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Cambridgeshire County Council - Full Council - 11 February 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVI_mhQFBEQ
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10:45
good morning colleagues and welcome to this meeting of Cambridge County Council
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I would like to welcome members of the public to this meeting of the council particularly those watching the live stream on the council's YouTube channel
10:58
as you are all aware by now the council supports the principle of transparency and encourages filming recording and
11:04
taking photographs at its meetings that are open to the public members are advised that this meeting May therefore
11:10
be filmed recorded or photographed please can I ask all members to turn their mobile phones to
11:17
silent or vibrate whilst the meeting is taken place there is no fire alarm test scheduled for today so if the alarm
11:24
sounds I will adjourn the meeting and we will all make our way downstairs via the fire escape in the corridor behind you
11:30
the must point is at the far end of the meeting as you will have no doubt realized by now I am in the last throws
11:37
of manlu so my patience is stretched let's see how much more it can
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be stretched it's a challenge so I have received apologies
11:53
from councelors Connor Fuller Castello bird Billington and Smith and councilors
12:00
Bowden and Howell may be late councelor Howell has a gas leak the next item on
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the agenda is the approval of the minutes of the meeting of the council held on the 10th of December
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2024 the council is asked to agree these as a correct record if any member does not agree would you raise your hand
12:21
now thank you
12:34
an updated motions log is also included in the published papers for this meeting for your information in order to report
12:40
on progress whilst I will not be reopening the debate on any Motion in the Motions log I will take questions
12:46
and comments if you wish to pursue actions further you will need to contact the allocated officer outside of this
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meeting councelor hunt thank you very much chair and and
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uh I'd just like to refer to um the 17th of October my motion and just make two
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points uh I have been worried as you know that this would be kicked down the road and I'm rather surprised that if
13:15
you read the page concerned you'll see there's reference to a onear system and
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a twar system I don't know that any members of this Council know exactly
13:27
what that means and I would very much like officers to ensure that members are
13:32
advised of what how this system works what it is and what it does because I
13:38
think it's very important and it it just confuses me and I just see it as another
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kick down the road just for members in in information on Saturday last Saturday
13:52
there was yet another serious head-on accident on this road on the a1421
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on the bit that we're very concerned about I don't know the the state of the
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passengers only that they have been medically treated and I don't know how
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serious it is and I obviously wish them well but nevertheless this is just another accident and that road is an
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accident waiting to happen and it does happen and I really ask officers to pay
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urgent attention to it thank you chair uh thank you councelor Hunter and I'm sure we all share your concerns in
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relation to um the accident and wish the passengers and drivers as well um on the
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basis that we do not wish you to be confused an officer will be in touch with you very shortly with an
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explanation of the um onear system that you've raised councelor gack you were
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next thank you chairman uh I draw attention to uh 254 e uh two parts the
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chief executive has written thank you very much for doing so EXE exive director of place and
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sustainability on updated on the 3rd of February a meeting between the executive director of place and sustainability is
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being arranged with the national Union for Farmers to discuss the support needed so two months after the uh motion
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was logged there's an update to say it's going to be done that is the definition of kicking it down the road I would like
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that completed ASAP please thank you councelor gulack your comments I'm sure have been noted by the
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chief executive councelor count uh thank you chair it's on the same action log that councelor hunt
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referenced and it's all very well and good him having a personal explanation but these action logs should be for all
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of us and for members of the public as well could we ensure that the action log is actually updated next time with
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something that we can actually understand and so so too can members of the public thank you uh yes councelor
15:50
count I'm sure that will be uh what happens thank you councelor
15:55
hay councelor counts covered my point thank you thank you councelor hey anybody else no
16:02
in that case we move on I have a few announcements to make today uh it is
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with deep regret that I report the recent death of Paula hubard Paula was a school crossing patrol officer in
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Finland the council's thoughts are with her family friends and colleagues at this very sad time and I would like to
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ask Council to stand in memory of
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Paula e
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thank you
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colleagues as chair of council I attended the following events Huntington Civic Carol service the high Sheriff of
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cambridge's business conference Holocaust Memorial Day flag raising at new shy Hall progress pride flag raising
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at new shy Hall and a very lovely visit to Orchard Park Community PR primary school I attended eight citizenship
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ceremonies and my vice chair attended two at new sha Hall welcoming over 300 new citizens my vice chair attended a
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visit to Huntington commemoration Hall and Holocaust Memorial Day in Peterborough that concludes my
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announcements for today the next item is Declarations of
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Interest under this item members are asked to declare interests under the code of conduct in any item on the
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agenda for today's meeting if they are not registered on the register of interests may I have any declarations
18:04
now please there being none we move on to item four which is public question time
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this allows members of the public to ask questions at the council meeting provided they have given advanced notice
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the council has received notice of three questions the contents of which have been circulated electronically to all
18:22
members and published on the council's website I'd first like to invite Mrs
18:27
Sarah Nicholas from C past present and future to come forward and ask her
18:34
question good morning Mrs Nicholas you're very
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welcome when you're ready and all set and comfortable if you would like to press the speaker on your uh console and
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you will have two minutes thank you thank you morning counselors uh Cambridge past present and future
19:00
have persistently asked the gcp to properly compare the traffic models costs and environmental impacts of the
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busways being built through the countryside against inh Highway bus priority schemes water beach to
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Cambridge is no exception when the option of bus lanes adjacent to the A10 was considered the
19:22
poor performing section was on the approach to the A14 roundabout this is because of the delays
19:28
caused by by the traffic lights at the roundabout and queuing traffic the center and Northern sections perform
19:34
much better better for bus lanes because there are no Junctions or roundabouts on this section that would require a bus
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stop it was the poor performance of the Southern section which led to the bus lane option being discarded in favor of
19:47
a road through the countryside however following changes to the scheme the preferred alignment now
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goes to the Milton Park and Ride next to the A10 after which the buses would travel West along bu but Lane thus
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avoiding the A14 roundabout an alternative is therefore to have an inh Highway bus lane along
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the A10 to the park and ride and thereafter follow the route as set out by the gcp this would avoid irreversible
20:16
harm to two miles of Countryside and yesterday I sent members a map showing the two
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routes we are confident in arguing these points to the inspector at a public inquiry we urge you not to repeat the
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mistakes of the C2C and the cets busway applications without proper assessment
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and understanding of the Alternatives therefore before you decide whether to proceed with a building of
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110 million pound roads through open Countryside I ask you to defer your decision and request officers to
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undertake a reassessment of the bus lane option along the A10 to but Lane thank
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you uh thank you Mrs Nicholas watch brilliant timekeeping um councelor mkini
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you are to respond you have two minutes thank you chair and thank you sah for coming um I appreciate that you are here
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perhaps instead of James who I appreciate is still on well do pass him my best wishes um and thank you for your
21:17
continued engagement with the scheme we have had many conversations on this issue as you know it is the FD
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requirement that we should undertake a full assessment of onroad solutions before we decide whether something
21:28
should go Offroad and this has been done the work that has been done and is detailed in the environmental assessment
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and other documents that are um alongside the submission that would be made today if the vote goes a particular
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way bus lane options to the north of but Lane would not meet the project objectives and these are to deliver more
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reliable public transport Journey times and to provide additional sustainable transport capacity to support not the
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traffic that is there now but the economic and housing growth along the corridor there
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are can I ask you to move your console closer to you because there are members who having difficulty hearing your your
22:09
golden words or you can sit down I'll sit down that's fine thank you so there
22:15
are Junctions and the signaled pedestrian Crossing along the A10 all of which would need upgrading and most
22:22
likely signalizing alongside any widening on the A10 this without congestion on the A10 and it would add
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reliability to the bus Journey times there are also significant pinch points that would that would create difficulty
22:34
with regards to building impacting properties and cost so we have looked at
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the online options for the A10 and they have been considered very appropriately but unfortunately they're not suitable
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for the scheme as it currently stands U Mrs Nicholas you have the
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option to ask with a supplementary question um you have a minute
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thank thank you a very short supplementary question so the evidence that we've been directed to um that this
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option has been reviewed is the options appraisal report and the outline business case uh the options appraisal
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report is dated September 2020 yet it was not until after the 2023
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consultation that a decision to root the busway along but Lane was made the
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options appraisal report does not assess a hybrid uh route of bus lane and
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busway will the application documents include an updated options appraisal
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report okay thank you caner mkini I will check whether there will be
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any update to the documents the physical constraints do not change as to whether it's 2020 or 2023 the A10 hasn't changed
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and therefore it even if the appraisal were to be updated I I sincerely doubt
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that there results would be any different but we will write to you with that answer Mrs Nicholas thank you very much
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for coming along this morning um and um please do give our best wishes to your
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colleague the next question is from Land Beach Parish Council as a representative
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of the parish council is unable to attend this meeting a written response will be sent to the parish council and
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included in the minutes of this meeting I'd now like to invite Mrs Miss
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Anna gazley to come forward to ask her
24:44
question Miss gazley you're very welcome please take a moment to um make yourself comfortable and when you're ready if you
24:51
press the speaker on your console you have 2 minutes thank you
24:59
chair councilors um I wish to highlight several significant developments since
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you originally resolved on the 21st of March 2023 to submit the Campo to Cambridge transport Works act order you
25:11
being asked to confirm that decision today but in the nearly two years since much has changed irrespec of a final
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routing into Cambridge East West rail will include a station at cambour undermining the very justification for
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C2C meanwhile existing Transport Services could be improved now through targeted enhancements to BU provision at
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far lower cost and environmental impact the county announced a 32 million budget shortfall for 2025 six yet remains
25:36
fiscally responsible for large for likely funding gaps both in the build and annual maintenance of CTC the planed
25:43
maddingly Hill service Reservoir expansion crucial to addressing water scarcity in the county directly
25:49
conflicts with the proposed route a tree preservation order is now in place and C Orchard has been designated a wildlife
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County a County wildlife site since last voted the engineering plan submitted as
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part of the transport Works act order show a highly constrained entry to gra Road raising concerns over where the
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buses can even make the turn operators such as Stage Coach have not confirmed they will run the service and Andy Campbell says there's no easy onward
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route from this point the secretary of state has received over 300 expert objections spanning multiple disciplines
26:19
and political affiliations while petitioners now exceed 23,000 my question in light of these
26:25
unresolved issues and the considerable changes since 2023 can councilors be fully confident that the application
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submitted on the 12th of November 2024 remains wholly consistent with the one originally approved given the evolving
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Financial environmental and strategic landscape would TR would it be would it truly be in the County's best interest
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to confirm a resolution that locks the council into a course of action that may not May no longer be necessarily
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financially responsible or even operationally viable thank you thank you for your question uh C
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mkini you have two minutes thank you chair and thank you Anna for coming um
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there's a lot there I only have two minutes I'm going to do a bit of rattling through um number one the application is consistent with what was
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voted for um this would be a contravention of um the Ft guidance and therefore it would make the application
27:16
invalid if that was not the case um on East West rail they have multiple times
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in this debate we had it last time they have confirmed that the proposals complement they do not
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contradict they complement cambon Cambridge and it is important to remember that East West rails has just
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completed a non-statutory consultation which will inform a future statutory consultations at a point to be
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determined as such the scheme remains unfunded and unconsented and construction and opening are many years
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into the future also when it is built it does not serve Bourne Airfield or Cambridge West which are the two key
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development sites that cambon to Cambridge was conceived to serve we do have a very restrained budget as indeed
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will become very clear later uh but it is very important to remind ourselves that the cber to Cambridge busway is
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fully funded from the greater Cambridge City deal and this sits entirely outside of the county council's operational
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budget there has been no overspend on previous projects despite the fact that
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many people seem to want to make some up and there will be no overspend on this one and if there was it would sit with
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the city deal the project team will continue to work with anglian water to ensure there is no conflict with the
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reservoir currently being planned and the Cambo to Cambridge scheme will be will be planned in accordance with that
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we have undertaken a full environmental assessment which um has assessed the impact of the scheme uh the surviving
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portion of the orchard has recently been designated as a County wildlife site and more recently South Cambridge District
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Council has indicated that they intend to protect the surviving original trees with a TPO this does not impact the
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assessment that has been undertaken it will impact the ass assessment that the Secretary of State decides to
29:01
undertake the existing boss we stands as thank you councelor mkini you you might have an opportunity to expand further
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miss gazley you have another minute if you have any supplementary
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question councilors today you are being asked to vote on three gcp busways
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committing the county to underwriting half a billion pounds so let's be absolutely clear I am asking about C2C
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the 200 million scheme that cuts through cat Orchard and madingley Hill Farms only to gr to a halt at gra Road my
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question again after two years and all that has changed since you signed off on the draft order do you still believe the
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scheme is Justified and remains in the best interest of your constituents this is where responsibility lies kicking the
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can down the road to a public inquiry won't change the facts it simply dumps the fight onto Charities and communities
29:55
while the decision-making power you were elected to exercise is handed over to Westminster meanwhile the cost still
30:00
falls on the residents of this County not just today but for generations to come I have no need for councelor
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machini to respond the vote will make clear where each counselor stands and I trust it will be properly
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recorded councelor mkini thank you I am sure to most of that the answer is yes
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to go back to the to go back to the to the point of cost as I was about to say
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when my time runs out sorry about that the existing Huntington BS stands as a lesson as to how profitably these
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Services can be run it has an annual patronage of 2.5 million Journeys it's a lot of people it will be run profitably
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as indeed these busways tend to do and it will create a lot of opportunities for people that currently have none
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thank you Miss gazley thank you very much for coming along this morning um have a safe journey home thank you very
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much for asking your questions we move on to item number five which is petitions this allows members of the
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public to present petitions in accordance with the agreed project no petitions were received so we move on to
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the next item but before I do so can I remind you about the audio and voting system in order to register to speak can
31:07
you please raise your hand and you will be added to the list of speakers when I invite you to speak please press your
31:12
mic button if you wish to raise a point of order or a point of personal explanation you will need to raise your
31:18
hand do not press any buttons raising a point of order means the member believes
31:24
that there's been a breach of the council R rules of procedure or law so I will require the member to indicate the
31:30
rule of law which he or she considers has been broken if this belief is
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challenged I will make the final decision a point of personal explanation may only relate to some material part of
31:41
an earlier speech by the member raising the point which may appear to have been misunderstood in the present debate
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again I will make the final decision I would also like to remind members that if any member Rises on
31:53
either of these points any other member currently speaking should shut up until the point has been determined all
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speeches from Members must be addressed through the chair and I would like to take this opportunity to remind you all
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of the lga's debate not haate Campaign which states debating and disagreeing with one another as a healthy part of
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democracy abuse and intimidation is not acceptable so we move on now to item
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number six this is the greater Cambridge busways transport and works or act order
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and confirmatory decisions can I ask the deputy leader of the council and the council's representative on the greater
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Cambridge partnership executive board councelor mkini to move that the recommendation set out on pages 20 to 24
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of the report be adopted and ask the chair of the highways and transport committee councelor Becket to Second
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councelor mkini chair thank you very much I move the recommendations and I will speak
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when you invite me to is that now excellent in which case and if it makes me more audible as stay seated if that's
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okay I'll pull it towards me there we go is that good excellent
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um so we have a large paper comprising many items in front of us today I will
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start off with the main item which is uh what the first recommendations relate to
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we are talking about the busways from water beach to Cambridge as we all know the A10 suffers from significant
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congestion during peak times particularly at the Cambridge end according to Via City sensor data on the
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A10 south of milon park and ride there was an average of 26,500 vehicle mov M ments monthly from
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January to October 2024 planed developments such as the new town of water beach and the Northeast
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Cambridge expansion will place considerable additional pressure on the roads if sustainable improvements aren't
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delivered the new town of water beach is planned to deliver 11,000 new homes and
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the first phase will deliver 6,500 new homes which is currently under construction with a growing Community
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constantly expanding as more home are constructed and sold the 2018 e to
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Cambridge A10 transport study identified that existing congestion problems experienced on the A10 will increase
