In accordance with the Council Procedure Rules, all questions –
v Must be relevant to an item to which the Council has powers or duties;
v Must not relate to an item which is included elsewhere on the Agenda
v Should be limited to obtaining information or pressing for action; and
v Should not exceed two minutes in duration.
Questions should not divulge or require to be divulged, confidential or exempt information.
Contact:20 Minutes.
Minutes:
Arising from a question from Councillor N Hunt on the recent decision taken by the Cabinet to increase fees and charge at One Leisure and the rationale and measures taken to monitor usage, Councillor S Taylor, Executive Councillor for Leisure, Waste and Streetscene, referred to the rising costs in utilities, staffing and other operational expenditure in 2022/23 and 2023/24 and the rationale to offset the rising costs in 2022/23. It was further explained that new utility tariff price was £530k, representing an increase of 88% of the original approved budget. The Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Customers and Partnerships) and Cabinet approved the pricing option to increase fees by 8.7%, but not including concessions, that was based upon a competitive benchmarking exercise and advice by UK Active, together with expertise of Senior One Leisure Officers. Members were advised that if the price increase was not implemented it would result in an estimated deficit of £275k in 2023/24 and thereafter £300k for the remaining duration of the Medium Term Financial Strategy to 2027/28. Councillor Taylor concluded by explaining that any footfall decreases would be monitored alongside usage and new memberships with a further report back to Overview and Scrutiny, as well as the development of a new Business Strategy next year to ensure the sustainability of One Leisure.
Councillor M Pickering raised a question with regard to the Local Growth Fund bid that had been submitted for Ramsey, whereby Councillor S Wakeford, Executive Councillor for Jobs, Economy and Housing, reported that £1.15m had been successfully secured, complementing other funding already secured and would be working with Ramsey Town Council in the coming months in its development.
In response to a question by Councillor A Jennings on plans to provide short-term parking provision for less than a minimum two hour stay, as well as the usual December parking campaign for ‘free after 3pm’ to encourage visitor to the town centre in St Neots, Councillor S Taylor, Executive Councillor for Leisure, Waste and Streetscene, undertook to provide a written response to the two hour stay or less provision and explained that the ‘free after 3pm’ was removed from the budget in 2018 and would undertake to revisit this decision. He further referred to Councillor Taylor’s campaign leaflet to remove parking charges from the Riverside Car Park, St Neots but Councillor Taylor confirmed that in the current climate it was not possible to pursue.
Councillor R Slade raised a question in relation to the Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) Provision in the District, whereby Councillor S Taylor, Executive Councillor for Leisure, Waste and Streetscene, provided the background to the implementation of CPE and further updated Members that the date of implementation had been reviewed by Cambridgeshire County Council based upon their available resources and need for them to confirm funding for project delivery, with a revised date for implementation in Huntingdonshire now scheduled for October 2024 and the Council’s website has been updated to reflect these changes.
Councillor D B Dew raised a question with regard to the delegation of decisions in planning, with confusion amongst Members in terms of discretion to bring applications to the Development Management Committee (DMC) and whether this was being exercised correctly, as well as an inconsistency of planning applications being called into the Committee and confusion amongst Members and Parish Councils. In response, Councillor T D Sanderson, Executive Councillor for Planning, confirmed that the adoption of new Scheme of Delegation was approved by DMC on 14th October 2019 and was mindful of additional delays in determining applications should they be required to be submitted to DMC. Alongside this, Councillor Sanderson referred to the removal of amendments to applications resulting in a reduction in applications coming through to DMC and would be monitoring this with a view to providing a further update as appropriate.
In response to a question from Councillor C Tevlin on the timetable for the review of the Local Plan and how councillors and residents would be engaging in the process, Councillor T D Sanderson, Executive Councillor for Planning, referred to the importance of community engagement in the Local Plan review process and the legally required process would be set out in the Statement of Community Involvement that would be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Performance and Growth) and the Cabinet in January 2023 detailing engagement with communities and stakeholders, including Town and Parish Councils, community groups, planning agents, residents as well as District Councillor engagement. He further referred to ongoing discussions with the Planning Policy and Communications Teams for the initial phase of engagement, including online engagement and face to face sessions.
Arising from a question by Councillor C Lowe on progress with the B1040 Wheatsheaf crossroads improvement scheme, Councillor T D Sanderson, Executive Councillor for Planning, reported that in the 2020/21 financial year £500k of Community infrastructure Funding had been allocated, although reduced now since its allocation and had contacted the Director of Highways at Cambridgeshire County Council to ask that this safety project be delivered as soon as possible.
Councillor J Neish raised a question in relation to Members of the Development Management Committee (DMC) having a full understanding and knowledge of policies when engaged in debate of refusing or accepting Officer recommendations in reports. Whilst commending Planning Officers reports and the reasons in their reports he questioned whether the Executive Councillor had full confidence in the Planning Officers as he had voted against 14 applications at the recent DMC meetings without any material planning reasons. In response, Councillor T D Sanderson, Executive Councillor for Planning, explained that he had provided material planning reasons as it was against St Neots Neighbourhood Plan and confirmed that he did have full confidence in the Planning Team.
Councillor R Brereton on progress with the speed in determining consent of conditions after planning approval and referred to concerns expressed by Ramsey Town Council as to delays being experienced in the commercial site Northern Gateway, Ramsey and delays being imposed to deliveries on-site and knock-on effect to the commencement on site due to these restrictions which may impact of the expansion of economic growth in the area if these conditions continued to be imposed. Councillor T D Sanderson, Executive Councillor for Planning, explained that Officers had been in discussion with the applicant with a suggested way forward but had not been productive and welcomed further discussions on the matter with Councillor Brereton.
Referring to the answer to the question presented earlier by the Executive Councillor for Planning on his actions at recent meetings of the Development Management Committee, Councillor J A Gray asked the Executive Leader to reflect on these recent decisions given as it was his understanding that national polices and Local Plan take precedence over the decision presented by the Executive Councillor. The Executive Leader, Councillor S J Conboy, recalled that it was difficult decision-making process as Members were presented with the applications as a single presentation that had resulted in cumulative impact and indicated that she was always keen to reflect on such experiences. With this in mind, and mindful of the large number of inexperienced Members, such meetings can be challenging to remember all applicable policies and further training for all councillors would be provided.