Tag: Cambridgeshire County Council

Cambridge Enterprise Centre process review published

08:25 Wednesday 16th September 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: A review of Cambridgeshire County Council’s decision to allow a private company to take over part of Cambridge Central Library has found seven key opportunities for improvement. These cover areas including confidentiality, project management and public consultation. This Library Enterprise Centre project as it was called was very very controversial a few months ago. Our Political Reporter Hannah Olsson looks back on the story’s developments.
HANNAH OLSSON: Money saving plans to turn much of the third floor of Cambridge Central Library into a privately-run enterprise zone proved very controversial, with nearly 4,000 people signing a petition against the idea. The County Council vote came down to the wire, with six members of a thirteen strong committee voting against it, and seven for it. Councillors requested the decision to be looked at again, and in the meantime allegations emerged questioning the credibility of Kora, the private company behind the plan. So the Council decided to take back their decision, and the enterprise zone idea was shelved. Even more controversy followed because a Freedom of Information request showed that although the idea was only talked about publicly in March this year, senior council officials had held almost forty meetings with Kora, after being approached by them back in 2013. All leading to questions about trust, transparency and accountibility.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Well councillor Mike Shellens has been leading the review of this process, and has compiled a report which has been published in the last 24 hours. It will be discussed by councillors next week. Mike.
MIKE SHELLENS: Morning Dotty,
DOTTY MCLEOD: Hello. Can you summarise for us your headline findings?
MIKE SHELLENS: I think the key finding right at the top is that there was no illegality in this. people were using best endeavours. They .. at no stage did anybody .. has anybody suggested that there’s been anything untoward. Had that not been the case, had there been evidence or suggestions of malpractice, then the report would have been extremely different.
DOTTY MCLEOD: But you acknowledge in your report that mistakes were made. So what kind of things are you referrring to there?
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Final approval for Cambridge North Station

17:10 Wednesday 19th August 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Plans by Network Rail for a new station in North Cambridge finally got the go-ahead. It means the new station will be built on land at Chesterton Sidings, and Network Rail say work will begin in the autumn. Let’s bring in councillor Aidan Van de Weyer, who sits on the Joint Development Control Committee. This involves the County Council, the City Council and his own South Cambs. Aidan, afternoon.
AIDAN VAN DE WEYER: Good afternoon.
CHRIS MANN: So you’ve approved Network Rail’s plans.
AIDAN VAN DE WEYER: We did indeed. Yes. I was very happy to do so. It’s excellent.
CHRIS MANN: Excellent because why?
AIDAN VAN DE WEYER: Because it’s a hugely significant bit of infrastructure that’s going to transform the whole of this part of Cambridge and beyond to be honest. Because it provides excellent links from North Cambridge to the villages, to London. It’s a key part of the Northstowe development, because the Guided Bus connects directly to the station, to the door of the station. And it’s just next to the Science Park, St John’s, the Business Park, with very good links to them.
CHRIS MANN: What some people are concerned about is OK, we need an extra train station and even more public transport for people. But it’s the parking. It’s the access, and what it’s going to do to the roads around it. Because you know what already happens at existing stations like both Peterborough and Cambridge. So what’s your answer to that?
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Public health budget cuts – failing council seeks protection

10:34 Tuesday 4th August 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHARLIE THOMPSON: Producer Ben is in the studios holding a piece of paper. That can mean only one thing.
BENOIT STEVENSON: It certainly can. We have a statement to read out. And this is in regard to the public health story we’ve been discussing. So this is proposals from the Conservative Government. They would like to slash the public health budgets for local authorities across the board, across the UK, by 6.2%. It’s just a proposal at the moment. They’re asking councils to contribute their thoughts to this proposal. In total, we’ve worked out that that will mean £2.2 million less is going to be spent in Cambridgeshire. That’s across Cambridgeshire County Council (and) Peterborough City Council. So we’ve made contact with Peterborough City Council who as well from I think the Department of Health or Public Health England had given a report saying that it was struggling in certain indicators. Fifteen out of thirty two indicators they were below the English average. And a statement from Peterborough City Council today, .. Continue reading “Public health budget cuts – failing council seeks protection”