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without suitable mitigation 7,000 people work at over 170 companies on Cambridge
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Science Park and there are around 26 companies and approximately 550 employees working on Cambridge Research
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Park on the A10 that is also set to grow the business case followed the department for transport requirements as
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they always do we've had three public consultations and one public engagement p period on the water beach scheme and
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feedback has helped us identify the preferred option in 2024 we undertook a
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consultation with a focus on the potential environmental impact to inform the environmental impact assessment and
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a decision was made on the final route alignment so that's water beach we are
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also being asked in line with the transport and works Act of of 1992 to
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acknowledge and confirm and ratify the two applications that were submitted to the DFT for previous BS ways following
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votes of this Council now I have some inkling that those busways will form a substantive part of the debate we're
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about to have so I'll make a couple of points clear those submissions have been made to the Secretary of State they are
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not despite what some pressure groups would have us believe different from the applications we voted to submit in March
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23 and October 24 respectively that would be not in compliance with the ACT
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things have happened in the meantime of course but the secretary of state is expected to hold two national planning
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inquiries which will address all relevant circumstances and representations from everyone who has
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views on each scheme subject to a similar confirmatory vote this will also happen to the water beach passway once
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the application is submitted to withdraw submitted applications now would not enable any further investigation or
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reflection it would simply kill the schemes as opponents doubtlessly wish leaving thousands of people unable to
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commute to places of Education work or Leisure unless by private car I therefore recommend all members vote in
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favor of the recommendations thank you thank you councelor mkini uh
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councelor Becket you are seconding this do you wish to speak now or do you wish to reserve your right to speak I'll
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reserve my right for now chair thank you councelor Becket councelor Atkins I understand you wish to propose an
36:18
amendment thank you chair uh members you're all aware that although the gcp
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busways have the potential to bring significant benefits to communities businesses and universities across
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Cambridge here they have also attracted significant local and National opposition because of the chosen routes
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the route of the SE to Sea busway through the historic Coten Orchard and of the Seas set busway on the lower
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slopes of the famous gogmagog Hills significantly increase the environmental and financial cost of these schemes and
36:49
their impact on the character of nearby communities now in both cases alternative alignments involving on-road
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bus lanes have been proposed by loal Charities and Parish councils to reduce this damage the gcp has looked at
37:02
versions of these Alternatives and concluded that because of the level of current and future traffic on these
37:08
major roads the Alternatives would not bring the same level of benefits nor sufficient support for satellite
37:13
communities and therefore the off-road routes have remained now these
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conclusions have not been accepted by local residents as indeed you have heard today they believe as I understand that
37:26
refinements and improvements through the alternative alignments have not been properly considered and have doubts in
37:32
the methodology for assessing Journey times and the current level of congestion in this chamber we have
37:38
previously considered and unfortunately refused a request to re-examine the pros and cons for the onroad and off-road
37:45
routes for the ctoc busway which sought to address one element of local
37:50
concerns in my Amendment today I seek to tackle a major element of doubt and
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disagreement in in these schemes namely an accurate picture of the current
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congestion on key roads such as the a1303 and a1307 and the sense of how this might
38:08
change in the future which is ultimately the justification for the off-road alignments of these two
38:14
busways whilst the gcp have of course previously considered this in their submissions I am particularly mindful of
38:21
the rapid change in people's working patterns and resultant traffic over the last few years in addition to the very
38:27
Reasonable Doubt and skepticism that local residents with their regular experience of these roads bring to the
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matter by doing the work I've proposed the council will help to bring a level of common understanding of the facts to
38:40
this debate something which has been lacking up to this point whilst there may be some minor resource implications
38:47
for the work set against the vast cost of the schemes as a whole and the level of distrust which pervades these issues
38:54
I argue this is a prudent and worthwhile use of the council's resources without
38:59
adding additional delay to the process as a counselor I represent
39:04
communities which are divided on the ctoc busway in particular uh some residents have written to me requesting
39:11
that I vote against the recommendations concerning it the effect of which would be would be to at best delay the public
39:18
inquiry there are however other residents in my Villages and beyond that would benefit greatly from either an off
39:23
or onroad scheme being operational sooner rather than later it's also clear
39:28
that the UK government expects us in Cambridge to build an extraordinary number of new houses in a very short
39:34
space of time for which improved public transport is required imminently if
39:39
local politicians and their residents are to retain control of the planning system and fundamentally where those
39:45
houses are built for these reasons I believe that further delays to the public inquiry which will arbitrate
39:52
between the competing claims and root options are not in the interests of my residents nor the county more widely but
39:59
at the same time this is an opportune moment to stress test the key line of argument in this issue so as to inform
40:07
those public inquiries and our own subsequent decision- making and ensure that the most uh appropriate and
40:14
effective versions of these schemes are ultimately delivered through this amendment we can ensure that residents
40:21
get answers to their questions without causing additional delay to the scheme and I hope you can support it thank
40:28
you thank you councelor Atkins I understand councelor gilat that you wish to Second this uh Amendment do you wish
40:34
to speak now or to reserve your right I reserve my right thank you chair thank you um members we are now uh going to
40:42
debate the amendment as proposed by councelor Atkins who would like to speak first welcome councelor how I hope your
40:49
gas is satisfactorily resolved well I don't have anybody oh
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account yes uh than thank you chair um very simply I support this amendment because information can never be a bad
41:07
thing and this is seeking for information to supplement the woefully short or out ofd information in the
41:13
actual application it's been mentioned that we've tried before to get the uh on
41:19
Route uh onroad route um fully analyzed and despite our best efforts through
41:25
amendments that hasn't happened and this is probably as close as we can get to actually getting some up toate
41:31
information I refer of course to to what is a vitally different situation now and
41:37
that is the confirmation of the East West Rail Project now also we have assurances from Council machini that
41:43
this is complimentary I fear that it's not complimentary I I think it will undermine the case and when we look at
41:49
the actual amount of congestion that will be predicted in that area it will be reduced by the fact that East West
41:55
rail will go ahead whereas the original application worked on the assumption that as it wasn't confirmed it wouldn't
42:01
be there so therefore this new information will come out and it will change the nature of the amount of
42:06
vehicles that will be relieved by the C2C now the C2C requires money to be
42:12
supplied by the government because obviously the section 106 at some 37 million is woefully short with the gcp
42:20
money of ever actually making this happen so when this new information comes out and says actually the
42:25
congestion isn't quite as high as we predicted the BCR will lower and there
42:31
there will be the gcp presenting to Angela Raina and her cohort the the lady from accounts shall we say um we want a
42:38
lot of money to deliver this around here and they will be presented with an alternative of a much cheaper cheaper
42:45
onroad option at that point in time Miss Reeves will be thinking to I'm just paying
42:53
billions of pounds for an East West rail that actually delivers something there do I really need to give this much much
42:58
more money for a secondary scheme that actually supplies the same area and I do think that she may be conflicted and I
43:05
hope this information will help her in that decision to actually go back and check what is really meant by an on-road
43:11
route at that point in time or earlier now that is a decision for her I think
43:16
this information will assist in that what does worry me about the uh Amendment Council Atkins It Was Written
43:23
in the in perfectly good will but you haven't got a time limit on it through the chair councelor count
43:30
please to the chair to councelor Michael Atkins um what concerns me Michael
43:35
Atkins counselor Michael Atkins is it does not en encounter a time limit and
43:40
what by not having a time limit what you will find is what we find with many of our motions which is why we introduced
43:47
the action log and you heard today about things being kicked into long glass the information you want may arrive too late
43:53
as it moves from one committee to another so thank you chair I will support it but I do hope that this joint
43:58
Administration takes it seriously and delivers this information in time thank you thank you councilor count uh through
44:05
the chair means that you don't address other members thanks my apologies chair I was
44:12
there was nothing derogatory in there so I thought that's fine it's just as a a reminder councelor
44:18
chenney thank you chair um fantastic to hear an outbreak of Common Sense from councilor Atkins and I will of course be
44:25
supporting his Amendment I just think I'd like to remind members opposite that um it's okay to change your mind you
44:32
know when new new facts come forward or better arguments are made you don't have to doggedly stick to what you've always
44:38
said and it's just common sense to make that change it doesn't mean that you have to stand for a minute silence in
44:43
memory of the rainbow Alliance it just means some common sense has broken out thank
44:48
you thank you councelor chinny um I have nobody else who's wish to speak indicated to speak so councelor gulack
44:57
thank you chair um when I saw the amendment come through from councilor Atkins um I read it with with real
45:05
interest uh and the reason being uh that um I cast your mind back some of you
45:10
would have been on District Council planning meetings The District Council planning meetings you are encouraged if
45:17
not mandated to go and have a look at a site to help you make up your mind and help you gather all the facts I can
45:24
honestly say in my time in planning situ ation my mind has often been changed or
45:29
or dictated to by having seen the site and actually understood what was going on locally well that's exactly the case
45:36
here I went out to coton and I went out to cambour and I followed as much as the line that I could to understand that
45:42
route in particular as I have done the water beach as I have done the gogs and I know the areas pretty well and um what
45:49
you heard from Miss gazley when she spoke very well in the public gallery for uh putting her questions we're
45:54
basically asking for a stop pause think and put the residents first and I think that's exactly what this amendment from
46:00
the local member does it puts the residents first so I'm asking that
46:06
everybody present to think about this we've heard from councilor count and I have to agree that in my opinion the
46:12
East West rail undermines the case for this and this amendment gives all involved a chance to genuinely think
46:18
again if we put the residents first it gives no questions or facts that cannot
46:24
be argued with and I think that's what's done the situation has changed dramatically in the last two years and I
46:30
think this amendment goes a long way towards addressing that I haven't got any more to say because I think Council
46:36
Atkins put everything extremely well and I think needs to be listened to and adhered to and quite frankly voted for
46:43
and therefore I'm happy to support this amendment thank you thank you councelor GAC uh councelor mkini thank you chair
46:51
um the amendment's fine there is no problem with it I will only correct one point that has been made from the
46:57
opposition the assurance that the scheme is complementary to East West rail does not come from me it comes from them this
47:03
is what East West rail does East West rail does not serve the same places the SCH that this scheme serves and
47:10
therefore there is absolutely no contradiction between them it will not it will not undermine it if you have
47:15
this opinion you're welcome to it but it's not based in fact and therefore it would be quite good if it wasn't
47:22
mentioned anymore but I'm afraid that's probably not going to happen uh I'll leave the rest for the rest of the debate thank you thank you thank you
47:30
councilor mkini now there seems to be General consensus words I wasn't expecting to say today in support of the
47:36
amendment if anyone disagrees please raise your hand that being the case I see a no
47:43
objections we will take the amendment as carried so we are now onto the uh
47:53
amended motion and you will be aware that the the transport and works Act is
47:59
seeking an order under the terms of the ACT section 239 of the Local Government Act applies which requires a majority of
48:06
the whole number of the members of The Authority at a meeting of the authority therefore in order for the motion to be
48:12
carried 31 members will need to vote in favor I also intend to split the vote
48:19
into two the first vote will be for sections recommendations a b and F which
48:25
is the amendment and the second part will be for recommendations c d and e so
48:31
who'd like to open the
48:37
debate councelor count always to the rescue councelor K uh thank you chair i'
48:43
I hate to see you very staring off into vacant space looking for somebody else as you say rescuing you um yes so I'll
48:50
just just going to cover water beach first and then I'll go on to C2C and C set so so water beach
48:57
um I really think that the um speakers are right you know see um cish past
49:03
present future their representives you know the on Route uh line again has not
49:09
been assessed correctly what's happened is there's been various assessments uh put out into the public domain and then
49:15
somebody has said look we can do a better job of this here's a proposal have a good look at this and and you
49:21
know the gcp through its uh Representatives the labor and liberal Representatives have said said no we
49:27
don't want to look at this anymore we're going to stop right now and so they've knocked that to one side but unlike the
49:33
other two the C2C and the C set I don't choose to support uh um the water beach
49:40
option of an on Route option and that is very simply because I fully support the dueling of the A10 I think that would
49:46
make it more difficult to duel the A10 we' we've got to have a new Junction at the A10 A14 and the amount of traffic
49:54
that comes down the A10 is not not all destined for Cambridge Cambridge is a lovely place but not everybody wants to
50:01
go there every day people do want to go to other places and actually trying to
50:06
think that the water beach will actually and the park and ride will solve all the issues of the A10 it won't we need to
50:12
duel the A10 we need to get real about those people that are accessing the A14 and unfortunately that means that I'm
50:18
going to support what may be in its own right a more expensive option to
50:23
actually have this um water beach line but in terms of the C2C and the C set I
50:30
stick with the earlier thoughts that we should have really considered the later
50:36
proposal that came from the cppf on the online root options and I don't I don't
50:41
believe that they've ever been considered fully and we keep getting reassurances they are various options
50:48
were considered but not these and that's important um and there's been significant changes since the earlier
50:55
ones we've already talked about the the cambour railway station and to say that it's complimentary because East West
51:02
rail tells us Su I'm sorry East West rail are bidding for money from the
51:07
government so a C2C so it is in their interest to say it's complimentary it is
51:14
very naive to take these things at face value and simply repeat them as if they're a matter of fact written in
51:20
stone uh I'm going to refer to as well the tpos in the Orchard and the destruction of the orchard that's really
51:27
important but one thing I really take up exception to is being told that we
51:32
haven't overspent and we won't well last time we was here we said
51:38
that that this will finish up over2 200 million all right and we were laughed at
51:45
oh no no we've done all our SS we laughed at the prediction was 157
51:52
million to be exact chair the prediction was was 157
51:59
m841 th000 and you are right it's not gone over 200 million it's now1 192
52:07
m284 th900 is the current estimate on the publish papers so how anybody can sit
52:15
here chair and say that you've not overspent of course you haven't overspent you just lifted the target
52:22
figure by 50 million that's not overspending well I'm not sure thought my uh public would think about that so I
52:30
think that is just one of a number of misleading responses that when it gets to public inquiry will come out in the
52:37
fullness of time as not being wholly as accurate as we would have liked and for
52:42
that reason I will not support the C2C current options I will not support the C
52:48
Set current option my apologies to those in favor of the water beach um online
52:53
option because I want the uh A10 dual I will be supporting the water beach one
52:59
thank you chair thank you councelor count councelor
53:04
Bradham thank you chair um I'm the local member for water beach Division and so I
53:11
have watched the Inception of this water beach to Cambridge busway over the duration of its uh thought
53:19
process and legal process it has been extremely contentious there has been um
53:25
a lot of consideration of um the aspects
53:30
of putting a a road over Countryside and Fields uh there's been a lot of
53:35
consideration of the possible routs it might take and there's been a lot of consideration locally about the drainage
53:41
issues which uh are around it but um the gcp have amended the route in response
53:50
to the consultation responses and um the route now is preferable to to what it
53:56
was before and the point is it is needed councelor Bradman I'm sorry members
54:02
can't hear you so perhaps either sit down or hold the your console I'm sorry to interrupt you it it is
54:09
needed the um dueling of the A10 as councelor count suggests thank you uh
54:15
will not resolve the problem of congestion at the Milton interchange because the congestion at the Milton
54:22
Milton interchange is caused by the number of cars traveling towards Cambridge yes some of them go on towards
54:28
the M1 and places South but that will not change the the um uh the Dynamics of
54:36
the Milton interchange and the only thing that will resolve that is fewer cars actually on the A10 so we
54:43
desperately need to encourage people by providing a good quality reliable
54:48
frequent bus route into Cambridge that people can easily pick up uh and and use
54:54
that to travel into Cambridge rather than taking their cars into Cambridge so it's needed this this busway so that
55:02
there is an alternative for residents from the north uh and from water beach new town which of course is developing
55:08
fast um for them to get to Cambridge and join the M11 and they so that they do
55:14
not have to take their cars on the A10 thank you chair thank you councelor Bram
55:19
uh councelor Dr vanderen thank you I'd just like to make two points of principle and one of of
55:26
them is about the residents that we are here to represent and whose interests we
55:32
are here to support there is a quiet voice and that is of young people who are in school today some of them in
55:38
secondary school I've seen in my rural communities uh young people who become
55:44
age 16 and have no transport to education training or jobs um those are
55:50
an enormously important factor for us to to keep in mind and that will become an
55:57
increasingly important thing as our population grows and more affordable
56:03
housing is further out uh the second point is what makes a good transport
56:09
scheme I think complimentary is absolutely critical we the best
56:16
transport uh options are where there are many different options um the train is
56:22
often less um uh beneficial for people with Mobility difficulties the bus is
56:30
important uh it's the variety of options which encourages people uh to use them
56:36
thank you thank you very much uh I have nobody else who has indicated they wish to speak so oh councelor J pre anybody
56:44
else or before I close oh they're all coming out there uh councelor haor who else waved
56:51
their hand okay cancel your pray
56:57
thank you chair we're being asked to apply for an order for the water beach to Cambridge busway and reconfirm our
57:03
earlier decisions in respect of orders for two other busways cambour to Cambridge and Cambridge Southeast from
57:10
the Cambridge biomedical campus to a new travel Hub near the a11 we need now to
57:15
provide new communities with transport options to encourage people out of their cars and prevent further congestion of
57:22
cambridge's Road networks and we need to provide options for forthcoming developments where that is a condition
57:28
of local plans without which those plans will fail with a field day for for the
57:35
developers we already know that there will be public inquiries at which these schemes will be robustly examined
57:41
meanwhile as far as cambour is concerned there is no absolute certainty that East West rail will happen or provide
57:49
services to this growing town indeed there is a view in some quarters that the section from tempsford East towards
57:55
Cambridge should be re-rooted away from cambour altogether leaving residents with nothing I believe Cambridge and its
58:02
ever extending travel to workk Hinterland has been badly let down by complex overlapping and often
58:08
unaccountable governance structures imposed on it by successive conservatives at every level the city
58:15
deal the combined Authority on again off again East West rail millions of pounds
58:20
Wasted by a conservative mayor on an overblown cam Metro rightly torn up by
58:26
his labor successor but with nothing to replace it they fail to do what is
58:31
needed to bring together the many competing transport proposals whirling around Cambridge into a single coherent
58:38
vision for the long term to which everyone can sign up we are now at a point where the urgency of immediate
58:45
provision of Transport Solutions for growing communities and centers of employment is hurtling into the vacuum
58:51
in long-term planning for Effective mass transit for the families and jobs of the very long future for now the proposals
58:59
in front of us make provision for the public transport that growing communities like water beach and cambour
59:06
urgently need it makes no sense to argue that dueling the A10 will stop
59:13
congestion at the Milton interchange that is patently absurd and encouraging
59:18
thousands more cars onto the A10 is not an answer to anything um future
59:24
communities like places like Bourne Airfield absolutely depend on robust
59:30
public transport solutions for the future as do the local plans of which they are of which they are part as which
59:37
I've already said and finally I cannot I cannot conclude without remarking that
59:44
every time the party opposite shows its absolutely rampant sexism it is not an
59:51
advert for them or for their cause thank you thank you councelor pre can
1:00:00
H um thank you so I am also a local member for the uh water beach busway
1:00:05
which travels through impington I have worked with councelor Bradham um with the gcp to finesse the details and we
1:00:12
will continue to interrogate the design of the water beach busway because it is really important that details work for
1:00:18
for local people who want to use it but I am fully in support of this scheme I already have a busway in my division the
1:00:24
St IV's busway and it is is so effective it is pouring people into the city of
1:00:29
Cambridge from Huntington from St Ives from swavy from North sto from long Stanton from oakington from histon and
1:00:35
impington it is really effective every day it is taking hundreds if not thousands of cars off the road people
1:00:41
who want to avoid the tail back the miles of tail backs on the A14 it is a
1:00:47
really effective mode of Transport all the busways are going to deliver in this way and so I will be supporting this the
1:00:53
busway projects today thank you very much councelor
1:00:58
slatter councelor count did you have a point of order point point of order on something I said earlier on in the
1:01:04
debate um I I can only imagine that the comment from Council Lorna Dee was about
1:01:09
my reference to Rachel from accounts as being sexist let let me be chair chair I don't think that this is either a point
1:01:16
of order or a point of personal explanation I'll make that decision coun
1:01:22
okay councelor thank you for your intervention councelor count would you like to continue I think this is a point of personal explanation yes it is yeah
1:01:30
thank thank you chair if that if that was what was meant then I don't care whether it's Robert from accounts or Rachel from accounts somebody that lies
1:01:37
on their C CV should be uh pointed out in places such as this we are I think I
1:01:43
think you've made your point councelor uh C I'm not sure that actually was either a point of order or explanation
1:01:48
but in any event I think that in order to uh avoid awkward situations like this
1:01:54
perhaps we could be a bit more circum effect in our language councelor slatter sorry chair I wasn't indicating
1:02:01
to speak I was pointing at councelor hathor having her hand up which is good news I mean it's lovely to hear from you
1:02:08
cancor slatter obviously experience living but you've heard before are
1:02:18
sharp thank you chair um just a few points on this um
1:02:26
earlier on Council through you Council machine he mentioned a vote against this will kill the scheme and will not allow
1:02:31
further examination of Alternatives but if something's wrong then you need to look at it first to to or in my opinion
1:02:39
it's wrong obviously Others May disagree then you don't just play on with it um I do have sympathy for the on-road water
