The Executive Leader, Councillor G J Bull to address the Council on the State of the District.
The Chairman will invite the Leaders of the Opposition to respond to the address.
[In the ensuing debate, a Member may speak once and no speech may exceed 5 minutes in length without the consent of the Chairman.]
Minutes:
(Councillor J P Morris entered the meeting at 8.15pm)
The Chairman invited the Executive Leader, Councillor G J Bull to address the Council on the State of the District 2019 and to open the debate which was scheduled to follow. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation is appended in the Minute Book.
In his opening remarks Councillor Bull began by taking Members back to the status of Huntingdonshire in 1960/61 with a population at least half the size of present figures and the geographical area changed significantly since then with the disappearance of air bases, growth in towns and general increase in population throughout the District. With the growth in population it’s necessary to continue to evolve and change to meet expectations and provide the best possible service. Councillor Bull explained that the Conservative Manifesto had been translated into the Council’s Corporate Plan and the Council’s performance was measured against this.
Attention was drawn to key statistics in terms of how the Council was meeting expectations with a high volume of days spent by volunteers to support the Council’s services and commended the work of the Active Lifestyles Team, as well as the income of £3.6m achieved from the Commercial Estate and Property Fund and homelessness prevention. Councillor Bull re-emphasised the message of the success of the Customer Portal and targets in achieving recycling and referred to the income collected from the Community Infrastructure Levy whereby policies were being developed for its distribution.
In referring to the challenges for the future, Councillor Bull highlighted the likely continued increase in population, as well as an ageing demographic, retaining the vibrancy of the town centres with retail declining and developing new ways of working to support the skills in business changing. The Annual Governance Statement had highlighted a shortage of skills in the area to meet the growing demands of businesses establishing in the District and with improved infrastructure and connectivity, improvements were necessary to meet this demand.
In drawing Members attention to the environment and sustainability, Councillor Bull referred to a recent meeting he had held to discuss the global and national agenda that had re-enforced the need for the Council to take action. He further emphasised the requirement to be more creative with resources and his desire to establish Huntingdonshire as a Unitary Authority.
In concluding, Councillor Bull thanked his Cabinet colleagues and Officers and the Corporate Team in the production of the materials to support his State of the District address.
In response and on behalf of the HDC Independent Group, Councillor T D Sanderson referred to the optimism presented by the Executive Leader and suggested that the Council needed more realism in respect of the problems faced. In particular the budget deficit faced by the Council at the end of the Medium Term Financial Strategy and continued overspends in some service areas. Concern was further highlighted in relation to the closure of the Customer Service Centres in St Neots, Ramsey and Yaxley and the turnover of staff at the Call Centre that had been impacting on the number of calls answered by Advisors.
Councillor Sanderson referred to his concerns with the high number of homeless families, incompletion of implementation of the new car parking tariffs in the car parks across the District, civil on street parking enforcement still undertaken by the Police and reduction in the availability of funds through the Community Chest budget.
In agreeing with the Executive Leader that it helped to be reminded of why Members joined the District Council to support the residents, Councillor Mrs S J Conboy highlighted her concerns with the continuing issues with the Combined Authority. In particular the rural and urban split with the continuing practical challenges experienced in the quality of life and welcomed the opportunity to work with Councillor Bull as a partner.
In thanking Councillor Bull for his presentation and the Council Officers for their hard work over the past year, Councillor P Kadewere referred to the praise that the Council had been successfully delivering services for lower cost but despite the cuts by Central Government he suggested that this challenge may be also self-inflicted.
The Labour Group remained concerned that the Council had been making unnecessary cuts with the deliberate decision to decline the small additional Council Tax increase allowed by law. In focussing on the future, it was suggested that prioritisation be made to the genuine needs of the residents and applauded the steps taken to enable better digital access to Council services and prevention of homelessness. Councillor Kadewere concluded by highlighting the biggest challenge for the Council in the housing situation and delivery of enough affordable housing across the District and awaits the delivery of this through the new Local Plan.
Councillor D A Giles referred to improvements in the presentation of the State of the District Annual Report but indicated his continued concern with the length of stay in temporary B and B accommodation for homelessness families as still too long, but congratulated the efforts that had been made to reduce the waiting time. He further raised the continuing widespread problem of fly posting and graffiti and the threat to the High Streets with online shopping and the increase in the prevalence of charity shops due to the application of zero business rates but these had been developing into wider boutique style shops that could be something that the Overview and Scrutiny Panels could look into.
The Deputy Executive Leader, Councillor R Fuller, indicated his disappointment with the opposition, in particular their issues of concern but offering no suggested solutions or input into how they might be tackled or how the Council could do things differently. In agreeing that the 6 weeks stay in B and B accommodation for homelessness families was too long, Councillor Fuller indicated that their manifesto pledge had been to eradicate this by the end of this term and continued to undertake work to achieve this. He further confirmed that the number of families that had been placed in temporary accommodation was approximately 15 at any one time not the misquoted numbers of around 200. With this in mind the Council was set to deliver 55 temporary units of accommodation in the District and was on track to deliver this by the end of next year, as well as the tripling of the numbers of affordable housing in the last few years that should be acknowledged.
Councillor Fuller explained that Huntingdonshire was a large Council that delivered wide and complex services and the solution delivered today will not necessarily meet the demands and needs in a few years’ time. Despite the negativity presented from the opposition, he welcomed the opportunity to explore solutions with ways of working differently and encouraged a fully costed alternative budget.
In concluding, the Executive Leader indicated his support for working collaboratively and working in the best interests of the residents and businesses of Huntingdonshire. He further acknowledged that there had been challenges that had meant standards had not been at the accepted level but confirmed his agreement with Councillor Mrs Conboy of the importance of retaining the unique character of Huntingdonshire with the urban and rural split, as well as focussing on many issues that had been highlighted this evening such as the decline of the High Street.
Actions:45 Minutes.