Proposal to turn street lights off at night across Cambridgeshire

08:25 Monday 13th July 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Cambridgeshire County Council has come up with another way of saving energy, turning street lights off at nights. Of course it will also save money, which is in short supply for all our councils at the moment. Those are the positives. Not everyone though thinks this is a brilliant idea, Cambridge City Council worried it could be unsafe and could also hit businesses who function at nighttime. We’re going to be talking very shortly to Lewis Herbert who’s the Leader of Cambridge City Council. First though let’s speak with Tom Blackburne-Maze who is from the County Council. So Tom this is to save money. Is that about the top and bottom of it?
TOM BLACKBURNE-MAZE: Yes that’s part of it. Good morning Dotty. As you are aware the County Council must make considerable savings resulting from the reduction in central government funding that we receive. And to meet this huge challenge, we must make some very difficult decisions to ensure our remaining funds are used where they are most effective.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So what’s the plan? What hours would you be switching the lights off?
TOM BLACKBURNE-MAZE: Well we’re currently proposing to switch street lights off in residential areas that are covered by our central management system between the hours of midnight and six am. And we’re currently consulting on those proposals with local councils, to understand their comments and any concerns that they might have around that proposal.
DOTTY MCLEOD: And so this is residential streets. So not the main thoroughfares.
TOM BLACKBURNE-MAZE: That’s correct.
DOTTY MCLEOD: OK. And you have presumably considered the type of things that Louis Herbert is worried about, the impact on safety.What have you decided on that?
TOM BLACKBURNE-MAZE: We haven’t made any firm decisions at this moment in time. We’re currently consulting with all the local councils which this affects, and once we’ve received all of their comments we’ll be taking those into consideration before any firm decisions are made.
DOTTY MCLEOD: OK. Well let’s talk to Lewis Herbert, who is the Leader of Cambridge City Council. Morning Lewis.
LEWIS HERBERT: Morning Dotty.
DOTTY MCLEOD: What are your worries then?
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Cambridgeshire councils aim to share more services

07:26 Friday 3rd July 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: For some councils in Cambridgeshire. sharing could be a £1.1 million saving. The neighbouring councils in South Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Cambridge City are planning to join together some of their services in an effort to save money. Joining me now are not one, but all three of the council Leaders in question, so let’s see how well they do at sharing the airwaves. First of all we’ve got Jason Ablewhite, Executive Leader of Huntingdonshire District Council. Morning Jason.
JASON ABLEWHITE: Good morning. How are you?
DOTTY MCLEOD: Very good thank you. Ray Manning, Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council. Hello Ray.
RAY MANNING: Hello there.
DOTTY MCLEOD: And Lewis Herbert, who is the Leader of Cambridge City Council. Hello Lewis.
LEWIS HERBERT: Greetings.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So we will start with Jason this morning. Tell us which services you’re looking at sharing.
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Peterborough Lincolnshire merger plan

07:27 Thursday 18th June 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: We all know, don’t we? We constantly hear it. Local councils struggling, they’ve got shrinking budgets. Times are tight. Well could there be an alternative, a super-council? This is one suggestion from the new Leader of Peterborough City Council. A meeting was held last night between Lincolnshire and Peterborough City Council about the possibility of co-operating to make one council to rule them all .. I may be slightly paraphrasing there. John Holdich the Leader of Peterborough City Council joins me now. So John, what’s the idea here?
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Council library plans on hold after new facts emerge

08:19 Monday 8th June 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Less than a week after a controversial decision was made to convert the third floor of Cambridge Central Library into an enterprise centre, the plans appear to have been put on hold. This comes after reports that the man who was leading the negotiations with the County Council appears to have been banned from being a company director in the UK. Businessman and architect Roger Perrin from Kora is the man behind the scheme. There’s no suggestion that he has done anything illegal or wrong, but there are questions being asked about the County Council’s actions on this. Lucy Nethsingha is the Leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the County Council. Morning Lucy.
LUCY NETHSINGHA: Good morning Dotty.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So what’s your reaction to what’s happened over the weekend, or what’s been revealed over the weekend?
LUCY NETHSINGHA: Well it has been an amazing fast-moving story in the last week. I’m delighted that the decision to let out the top floor of the library has been reversed. It was a bad decision, pushed through by the Conservative group on Tuesday, and if that’s now not going to happen, that’s fantastic news.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Now this is a blogger, Phil Rodgers, who actually did a bit of digging, and unearthed that Roger Perrin was in fact banned from being a company director in the UK, which seems to have been what’s prompted this slight hiccup in the County Council’s plans. What do you think it shows about the way the County Council has done their research?
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Lewis Herbert on George Osborne’s spending cuts

09:26 Friday 5th June 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

LEWIS HERBERT: I don’t think we’ve heard the worst of it. We’ve basically lost about half of our core Government grant. So we spend about £30 million. We used to get about £10 million. We’re under £5 million in grant now. We are making considerable service efficiencies, working with South Cambridgeshire, changing the way we deliver services, protecting those who need our help the most. The biggest concern is probably for the County Council. I think some of their expenditure cuts are going to be far worse.

We’ve been working on this for five years. So it’s like another five year prison stretch for local government. We’ve already survived five. It’s not simple, and I’m not sure we’re going to survive the next five. I think the worst of it is still to come. Concerned that the Chancellor will save up some of the pain for when he has a Budget Statement in July. We’re a growing economy. We’re a £12 billion a year turnover place. We create more wealth for the Treasury than they put into Cambridge. We’ve got a bigger population. It’s crazy to cut budgets like transport, because we need improved transport, we need more homes for rent.
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