1:02:45
breach application but I do share with colleagues the concerns over the effect
1:02:51
on the a 10 jeweling um and I'm not sure we're looking at the whole solution in
1:02:58
isolation I know this is there was referral just now to um unaccountable
1:03:04
government I think it was um one of my concerns about the whole
1:03:09
thing here is that this has come via the gcp and obviously I presume through you
1:03:15
that the mechanisms are that it comes direct to full Council I I certainly would have welcomed some sort of this
1:03:21
coming to transport commit highways and transport to us to have looked at it in more detail but we're obviously in a
1:03:27
situation where we either support it or we don't um and then so i' I've got
1:03:33
concerns about water beach and I'm not sure which way I I will go on that
1:03:39
um in terms of seas set and C2C I think you know I've mentioned before I just think they're massively
1:03:46
expensive I don't think they've been demonstrated that they actually solve the issue that they're trying to solve
1:03:52
as the public speaker mentioned um the C2C route yes goes Offroad but it then
1:03:59
ends up at gra Road where's all that traffic going to go which is partly similar to and through you the count the
1:04:05
comment made by councelor bradner which I understand that if you duel the A10 you could end up with a bottleneck
1:04:12
at the Milton U Milton Junction so yeah that you know those need to be looked at
1:04:18
in much more detail which I would hope when that scheme comes forward it will be but I'm totally opposed to the CET
1:04:25
and C 2C thank you chair thank you councelor sharp councelor
1:04:32
Hoy chair um so I just wanted to address the point about the sexism now I guess it was because of the councelor Hoy I I
1:04:39
don't think that we need to address that the point has been made it's been refuted by councel account and I think I've drawn the line under it now okay if
1:04:46
you would be so kind I will try to be kind but I've already written now so I'd appreciate if you could indulge me it's only three lines I'll be very fast um no
1:04:53
one was making fun because she's a woman it's because she made she was um councelor Hy I'm I don't think that's
1:04:59
appropriate um but thank you anyway okay well I've got more to say than that it is actually not just about that okay well skip that and get to the point
1:05:07
should I mention about the point where um a member of the Liv Dems was sexist said women don't drive cars thank you
1:05:13
canel right move to the point about cars then because obviously our freedom of speech is being curtailed as usual so um
1:05:20
my point I was going to make about the car so was something that um one of the counselors made about young people and
1:05:25
not being having not having transport so one idea I've had and you know everyone says like if you could wish for anything
1:05:32
what would it be and it's actually a little bit of a socialist idea I've got because what I would do kind of if I could have anything my wish would be
1:05:37
that young people um would have driving lessons as part of the national curriculum and we would give every young person a car now I know that might sound
1:05:45
a ludicrous idea but given the money that we spend on spend on these public transport schemes often don't actually
1:05:51
achieve anything I think we would actually find out the costs would be um relatively similar and so I always
1:05:56
wonder like you know I'm not some massive brain box that has thought of something that no one else could have thought of so why is it that I'm
1:06:01
thinking this that no one else is and I think um councilor D dpre had it in something she said when she mentioned
1:06:07
about you know we don't want car she didn't say it once she said it three times we do not want cars on the road and that is the simple truth there seems
1:06:14
to be and there has been for a while this massive drive to stop people and to get people out of their cars and to stop
1:06:20
people driving and the only reason I can think of is it is to curtail people's fre fre it can't be about climate change
1:06:27
because if it was about climate change you wouldn't be cutting down hundreds and hundreds of trees in a very very old
1:06:33
orchard it just make please just make it make sense thank you councelor Hoy nobody
1:06:39
else has indicated councelor Becket you reserved your right to uh speak as the seconder for the original motion your
1:06:45
moment has now arrived please try not to wind anybody up thank you very much
1:06:50
chair it's my time to shine and I will try and keep it on topic for you so today we have the opportunity to take
1:06:56
another step in building a modern reliable and sustainable public transport system for greater Cambridge
1:07:02
the the water beach to Cambridge busway I'm sorry councelor Becka either hold your console up or sit down apparently
1:07:08
we are all struck by deafness today uh maybe we get some new mics at some point uh the Water beach to
1:07:14
Cambridge busway is a vital piece of infrastructure that will ease congestion reduce pollution and improve the daily
1:07:20
lives of thousands of people so let's begin with what we already know uh um guided busways work and they are popular
1:07:28
since the opening of the Cambridge and St Ives uh guided busway in 2011 it has exceeded all expectations what started
1:07:35
as an ambitious project has grown into the busiest Corridor in the region carrying over 4 million passengers a year it provides a fast reliable
1:07:42
alternative to sitting in traffic with services that run frequently and effectively efficiently the fact that we
1:07:47
currently have issues with but over full buses just shows how popular it is the
1:07:53
success of these schemes tells us something important when we invest in high quality public transport people use it and when they do the benefits Ripple
1:08:00
out fewer cars on the road cleaner air and more efficient Journeys for everyone across the county there's another piece
1:08:06
of progress to recognize just last week the mayor of camb and Peterborough uh announced the move to a franchised bus
1:08:12
system this is the biggest reform of our public transport Network in 40 years under franchising we the people of
1:08:18
Cambridge here will have control over the roots fairs services and quality no longer will be will be will we be at the
1:08:24
mercy of private operator cutting roots that communities depend on instead we can design a network that
1:08:29
works for everyone the decision comes at exactly the right time because it means the water beach to Cambridge bus will be
1:08:35
part of a properly planned and integrated system one that links new homes jobs and services in a way that is
1:08:40
reliable and affordable with this project the greater cambrid partnership is now delivering three busways from water beach cambour and the southeast
1:08:47
they will transform capacity across our public transport Network now I know some people would like light rail instead of
1:08:53
busways myself I'm favorable to rail but these will work they will ensure that new and existing communities have a
1:08:59
genuine alternative to car travel connecting people to jobs education and Healthcare without adding pressure to
1:09:04
our already congested Road Network and that brings us me to the core of why we must support this scheme reducing
1:09:11
congestion pollution by investing in highquality dedicated public transport we are providing people with a real
1:09:17
alternative to driving fewer cars mean less pollution fewer carbon emissions and healthier environments for all of us
1:09:23
this isn't just about transport it's about creating A Greener cleaner and more livable greater
1:09:29
cambage thank you councelor Becket uh and finally councelor mkini thank you very much chair I will
1:09:35
just raise a couple of points that have not been answered yet in the debate I'll do so quickly as quickly as I can um I'm
1:09:42
grateful to council account for reminding us that about a third was added onto everybody's not just the gcps
1:09:48
but everybody's construction costs miraculously an overnight um at some point in October 22 I do wonder why but
1:09:55
that's what happened um on East West rail um we have made the point uh
1:10:01
unfortunately you know if you live in cambour and you wish to travel to either Bourne or west Cambridge under East West
1:10:08
rail you just take a train all the way down to Cambridge South and then take the bus back very convenient so
1:10:14
absolutely um interesting there the point um did we or did we not consider
1:10:20
on route options for C set and C2C and indeed water beach to cambri yes we did
1:10:25
there's options appraisals for each busway you can repeat that as long as you want it's still inaccurate um I am very grateful for to
1:10:33
canel Brenham for mentioning the response to the jeweling of the A10 point I will not repeat what she said um
1:10:39
how many times were we told last time when we approved both C set and C2C that you should how how irresponsible is it
1:10:47
to go for an option that's expensive when there's something cheaper on the table you heard Council count today I
1:10:53
prefer an option that's more expensive just because I prefer it I I'll leave that one there and finally there's a
1:10:59
teeny tiny point on Grange Road yes it will take the busway buses for the same reason that it takes the hgvs that
1:11:05
currently go down there and there's already a bus going down Grange Road there is no problem there don't invent
1:11:10
one thank you thank you councel mkini I will now take an electronic vote on the
1:11:17
motion councelor Kent a point of order or point of personal explanation uh on
1:11:22
recommendation CD I have a request that it's recorded vote I'm getting to that
1:11:27
thank you I'll now take a electronic vote on the motion in two parts the first vote will be for recommendations a
1:11:34
b and F councelor Kent would you like a recorded vote for this part of the vote
1:11:40
thank you Mrs R would you like to please start the
1:11:53
vote members in favor of a b and F please press the button underneath the
1:11:58
word yes members against please press the button underneath the word no members wishing to abstain please press
1:12:05
the button underneath the word
1:12:20
abstain chair I'm now closing the vote
1:12:35
the result of the vote is 49 votes in favor three against and one exstension
1:12:42
the recommendations a b and F are therefore carried thank you Mrs row I'm
1:12:48
now going to take an electronic vote on the recommendations c d and e which can be found on page 24 of your agenda
1:12:56
councilor count would you like a recorded vote for this item do you have 14 colleagues who would support
1:13:05
that thank you very much uh Mrs row would you please start the
1:13:15
vote members in favor of recommendation c d and e please press the button
1:13:21
underneath the word yes members against please press the button underneath the word no members wishing to abstain
1:13:28
please press the button underneath the word
1:13:33
abstain chair I'm now closing the
1:13:42
vote chair the result of the vote is 35 votes in favor 18 votes against and no
1:13:49
abstentions recommendations C D and E are therefore carried thank you Mrs Rose
1:13:55
that concludes that item we move on to item number seven which is the 20253
1:14:01
business plan and budget this was discussed by strategy resources and performance committee on the 28th of
1:14:06
January 2025 before I asked the chair of the strategy resources and performance committee to move the recommendations
1:14:13
can I remind members that an addendum to this report which contains a change to recommendation C was circulated to all
1:14:20
members on the 6th of February and published on the council's website I'd now like to invite the chair of the
1:14:26
strategy resources and performance committee councelor net singer to move the recommendations as set out in the
1:14:32
report on the council agenda councelor net singer I move those recommendations
1:14:38
do you want me to speak now or after they've been seconded I think if you'd like to move the business plan as per
1:14:44
the so moved thank you thank you so I am accepting from you
1:14:50
that you are moving the business plan as contained within agenda item number seven including the recommendation ations are set out in the report and the
1:14:57
addendum containing a change to recommendation C Splendid thank you councelor mkini I'm inviting you now to
1:15:04
second the motion and uh either Speak now or reserve your uh uh opportunity I
1:15:10
second the motion and I will reserve my right to speak thank you thank you very much I am now inviting the leaders of
1:15:17
the liberal Democrat labor independent and conservative groups or their nominees to make their opening statements on the business plan councel
1:15:26
singer thank you very much I'm wondering whether I'm short enough for this to actually work for me we'll
1:15:32
see um so this is the last budget that will be presented by this joint
1:15:38
Administration we head as we head towards elections in May um and as I look at what we're proposing and also
1:15:44
back at what we have achieved as a joint Administration team I feel a certain sense of s satisfaction along with a
1:15:51
continuing serious concern over the state of local government fin an es not only in this Council but across the
1:15:57
whole of England these budget proposals continue to reflect the Jo the key priorities for
1:16:03
this joint Administration and I want to express my deep thanks to the offices of the council and to the chairs and vice
1:16:10
chairs of committees who have all put in many many hours of work hours and days
1:16:16
um of painstaking work during the autumn and winter in order to pull together a balanced
1:16:22
budget um this budget not only keeps keeps the council's finances within an acceptable level of risk and that in the
1:16:29
current circumstances is in itself no small task but it also reflects key
1:16:34
areas where the joint Administration wanted to see continuing investment and I want to give special thanks to Michael
1:16:41
and Tom and the finance team and also to Martin and briany in the children and
1:16:46
young people's team for the the extraordinary amount of work that they have put in bringing forward these
1:16:51
proposals um and it has been a particularly tough year for them the key investment in this budget
1:16:58
reflecting the key priority of our residents as well as the joint Administration is the continuing major
1:17:04
investment in our highways the resident survey over the summer continued to
1:17:09
reflect major concerns from all people across Cambridge here about the dire situation for our highways our cycleways
1:17:17
and Pavements following a decade of underfunding from conservative governments but while the investment in
1:17:23
highways is by far the biggest spend outside our statutory duties there are many other Investments which I am also
1:17:30
proud that we are able to bring forward through this budget I am really proud that we continue our commitment to
1:17:36
paying the real living wage this commitment has been criticized by the opposition although today they have not
1:17:42
bothered to draw up an alternative budget of their own a matter I will speak about later the commitment to pay those who
1:17:50
carry out crucial work in the care sector and in other fields a decent wage has proved a good investment in the long
1:17:56
term for this Council meaning our care providers are more secure and our Reliance on expensive emergency agency
1:18:03
care lower than in many neighboring authorities I'm also really proud that we are investing in our own care homes
1:18:09
for the most high needs children ensuring that they will be able to be cared for close safely closer to home
1:18:16
and meaning the council will have more control over the spiraling costs in children's social care and we are able
1:18:22
to make investments like these looking to the longer term future for our residents and for better services and
1:18:29
better infrastructure across cambrid because of the prudent decision- making from The Joint Administration over the
1:18:35
past three and a half years these have been really tough decisions many really
1:18:40
difficult decisions over those three years and we are still dealing with a legacy of a vast range of poor
1:18:46
decision-making and unrealistic income plans from the previous administration the situation facing
1:18:53
local government across the whole of England remains dire with ever larger numbers of councils having to ask for
1:18:59
special dispensation from central government to increase council tax by more than this 4.99 permitted for upper
1:19:05
tier councils I know well that 4.99% in this budget will be really tough for
1:19:11
many households in Cambridge we know that the cost of living crisis continues for many and I will continue to Lobby
1:19:18
central government for fairer funding for cambrid at every opportunity cambrid is one of the
1:19:24
fastest grow growing areas in the country we are proud of the contribution made by our beautiful County both
1:19:30
nationally and internationally but we are also aware in this chamber that growth puts great strain on our public
1:19:37
services our roads our schools our GPS our hospitals and we will continue to
1:19:42
press central government for recognition of this in their settlements both to local government and to The Wider public
1:19:48
sector the police fire and Health Services so to Joint Administration colleagues and officers thank thank you
1:19:54
for your support and please continue to support this budget thank you thank you councelor mkini uh would you like to
1:20:01
make your statement on behalf of the labor group thank you very much chair I will do so now um as usual I will
1:20:09
structure this in sort of three levels we'll start by talking about the situation nationally and how that
1:20:14
affects Cambridge here um we do live in a slightly strange slightly dispiriting
1:20:21
climate of political cynicism and it doesn't help that there's a flu epidemic to go with it it makes a lot of people
1:20:28
very very grumpy and they got good reason to be grumpy however we have just had a few months ago the very first
1:20:34
Labor budget which is not something I was entirely sure I would ever say but there we go 30 million pounds extra
1:20:41
public spending this year and 40 million pounds in tax Rises with the majority of those pulled agreeing that these are
1:20:47
necessary we have kickstarted growth and we're doing our bit of that in Cambridge here as the recently concluded debate
1:20:54
show we have Spades in the ground and we can start to reverse the last 14 years of
1:20:59
stagnation and Decay we did know we would have tough choices in local government when this
1:21:05
government came in they these haven't gone away yet but we were starting to see things to make us think positively 5
1:21:13
billion pounds new founding has been announced in the latest local government settlement over and above council tax
1:21:18
Rises two billion in Grant allocation to councils 1.1 billion from the new extended producer responsibility package
1:21:25
500 million in pothole funding and 233 million for homelessness these were just
1:21:30
the highlights that I decided to highlight no core spending power
1:21:35
reduction for any local Authority in England for the first time since the last Labor government left office and a
1:21:42
new recovery Grant worth £600 million that has been announced this does not go
1:21:48
quite as far as the funding reform that we have all been campaigning forc since since the revenue support Grant was
1:21:53
discontinued but it was announced by Angela rer as the first meaningful step and an interim measure before a full
1:22:00
update on the funding system which is expected for 2627 now in Cambridge here we do have an
1:22:06
upcoming local government reform which is sucking a lot of attention from the public debate but our challenges and our
1:22:13
mandate to provide services for residents irrespective of the tough environment remain we have a 35 35.1
1:22:21
million budget shortfall caused by increasing in demand for our services this is now a very common refrain we
1:22:28
continue to be funded in excess of 80% by council tax and the council tax increase of 4.99% as is the paper as is
1:22:35
in the papers in front of you today remains a difficult decision for us to make but a majority of respondents to
1:22:42
our budget survey have agreed with us that this is necessary to support the services that more and more people
1:22:48
increasingly rely on the 20 million pound additional spending power generated by the tax increases will be
1:22:54
spent on a number of extremely important priorities for us continuing the record level of investment in the Count's
1:23:00
highways and cycleways that we started when we came into Power ensuring the adult care services can continue to
1:23:06
support and protect vulnerable adults by investing over 30 million pounds to meet riseing demand and costs and supporting
1:23:13
our Workforce almost 8.8 billion in capital expenditure to build schools
1:23:19
care and Community facilities libraries and infrastructure to enable our ambitious Net Zero Target 2.5 million
1:23:25
for the holiday school vouchers and sustaining hometo School transport by a further 4.7 million in additional
1:23:32
funding to help meet Rising demands and costs this is all stuff that we should all be extremely proud of and I look
1:23:38
forward to the debate thank you very much councelor serson thank you very much chair I'll um
1:23:45
just talk briefly about um some of the things going on nationally and on behalf of the um independent group and as I
1:23:52
chair the communities committee I'll just touch on some of the things happening there so one of the things I'm particularly pleased with is that we're
1:23:58
able to do more um and continue the household support fund um obviously the government took the decision to continue
1:24:05
that as a previous government had um we got very close to um thinking that we
1:24:10
weren't going to be able to continue all that good work um but on many occasions central government as they do at the
1:24:16
last minute um agreed to do that which is excellent so in terms of um what is
1:24:22
happening um in the communities committee um 2.2 million being put into the
1:24:28
anti-poverty strategy and action plan that's confirmed um in the last budget and retained in this one we're putting
1:24:34
1.3 million to improve our library service again um that we retained in the
1:24:40
current budget um one disappointing note is that the domestic abuse Grant which
1:24:46
was received via the office of police and crime commissioner that's ending um we're expecting that this would continue
1:24:53
um but that actually is sadly ended and there'll be a restructure um that organization and the
1:24:59
grant sadly is being removed capital investment linked to the services of this committee um are also referenced in
1:25:06
your budget papers so for example we're replacing um an essential camera at our
1:25:12
archives there'll be section 106 of investment in libraries we're replacing the Aging self-service machines in some
1:25:18
of the libraries and putting £350,000 towards replacing the oldest of the
1:25:23
three mobile um libraries our quality of life survey showed that for the second
1:25:29
year running residents in Cambridge here still report significant concern around the current cost of living crisis 87% of
1:25:36
our residents are concerned but I'm pleased to that for the second year running satisfaction across our
1:25:42
registration in library service um remains High 85% of residents reporting
1:25:48
satisfaction so the community's um committee has a crucial role in supporting the council across all its
1:25:54
Ambitions working in a way that is closer to our communities we've just undertaken some successful Pilots I can
1:26:01
speak um particularly about one in my own area um where we helped um people who are struggling to pay their rear for
1:26:08
council tax we helped them to get jobs and training um that they needed to try and get themselves out of that
1:26:14
situation um in 2024 council collaborated with Partners to create an independent poverty strategy commission
1:26:22
um councelor buat who's a vice chair I think will speak about that um later on
1:26:27
um as we go through this debate so I'm I'm pleased with the work that we've done generally as a council as Council
1:26:33
mkini and councilor net Singler have said um We've Ended some of the lack of
1:26:38
investment under investment that we've seen in previous years a lot of tough issues ahead um but I have no doubt that
1:26:45
uh we will continue to work together to try and find those Solutions chair um I'll probably say something later on the
1:26:51
debate but that's my contribution for now thank you thank you councelor serson councelor
1:26:57
K thank you chair um I'd like to start by thanking all of the offers involved in the budget um both on Direct behalf
1:27:04
of the administration and also on those that supported me and my group individually uh Steven howth and Joe
1:27:10
Lacy um it you know it is a difficult thing that to get to the information
1:27:15
together to get to this point um but uh yeah I really appreciate all the work that's gone in from the officers
1:27:22
particularly in having to struggle to deal with joint Administration the lack of indecision going forwards and I I
1:27:28
must say I was amazed by the three introductory speeches about how proud they were about their record of
1:27:34
achievements because I I found them incredibly dull as if they was almost CH choking on the words they was trying to
1:27:40
get out that were written in front of them because I had no belief in actually what they were saying so um hopefully um
1:27:46
you'll you'll pick up from me I do actually believe what I'm saying uh and actually have some enthusiasm for the words I put out in front of me um I want
1:27:53
to speak first of all but why we've not P put forward a budget amendment the reason is very simple um
1:28:00
to put forward a budget amendment today with this budget in front of us somehow makes it feel as if we could fix it we
1:28:07
could Tinker around the edges we could make this right we can't it's incredibly
1:28:12
broken I mean it is just so bad it's beyond repair it's like trying to make a
1:28:18
silk purse out of a Sour's ear it's like it's like a child handling a broken toy
1:28:23
and looking up his parents and saying fix this please fix this well you can't fix it we can't Tinker at the edges
1:28:30
we've done so for years and we've been proved right repeatedly but now you've gone beyond the P for
1:28:36
example last year when you had your send and your home transport provision come
1:28:42
in at the last minute with no background detail whatsoever we put in a non-financial Amendment and we said
1:28:48
you've got no plans here take them to the committee before you start them spending the money or delivering those
1:28:55
cuts and you said no we don't need to don't want to do that voted us down you
1:29:01
said you were right and we were wrong but here we are at the end of the year £34 million of savings you promised the
1:29:08
public you could deliver without cuts to services6 million pound Off the Mark 16
1:29:14
16 million that's how bad it was and yet if you'd have done those things which are really high cost items we might have
1:29:21
been able to add some finesse to that and where they were going wrong we we
1:29:26
said last year that your Staffing budget was wrong you said no you're wrong we
1:29:31
said that your the hsf fund is coming from government we can use that you said no you're wrong we said about the
1:29:40
um the overspend that was coming forward you uh you said you cannot use that
1:29:46
we've got to put it in general reserves and yet this year Michael Hudson has
1:29:51
actually used3 million pound of that as we suggested last year in fact you keep
1:29:57
saying you're right we're wrong and a year later you keep trying to put right
1:30:03
what we pointed out your cuts to mental health budget two years ago the winter gritting cuts the weed policy all of
1:30:11
them come back a year later after we point them out and you say actually um you weren't right but we're still going
1:30:17
to reverse all our earlier decisions and not only has this joint Administration failed to deliver on its
1:30:24
savings plans it's savings plans for next year um councilor Howard at the um
1:30:30
srmp committee said I don't want anybody to suggest that we will not achieve our
1:30:36
savings for next year and I had to point out that the section 151 officer has
1:30:41
already put4 million pound into reserves for non- delivery of savings because
1:30:46
that's where we are there is another 15.1 million P of taxpayers money being put into
1:30:54
reserves because you don't think you're going to be able to collect your debt that's not a budget you of planning
1:31:00
that's a that's a budget of defeat before you even start but it doesn't matter because you can always put tax up
