillor McDonald Thank you just very briefly leader I do appreciate from a business perspective that the discount for smaller businesses continues that's so important in the environment that we're in right now so thank you to officers and thank you to me for continuing to include that okay is there anybody else would like to speak anybody other than cabinet members no there you are Andrew you've done such a good piece of work here nobody's got any questions to ask about it so the recommendation is recommended that the cabinet recommend to the lead cabinet member of planning to agree the proposal for the Cambridge City Council South Cambridge District Council to introduce the revised pre-application service offer and charging schedule set out in this report for the South Cambridge District Council area as of the second of November so that's nice and speedy for local government so any cabinet members do all cabinet members prove the recommendation Agreed Anybody wish to vote against it Anybody wish to abstain Marvellous Jolly good thank you very much indeed so cabinet therefore agrees the proposals by affirmation so the date of the next cabinet meeting is scheduled to take place on Monday the 7th of December at 10 o'clock Crikey nearly Christmas that's a bit worrying so we're now moving into the part of the meeting that I referenced at the outset where we will have to discuss the exclusion of the press and public so this is because the next items contain information which is commercially sensitive and members of the public are advised that if cabinet agrees to exclude the press and public the video stream will end so I move that the following items of business contain exempt information falling within paragraph 3 as set out on your agenda and the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information and I think councillor Neil goth is seconding that would you confirm please Yes leader Thank you so do members agree with the proposal Agree Does anyone wish to vote against and does anyone wish to abstain Okay so cabinet therefore agrees the proposal by affirmation I therefore propose that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business in accordance 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 I second that Thank you very much indeed do members agree with the proposal Agree to me Anybody wish to vote against and anyone wish to abstain Thank you so cabinet therefore agrees the proposal by affirmation so members of the public who are watching this means that the video stream will now end thank you very much indeed for joining our cabinet meeting and we look forward to seeing you in December so the live stream is going to end now can I just confirm with Liam that that's happened and then I believe we those people who wish to continue with the next part of the meeting thank you