1:31:06
by 4.9 or whatever the maximum is because that's actually tax to the max as a policy not only is it on the
1:31:13
revenue but on the capital side the failure to deliver the energy schemes on time the failure to deliver Capital
1:31:21
receipts such as shyle mil Road Library these repeated failures add up to more than 20 million pounds they'll actually
1:31:29
come up a lot long lot more than that when they finally get over there these repeated failures always fall on the
1:31:37
taxpayer what we have in front of us is the comination of indecision
1:31:43
prevarication and ineffectiveness I cannot support this I cannot put an amendment forward that
1:31:50
kind of Tinkers at the edges and say we can make this right so you'll hear later on some of our amendments from our
1:31:56
individual members for a different reason but no th this is broken and
1:32:01
please uh to the electure in may let the adults take the charge again thank you
1:32:06
councelor count your time is up now before we start the main debate I propose to take amendments at this stage
1:32:12
there are 11 which were circulated to members on the 10th of February and published on the website so can I please
1:32:19
start by inviting councelor GAC to move his Amendment thank you chair thank you very much so
1:32:26
my amendment is very simple uh we have an allocation of 8.1 million pounds uh
1:32:32
of pothole money and I am proposing that we spend 66 million of that on Pete
1:32:37
damaged roads it's reported that we have approximately 1,000 miles of Pete soil based roads in this County it's been
1:32:44
suggested by to officers that we need to spend well over 300 million to affect full repairs across that Network I
1:32:52
propose this 6 million to put the Works to put into this works project this will mean that 16% only of our Peak damage
1:32:59
roads would gain the attention they need but that 16% of the most dangerous roads
1:33:04
that we have in the county would be made safe they would be targeted just a short 50 Mi of Road addressed not surface
1:33:12
fixed this could include roads like the Ramsey 40 foot prick Willer to Eisen the 16 foot Etc we could be made safer for
1:33:19
our residents roads that run alongside open ditches and streams into which drivers lose their lives every year the
1:33:26
first duty of elected membership of any council is to do the best we can to look after the safety of our residents in
1:33:32
allocating this government windfall to Pete Soil Road improvements you can reach a good percentage of residents
1:33:38
that rely on these roads for work family and onward travel the build the Pete
1:33:44
soil build based roads it's difficult to say apologize sometimes need to go 3 to four meters down for to correct for
1:33:51
every meter linear they go for Ward there is 8.1 million pound of
1:33:57
government money is there for potholes and passed through through the cpca to fully address the issues caused by the
1:34:03
poor build drought poor weather and poor needs tostain focus and funds this is
1:34:08
simply a great chance to add funds to the issue and impact many of the County residents I conclude with the following
1:34:14
thought it took me just over two years to affect good repairs to the classified
1:34:20
dangerous roads by constant emails and Lobby the the highways and transport leadership and officers a highways and
1:34:27
transport leader member did come out eventually as they were being concluded once we managed to secure acceptance
1:34:33
that the roads were dangerous the that day the lho interim installed traffic lights to ease the worry of cars and
1:34:40
motorbikes Landing in ditches adjacent to the roads in questions this is how bad the roads were with an ever
1:34:46
increasing inbox and many correspondents about petea damaged roads I'm sure the leadership and Lead officers would
1:34:52
welcome the ability to reach further than they've managed thus far piz all damage roads are plenty across K here a
1:34:58
unique landscape though my Amendment through my amendment I recommend that we take the chance to address these further
1:35:04
therefore I move the amendment thank you thank you Council GAC uh you are being
1:35:10
seconded by councilor count councilor count would you like to speak now or to reserve your right to speak reserve the
1:35:15
right please chair okay thank you so the debate on the amendment is now open councelor
1:35:21
jpre thank you chair I'm surprised by this amendment normally at this stage of
1:35:26
our annual budget meeting we receive and debate a budget amendment from the party in opposition in which they tell us how
1:35:32
they would do things better a different level of council tax may be more spent on Services perhaps less or even none on
1:35:39
others last month the leader of the opposition berated the administration for not including in the Resident budget
1:35:45
survey a question about whether they would prefer a zero council tax increase
1:35:51
I for one assumed that we would therefore be receiv receiving a conservative budget amendment proposing a zero council tax increase if not why
1:35:59
make all the fuss but that's not in this amendment there's no count no zero council tax increase proposal from the
1:36:05
opposition today indeed there's no proposal councilor count well surely you
1:36:11
know chair speak to the amendment not the one that you hoped was coming
1:36:17
in uh thank you councelor k um councelor pre councilor K has a reasonable point
1:36:25
thank you that's a novelty indeed there's indeed there's no proposal to
1:36:30
change the administration's proposed level of council tax or anything else at all other than these amendments we will
1:36:37
now have the treat of having 11 separate proposals presented to us including this one between them they propos to cut
1:36:44
spending on potholes one of the most frequent complaints from our resents I think she is on message now
1:36:50
councelor count it doesn't seem to be I think no think we've we've come back to the core of the
1:36:56
amendment the first part of this amendment is to cut the spending on potholes and having proposed to cut the
1:37:04
spending on potholes uh chair councilor count yeah that's just incorrect that's
1:37:11
not the pothole line is it is the pothole is being sent to highways and transport to spend on other things that's simply incorrect thank you for
1:37:18
that intervention councel to pray continue we have the amendment in front of us but the proposal is to to use a
1:37:23
staggering £ 36 million out of the coming Year's Grant from the combined Authority in total if you take all the
1:37:29
11 amendments together including this one which is Quite a feat when that Grant is only 8146
1:37:36
million so then 11 councilors each with their own favorite proposal for their own manner ignoring the process
1:37:43
established just two months ago for allocating that Grant in are instead fighting like rats in a sack over how to
1:37:49
spend the money they've made up in their own area it shows their total lack of
1:37:54
seriousness about the role they've been elected to fulfill so this first amendment is to ring fence 6 million for
1:38:01
a supposed out of 8 million for a supposedly new scheme to maintain roads on the Pete soil damaged roads list not
1:38:08
all of them are point of order chair personal explanation please right
1:38:13
I did not say that this was a new scheme I said that this should go towards the new this should go towards the peak
1:38:19
damage road maintenance and upkeep okay the road new the word new is in the
1:38:26
amendment um so this first amendment is to ring fence 6 million out of 8 million
1:38:31
for a supposedly new scheme to maintain roads on the Pete soil damaged roads list not all of them are Pete by the way
1:38:37
I know chair that in your own division in the southwest of Cambridge there are similar problems with Clay based roads
1:38:43
that have claimed lives indeed they are in desperately poor condition thanks to many years of conservative neglect and
1:38:50
underfunding in fact there's already provision with within the administration's capital budget for this
1:38:55
year for soil affected roads and a lot of work going on in other places including a trial in uh at the combined
1:39:03
Authority for methods for dealing with soil affected roads and I raised with the combined Authority the import
1:39:09
importance of them getting involved in this really significant problem but if this amendment is passed three quarters
1:39:16
of the cpca pools Grant will have been spent and there will be no other money
1:39:21
for the other amendments on the table to today the opposition simply can't pass
1:39:26
all their own proposals it's fantasy budging budgeting by a party that hasn't
1:39:31
got a grip or a clue thank you councelor depre councelor
1:39:37
shayer thank you very much chair it feels like the opposition has given up on the whole County isolated divisions
1:39:45
something for leaflets perhaps but our constituents are not confined to single
1:39:50
divisions we need to consider the whole of the County and as has been pointed
1:39:56
out accounting is obviously not a strong point here either with the same 8.1 million being spent over and over again
1:40:03
up to a sum of 36 million hardly a viable budget option but chair the worry
1:40:08
for me is that this harks back to a time when highways maintenance could be done for political reasons same old same old perhaps this
1:40:16
Administration has moved prioritization to a system based on data and needs it
1:40:23
is open transparent and it is fair it is a system that was agreed and voted for
1:40:29
by the opposition on highways and transport committee but I thank the
1:40:34
member for bringing up Fen roads as well we take the plight of these roads very
1:40:40
seriously we've been working to innovate and find lasting Solutions something
1:40:46
that has never been done before along with our extra allocation of 5 million
1:40:52
on top of the existing carriageway budget we have an additional 1.5 million
1:40:58
from the cpca to continue with the work uh in-house design project management
1:41:04
and Brilliant apprentices have produced Innovations such that we are now national leaders in the field of
1:41:12
rebuilding Fen roads when I started we were being quoted 7 million pound per
1:41:17
kilometer to repair these roads and no guarantee that they would even last as long as five
1:41:24
years now we are doing wonders and at a fraction of the cost by recycling Road
1:41:29
materials back into the new road using Innovative binders and layers of mesh to
1:41:35
stop the road spreading we have a much more resilient result it looks like these roads will last at least twice as
1:41:42
long as their more expensive predecessors and for a fraction of the
1:41:49
cost chair if only we had one of those billion pound projects for dueling roads
1:41:56
to spend on this problem we could fix all of the fen roads do the E area rail capacity
1:42:03
enhancement whis Beach rail we could even have another 400 million to spend
1:42:08
on reducing train and bus fares for decades thank you chair thank you
1:42:15
councelor shayer councelor black well thank you very much chair um
1:42:21
I'm going to speak only once for all 10 11 of these amendments um because they
1:42:26
are all very similar and you might have suspected chair that there was one controlling mind behind all of them if
1:42:32
it were not for the fact that they don't add up um they are all transparently aimed to be the basis of a local press
1:42:39
release or leaflet which no doubt will claim that the council refused to do this or refused to do that even though
1:42:45
we will do many of these things and for a lot of them you might well say why not just submit a competent local Highway
1:42:52
Improvement request well I will summarize what the Press relas should say the one thing the Press should take
1:42:57
away from this process is that the Tories are asking to and I quote decrease the 2025 26 cpca Grant budget
1:43:06
allocation to CC 3.04 Open brackets pothole funding close
1:43:12
brackets and siphon off the money allocated to potholes and not actually address the problems of potholes and not
1:43:19
break the cycle of Tory decline the year years of government underfunding and years of Tory Council neglects and not
1:43:27
give camer rad the proper long-term maintenance they need well I've spoken
1:43:32
for less than two minutes now I'd be grateful if all the other contributors to these unnecessary debates could do the same thank you
1:43:40
chair thank you councelor black yes indeed councelor Hoy yes thank you I
1:43:47
think the truth is that no one well I actually can't speak for everyone here but I personally don't believe we'll probably see a penny of this pole
1:43:54
funding in Finland because we haven't despite councelor Shaya saying it's being done fairly and non-politically I
1:44:00
can speak for my division and probably the most of whis beach actually um not trying to take words out of other
1:44:06
council's mouths but the town is in an appalling State we had no 18 months ago
1:44:11
we had no lhl officer at all then we got one and they didn't respond to emails and then they left we got one who was
1:44:17
absolutely fantastic and sadly is now leaving and we're back to having no one again and so our roads are just going to
1:44:23
get worse and worse and worse and worse and you can see why the public are angry because once again they're going to
1:44:29
receive a massive council tax bill from this Authority and the roads are getting
1:44:34
worse this they just there just nothing nothing is happening nothing is changing and every year we make an argument and
1:44:41
we say the roads and you can you know kick up a bit of a fuss and you can go and argue with people and you might get
1:44:46
a couple of potholes field but it doesn't change anything and we've already seen from the um docu doents
1:44:53
that I I noticed there was a um the if you look at the compensation claims that have been put in for potholes since the
1:45:00
joint Administration took over they have trebled the amount of compensation claims have trebled the roads have got
1:45:07
worse under this joint Administration and there's no getting around that and so whilst you say yes the wording is to
1:45:14
cut the pothole funding when it gets to my motion I think it's just because we just don't believe we're going to see any of it anyway so why don't we
1:45:20
actually put the money into an actual tangible project we can notice and we'll do some
1:45:25
good thank you um cancel net singer you have the right to sum
1:45:30
up right uh in that case we sorry oh I'm
1:45:35
sorry councelor K uh you reserved your right to speak a second didn't you I do apologize now is your moment I'm looking
1:45:43
forward to it councelor Kent than thank you chair um this this amendment like uh
1:45:48
the rest of the ones today because the public need to know that this Administration has little intention of
1:45:55
behaving in a nonparochial manner so these are quite often parochial oh you won't be laughing when
1:46:01
I finish to because we need to serve kire residents as a whole and because you AR
1:46:08
we put forward these series of amendments because without that the public wouldn't know how hard we fight
1:46:14
for our residents because at committee what we discover is that there there is
1:46:20
as Council Hoy points that out there is a say datadriven waiting that actually
1:46:26
prevents us from getting our roads fixed now this one's on Pete soil damaged roads so the money coming in the the
1:46:34
money that this Administration has announced 40 million pounds investment in highways the public think is going to
1:46:40
start fixing their roads out of that only 11.8 million is going next year on
1:46:47
the highways on actually fixing the highways so announcements 40 million
1:46:52
actual reality for next year 11.8 million on fixing the roads the rest has
1:46:57
gone elsewhere things like Street lighting or or veg but 11.8 from that3
1:47:04
million pounds on the Peete soil damaged roads three million it's a 300 million
1:47:10
pound bill so that'll take you a 100 years to get
1:47:15
share thank you thank you so the Pete soil damage roads three
1:47:22
three million pounds that will take you a hundred years to repair them and these
1:47:27
roads are not only a vital Network that get residents from A to B but in many cases are dangerous undrivable and
1:47:34
require urgent attention and if this amendment fails as which certainly it will we stand little
1:47:40
chance of getting them done because of the scientific datadriven approach that
1:47:46
counsel Becket and Council shayer are so proud of so how are damaged roads scored
1:47:52
well it's took a huge amount of effort behind the scenes to get past what actually went to the highways and
1:47:58
transport committee and the waiting to actually understand the scoring because the scores weren't actually in the
1:48:04
paperwork so trying to get behind them so think about this in terms of you've
1:48:09
got a similar Road maybe at Cambridge City or in an urban area you get extra
1:48:15
points if it's to do with a major destination that's Urban not rural extra
1:48:21
points if active travel we don't have many of them in the Carriage Way out in the fence Urban not Royal rural extra
1:48:29
points for public transport wouldn't we love some of that in the fs Urban not
1:48:35
Royal not rural a resilient Network that is basically the roads we
1:48:41
need which is doubling up on the major destinations two points for urban not
1:48:46
ryal rural near important facilities old aged people's home children's homes you
1:48:52
don't find many of them out in the middle of nowhere near Commercial units where there's a concentration of them
1:49:00
Urban near Urban centers not rural there are elements of the waiting
1:49:06
that you say well hold on a second if it costs more to do we can do more with the
1:49:11
lower cost options so for a major road repair which tends to be the pet damaged
1:49:17
roads they get less waiting because you can do more of a of a light repair
1:49:23
but then you reverse that with Junctions and say actually there's a lot of Junctions Urban not rural we're going to
1:49:29
score that extra point even though that would cost more to repair and so it goes
1:49:35
on and on and on there is not a chance of this being a fair Cambridge year wide
1:49:44
system it is parochial and it benefits largely the residents of Cambridge
1:49:51
City now nobody's laughing now because some people are thinking hold on a
1:49:58
second we didn't realize all this when we voted it through because only half the administration is from Cambridge City
1:50:04
and the rest from elsewhere and they're thinking surely that counts count he's a conservative he must be making all this
1:50:11
up well he's not he's telling you the truth and that is stun silence I hear so
1:50:18
when you can't get your members members please listen to the member in a respectful
1:50:25
silence and and I can identify it through you chair the main people laughing with Cambridge City residents
1:50:32
but if you don't believe me that's fair enough but look at your own quality of
1:50:38
life survey every single area outside of Cambridge City said our roads are
1:50:44
appalling Cambridge City didn't say that they were much higher up so why is
1:50:50
that so if you get a series of amendments through today that are spending the money in a different way
1:50:56
it's because your scientific data driven one is a set up against us and you're
1:51:01
hiding behind it thank you councelor count I'm now going councelor nettinger did you have anything that wants to say
1:51:07
now it's the right time okay I will now take a vote on the amendment the council's Constitution requires that
1:51:12
voting in relation to the annual budget setting including motions and amendments shall be by recorded vote so can I
1:51:20
therefore ask the Democratic services manager to conduct a recorded vote by taking electronic vot vote on amendment
1:51:26
number one of many Mrs row can you please start the
1:51:32
vote members in favor of the amendment please press the button underneath the word yes members against please press
1:51:39
the button underneath the word no members wishing to abstain please press the button underneath the word abstain
1:52:00
chair I'm now closing the
1:52:09
vote chair the result of the vote is 17 votes in favor 35 against and one
1:52:16
abstention the amendment is therefore lost thank you Mrs R we now move on
1:52:22
councel Bywater would you please move your Amendment
1:52:28
now thank you very much chairman I won't insult your intelligence you've got the motion there it's looking for3 million
1:52:34
pound from the 8.1 million pound that's supposed to be going to the committee in
1:52:39
March next year marks 34 years since I was a young raw Marine commander in a war torn town called zaro in Northern
1:52:47
Iraq Place ravaged by conflict where destruction and suffering were a daily real ity roads were barely passable
1:52:55
destroyed by conflict making movement a huge challenge yet today zaro has a
1:53:00
state-of-the-art highways repair program easily accessed through Facebook meanwhile here in Cambridge here where
1:53:07
we pay some of the highest taxes in the count country Villages like srin Stilton and many other Villages are left
1:53:14
navigating crumbling roads that fill more neglected than a war zone so I ask
1:53:20
who's got the third world roads at the moment this amendment is about fairness it's
1:53:25
about rebalancing Highway spending to ensure that our rural communities who feel abandoned except when of course
1:53:32
it's time to collect their taxes finally get the investment they deserve I stand in opposition to the
1:53:38
proposed maximum council tax increase and cannot support the budget at a time where residents are already struggling
1:53:44
with the rising cost of living it is unacceptable to ask them to Bear additional financial burden especially
1:53:51
when the default responses always seem to be let's just increase taxes rather than spend better where is the value for
1:53:58
money we see pothole after pothole being patched up only for them to rep reappear
1:54:03
weeks later we see substandard repairs with no real oversight on quality this
1:54:09
is not good enough we've already seen the damage caused by the ill- fated no weed spray policy which was finally
1:54:15
reversed but has left verges and Road edges in a shocking State the lack of Maintenance accelerated the road
1:54:22
deterioration and we are now paying the price for this one area where we must take real responsibility is our rural
1:54:29
highways in villages like Sorter and Stilton and many others in my ward the state of our roads has been
1:54:35
deteriorating during this administration's 4year leadership potholes are not just an inconvenience
1:54:41
they are a serious safety hazard for our residents including cyclists how do we encourage people to get out on their
1:54:47
bikes if the roads aren't usable green n Road in sorry has been continuously
1:54:53
breaking up I have already submitted various proposals for resurfacing schemes but I'm years later I'm still
1:54:59
waiting it's a major route for our village and it should be a priority
1:55:04
white lines at Key Junctions in various Villages are disappearing washing Le Road Crossroad is a seriously dangerous
1:55:11
Junction and this is essential because at night when it's raining you can't see where the Junctions are and let's talk
1:55:18
about pedestrian safety I'm actively like many of us EXP exploring through the lottery of the local highways
1:55:24
Improvement for much needed pedestrian crosses in sry Ben Lane and green green End Road or in stil on the High Street
1:55:32
these areas are seeing increasing foot traffic from new developments and the safety of our residents must be a
1:55:38
priority with 81 8.1 million allocated to highways these improvements can be
1:55:43
delivered without additional Financial strain on residents it's just a matter on how you choose to spend it we cannot
1:55:51
ignore the reality of Rural Life we are very we have very few buses and despite
1:55:56
what the rural Administration may think about the motor vehicle for my residents cars are not a luxury they are an
1:56:02
absolute necessity if they are paying more in taxes they at least deserve some roads fit for purpose whether that's for
1:56:09
the motor vehicle or exercising on their push bikes this amendment and others is about fairness and real investment in
1:56:16
our rural communities while areas like zaro in Iraq have modern Highway repair
1:56:21
MO programs Villages like sort and Stilton and many others in our County
1:56:27
are left crumbling and unsafe and neglected I urge members to support this
1:56:32
amendment and to rebalance Highway investment improve safety and ensure rural communities get the infrastructure
1:56:39
they deserve please support the amendment thank you chair thank you councelor Bywater uh councelor Gardner
1:56:45
you are mark down to the second do you wish to speak now or to uh reserve your right I reserve my right thank you chair
1:56:52
thank you very much uh councelor Sanderson thank you very much chair let
1:56:57
me Begin by um pay tribute actually to councelor bwalter who's got a a
1:57:02
distinguished record of Public Service whether in the armed forces police and as a local um councel I think all of us
1:57:09
in this chamber have um tremendous amount of respect for for what he's he's done I'm afraid I can't agree with him
1:57:15
on this amendment um I get the frustration we all get frustrated on highways issues don't we they're so
1:57:21
visible um we see them ourselves I think almost all of us live in and around our own um divisions and we we'll go into
1:57:29
town or go to the village on a Saturday and people will callor us about things even if we don't see them
1:57:34
ourselves um what I would point out is it has been extremely difficult to get
1:57:40
local Highway officers in place I think councilor Hoy mentioned that earlier um we're very lucky in hunting them we have
1:57:46
a superb local Highway officer but that person will want to progress throughout the organization they won't want to stay
1:57:51
particularly in that post so we'll probably be in a situation where we need to find um a replacement and I know what
1:57:57
a difference that can make a positive difference um Council Bywater mentioned about um lining I think it was washing
1:58:03
Lee roads he mentioned in particular well of course in Huntington share civil parking enforcement work has started I
1:58:10
think we're going to be talking about that in the next Amendment um regarding fenland but all the signs and lines are
1:58:15
being refreshed and we'll be over the coming months and I think we're in a position to go ahead with that in the um
1:58:21
the coming months I'd also like to point out that um a number of um areas not all
1:58:27
of them have um a community infrastructure Levy some of that can be applied for to improve um our road
1:58:33
Network that is generally through the planning Authority either the city council or the district council so
1:58:40
whilst I have a great deal of sympathy here and I grew up in the middle of nowhere I grew up in a village actually in Council of bywaters division AB rton
1:58:47
um I know how reliant on cars reliant on vehicles some of our areas are I'm afraid I don't think this amendment
1:58:53
today is the solution to that thank you councilor
1:58:58
Becket thank you chair um so I start saying let's call this amendment what it is it's a blatant attempt to drag us
1:59:05
back to the old days of conservative cronyism budgets which were dictated by who shouted the loudest rather than by
1:59:11
fairness transparency and actual need four years ago we inherited a highway
1:59:17
system on the Virgil collapse not because of bad luck but because of years of conservative Mis management roads
1:59:23
left to rot maintenance decisions made behind closed doors and no strategic plan to ensure funding went where it was
1:59:29
needed most councel
1:59:34
count do you want to switch your microphone on can we have the speaker talk to councelor B's amendment I I'm
1:59:43
inclined to allow councelor be to continue because I'm sure that he's only going to make this kind of speech the
1:59:50
once it' be nice if we also tell the truth but that's a different thing and what we have in front of us uh today
1:59:57
isn't a serious budget proposal it's not even an alternative budget it's a wish list for 36 million in fantasy spending
2:00:04
plucked from thin air when the total available pot for this is 8.1 million it's clear the conservatives never
2:00:09
expected these amendments to pass they wanted something for their next leaflet something for YouTube so they could
2:00:14
pretend that they cared but let's focus on this amendment in particular the proposal to rip three million from the
2:00:19
countywide maintenance fund and funn it into highways improvements in Sury and Silton first and before I go any further
2:00:25
through your chat I was shocked to be see the name of the person that was seconding this motion it's a council I have a real great deal of respect for a
2:00:32
great deal of respect their voice on highways is nearly always sensible measured in the interest of everyone in the county indeed they were part of the
2:00:39
committee that agreed unanimously with the transparent datal process for prioritizing maintenance across the
2:00:45
county of which councelor um counter has been talking yet today they're standing here trying to bypass that demanding we
2:00:51
B and fairness in favor of parochial deal making I've got to ask what gives the hypocrisy in this amendment is
2:00:57
staggering when it suits them the conservatives support transparency but the moment they see a chance to grab funding for their own patch it appears
2:01:04
that principle is out the window let's be crystal clear here sort ston will be considered for improvements just as
2:01:10
every other community Through the proper process not because a counselor put a motion at full Council but because the
2:01:17
need is assessed fairly using clear criteria what they proposing is pushing
2:01:23
aside urgent repairs across the county potentially leading roads in crisis in March elely Huntington c cambour s NS
2:01:29
and Cambridge to prioritize their pet projects where is the fairness in that in all of these motions there isn't a
2:01:35
single pound spent in Cambridge or South Cambridge here if we start picking and choosing projects based on who can table
2:01:42
a motion at the right time we rip up any sense of fairness and planning we go back to the old conservative chaos where
2:01:48
maintenance was done based on political favoritism not actual need this amendment is a slap in the face to every
2:01:54
resident in Cambridge here who expects their Council to spend money wisely it is proof that despite all the talk of change the conservatives not learned a
2:02:00
single lesson from their failures in office let's not forget there isn't a Magic Money Tree this is money stolen
2:02:06
from pothole repairs across the entire County every pound shifted into this Tory Pet Project is a pothole that won't
2:02:12
be filled elsewhere a road in desperate need of resurfacing that doesn't happen this is indefensible It's the very
2:02:18
definition of Port Barrel politics it rips up fair evidence l approach in favor of of patriarchal backro deal
2:02:25
making that got our roads into this mess in the first place this isn't about fixing roads if the conservatives were
2:02:30
serious about investing in highways they would have brought forward a fully costed alternative budget but they
2:02:36
didn't instead they cobbled together 36 million in unfunded promises knowing
2:02:41
full well that the money didn't exist that's not responsible opposition that's cynical political theater designed for
2:02:47
headlines and to put in leaflets I have no doubt that I'll soon see this shortly in the Sury
2:02:52
members today we have a simple Choice do we stand by a transparent fair and data process that ensures funding is
2:02:58
allocated based on need not political favoritism one that was agreed AC cross party basis or do we abandon all of that
2:03:05
and return to the old conservative ways where the loudest voices and the right postcodes get the money and everyone
2:03:10
else is Left Behind I know where I stand thank you councelor Becket councelor
2:03:16
buet thank you chair it's interesting isn't it that in previous years we had a proper budget amendment now in election
2:03:22
year we have this series of individual amendments in particular divisions so this is the first in the series of
2:03:28
division specific amendments and I will speak very briefly and only speak once on this because I don't think anyone is
2:03:33
against more wh lining highways resurfacing and LHI projects in s and Stilton and indeed in any other division
2:03:40
but please let us in let us indulge in a thought experiment let's say the labor group were in opposition the
2:03:46
conservatives are in charge and I came forward putting an amendment saying let's take out half a million quid from
2:03:51
the PO funding and resurface New Market Road in Abbey which I have to say is probably much worse than many other
2:03:57
roads I've seen including where I live in Huntington share and I can already hear some of the opp some of the
2:04:04
speeches about being Cambridge Centric about prioritizing my own division all that so is is this not the same what
2:04:09
we're seeing here today how would this look like if we had a series of amendments if we were in opposition
2:04:15
prioritizing our own divisions and the seats that we currently either hold or want to Target so I'll leave members to
2:04:21
reflect on that on how would it look like in the counterfactual example and vote accordingly thank you thank you
2:04:28
councelor buap councelor TIY thank you chair um I wonder if we can just be a little bit honest about
2:04:35
highways and take perhaps a little bit of the politics out of it um the
2:04:40
previous conservative Administration did not show ourselves in glory with highways I'm not going to pretend we did
2:04:47
um you know the the highways were in a pretty poor State when we were in charge and have got in a worse State since the
2:04:53
administration currently has got in charge and it's because it's difficult it's difficult because probably hundreds
2:04:59
of millions of pounds of work need doing a huge amount of work needs doing and that is work that goes back decades and
2:05:05
long before many of us were ever on the council they might be one or two still around but I'm not one of them and um
2:05:11
you know nobody's claiming that this is an easy job to fix but I I've I've just recently done a survey over the whole of
2:05:17
whis beach with with colleagues and the most commonly raised issue the most
2:05:23
commonly raised issue is fix the roads it's the most and you must all experience the same perhaps not
2:05:29
Cambridge I don't know if Council account's right about that but pretty much everyone in here must experience this our residents are telling us over
2:05:36
and over again what on Earth have you done to our roads now regardless of who's in in charge after May a plan's
2:05:43
got to be put together someone's got to do something about this it can't you can't just make these party political
2:05:49
statements and say oh the previous this the previous that or you're doing it to get on Facebook and that nonsense this
2:05:55
is an actual issue that concerns residents and every one of us has residents telling us this and a little
2:06:00
bit tinkering here and there a little bit of extra money from the government is not going to resolve it this needs a comprehensive plan which is going to
2:06:08
result is going to have to involve a comprehensive way to cut funding in other perhaps unnecessary areas to allow
2:06:14
additional funding to go to highways because this is a key part a key part of our job probably the the second biggest
2:06:20
part of our job is to fix and keep running the highways and we're not doing it we are failing I'm embarrassed about
2:06:27
to be a county counselor I know that I'm an opposition member but it's all we're all together standing here in this
2:06:33
Council I can't go to my residence and say I'm sorry you know this is absolute rubbish what do you want me to do we've
2:06:39
got to do something I believe that's the point of this and other amendments raise the point that you've got to think about
2:06:44
it it might be the same people in charge next time obviously I hope not but it might be and I really hope that
2:06:50
whoever's in charge comes up with some way of resolving this terrible situation thank you thank you councelor tiny uh
2:06:57
councelor Schuman thank you chair um I only intend
2:07:02
to speak very briefly just to say that we've just heard members talk about a comprehensive plan of how you might
2:07:08
spend money different and take money from different areas and spend them on highways instead that's what I thought
2:07:14
an alternative budget was and maybe we should be looking at one of those rather than a series of amendments um chair
2:07:20
I've find myself in a difficult position of having to vote against what I fundamentally think is sensible
2:07:25
suggestions because we've heard only earlier today in today's meeting council is making criticism of the
2:07:32
administration for not being open and transparent to the public about public spending and yet here we find ourselves
2:07:38
with a series of amendments which quite honestly don't add up so as much as I think these are very Noble and I
2:07:43
completely I think everybody here would say their motherhood and apple pie they're wonderful things to do unless
2:07:49
you do those in the context of an entire budget You're simply trying to fiddle around the edges and make as
2:07:54
unfortunately has been said many times political points therefore chairman I'll find myself I'm sure like many members
2:08:00
having to continually vote against a series of amendments rather than consider a comprehensive alternative
2:08:05
budget thank you chair thank you councelor Schuman uh councelor Gardner you reserved your right to Second so
2:08:12
that moment has arrived thank you very much chair yes I fully support this amendment you've only got to look at the
2:08:18
rural roads in both sort and ston Division and my own and they are in
2:08:23
imping state particularly one village where the potholes have been so big now
2:08:30
you could almost lose a spike in it but they we've done nobody's done anything
2:08:35
about it even though it's been reported numerous times um recently with regard
2:08:42
to white lining and yellow lines but I would just like to point out to you the seriousness of not repairing white l
2:08:52
in my own Division I was following a hgv home the other night on the b60 and then
2:09:00
joining the A14 the white lines have disappeared in its entirety which forced
2:09:06
which the L driver didn't obviously see and they then went on the wrong side of
2:09:11
the road if a car had been coming off the A4 we would have had a serious
2:09:19
head-on collision though those are the sort of things we need to be looking at
2:09:25
across the board whether it's in my division councelor bywaters division
2:09:30
councelor Lura dea's Division councelor becket's division they need all to be
2:09:35
looked at so we don't have these sort of events occurring and finally I would
2:09:41
just like to thank councelor Becket for his kind words very much
2:09:46
appreciated thank you very much councelor Gardner and finally councelor nettinger
2:09:52
nope okay I will now take a vote on this amendment can I ask the Democratic services manager to conduct a recorded
2:09:57
vote by taking an electronic vote on the amendment Mrs row can you please start the
2:10:05
vote members in favor of the amendment please press the button underneath the word yes members against the amendment
2:10:11
please press the button underneath the word no members wishing to abstain please press the button underneath the
2:10:17
word abstain chair I'm now closing the vot
2:10:28
vote the result of the vote is 17 votes in favor 34 against and two abstentions
2:10:34
the amendment is therefore lost uh thank you very much Mrs row it is now exactly half past 12 so well done
2:10:41
everybody um and I uh suggest that we convene at 10
2:10:48
1 for the rest of the amendments and then the budget and then Constitution
2:10:53
and Ethics Committee and then the combined
2:11:20
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right colleagues if you'd like to make yourselves comfortable we shall proceed uh I understand Council Count's
2:52:02
been called away on an emergency so we will struggle on regardless councelor goldsack you're holding you're holding
2:52:09
the for uh right we have got to the third amendment of I don't know several
2:52:15
billion now um and it is Council French if you would like to move your Amendment please um uh thank you I I will make
2:52:23
this um short and brief um uh to bring the signage and lining up
2:52:29
to standard in Finland in order to introduce civil parking enforcement as many of you know I have been working on
2:52:35
this councelor French I'm very sorry but could I ask you to sit down and speak into the um microphone because nobody
2:52:41
can hear you sorry it's more comfortable that way thank you I'll start again uh
2:52:47
uh to bring sign Ag and lining up to standard in Finland in order to introduce civil parking enforcement as
2:52:54
many of you are aware I have been working on this since 2019 um through Finland and County
2:52:59
Council unfortunately it did um uh stop when we had Co but we have been picking
2:53:05
this up I took a paper to Cabinet in December uh
2:53:10
2023 with the cost advised at the time that um we needed contractors um to
2:53:18
repair 294 signing defects and 743 lining
2:53:23
defects and uh the cost of uh just under
2:53:30
600,000 um we really want to pick this up uh people in Finland and especially
2:53:36
in March they don't park the cars they abandon their cars as you're aware we have just spent a tremendous amount of
2:53:42
money having Broad Street none very fortunate to get the money uh they Park on bus lanes they Park absolutely
2:53:48
absolutely anybody the want we would like to bring this up and have the support of County Council as many of um
2:53:55
Highway committee uh members know especially Council McDonald and shers
2:54:00
and Becka I have been pushing this for years so I hope that you will support um the arrangements it is disappointing in
2:54:09
the updated high and transport service update last year under civil parking
2:54:16
enforcement Finland has got one and a half lines officers continue to work
2:54:21
with ven District Council on the agency agreement for venant can I ask please
2:54:27
that you continue discussions and help us to bring um civil par enforcement in
2:54:33
thank you thank you very much I understand councilor Hoy you will be seconding do you want to speak now or to
2:54:38
reserve your right to speak at the end right uh who would like councelor
2:54:44
shayer thank you very much chair I think that Council of French is aware that I'm
2:54:50
and and and we are sympathetic with fenland District council's ambition to induce introduce civil parking
2:54:56
enforcement nearly all of the country has gone that way and and for good reason the the Cambridge County Council
2:55:04
has given 150,000 to help as as we've heard and I understand that there's also
2:55:09
been a grant from the cpca I think we should continue to see where we can help each other on this uh but clearly this
2:55:16
is not something that could come via this crazy mashup of a budget set of
2:55:21
budget amendments chair but let's hope we can continue on highways to catch up until they comes a time when maintenance
2:55:27
will mean maintenance alone but after years even Decades of neglect we do
2:55:33
still have a way to go but thank you very much thank you councelor sheler councelor
2:55:39
Taylor thank you chair um I'm not sure if you're aware but um Huntington Sher
2:55:44
District Council are also in the same predic um however we have been proactive and
2:55:53
have set a budget and we are paying for the lines and signs remedial work uh
2:55:59
through our own budget through HDC budget this was a project started by our
2:56:05
previous administration at HDC and it's a project that I will continue to um in
2:56:12
force excuse the pun because it's something as you have said councilor French that our resident are very much
2:56:19
in need of certainly in Huntington sh and I totally understand fenland are in the same position it's just that we were
2:56:27
able to budget and we are paying for these lines and signs ourselves and we're hoping to have the application
2:56:34
before Parliament very soon to proceed with our uh civil parking
2:56:41
enforcement thank you councelor T councelor Sanderson thank you chair um civil parking enforcement is is a long
2:56:48
enough arduous um process as councelor French has outlined um and as councelor Taylor said um we've gone through this
2:56:55
in our own um part of the county the um work that we did in
2:57:01
Huntington she and Council Taylor being too modest because she's actually played a key role in in this we got a very good procurement deal so we were able to
2:57:08
reduce our costs quite a lot um and in fact the refreshing of the signs and lines in hunting and shears taking place
2:57:13
at the moment um difficulty as Council Taylor also outlined is that got to go through Parliament um Department of
2:57:20
Transport got to lay a um a regulation imagine it will only take minutes but they probably have thousands of those every term so we still got to just tidy
2:57:28
that bit up but we're already in in anticipation but um I have sympathy for for colleagues in Finland because it is
2:57:33
something that we're asked a lot about isn't it um people get frustrated because the signs are broken so tickets
2:57:38
can't be issued police as we know don't have the time to dedicate to um to this
2:57:43
so um whil I can't support the amendment um I wish them the best
2:57:48
in progressing this um important policy which I'm sure will benefit a lot of residents thank you councelor sson
2:57:54
councelor bden thank you very much indeed chair and my apologies for being late uh this
2:58:00
morning unfortunately I had another meeting I had to attend uh I I share councelor French's
2:58:08
frustration that here we are six years after the first attempt was made with
2:58:14
UHA with cambrid County Council by fenland District Council to get civil parking enforcement and we're not a
2:58:20
million miles further forward now than we were six years ago and whilst there are a number of
2:58:26
different issues which are involved in this one of the most significant has been the fact that the County Council
2:58:33
was only willing to pay a very small proportion of the cost of bringing its own lines and signs up to standard uh
2:58:41
and even though that is the county council's responsibility to do nevertheless things are changing things
2:58:48
will change especially given the fact that neither fenland District Council nor krier County Council are likely to
2:58:55
exist from the 1st of April 2028 if were to believe what government is doing and
2:59:00
saying and if we are in that position then if we are in unitaries then uh the
2:59:06
same body which is responsible for enforcement will also be the one responsible for the lines and signs so
2:59:12
the difficulty that there has been over the last six years will have disappeared but I'm really I I would very much like
2:59:19
this amendment to be passed I'm I've got a slight suspicion that it may not be and if that slight suspicion turns out
2:59:26
to be correct then I'm very encouraged by the sympathetic uh comments which were made by councelor shayer and I'd
2:59:32
like to invite councelors Becket and shayer outside this meeting uh to uh
2:59:37
speak with me about how we may progress this in the way in which the County
2:59:42
Council has required so far as the capital item is concerned of of bringing the lines and signs up to date
2:59:48
uh we have the ambition to move forwards on this and I wouldn't like some of the
2:59:54
legalities which officers sometimes get embroiled in to get in the way of the
2:59:59
political agreement which I believe there can be across all three parties and across all two councils so that I'm
3:00:06
I'm I'm inviting councelor Becket and councelor shayer to speak to me afterwards with a view to us moving
3:00:12
forwards rapidly and successfully thank you uh thank you councelor bton and I
3:00:17
think we all know um that your views on the future of local governance there will be new
3:00:24
difficulties uh councelor TIY thank you chair um councelor shayer said um that
3:00:33
it wouldn't be possible to support this today of course it's entirely possible to support it if you want to and councel
3:00:39
Shaya also referred to a crazy mismatch of amendments which is disappointing really because I think councelor Shayla
3:00:45
knows that you treat each Amendment as its own item you don't look at them all as a as a glot that's not the correct way to do business um councilor
3:00:53
Sanderson said um that he also couldn't support it despite having a lot of sympathy for it and of course he also can support it today right now and the
3:01:00
reason both of them and the rest of you should support it is that it's County council's responsibility you know we
3:01:06
would have done it by now at Finland if it weren't for County Council not doing the work they are legally obliged to do
3:01:11
that they haven't done that County Council has not done so County Council needs to get on step up to its
3:01:16
responsibilities and do the work it should have done I don't think it's a big ask really it's not a huge ask
3:01:22
finally I would like to say I don't think anybody really wants civil Partners enfor civil parking enforcement
3:01:28
what they really want is to roll back to the days when we had police and traffic wardens and they did a fantastic job of
3:01:33
course we can't go back 30 years that's all changed now this is the only opportunity open to us in order to
3:01:38
properly enforce parking and County Council needs to step up and help us do this thank you thank you counc councelor
3:01:46
pre thank you chair I I hate to break it to Council of French but uh she and her
3:01:52
colleagues have already spent 9 million out of the 8.14 million that's available
3:01:58
and therefore there is no money left literally no money left for this amendment thank
3:02:03
you uh thank you for that contribution councelor
3:02:08
sharp thank you chair um just a couple of things um obviously as Council of
3:02:14
French says the um lining and signing is not been done in fenland paid for by the
3:02:19
County Council that it should do yet South Cambridge has been paid for by the gcp so there is not a Level Playing
3:02:26
Field here um and just touching on one thing that councelor shayer said um parking enforcement is very
3:02:33
important but CPE is not necessarily the success that he suggested because those
3:02:40
who are at the highways and transport committee witnessed the input and frustration from milroad residents about
3:02:46
the lack of enforcement by um by officers so it is not yes parking is a
3:02:54
massive irritant to all of us but it's you know CPE is not the one solution there are others thank you thank you
3:03:00
councelor sharp uh councelor Hoy you reserved your right to Second it's now that
3:03:05
moment I won't say too much more other than I think we need to get it done it's not fair there is um irregularities
3:03:12
really between the different districts we heard earlier that we supposed to be doing things based on Merit so therefore
3:03:17
would do the things um in the areas that don't have CPE it's not a vast amount of money um for the County Council to spend
3:03:23
in the grand scheme of things but it would have a massive impact to fenland Residents um the parking in whis beach
3:03:29
is absolutely appalling it's it's actually becoming unsafe particularly around the schools um now we've even got
3:03:36
people parking on the Clarks Memorial which is you know a really historic statue to a really important um person
3:03:43
for the town um and historically really and people are just dump literally abandoning their vehicles on the road
3:03:50
and and and the pathway around it because they just don't care because they know nothing's going to get done so
3:03:55
I think we really do need to to do something here and in terms of the money the money is there because if if people
3:04:01
were to support this amendment obviously then later amendments perhaps would not be able to go ahead because there wouldn't be the money but there is the
3:04:06
option to take this on its own Merit thank you councelor Hoy councelor
3:04:12
nettinger right I will now take a vote on this amendment can I ask Democratic services manager to conduct a record
3:04:17
vote by taking an electronic vote on the amendment Mrs row can you please start the
3:04:24
vote members in favor of the amendment please press the button underneath the word yes members against the amendment
3:04:30
please press the button underneath the word no members wishing to abstain please press the button underneath the
3:04:36
word abstain
3:04:59
CH I'm now closing the
3:05:07
vote chair the result of the vote is 14 votes in favor 33 against and one
3:05:12
abstention the amendment is therefore lost
3:05:19
thank you Mrs row uh we move on councilor Hoy would you kindly move your Amendment now please yes thank you I try
3:05:25
to be brief um so my amendment is for um us to consider giving money to the road safety partnership to install a speed
3:05:31
camera on Churchill Road in whis Beach um I know that sounds exceptionally parochial and I'm not apologetic for
3:05:37
that purely because this road is an accident black spot the problem is when you look at the accident statistics
3:05:43
because it it's a very very long stretch of road um covering almost a mile for the for the part of of the Dual
3:05:48
carriageway in the whis in whis Beach um sort of from between the um Elm Hall roundabout going up as far as the uh
3:05:55
Horsea roundabout because it's such a long stretch of road it doesn't always feature in the accident statistics very
3:06:02
closely because obviously they tend to look at a very small snapshot but the road itself has had fatalities it has
3:06:07
had a lot of accidents and part of that reason is because it's one of the only dual Carriage ways in the country that's
3:06:12
a 30 mph it goes from a 40 into a 30 and the signs are there but obviously they
3:06:18
could be um clearer it's a major road it's the a101 and many hdvs use it
3:06:24
because they don't want to take a long drive to divert onto the a17 so they do cut through the town and that obviously
3:06:30
comes with its problems as you can imagine it's also used as a main diversion for the a47 so when that's
3:06:36
closed again there's even more traffic comes through police have had days out with their van um they sit in the lab by near
3:06:44
the fire station and they do catch a number of speeders and I know that the argument will be made that speed cameras
3:06:49
should be a last resort but they um due to the nature of the road it's a very wide Road it'd be very difficult to put
3:06:56
any kind of physical speed reduction measures um in place to to kind of do
3:07:01
anything about that to slow the traffic down it is a real problem it's right in the middle of a load of houses and the town center it's you know it's actually
3:07:08
a very poorly built Road it's built over a canal in hindsite we wouldn't have perhaps built it there but I don't think
3:07:13
any of us were here when it was filled in and built um so we just have to deal with the situation we've got so they do
3:07:19
work um there's one on Lim road that works very well it has reduced traffic there and we don't have anywhere near
3:07:25
the accidents that we used to there and so I would just ask that we would consider um doing it and if you look at
3:07:30
what I'm asking I'm not actually even asking that it would definitely be done I'm asking that they would consider it so I don't think that's particularly
3:07:36
unreasonable request thank you councelor Hoy councelor tin your seconding do you wish
3:07:42
to speak now or to reserve your right to speak thank you councelor Ferguson
3:07:48
thank you chair so this is undoubtedly a dangerous section of Road and when we're talking about this we're going to talk about statistics quite a lot but two
3:07:54
young people lost their lives in this section of the road so in 2022 Jack Green was a young man who got hit by a
3:08:00
car on his motorbike and died and in 2011 Jamie butcher was hit on a pedestrian Crossing on Churchill Road by
3:08:06
a car traveling almost twice the speed limit I think his body was propelled 44 MERS which is absolutely horrible so
3:08:12
clearly this is a dangerous section of Road and I'm kind of surprised there aren't speed cameras there already and
3:08:18
it's something you know I'd like to support however we've heard from Council account talking about a datadriven
3:08:24
scientific approach decisionmaking the problem here is having tried to get speed cameras installed a number of time
3:08:29
in C Cy you always hit the same problems because the National Police Chiefs counselor Council um set three criteria
3:08:37
which you need to overcome in order to get speed cameras installed so you need to be able to demonstrate that there's a history of serious accidents in the past
3:08:43
three years at this site which I think you should be able to do need to be de you need to be able to demonstr at that those accidents occurred as a
3:08:49
consequence of speeding which is more difficult and you also have to demonstrate that there is significant speeding on this road which is you know
3:08:55
levels significantly above the speed limit as well so I'm sure that this is a dangerous Section Road and you would be
3:09:00
able to do that by using a datadriven scientific approach to decision making unfortunately none of this information
3:09:06
is available here today and what concerns me is the cost of the scheme you're proposing you're asking for 1.2
3:09:12
million to put aside now uh when I last looked at this in 2021 the cost of in storing a pair of speed cameras with
3:09:18
about £85,000 for a pair of cameras rising to about 100,000 in rural areas
3:09:26
but even considering inflation and ignoring the fact that the cost of camera technology is decreasing rapidly
3:09:32
uh 1.2 million pounds for a mile stretch of road seems like an extraordinary amount of money uh last year Bedford uh
3:09:39
sorry Bradford Metropolitan Council managed to install four average speed cameras for 230k so I'm kind of
3:09:46
perplexed about the money uh that you're asking for um I'd like to hear this come back to council perhaps
3:09:51
as a motion because I'd like to support it but um I think that we need to take a coherent evidence-based approach to this
3:09:58
you might call it a datadriven uh scientific approach decision-making but I call it scrutiny and I don't think I
3:10:03
can uh easily vote for allocation of 1.2 million pounds of public money without
3:10:08
evidence of the pro pro scheme thank you chair thank you councelor Ferguson I have nobody else and shouldn't why do I
3:10:16
keep saying that Dee and then I think councelor shayer did you indicate once again chair I regretfully
3:10:23
inform members that that as the proposals so far have overspent by 1.5
3:10:29
million this will add 2.7 thank youe I think you've made your point cancel goac
3:10:35
well I think you've just closed down a point that's continually being made we're talking about the amendment at the
3:10:41
time of the speaking not collectively uh WR there is a point councelor gack
3:10:47
that of course there a cumulative impact on the budget which is because none of them have been passed are still8 I
3:10:54
appreciate that but these are all amendments to the budget but in any case I'm sure councelor Dupre is rather fed
3:11:00
up with giving the same speech now hopefully that is I'm rather I'm
3:11:05
rather I'm rather F I'm not sure we're going to hear it again councelor dpre councelor shayer perhaps you can shed
3:11:12
new light on what is this the Fourth Amendment now
3:11:17
uh thank you very much chair I I certainly hope so in um in January the h&t committee agreed that road safety
3:11:25
would be a key investment theme um and as we've heard from councilor Ferguson
3:11:30
camera cameras are subject to very specific requirements and they are
3:11:35
considered a last resort where cameras are used the mobile cameras which have
3:11:41
been used on this stretch um are considered more effective given their flexibility it avoids the halo effect
3:11:48
where drivers learn the locations of them um there this is something that is
3:11:55
actually in the pipeline and so it's some additional Road Safety funding for
3:12:01
this area is going to be proposed in fact um so we do hope to help but again
3:12:08
the the the amount and the way that this is being requested goes against our
3:12:14
policy so I can't support this as it is thank you thank you councelor shay uh councelor TI
3:12:20
you reserved your right to speak now as the moment please thank you chair um of course councelor hoy's Amendment simply
3:12:27
asked that this be looked at which is very reasonable um so all of the things that councel Ferguson said are invalid
3:12:34
because um it's just asked that be looked at if it works out less than the amount she thought great let's do it for
3:12:39
a bit less um if it turns out that the figures aren't as bad as imagined I can't believe that's the case but if it
3:12:45
were to turn out that way well that's fine but all of that can be seen in the looking at so there's no reason for
3:12:50
councelor Ferguson not to vote for this unless he actually doesn't believe in it at all thank you thank councelor TIY uh
3:12:56
councelor nettinger we now will move to the vote I'll take a vote on this amendment can I
3:13:02
ask the Democratic services manager to conduct a recorded vote by taking an electronic vote on the amendment Mrs row
3:13:08
please can you start the vote members in favor of the amendment
3:13:14
please press the button underneath the word yes members M against the amendment please press the button underneath the
3:13:19
word no members wishing to abstain please press the button underneath the word
3:13:27
abstain chair I'm now closing the
3:13:37
vote chair the result of the vote is 16 votes in favor 33 against no abstentions
3:13:42
the amendment is therefore lost thank you Mrs row councelor Gardner could you move your Amendment please thank you
3:13:49
very much chair yes my amendment is to create two active travel routes one
3:13:54
between tillbrook and Kim Bolton and one between Ellington and Bramton and a flood alleviation assets along the Ury
3:14:02
Rook to mitigate flooding and in Aly and alry Western and I do apologize chair
3:14:07
for being slightly parochial um till Brook PC would like to create a walking
3:14:13
and cycling route between tilbrook and kimbolton along the south side of the B 645 which is a 60 MPH road with no
3:14:21
Pavements and is therefore too dangerous for residents of either tilbrook or kimbolton to walk and cycle along due to
3:14:29
the numbers of hgvs and commercial vehicles using this route it becomes worse when the A14 is closed because
3:14:36
that is one of the diversion routes tillbrook is a very pleasant village with a marvelous Pub do visit if you get
3:14:43
the chance church and Village Hall but it lacks facilities such as a shop
3:14:48
doctors Pharmacy and schools all of which are available in Kim Bolton
3:14:54
currently the only safe way to access these facilities is by car to enjoy what
3:15:00
each other Village has to offer this this project would provide a safe route between the villages it would improve
3:15:07
the health and well-being of locals and would enable residents to use Greener transport thus helping to cut carbon
3:15:14
emissions which is a major goal of this Authority the route if created would create a 2.5
3:15:20
M circuit with other Pathways for residence the Ellington to Brampton Cycle Way would provide a green
3:15:27
alternative to traveling by car on the A14 as anybody knows the new the A14
3:15:33
nobody would ever look to cycle for residents wanting to travel to Brampton Huntington for work shopping Leisure etc
3:15:41
etc these two schemes would help this Authority meet its climate reduction objectives and provide active travel
3:15:48
routes in rural areas which I've been pushing for these schemes would enable our residents to make small changes to
3:15:54
their daily routine which would benefit their physical and mental health and help the environment these schemes would
3:16:00
show that Cambridge here is serious about improving active travel in our rural areas I would also like to propose
3:16:07
that 250,000 is spent on flood alleviation assets such as ponds on the
3:16:12
Ury book to mitigate the effects of flooding in Ury and or Western in
3:16:18
2020 over a 100 homes were flooded it was heartbreaking to see the effects of flooding on our residents particularly
3:16:26
when I was visiting those residents in their flooded homes as well as the wider Community this work would help these
3:16:33
communities to increase their resilience to flooding the orur flood Action Group
3:16:38
is an example of Excellence on on what can be achieved by a local flood Action
3:16:44
Group my thanks to date goes to the flood team CER County Council for their
3:16:50
continued assistance to this flood Group which is much appreciated appreciated by
3:16:56
me as the local County counselor this sum would provide up to five large ponds
3:17:02
similar to the one already created in orry Weston or 10 smaller ponds by
3:17:07
spending this money the County Council would be helping the villages to mitigate flooding help reduce residents
3:17:14
fears in times of heavy rainfall and help reduce its spending on flooding in
3:17:19
the area as flood events should hopefully be reduced I would hope you could support this amendment as it would
3:17:26
achieve the county council's goals in reducing carbon emissions alleviating flooding as well as creating physical
3:17:33
and mental health benefits for our residents if you can't support it today could I kindly ask that councelor Becket
3:17:41
and councelor shayer please look at this and talk with me see whether we can
3:17:46
progress the these schemes through another route thank you very much chair for your
3:17:53
Indulgence thank you um councelor Gardner you're very lucky the clock has
3:17:58
disappeared from the screen I'm going to be estimating from now
3:18:03
on councelor Bywater would you like to second now or to reserve your right to
3:18:08
speak councelor McDonald yes thank you chair um members I I feel that this
3:18:15
amendment and the others that have come forward are disappointing in a couple of couple of levels as has been said by
3:18:22
other members we are all elected to serve our areas but we're all also elected to come up with a fair and
3:18:30
sustainable plan across the council and therefore we're not here to Simply rob
3:18:36
Peter to pay Paul in another area and leave some resident shorts changed we do see similarities here uh
3:18:44
but in across the amendments in a lack of a full coordinated budget submission
3:18:50
and that's what I find disappointing and that's why I slightly struggle to support uh Ian and Simon's uh motion uh
3:18:58
sorry Amendment on this the the amendment identifies these active travel schemes and they're right
3:19:04
to say that these are priority for the county I think the pond at alry I'm I am
3:19:10
aware although it's not my area that there have been very some very serious flooding problems and and so when
3:19:17
looking at the amendment I did look at that and and considering considering uh supporting it however looking at the
3:19:24
Active travel schemes for 4.5 million in total and considering I have one in my
3:19:30
area which is about 800,000 I'm not sure that the 4.5 U million is public money well
3:19:37
spent so finally I'd like to say uh Ian especially and all of his colleagues um
3:19:43
in the conservative group have sat and contributed really professionally in the highways committee and as a result of
3:19:49
that we've come up with some very good plans now I feel that they want to take the wrecking ball to things that we have
3:19:55
already discussed and agreed in a professional way as we s see members
3:20:01
there are 50 or so members here in this in this room not engaging in these
3:20:07
individual schemes but rather engaging in a serious and professional plan across the county so I'm afraid I can't
3:20:13
support the amendment thank you thank thank you Council McDonald Council Murphy chair yes may I make a
3:20:20
procedural point I think we've heard the arguments for and against may we move um
3:20:27
that the motion be now put um right councelor Murphy you are
3:20:34
asking for the question to be now put yes the question to be now put okay um I
3:20:42
now must take a vote on this does it need to be recorded
3:20:48
chair can cancor K yeah point of order chair just on on P past performance at
3:20:53
this point you've always said said how many speakers you've got left registered and and it actually your consideration
3:21:00
whether then it has been fully so can we ask before we move to the vote how many people you got still registered to speak
3:21:06
on this one two and that is the second and councelor net singer as the origin racing mover thank you in which case if
3:21:13
you did avoid the vote it would just be the second in the it would be thank
3:21:18
you so would you prefer that we heard from them okay I'm just checking councelor
3:21:23
count I don't want to upset you anymore than I already have uh right given that
3:21:29
is the case I'm going to hear councelor Bywater and then invite councelor net singer but good effort councelor Murphy
3:21:35
you haven't had a seconder perhaps that's something you might want to think
3:21:44
about take that's Michael thank you yeah um yeah very quickly then I know um some people are getting impatient about this
3:21:50
but you know I I would expect local members to speak on behalf of their Community whether you agree with it or
3:21:56
not I think for me this motion is about you know we spoke earlier on about the poor state of our roads and and the
3:22:03
dangers of using our roads as a cyclist I'm a cyclist I cycle a lot I know these roads are cycling on myself although I
3:22:10
don't cycle on the A14 for reasons already outlined I think we also we also
3:22:15
talk about the benefits of cycling you know it's not just about cycling in Cambridge and some of our urban areas
3:22:20
this is about connecting our rural communities to the likes of huntingon and you know the benefits of cycling our
3:22:27
well documented mental health particularly and just getting outside and and doing some exercise and getting
3:22:33
some fresh air works wonders for your mental health um yes is it procal yes I
3:22:39
think all these motions the procal but um I would expect councelor Gardner to to speak on that and then just finally
3:22:46
um you know is4 million pound but we don't know the the final total cost of that but ultimately you know we've seen
3:22:53
I've been a counselor here for 12 years now and Albury year on year is affected by flooded and the more we can do and
3:23:00
the sooner we can do it the better it is for the residents of alri and the surrounding Villages so I'd ask you to
3:23:05
support the amendment thank you chair thank you councelor Bywater councelor nettinger
3:23:11
oh I would just like to remind members of the um conservative group that they cumulative total if they vote for this
3:23:18
uh will be an additional 6.7 million on the council thank thank you councelor n
3:23:25
almost 2% more on the council tax thank you did you have anything else to add to this particular
3:23:31
Amendment let's see how this is going right uh now take a vote on councelor
3:23:36
Gardner's amendment can I ask the Democratic services manager to conduct a recorded vote by taking an electronic vote on the amendment Mrs row can you
3:23:43
please start the vote members in favor of the amendment please
3:23:49
press the button underneath the word yes members against the amendment please press the button underneath the word no
3:23:54
members wishing to abstain please PR press the button underneath the word
3:24:07
abstain chair I'm now closing the
3:24:14
vote chair the result of the vote is 17 votes in favor 31 against and two abstentions the amendment is therefore
3:24:21
lost thank you very much Mrs R uh councelor hunt can you move your Amendment now
3:24:28
please thank you chair uh I don't consider that I you should either be
3:24:34
parochial or totally countywide I believe there's a mixture of respons sorry councel hay could you switch your
3:24:41
microphone off please and I'm very pleased to represent the people who have
3:24:48
sent me here and I think I have a duty to support them however I do accept that
3:24:53
we also have a responsibility to the county as a whole and so I won't just
3:24:59
talk about uh my division I'll also talk about uh since we're I'm talking about
3:25:06
white lines about a trip I took to Cambridge station just
3:25:11
recently and I dropped my son off at the station it was a wet night it was dark I
3:25:18
was very conscientious for looking for markings on the road they weren't there
3:25:24
a week later I got a fine for £70 I'd gone on a bus lane rather than mess
3:25:31
about with long arduous correspondence I paid the half price which was the
3:25:37
£35 but that was caused by the fact that the signs on the road weren't properly
3:25:45
maintained and anybody and I was really looking very hard could fall into this trap it
3:25:53
seemed to me if I wasn't a counselor that it would be a trap but all I can see is his lack of Maintenance and I can
3:26:00
see that also if you read carefully my suggestion I'm talking about white and
3:26:06
yellow lines and roundles on four different roads and they go way outside
3:26:13
my division in fact they go into counselor do praise in some cases and so
3:26:19
I'm sure she's Keen to have uh refreshed white and yellow lines on the roads that
3:26:26
go in her patch um I would say that this is something ve very important it's
3:26:33
dangerous to drive on on our roads at the moment with uh early nights people
3:26:40
coming home from work in the dark rain and you look out of you can't see where
3:26:45
it is there's one extra uh danger in the area I represent is a lot of farmers are
3:26:53
using their tractors in the field if you don't have white lines along the side of the road you mistake the tractor's
3:27:00
lights as being oncoming traffic and you can easily hit the curb or or do other
3:27:07
damage and it is particularly important I would say as well in fenland where
3:27:13
you've got people working in the fields so I think think it is very reasonable um to have uh
3:27:21
[Music] 460,000 pounds spent on uh refurbishing
3:27:27
the paintwork and in the case of hadam of course there's a 20 M hour limit in
3:27:32
the center of a village there and they've never had a round I believe they're the only Village that has had 20
3:27:39
mil an hour and not had a had the roundles why on Earth is that I don't
3:27:44
know I I I I I sure it isn't any sort of victimization um but there you go so I
3:27:52
think this is an extremely important measure it could be the uh I would ask
3:27:57
members if they doubt what I'm saying to drive on the A10 in the Milton area at 5
3:28:04
or six o'clock in the evening and they will see the absolute necessity of
3:28:09
having uh repainted refreshed White Lines along the side of the roads and it
3:28:16
must be done very quickly thank you chair thank you councelor hunt uh
3:28:21
councelor sharp you are seconding this do you wish to speak now or would you like to reserve your right to speak reserve my right to speak CH thank you
3:28:28
councelor sharp um councelor Becket thank you chair um firstly this
3:28:36
better not be in a cumulative total might be in there somewhere that comes later firstly though I do want to say a
3:28:43
big thank you to councelor hunt because I believe this is the first uh item on the agenda that has something south of
3:28:49
elely so it's nice that they are at least thinking of something south of elely once now if councelor hunt had
3:28:56
actually uh suggested white lining across the entire County i' might be willing to get on board with that but
3:29:01
again his cherry-picked roads this is once again Reckless pork barrel grab for
3:29:07
funding as we are seeing time and time again now let's be absolutely clear here this Administration has already
3:29:13
prioritized extra funding for Road markings across the Entre ire County and Council hunt on the highways committee
3:29:18
will be well aware of that one last year we Sorry through you chair uh last year
3:29:24
we put an additional 1.5 million into lining and repairs countywide and this
3:29:29
year we'll be adding another £500,000 and all of that's on top of the base Revenue budget of £300,000 it's part of
3:29:36
this administration's investment in highways maintenance that have been so sorely lacking under previous administrations this is to address
3:29:43
Decades of Tory decline that have left us with a backlog of Maintenance across the county of well over 600 million this
3:29:50
isn't something that's growing up overnight it's due to central government and Reckless decisions of previous
3:29:56
administrations so let's ask the obvious question why is this amendment being brought at all put simply it's to help a
3:30:02
struggling Tory reelection campaign a struggling Tory re-election campaign they lost badly in the general election
3:30:09
East cams and now they're clutching for straws lining improvements are already happening through a fair countywide
3:30:15
approach what they are proposing isn't about improving Road Safety it's a grubby PR exercise so they can put it on
3:30:20
a leaflet or in a Facebook group and try and buy themselves a few more votes lining is incredibly important let me
3:30:25
say that again but we need to make sure it's where it needs the most on a proper prioritized process now between them
3:30:31
councilors hunt and sharp have tabled amendments totaling 7.26 million sorry chair uh nearly the entire allocation of
3:30:37
8.1 million add up all the conservative amendments were're up to 36 million okay I think that point has now been very
3:30:43
comprehensively flogged to death I will just say that they haven't even drafted an alternative budget where we could
3:30:48
have been comparing these things against each other the job of the budget here is to make difficult decisions comparing
3:30:54
competing priorities that is not what they have attempted to do today if they had we would have been able to have a
3:31:00
serious conversation about those competing priorities that's not what they've done um this is a wish list
3:31:06
designed for leaflets and social media videos not for responsible decision- making is it fair no is it transparent
3:31:12
no is it responsible budgeting absolutely not this is another Reckless conservative attempt to rip up our Fair
3:31:18
datadriven process and take what they can have for their own areas councelor hunt has been part of all of the
3:31:24
meetings of the highways committee where we've looked how to prioritize this where it was passed unanimously we have gone through this time and time again
3:31:30
how to make this Fair it is incredibly important it's fair our highways are in desperate and even investment but we
3:31:36
need to make sure that we prioritize it effectively so members ICF do we support
3:31:42
a fair countywide approach that ensures every Community benefits or do we allow certain councilors to drain the budget
3:31:48
for their own political leaflets again I know where I stand on this one thank you very much uh councelor
3:31:55
count yeah thank thank you chair obviously I support uh councilor Hunt's Amendment it's great to see somebody
3:32:02
sticking up for their own area in this way and whilst it might be regarded as parochial it's regarded as parochial
3:32:08
because people keep saying the same things you know we have a fair and transparent process that means we
3:32:13
allocate money throughout Cambridge sh uh because we're County Council as a representing the whole County but we've
3:32:19
actually you know we we said earlier I've said in my speech earlier just RI that to shreds The Waiting how actually
3:32:25
affects some people more than others people must have sat behind closed doors and said how on Earth can we not just
3:32:31
stick the boot in to the people in the more Rural and more fenland areas but actually kick them while they're down
3:32:37
because that's how bad the waiting system is so I don't I don't expect many of these am if any of these amendments
3:32:44
to get through today but just just in terms of process it's a shame that your leaders don't speak to you cuz so many
3:32:50
of you allude to the same thing the old 36 million which we've heard you rule on already uh uh uh chair because as you
3:32:57
know you was at the Chairman's briefing it was quite plain then group leaders should have said that if the 8.1 million
3:33:03
spends that line is removed nobody else can talk to it and all the Amendments would have gone so it's such a shame
3:33:09
that the leaders of their particular particular groups didn't pass on that information to their members so they
3:33:16
keep trying to make up things to vote these down for in terms of that Matrix
3:33:21
whilst people did vote for it on on the day and you're supposed to be fair and transparent and voted through at the highways committee as I said earlier it
3:33:28
didn't actually have the numbers involved on that day and it's only later on that we've been able to dig deep into
3:33:33
this to actually find out just how much it is frustrating a truly nonparochial
3:33:39
expenditure line across the whole Council on other news in terms of
3:33:45
allocations to highways and people saying oh it's years of underfunding by the conservatives I'd like to remember
3:33:52
the liberal Democrats the labor and those Independents who support them every single time we put through an
3:33:58
increase in highways you voted it down voted it down not once not twice but Thrice but repeatedly the budget would
3:34:05
be far higher today if you'd actually agreed to the conservatives uh proposals
3:34:11
uh pre-election and postelection when you took over when you actually put through increases in the budget in fact
3:34:16
all this is doing is actually trying to make up for lost time we know Insurance CLA should be discussing an amendment on
3:34:23
a number of roads of concern in East Cambridge to councelor hunt so perhaps
3:34:29
we could get back to them absolutely and as we know insurance claims have trebled throughout the county which I'm sure
3:34:35
includes the roads of council hunts as well so thank you for your time chair thank you councelor count
3:34:41
councelor Murphy um yes I'm going to ask please that the question be put and I have a
3:34:48
seconder i in fact only have two remaining speakers the seconder and the leader of the council so Third Time
3:34:54
Lucky maybe uh who we can't say
3:35:00
sharp thank you chair I'll try and be brief um I'm happy to submit um second
3:35:06
this amendment um as we heard from councilor hunt there is a need to get back get lining back to where it should
3:35:13
be all that the amendment is doing is is seeking to as I say get us back to the
3:35:18
state where we should be and what residents deserve um I I must touch on a couple of
3:35:24
points made by councelor Becket though um Reckless Decisions by the conservative government I think we we
3:35:30
could do ditto about the current government um let's stick with the white
3:35:35
lining in East C don't we I do want to touch on one other point if I may um he did mention the data driven process and
3:35:42
the scoring mechanisms I mentioned at h&t I do have concerns over that scoring mechanism and
3:35:48
I've actually got some of the details from offices which I'm looking at and consider so I can come to h&t with a
3:35:54
considered um point so you know
3:36:04
get thank you councelor sharp councelor
3:36:11
nettinger right I'm now going to take a vote on the amendment can I ask the Democrats services manager to conduct a
3:36:17
recorded vote by taking an electronic vote on the amendment Mrs row can you please start the
3:36:23
vote members in favor of the amendment please press the button underneath the word yes members against the amendment
3:36:30
please press the button underneath the word no members wishing to abstain please press the button underneath the
3:36:35
word
3:36:41
abstain I'm now closing the vote
3:36:50
chair the result of the vote is 16 votes in favor 34 against and no abstentions
3:36:55
the amendment is therefore lost thank you Mrs
3:37:01
row we have five more amendments to go um I I'm going to exercise my
3:37:09
discretion to invite the group leaders to come to a joint position on the remaining amendments if you feel that
3:37:16
that is something that you can manage Council count chair if I may the
3:37:22
protocol for coun is anybody is allowed to moove an amendment these are personal to the individuals I would it would be
3:37:28
wrong of me to speak on their behalf in that way okay uh councel
3:37:35
neter I would be very happy to come to an agreement if anybody is willing to discuss one councelor
3:37:41
mkini I well we have been told that we can't really discussed his amendments as
3:37:46
a cumulative proposal um that would be very much my preference however I will defer to the majority C serson I'm very
3:37:54
happy to come to an agreement chair back to you counc K chair as I've repeated it's
3:38:01
everybody's right to come to these Council M meetings and move what they believe is right for their area whilst
3:38:07
they may or may not wish to keep their U messages short that's up to them but it would be constitutionally wrong to
3:38:13
somehow rule them out at this stage um I would also point out that there is particular relevance in the last
3:38:20
Amendment from Chris Bowen which I think we really should hear after all the others okay in which case we will
3:38:26
continue uh Council Ambrose Smith can you move your Amendment
3:38:33
please thank you chair 5.8 million allocation
3:38:41
for I'm brce Smith none of us can hear you I'm afraid that's a shame uh 5.8
3:38:46
million allocation for the following projects for littleport yes it is my wish list uh for my community and those
3:38:54
that passed through first of all the access to littleport rail station littleport was fortunate to have its
3:39:00
rail station car park capacity increased in 2018 a more recently access to the
3:39:05
platform and the line to Cambridge and London Kings Cross has been greatly improved unfortunately the station and
3:39:12
its car park is an island with no safe vehicular pred estan or cycle access
3:39:17
from station or l Road highways officers have been aware of the issues since 2018
3:39:23
and advis me a solution would be complicated costly as the access affects both the rail station and the road into
3:39:32
littleport highway safety officers although aware of the dangers of all for all Road users have been unable to come
3:39:38
up with a scheme to improve the safety in this area a scheme needs to be put in place to allow safe access to and from
3:39:44
the state A10 littleport bypass in October 2018
3:39:51
Highway started the scheme to resolve the issues of reflective cracking every
3:39:57
10 to 15 m in the existing surface course which had affected ride
3:40:02
quality project brief resurfacing Works will be carried out to remove the existing reflective cracking on a
3:40:09
section of little Port bypass 1.7 km in length this would involve l a 60
3:40:16
mm 60 mm binder course to the existing Road level and then overlaying this with
3:40:23
a 50 mm cambri designed surface course which is more resistant to to both
3:40:28
cracking and rutting the cracks were filled to
3:40:33
specification the 50 mm camb designed surface course was laid over the newly
3:40:39
fill cracks only this left a fil 50 mm raised bump in the road at every 10 to
3:40:45
15 M which still affects the ride quality immediately after the project what was said to have been
3:40:52
completed highways officers advised me the road would be resurfaced and made level this work was subsequently removed
3:40:59
from the work schedule and no exp with no
3:41:04
explanation little port to uh elely cycle pedestrian
3:41:10
way there's a well established cycling culture in Cambridge here generally link between elely and littleport were
3:41:16
amongst the top three most requested walking and cycling routes in East cambridge's cycling and walking route
3:41:22
strategy survey approximately 8.5 kilometers between the two population
3:41:28
centers this is a distance eminently suitable for cycling and walking for both community and
3:41:33
Leisure East cams County Council commissioned sust strands the cycling charity to undertake a feasibility study
3:41:40
for a new cycle footpath from littleport to elely which has already been completed
3:41:46
further work is being done to narrow down the options for this route to put us in the best possible position to
3:41:52
attract funding littleport and El are two of the fastest growing communities in East Cambridge here both welcoming growth
3:41:59
which brings with it the prosperity needed unfortunately developer and combined Authority funding for
3:42:05
littleport and cycle pedestrian way has not yet been tapped Cambridge here has a
3:42:13
list of Highway projects covering the county the little port to El cycle and pedestrian way was added to this list in
3:42:22
2017 at around the number position 720 now this is time for the county to
3:42:30
drive these projects forward I urge members to support this amendment thank you
3:42:36
chair thank you councelor Amber Smith uh councelor GAC you're seconding do you wish to speak now or to reserve your
3:42:42
right to speak my right thank you that's very
3:42:47
enthusiastic okay councelor wheen thank you chair I look at the
3:42:54
projects in this amendment and they seem to be projects that may have value behind them indeed I've been asking for
3:42:59
cycle routes but joined Up Cycle routes conforming to ltn
3:43:04
1220 there are other more appropriate ways these could be delivered rather than seeking an amendment to the
3:43:10
business planning for the coming year why are these not being considered alongside all such projects for proper
3:43:17
benchmarking the truth is that these are simply political gestures and in fact this whole series of amendments appears
3:43:23
to demonstrate an amazing level of financial incompetency amendments using more than four times the available
3:43:30
funding the wrong way with money falling from the non-existent money tree thank
3:43:36
you chair uh thank you very much um councelor gulack you reserved your right
3:43:42
to speak and that is that opport well worth the wait thank you very much we'll be the judge of that Council go I meant
3:43:48
for the debate that just ued sorry have I missed something here
3:43:55
yes I think we all have councelor GAC this appears to be everybody everybody you were showing
3:44:01
me The Respect by just talking that's fine chair as long as we know I'm just making sure that whatever the technological problem was has been
3:44:09
resolved thank you okay shall I continue well hang on a minute just need to see
3:44:14
is it resolved ever the problem was okay all right thank you uh if you
3:44:20
could just switch volumes all off that would be helpful right councel GAC back to you no problem thank you very much um
3:44:27
happy to Second this amendment for further parochial works in the town of littleport um but there is a theme that
3:44:35
that that's coming out this afternoon and that is that uh repeated drag backs
3:44:40
to the business as usual method as being fair and safe are constantly being impr proven by these to not be so this is
3:44:48
work that's been done once and the local member is asking for it to be done again with the exception of the Sands work
3:44:55
I'll come on to that at the end the rail station is unsafe because Works committed and carried out have not been
3:45:02
done correctly the A10 bypass is like a rumble strip all the way along because of work that's been carried out and the
3:45:08
local member Mr Andro Smith counc Andro Smith has been fighting for this through the correct channel so he's got to try
3:45:14
every channel he can to support his local people and this is coming through on the sustr report there is immense
3:45:21
pressure and the residents of Cambridge will now start to feel it there's immense pressure for business growth and accelerated housing littleport has
3:45:28
stepped up to that as a community it really has and taken more than its fair share of development and I think this is
3:45:34
going to improve the lives of people a there are considerations around the
3:45:39
northern Gateway for the uh rail at elely etc etc that all come into play around this cycle work but the work from
3:45:45
srains I was involved in it as a district counselor so I do know the the outcome pretty pretty well for that I
3:45:52
think we've got every right to ask for this from the unallocated 8.1 funds they're all highways related two are
3:45:57
retrofit works that should be business as usual but I think we've proved through the series of amendments thus
3:46:03
far and with those to come that the business as usual just isn't working thank you chair thank you very much
3:46:08
councelor net singer right I'll now take a vote on the amendment can I ask the Democratic
3:46:14
services manager to conduct a recorded vote by taking an electronic vote on the amendment Mrs row can you please start
3:46:19
the vote members in favor of the amendment please press the button underneath the
3:46:24
word yes members against the amendment please press the button underneath the word no members wishing to abstain
3:46:30
please press the button underneath the word
3:46:37
abstain chair I'm now closing the vote
3:46:46
chair the result of the vote is 16 votes in favor 34 against and no abstentions the amendment is therefore lost thank
3:46:53
you very much councilor chriswell could you please move your Amendment thank you very much chairman um happy to move the
3:46:59
amendment as presented in the paper um and just to be clear chairman uh if previous amendments had accumulated to
3:47:06
more than the 8.1 million I would have had the option to withdraw this amendment at the moment that hasn't
3:47:12
happened so uh it's well within budget um parkour Road chairman is a very
3:47:17
well-used Road within sumam it's full of potholes and very uneven um and water
3:47:23
pulls uh very badly on it after heavy rainfall and pedestrians get soaked um
3:47:29
it's a very frequently used road to access the school The Village Hall um
3:47:35
the play park and sporting facilities um it was actually prioritized um 5 years
3:47:43
ago and the the reason I've presented it today is because nothing's happened since um so
3:47:50
um uh against Lebec it said there is a process and a prioritization process but
3:47:55
of course um it hasn't come forward through that process after five years we
3:48:01
have thankfully now um uh in the program the design and investigation for the
3:48:07
drainage work that needs doing but there's nothing in the in the budget to actually do that work once that um that
3:48:14
uh investigation has happened so uh that's the reason I put forward uh so that the project can be completed
3:48:20
chairman thank you thank you councelor chriswell uh councelor Bywater do you wish to second now or to reserve your
3:48:28
right okay uh councelor
3:48:34
shayer thank you very much chair and hopefully to to save time I will mention this once this this actually relates to
3:48:41
several of these um amendments flood res resilience and uh was a key theme
3:48:47
identified in the January highways and transport committee uh to be allocated
3:48:52
in 2526 so some parts of some of these are in train anyway thank you very much
3:49:00
chair uh thank you very much right nobody else good councilor Bywater yeah thank you just to just to
3:49:07
add chair um you know I know this road very well sumers sham um there is a very
3:49:12
nice Garden Center there if you're ever visiting sumam won't name it and other garden centers are available but uh this
3:49:18
particular Road can be tricky as as councilor kwells uh explained and yeah
3:49:24
ironically you know we haven't spent any money so far on these amendments so it's well within
3:49:32
budget lovely thank you very much uh coun net singer I'll now take a vote can I ask
3:49:38
the Democratic services manager to conduct a recorded vote by taking an electronic vote on the amendment Mrs row can you please start the vote
3:49:47
members in favor of the amendment please press the button underneath the word yes members against the amendment please
3:49:52
press the button underneath the word no members wishing to abstain please press the button underneath the word
3:50:02
abstain chair I'm now closing the vote
3:50:14
chair the result of the vote is 15 votes in favor 33 against and one abstention
3:50:19
the amendment is therefore lost thank you Mrs R uh councelor sharp could you move your Amendment
3:50:26
please thank you chair um I move this amendment um and just want to to talk
3:50:33
members through this um at the highways and transport committee I've previously made comments
3:50:39
about the need to increase the LHI budget in addition and I mentioned this at the last highways in and transport
3:50:45
Committee in last month um to address the issue of a gap in Road Safety
3:50:50
provision and I'll try and explain that now there are a number in my opinion a
3:50:55
number of road safety schemes that fall outside the current criteria they are too big for the LHI schemes but they're
3:51:03
too small for small for major projects they are dangerous Junctions and residents are looking to us for
3:51:10
Solutions so I feel we need to allocate a part of that money within the LHI
3:51:15
scheme and within this funding to actually look at those and address them I've given an example of three in my
3:51:22
division there have been multiple accidents at these three locations and again residents are looking for us to do
3:51:29
some something one of those was a subject of a a teams call with officers
3:51:35
the MP and councel dton was in was there yesterday because obvious there was a
3:51:40
junction within her division as well that we were discussing with the MP and officers
3:51:45
for that Junction we've won an LHI bid at the moment just for extra signage but if that doesn't work then the solution
3:51:52
is going to be much more expensive the other two Junctions are more difficult and expensive to resolve
3:51:59
one of them the one Duchess Drive Park Road has had twoo serious it's a um a
3:52:05
Crossroads um the white lines aren't brilliant um although we we've I've got
3:52:11
highways to actually get those reinstated and that was part of the the the issue but it is one of those rural
3:52:17
roads that I've mentioned previously at committee around um Vision zero where you have a Rural Road 60 mil an hour and
3:52:25
and they see that as the target rather than the safe speed to drive at and
3:52:31
we've had sort of sideways crashes where people have gone across so that is that is that
3:52:37
particular Junction I've use those Junctions as an example because I'm sure members in other divisions will have
3:52:42
similar Junctions we need to be looking at this I'm not saying it's the solution
3:52:48
just to spend this money but it's certainly a start we need to be looking at how we fund those in between
3:52:55
junctures as I call them too too big for LHI but too small for major projects so
3:53:02
I commend this amendment to the meeting thank you uh thank you councelor sharp
3:53:07
uh councelor hunt you are seconding do you want to speak now or do you want to reserve your right to speak
3:53:15
thank you councelor hunt um uh councelor CS sorry thank you
3:53:21
chair dropped through the floor um my comments on this are on perhaps not the
3:53:26
most riveting of topics the one of process um but process is very important I've looked at the recommendations in
3:53:33
this amendment they seem on the surface very worthy and so have all the other
3:53:39
recommendations that have come forward this bundle here would take up most of the money that's available in the pot
3:53:45
that's being looked at and therefore would prevent any of the others taking place which is just highlighting what
3:53:50
needs to take place here is a prioritization exercise what I would like to know in order to vote on on this
3:53:56
particular Amendment for these schemes is not are they worthy in themselves although that's important but are they
3:54:02
more worthy than other schemes and that's what a prioritization exercise does and that exercise is a process that
3:54:08
we do have and we have refined with cross Party Support the methods under which it takes place and so I find it
3:54:15
impossible to support any one of these individual projects because the process is not correct I was interested to hear
3:54:21
some of the criticisms of process by counselor um uh count um and that was an
3:54:28
interesting um I then started my mind wandered slightly and I was thinking uh okay so it's unfair to vote for schemes
3:54:36
which affect more people so shall we change the prioritization so that schemes that affect fewer people should
3:54:41
be the ones that are prioritized or it's unfair that we should recommend schemes which are near old people so we'll
3:54:47
penalize schemes that are near old people's homes the reverse doesn't make any sense and therefore we can talk in
3:54:54
highways and transport committee about the nature of that prioritization and that would be a helpful thing to do but
3:54:59
simply to take each of these schemes in turn without a proper comparison makes no sense to me and therefore I can't
3:55:05
support it thank you councelor CS um councelor councelor
3:55:12
hunt thank you uh chair uh I think uh what's already come out of this uh
3:55:20
exercise is that the LHI scheme is a very good scheme and very well supported
3:55:26
by parish councils and by local members however I think it needs to move
3:55:32
with the times and I think councelor sharp is entirely correct in saying that
3:55:37
it needs to move on and move up and fill that gap between the major schemes uh
3:55:44
and LHI where it is now so I do feel it's um something that we need to
3:55:50
enhance and slightly turbocharged to get the budgets increased I think we there's been some
3:55:58
criticism about parochialism I don't think it's so much that I think the important thing to take
3:56:05
from this exercise is how important the local member input is if we remember and
3:56:12
I I'm talking in general terms uh Cambridge here goes from royon to
3:56:19
Burley and I I know that in actual fact that's um uh bassing born and and sorry
3:56:27
goes to Stanford but berley is in Cambridge here and so it's a huge County
3:56:33
and I think we benefit immensely by having local member input I don't call
3:56:38
it parochial I think it's local member I mean do do half of you know what
3:56:44
actually going on in bassing ball and I guess you don't yes there's one uh
3:56:50
two that's my point my point is that we we should cherish and listen to our
3:56:56
local members because they're very important and this is one of those cases where there's some and a sensible
3:57:03
Council would say look maybe we can't afford all three of these jobs but let's look heavily at one of them and so we
3:57:11
get a little bit of improvement in every division and that's what we should be doing
3:57:16
because it's there the people who we all answer to so I will support this I think
3:57:23
it's important and I think the local member input is very important thank
3:57:28
you uh thank you councelor hunt councelor nettinger right we move to vote on the amendment can I ask the
3:57:34
Democratic services manager to conduct a recorded vote by taking an electronic vote on the Amendments Mr row could you
3:57:40
please start the vote members in favor of the amendment please please press the button underneath the word yes members
3:57:46
against the amendment please press the button underneath the word no members wishing to abstain please press the
3:57:52
button underneath the word
3:58:05
abstain councelor slatter you haven't
3:58:11
voted chair I'm now closing the vote
3:58:22
chair the result of the vote is 15 votes in favor 34 against no abstentions the amendment is therefore lost thank you
3:58:29
Mrs R um now councelor Costello is ill I'm sure we send her our best wishes for
3:58:35
speedy recovery so councelor Corney I understand you are going to move councelor Costello's
3:58:42
Amendment thank you chair uh some in the room will be pleased to know that I'm not standing in May so I'm not worrying
3:58:47
about leaflets so we'll get that clear to start with uh and there are no deals either because I've never made a deal to
3:58:53
get a position yet so I'm quite quite happy to um to read out adella's proposal um for her Amendment it has
3:59:00
been circulated so I'll just I'll cut it down somewhat but um I was I was here to
3:59:07
Second this today so I'll probably use some of the notes I'm going to use for a second because you you've got um adella's um uh original Amendment the
3:59:16
the roads that she's talking about here um the Pete roads um we're all well aware of them but the urgency isn't
3:59:24
there and the you look at the road from Peterborough through um through to Ramsey through to 40 foot onto chatus is
3:59:32
and through toili it's a main route from Peterboro through toili that's used by many businesses and um homeowners
3:59:38
homeowners to um within the last two weeks two hgvs have run off um the mide
3:59:43
road road which is um Pete damage Road um again it you know it's just not
3:59:50
happening quick enough we need to highlight this and this is what Adella is doing I'm more than happy to to to read this out and uh I hope that um you
3:59:57
know we can we can spend some of the money that's not being spent yet I'll leave it there thank you chair thank you
4:00:03
councelor Corney um councelor count your seconding do you wish to speak to now or to reserve your right to speak thank you
4:00:10
chair I'll reserve the right to speak thank you okay thank you very much right councelor
4:00:16
shayer thank you chair um Pete and soil affected roads as we've said already recognized as a key theme in in the
4:00:23
budget grip cutting will form part of the drainage and resilient budgets moving forward thank you very
4:00:30
much councilor Bachelor yeah thank you chair um whilst I've chosen to speak on this particular amendment I believe my
4:00:36
comments can be applyed to all of the Amendments that we've heard today and that is I think all of us would agree whilst we have a huge amount of sympathy
4:00:42
for local members trying to get the most out of the County Council for improvements to their area whether it be a highways Improvement or something else
4:00:49
there is a process that we do need to go through and that process does not include bringing amendments to the budget meeting of the County Council it
4:00:55
needs to go to the relevant service committee or directly to officers so for that reason chair I certainly sh be
4:01:02
supporting as I haven't done with the other amendments today thank you councilor Bachelor councelor
4:01:08
TIY thank you chair um I have noticed a common pattern that um members of the rainbow Alliance be very triggered by
4:01:14
this large number of amendments and um I guess what I would say about that is you know it's not against the rules I know
4:01:21
you don't like it but one of the reasons you get an allowance is to sit into long meetings and this is the budget meeting it's a big meeting now we all know that
4:01:28
you're going to vote down everything we suggest that's the nature of you having a majority and unfortunately nobody ever votes different you can see that anyone
4:01:34
can see the voting records but that doesn't mean we aren't going to continue to advocate for the things that we are important and I know it's uncomfortable
4:01:40
and I know it's difficult but you got to suck it up I'm afraid if in regards to having enough money to pay for these
4:01:46
things um so far we've spent zero and there's been a 0% council tax rise from it because you've turned them all down
4:01:52
but um there is another way that we could raise extra money just a suggestion I think I'll throw out there
4:01:57
I've taken it from elsewhere is this to do with RADS and Ramsey absolutely is because it's how you pay for things like
4:02:02
roads and Ramsey chair one of the ways you could do it is you could bring in some external experts who could come in
4:02:08
and could look at all the waste in the council and look at ways to remove it and I would call that the department of
4:02:13
Council efficiency thank you chair thank you councelor chy uh councelor
4:02:21
count yes thank thank you uh chair and uh I got to support this motion because
4:02:27
it's close to my heart because is one of those areas that are largely affected by the Peete soil damaged roads and we had
4:02:34
a a Catal Amendment at the start that allocated a larger broader sweep of money to Pete soil damage roads but this
4:02:41
is very local localized and I would say that the 40 40 foot has been incredibly
4:02:47
difficult with some various deaths over the years now I spoke about the Matrix and I just one of those things on The
4:02:52
Matrix that I think you should realize one of the lowest marks you can get on the Matrix is if if your road doesn't
4:03:00
have uh little little PES little damages across the full width of the road and for example it just shaves off on the
4:03:07
edge and could be handled by a bumpy road sign then it gets the minimum amount of points now I'm going to
4:03:14
specifically tell you here that the nature of many of these Pete soil
4:03:19
damaged roads are they fail on the edges and they cave away towards a dyke a
4:03:25
ditch a great big fall into a 20ft drop that could kill you such as around
4:03:31
Ramsey and that as part of the scoring Matrix is the lowest possible Mark the
4:03:37
words could be handled by a bumpy road sign are included in that Matrix that
4:03:44
how disfavored we are that's why I'm supporting things such as what is
4:03:49
regarded as a parochial Amendment from councelor Dela Costello because the Matrix is so inherently unfair and it
4:03:58
wasn't a we weren't able to pick up on this at the time until we looked into it in much greater detail and were supplied
4:04:04
with the numbers that go with each waiting and that only came afterwards so
4:04:10
yes I will be supporting this I would also like to add that it is wrong for members of The Joint Administration to
4:04:17
call this in financially incompetent there are two reasons for that one the
4:04:22
group leaders didn't tell their members that once the 8.1 million is spent it's over and done with so there is no
4:04:29
cumulative 36 million pound figure that is a political construct on your behalf
4:04:34
and two that is insulting to our section 51 officer and the monitoring officer
4:04:40
who have approved all these as as correct and regular and thought financially correct so I do hope that if
4:04:46
that member speaks again they will correct what they said and is financially competent thank you chair uh
4:04:53
thank you councelor K councelor net singer right I'll now take a vote can I ask the Democratic services manager to
4:05:00
conduct a recorded vote by taking an electronic vote on this amendment Mrs row can you please start the vote
4:05:05
members in favor of the amendment please press the button underneath the word yes members against the amendment please
4:05:10
press the button underneath the word no members wishing to stain please press the button underneath the word
4:05:27
abstain chair I'm closing the
4:05:35
vote CH the result of the vote is 15 votes in favor 34 against no abstentions
4:05:41
the amendment is therefore lost thank you Mrs row councelor Bowden could you move your Amendment
4:05:49
please thank you very much chair this amendment is different from the previous
4:05:55
10 and I did ask for it to be the last one in anticipation that it was a
4:06:00
possibility that the first 10 amendments may be defeated the uh this amendment is
4:06:07
particularly addressed at the appalling state of the roads that we have and the
4:06:13
PO situation in particular now I I I very carefully in this amendment I've
4:06:19
not been local about it I've not mentioned the Dreadful state of the roads in Whitty uh I've not even just
4:06:25
said a part of the county this is countywide and to be quite honest it's a Countrywide problem not just a
4:06:32
countywide problem hot holes in the country are truly Dreadful now whilst this
4:06:39
is countywide I don't blame local members for raising local issues if
4:06:45
local people feel that the County Council has let them down then the county councilors have to speak up on behalf of local people but this is a
4:06:53
more General problem and it's to do with the effect that the potholes have on
4:06:59
ordinary residents in Cambridge now there will be no need for
4:07:05
uh councilors Beck or D pre to tap away at their calculators uh to do anything
4:07:10
cumulative here since the whole of the 8.1 million which is uh designated to be decided upon to be determined by the
4:07:17
highways committee the whole of that is still extent and here I'm merely asking for 6.7 million of that 8.1 million to
4:07:24
be determined by this Council and that is a perfectly proper thing for this Council to to decide to
4:07:31
do and what I'm asking it to do is to look at just how serious the problem is
4:07:37
as far as poth holds are concerned we don't actually have good statistics about the amount of Damage Done by
4:07:45
potholes we do have statistics about our insurance uh uh claims and and what goes
4:07:50
through insurance but an awful lot doesn't go through insurance for a very good reason and that is that people have
4:07:57
lost confidence in the system of claiming insurance against the council
4:08:02
and that's partly that's largely because of the highways act 1980 and many local
4:08:08
residents and it's it's widely believed now believe that the council uses a loophole to avoid responsibility for its
4:08:14
own failures now it's not technically a loophole at all it's a special defense
4:08:20
section 58 special defense that Lo that local highways authorities have and if they've got an acceptable scheme of uh
4:08:28
road maintenance then they don't have liability and it's necessary for that to be in place otherwise local highways
4:08:34
authorities would all become bankrupt very quickly indeed but nevertheless just going in my area in in
4:08:41
Whitty and extrapolating out I believe there must be hundreds of incidents every month of cars getting
4:08:48
punctures and in some cases of there being personal injury and being damaged
4:08:53
to cars as well it's a really serious issue it's one which is mentioned not
4:08:58
merely across cambridg but right across the country it may not occur in in Cambridge City but it certainly occurs in the rest of
4:09:04
Cambridge and I would therefore ask that we do give prioritization to this issue
4:09:10
I'm not saying where these potholes should be filled in in the county I'm just saying we should do more than we're doing at the moment because it is a
4:09:17
matter of such concern to so many people in this
4:09:22
County now uh last week I'm pleased to say that uh that I seconded a proposal
4:09:28
by councilor Anna Bailey at the cpca budget to move £43,000 from cpca to
4:09:35
County by reducing the highways Levy uh and we did that with the specific hope
4:09:40
although it wasn't it wasn't in our gift that that money would go specifically towards potholes and towards fixing
4:09:47
potholes and uh I'm asking the council
4:09:52
to understand the seriousness of the pole situation and actually to do something about it now year after year
4:10:01
the administration labor libdem and Independence year after year they've
4:10:07
turned down budget uh amendments put forward by the conservatives to spend more money on highways generally and
4:10:13
holds in particular this gives an opportunity for every one of you to say
4:10:18
rather than giving that 8.1 million to the highways committee to decide on a whole host of different possible uh uh
4:10:24
uh Highway spend that the overwhelming majority not all of it but the overwhelming majority of it should go on
4:10:30
potholes because that is where the need is greatest and that is what the electorate that is what our residents
4:10:37
expect us to concentrate on so I hope uh that chair that members will regard this
4:10:45
as being a an amendment which is put in good faith and which they can support because it is actually the right thing
4:10:51
to do thank you chair uh thank you councelor bon councelor Hoy your seconding do you wish
4:10:58
to speak now or do you wish to Res you reserve your right okay councilor
4:11:04
count yes thank thank you chair as Council Bowden has said this is very
4:11:10
different to all of the other amendments which knew we would get to this point with none of the 8.1 million
4:11:17
spent and arguments such as well it's 36 million which it isn't would come forward arguments such as it's paroquial
4:11:25
would come forward this isn't this is an allocation to repairing our
4:11:31
roads now many of the speakers of the joint
4:11:36
Administration have stood up talked about the fact that our roads are not in a good enough State and they the Monies
4:11:44
to fix them should go through their data system their Matrix which I don't agree
4:11:49
with but it exists I'm not in charge to change it and this proposal does exactly
4:11:54
that it says put that 6.7 million through your biased Matrix come out with
4:12:00
your your list and at least some of the roads will get done on the structural
4:12:07
and and defects and we use the term pole it's a very loose term for it means the
4:12:13
exact thing a potto in the road and therefore the government the labor
4:12:19
government heard the Cry of councils the LGA the AA from across the country and
4:12:24
said you need to put some more money into fixing our roads so the labor government just like the conservative
4:12:31
government before them after their full budget their settlements they actually
4:12:36
decided because of the outcry to come up with some extra cash and the labor government said to the country here's
4:12:42
some money po hole money they called it to fix your roads and out that pothole money some
4:12:48
went to the cpca and the cpca according to formula allocated Cambridge County
4:12:55
Council 8.1 million to fix our Pooles now I say that's a loose
4:13:02
description because it's not ring fenced this particular amendment is specific to
4:13:08
carriageways structural and surface treatments for the lay person let's fix
4:13:14
our roads now you might argue that it's our highways and transport committee that
4:13:20
should actually decide how to break down that 8.1 million and you think that
4:13:26
that's actually what's going to happen but it just shows how few of you actually to take the time to listen to
4:13:31
meetings pay attention or group leaders disseminate information because the 8.1 million
4:13:38
pounds has got a recommendation from the highways and transport committee
4:13:43
rubber stamped by the SRP committee to be spent in this way
4:13:50
prioritization bus shelters increase in local highways
4:13:56
initiatives trees and vegetation clearance no doubt because you failed we weed policy
4:14:03
drains active travel I'll give you this one soil impacted roads Road
4:14:09
markings pothole management not potholes and Street lighting only one thing that
4:14:16
actually does something about the surface of rail roads made it onto your prioritization list for the 8.1 million
4:14:25
P worth of pothole money coming to this Council and that's why this is different
4:14:31
if your residents are telling you we want to fix our roads not our trees or lines and that's the most important
4:14:37
thing to you you can support this without being parochial you can support this with using your unfair m
4:14:43
you can support this and leave 2.4 million left over for the highways and transports committee to spend on those
4:14:49
other things if you don't support it we know
4:14:55
that all the talk about the condition of our roads is just rhetoric every single
4:15:01
time you talk about fixing our roads you spend the money elsewhere 8.1 million
4:15:06
allocated by the labor government to fix our roads and your prioritization list
4:15:12
is bus shelters increas in local highways initiatives trains drains
4:15:17
active travel soil impacted roads Road markings hot hole management and Street
4:15:22
lighting and that's the instruction you've given and is in the paperwork to go to the highways and transport
4:15:28
committee I do hope lowering the Ten of my voice because I'm so upset about
4:15:34
these things I do hope that you actually listen to that one and decide for your residence you want to fix your roads
4:15:41
rather than everything else the Sun and pretend to actually allocate money there
4:15:46
thank you chair thank you councelor count councelor
4:15:51
Becket what a load of councel Becket I'm sure you won't be using
4:15:58
unpar soy oh man so there was a highways and
4:16:04
transport committee meeting where members of both parties went through what we want to spend maintenance money
4:16:10
on a lot of those suggestions came from over there a lot of what we have in motions are things like lining soil
4:16:17
affected roads the things that you have very much discussed I can promise you now all of the money that we receive
4:16:22
from central government as part of the 8.1 million will be spent on maintenance that we're not going to do anything
4:16:29
other than that that is what we need yes you ra make point point personal explanation I wasn't talking about any
4:16:36
money's going to the Matrix I wasn't talking about any monies under the normal I was talking about the specific
4:16:41
recommendations that the h committee made on the 8.1 million which was the
4:16:46
specific recommendations passed and read out by Michael Hudson at srmp as instructions as a priority list for the
4:16:52
8.1 million P to go to the hirs and transport committee yeah okay Council K
4:16:58
I think we've made that point clear councelor Becket it will all go on maintenance the one nice thing it does
4:17:03
allow sir but due to the record levels of investment this Administration has put into Highway Maintenance we can have
4:17:09
a bit more flexibility in looking at what people think our maintenance needs are the most so we will be doing that I
4:17:15
do need to address some very serious criticisms Council count has made though of the highways prioritization Matrix
4:17:21
firstly that was all public any member of the highways and transport committee could have read those papers councilor
4:17:26
count could have read those papers on what was in the committee um on The prioritization Matrix if they did not
4:17:32
realize it at the time they could have asked officers in the meeting they did not so the criticism I find utterly
4:17:38
ridiculous if he he Cherry picks various things saying one of the things is is the extent of damage of a road we are
4:17:44
prioritizing our roads based on the extent of damage and yes you're right counselor count it says that um if
4:17:50
there's only the edge damage that gets the lowest marking if the whole road is damaged yes it gets marked higher that's
4:17:57
sensible you if the edge of a road is damaged it is obviously less serious than if the whole road is damaged um so
4:18:04
we need to look at that and prioritize effectively what is hiding the most in all of this though is what happened
4:18:09
beforehand so we do have this clear prioritization process and it is clear it is public anyone can go and look at
4:18:15
it before that under the conservatives they did not have that and this budget meeting today has shown you the way that
4:18:22
they approached maintenance which was to cherry-pick things for their own individual areas and that's the other
4:18:29
alternative that's what council account wants us to go back to cherry-picking things for their own areas so I'm going
4:18:34
to leave it there chair but thank you thank you councelor Becket uh councelor black thank you very much chair and I'd
4:18:41
like to apologize for breaking my earlier resolution but as as Council Bowden says this um this motion is
4:18:48
different from the other 10 and I'd like to thank Council Bon because I think he said something that was very right in
4:18:54
his speech he said that we have a nationwide problem of potholes and I've been some meetings with this Council
4:18:59
before where you'd have thought the pools were entirely the fault of what color Administration we had here in
4:19:05
cambrid here but he's right it was a national problem and it was a problem that we should firmly lay at the feet of
4:19:11
a Tory government um for 15 years which did not um do anything about keeping our roads in
4:19:19
proper order and I think if I've heard it rightly we have an acknowledgement
4:19:24
very generous actually I suppose from Council accounts that we have now with the labor government deciding the money
4:19:30
that will be allocated that we have more serious money uh to deal with Pooles
4:19:36
this year than we have had before under previous administrations so we have some serious money to deal with now I'm not
4:19:43
going to vote for this motion because I think what we've got is in some ways what the speakers have been asking for
4:19:49
we have got some serious money to deal with potholes so we don't need a motion
4:19:55
that says we will disree decrease the cpca grant Bud budget to Open brackets
4:20:00
Poole funding closed brackets as all the mtion say we will spend that money on
4:20:07
dealing with the Poole Scourge and we will do it by maintaining the RADS roads
4:20:12
properly which does mean trees and vegetation along the road Edge it does mean drainage it means you don't have standing water that blocked gullies mean
4:20:19
that the potholes come back again because it freezes and they the road bre surface breaks up again we are looking
4:20:25
to making progress and maintaining the roads properly but um we should still
4:20:31
vote this why is 6.7 million the right amount to um uh to decide to put in a
4:20:38
particular um s Silo I've no idea and I've heard nothing at the this debate to tell me that 6.7 million is the right
4:20:45
way money we have 8 million and we will deal with it properly at the highway and
4:20:50
transports committee thank you chair thank you councilor black uh councelor
4:20:56
Cherney thank you chair um Council burden's gone out of his way to try and make this reasonable fair and apolitical
4:21:04
he's done that because the earlier motions You could argue were different political statements from one side or the other you would expect that in a
4:21:10
budget meeting and in the run up to an election but uh Council bden has tried not to do that I know this is a cross-party
4:21:17
concern and the reason I know it is because in Finland uh the only Liv de counselor who I presume is the county
4:21:23
candidate is putting out literature saying let's fix the roads can you believe it and um and the labor party
4:21:29
also making roads a high priority again you couldn't you couldn't make it up but um but these this is because it's it's a
4:21:36
cross party concern this is an opportunity here this is this is the ruling parties budget with an amendment
4:21:44
it's still your budget if you vote for it you put it through you can all go out there and say we did this too this isn't
4:21:52
party political because you can say we voted for this too this is an opportunity to say to the taxpayers this
4:21:57
money that the government has given us we're going to use it on what they asked us to use it on really we're going to and we've said so in a full council
4:22:04
meeting we could all vote for this right now in a moment of rare unity and everybody benefits including the people
4:22:10
of cambrid wouldn't that be brilliant I know it's not going to happen but wouldn't it be brilliant thank you uh
4:22:17
thank you councelor shayer I didn't realize I indicated but
4:22:23
thank you very much chair um this believe me we don't need any extra
4:22:28
speakers this is I I should point out that it is already recognized as a key theme clearly um and one of the things
4:22:35
that we've done incredibly well during this Administration is increase the proactive work potholes lovely thing to
4:22:43
talk about they are a symptom they are not the cause the cause is roads well
4:22:49
past their cell by date we have a 25 30e cycle for replacing roads and we have
4:22:56
recommenced that cycle so that we can prevent Boles before they happen chair
4:23:03
thank you very much thank you councelor Shaya is that a text for a speech in front of
4:23:09
you that's a relief councelor gack thank thank you chairman um I'd like to
4:23:17
go back to couple of comments made during the debate good debate and what I think is a good Amendment um Road edges
4:23:24
why why are they less a road in in a Pete soil area in particular was
4:23:30
originally probably a track and then it became a single track and then it became
4:23:36
probably a concrete road a s a solid concrete road made partition partition
4:23:41
probably about 15 15 to 20 M long each one yards when they were made I'm sure and um then over years the road got
4:23:49
widened and then got tarmacked but over the top of the original road so the
4:23:55
weakest point is the unsupported Edge now I can tell you why that's serious
4:24:00
when you've got Ramsey 40 foot down your left side and cracking down the left hand side and you're a motorist with
4:24:06
oncoming traffic coming in the other direction or a motorcyclist you do not want to hug the white line you'll be
4:24:13
hugging the left hand side of the road right and that's why that's dangerous that's why this is wrong um I want to
4:24:20
give another evidential piece please which is on the a142 between soam and
4:24:27
stuntney at the barway toll last week um there was 97 entries on Facebook going
4:24:33
like the clappers um as to a pothole that was there I drove over and had a
4:24:38
look got hold of my LH and had a look online on reported system there were 38
4:24:44
entries by separate people there were more than 38 entries but there were 38 entries by separate people most of which
4:24:51
had expired and not been looked at that pothole was fixed as an emergency last
4:24:57
Friday right so why is it taking the local member to go out what we're actually saying this Motion in many ways
4:25:05
is a a view of the competency that's coming out this is the severity of some
4:25:10
of the decisions we have to make and I think that in in this in this one you know we've heard a lot of people talk on
4:25:17
on the previous amendments today it's a shame we haven't heard from everybody else but I guess they weren't chosen by the leadership to talk at the right time
4:25:23
but I think in this particular case we've got a solid amendment to a to to to the um budget plan and I think the
4:25:30
allocation of this money will be well spent and be better managed would for give our people of K here better
4:25:37
outcomes now I don't know whether you've got an Affliction to what I'm saying or whether you're saying my times up
4:25:43
neither I'm telling a member they can't speak thank
4:25:49
you sorry right lovely cancor Dr bat do you really have anything further to add no I think enough factual Corrections
4:25:55
have been made so I'll reserve for later on okay thank you um councelor Hoy you uh reserved your right to
4:26:02
Second sorry did no I don't have you do you want no i' I've put a line through your
4:26:09
name I I is there something burningly urgent that you wanted to add councelor
4:26:16
M no let's let's press on councelor Hoy yeah keep it brief um so all we've
4:26:21
talked about for the last few hours is potholes I think um we also want everyone wants potholes fixed um
4:26:27
interestingly lib Dems and labor say they want cons um potholes fixed because I've got a leaflet here from the lib
4:26:32
Dems in Finland saying that local elections will be chaos and underinvestment lib Dems are going to
4:26:38
make fixing our road a top priority don't think people in whiz Beach would think lib Dem are making fixing our road
4:26:43
a top priority there are holes everywhere um also a one of the Labor candidates for whis Beach announced that
4:26:49
he was running and was told good luck from my point of view the things that need looking at on the absolute awful state of all payment and voters
4:26:56
potential voter for him um and he says I can't couldn't agree more I'm told there's a new strategy and new funding
4:27:02
to deal with potholes so I will really look forward given that there is this wonderful new strategy that has been put
4:27:08
in place and have been assured by the labor candidate I'm really looking forward um to getting all the potholes
4:27:14
filled in whis Beach because even if he he achieves that and he won that would actually be awesome news for the town um
4:27:20
i' very much doubt that's going to happen though I'd be ni to be pleasantly surprised um but I do think this
4:27:25
amendment is really important we do everyone has been saying how much we need to spend on potholes how much money
4:27:31
we need and this is actually a real um way to do that thank you councelor H and finally
4:27:37
cancel n singer and I'm sorry I am going to speak on this one so I have been
4:27:42
really shocked by the way the conservative group have chosen to put forward this set of amendments this amendment along with the 10 which
4:27:49
preceded it feel like an insult to the dedicated work of officers across the council and the councilors who turn up
4:27:56
to our committees and take the serious work of this Council seriously this amendment seeks to remove
4:28:03
6.7 million from the detailed work of counselors at the highways Committee in determining how to manage our very
4:28:10
constrained funding and instead councelor Bowden and Hoy put it into a single line of money removing the
4:28:17
possibility from the highways Committee of funding many of the things suggested by the previous 10
4:28:23
Amendments by ring fencing 6.7 million councilor Bowden employee remove the
4:28:29
possibility from the highways Committee of funding some of the things their colleagues have previously demanded no
4:28:35
money for Stilton and sorry no money for flooding at an Alby Brook no money for littleport rail access
4:28:43
the administration's budget proposals allocate the whole of the 8.1 million to be prioritized by the highways committee
4:28:50
where councelors from all parties have the opportunity to work together to
4:28:56
discuss the priorities for the whole Council for many years as leader of the
4:29:02
opposition on this Council I spent hours working with my group and officers of
4:29:07
the council to bring forward balanced alternative budget proposals
4:29:12
this was not an easy process it took hours of my time and hours of the time of my group members but we felt the
4:29:20
residents of Cambridge are deserved the option of a credible alternative to the then conservative
4:29:26
Administration when I eventually took over to lead the council I was glad that I and my group had spent time properly
4:29:33
understanding the council's financial situation and I have to say I am genuinely shocked that the conservative
4:29:39
group have not bothered to do that work less than three months from the next election for this Council they have not
4:29:45
bothered to engage with the tough decisions they have just gone on a fantasy spending
4:29:51
spree this amendment like all the preceding individual amendments is a
4:29:56
pathetic attempt to give the appearance of putting money into highways but like so much of the conservative Financial
4:30:02
claims It Is Not What It Seems it is Liz truss economics and it deserves contempt
4:30:08
the residents of cambrid deserve better than this amendment and they deserve better than this from their opposition
4:30:14
members the conservative group should be embarrassed at the depths to which their party has fallen the cumulative total of
4:30:21
their amendments has now exceeded 36 million against a budget line of 8 million and to fund that you would have
4:30:27
to double the council tax increase point of order please I hope they will engage councelor uh GAC your point of order is
4:30:34
um it's 8.1 million I don't want her to get a figures wrong thank you councelor go councelor neter if you'd like to
4:30:40
continue that pretty much makes my final point which is that I hope that at the highways and transport committee the
4:30:46
members of the conservative group will engage seriously with the issues of prioritizing Highway spending they have
4:30:53
failed utterly to do so today thank you thank you and now take vote on the
4:30:58
amendment can I ask the Democratic services manager to conduct a recorded vote by taking an electronic vote on the amendment Mrs row can you please start
4:31:04
the vote members in favor of the amendment please press the button underneath the
4:31:10
word yes members MERS against the amendment please press the button underneath the word no members wishing
4:31:16
to abstain please press the button underneath the word
4:31:22
abstain chair I'm now closing the
4:31:29
vote the result of the vote is 15 votes in favor 34 against no abstentions the
4:31:35
amendment is therefore lost thank you Mrs row um we're now
4:31:41
going to all sections of the business plan all members will have the opportunity of speaking once only for 5
4:31:48
minutes I propose as part of the main debate to exercise my discretion and invite the chairs of the policy and
4:31:54
service committees if they so wish to speak first uh and I do highlight if they so
4:32:00
wish so councelor Howard thank you I'm honored to present the budget for the adults and health
4:32:08
committee which amounts to 385 million pounds gross budget something more than
4:32:14
we spent the last hours debating I'm deeply thankful to the Ado of social care and public health staff for doing
4:32:20
some painstaking work on this budget and the councils I thought gave very good scrutiny in our committee our committee
4:32:27
recognizes that we hold 40% of the council's budget and so we take seriously our um influence uh for the
4:32:35
whole Council in putting this budget together and has found 21 million pounds
4:32:41
of sa savings that were necessary for us to find in producing this budget but with increased demand and inflation
4:32:47
there is still an 8 million extra injection into adults adult social care
4:32:53
and public health this year I am proud that for the fourth year running there
4:32:58
are no Cuts in this budget to the most vulnerable people in our County if you need help from CER County Council you're
4:33:05
going to continue to get it and at least at the same level and we're not standing still in this budget we at expanding our
4:33:12
reablement service helping with short-term interventions people to get back on their feet quite literally we're
4:33:18
keeping the pressure down on waiting list we've cut the financial assessments by 88% there are just 45 people in
4:33:25
Cambridge who are waiting for their uh financial help uh and if there is a
4:33:30
safeguarding concern we deal with it on average in less than a day I'm proud of all of that with my colleague councelor
4:33:37
van Deen we have pressed the for the care together program bringing local ization to our services setting up 41
4:33:45
microenterprises in our towns and Villages providing over 4,000 hours of Care at the very local level and over
4:33:53
and help to over 6,400 older adults across the county in this strategy we're putting together3
4:34:00
million over a 10-year Target period3 million pound in this year for specialist housing for people with very
4:34:07
complex needs which is something that is dearly needed and we can do best we will
4:34:12
continue to pay the real living wage meaning that Frontline care workers are getting better pay in Cambridge and now
4:34:19
for Cambridge of providers 96% of them actually are doing it it's a big success
4:34:26
story for this Council and over 700 Frontline care workers in the past year
4:34:31
have taken advantage of our care Academy to get recognition and qualifications to
4:34:37
improve their Career Development and it's paying itself back our turn over
4:34:42
rate and vacancy rate is going down because we treat staff better 15% fewer
4:34:47
of our employees leaving this year uh for these efforts we were a finalist in
4:34:52
the supportive employer of the year at the national Social Work Awards our Public Health Team uh is higher than the
4:34:59
national average on helping people to lose weight and to stop smoking uh and in the next year will produce very
4:35:06
important findings in terms of Behavioral change amongst Cambridge people people there are risks in this
4:35:13
budget about learning disabilities partnership where I'm afraid to say we are in dispute with the integrated care
4:35:20
board and in savings on elderly persons uh um uh Services uh because of a a
4:35:27
different Trend rate but we are making a uh provision in the budget for reserves
4:35:32
should that not prove to continue in the in the coming year we are also approaching the forthcoming Care Quality
4:35:38
commission uh inspection and I commend what the officers are doing in preparation for that in the last part of
4:35:45
my uh um contribution I want to acknowledge what the new government has done and what that means for Cambridge
4:35:52
880 million pounds nationally extra into social care that's an extra nearly 7
4:35:58
million pounds in our budget a 16% increase much more than by the way the
4:36:03
National Insurance uh increase in the budget which I acknowledge was unpopular but that's fully funded and more to
4:36:10
improve social care in our count the better care fund will give us a million pounds more and at a real terms
4:36:15
increased the public health Grant increases by nearly half a million pounds and we've got extra national
4:36:21
funding of a million pounds a year uh for public health to undertake smoking
4:36:27
uh uh and uh Prevention Services and it we have a new government which is only
4:36:32
just started to deal with all of the problems but it is already making a real difference and I hope that conservatives
4:36:39
through you chair will recogn ize that uh um that that when they failed to use
4:36:45
the social care precept under their Administration they were depriving elderly and disabled people in our
4:36:51
County from the services they need which would be 8 million pounds less in this Budget on what they would have done and
4:36:58
I hope also they will have the good grace to acknowledge we're getting more money from this labor government and to
4:37:04
welcome that fact thank you very much councelor Howard uh councelor hathor
4:37:13
thank you chair counselors imagine a poorly run overgrown Garden it's chaotic
4:37:18
there are weeds everywhere plants growing wild and paths obstructed it's hard to see the beauty and potential
4:37:23
because everything is in disarray that describes the property estate this joint Administration inherited which we have
4:37:30
looked at through the assets and procurement committee over the past three years we've had to clear weeds
4:37:35
trim the overgrown plants and repair paths we have carefully pruned the bushes and allowed them to grow and
4:37:41
controlled and more healthy manner this time last year we brought forward a radical and Forward Thinking Estates
4:37:46
plan followed in March 2024 by our land and property Vision this is the first strategy the council has had for over a
4:37:53
decade and will enable us to to deliver our strategic goals including working in communities and Net Zero this joint
4:38:00
Administration has gripped control of our huge estate to ensure that going forward our property is managed in a way
4:38:06
that enures that we have an estate that is sustainable fit for purpose and effective for the coming decades an
4:38:13
estate that supports how we Lo work locally within and with our communities and partners and an estate which drives
4:38:19
our ambitious carbon neutral targets by creating a Greener estate already we
4:38:24
have made significant progress including investment of6 million pounds in total in our communities including libraries
4:38:31
1.5 million of which was secured through external funding over the last 12 months we've
4:38:36
also decarbonized a further 10 corporate buildings saving 200 tons of carbon dioxide a year which means we are well
4:38:43
on our way to delivering a carbon neutral estate by 2030 the savings proposals before you
4:38:49
today show that through strong management we are selling and repurposing our estate with the goal to save nearly two billion pounds of
4:38:55
Revenue a year and generate over 12 million pound of capital receipts to reinvest in our remaining estate to make
4:39:02
these improvements we have invested in our property team's capability through apprenticeships and training last year
4:39:08
the property team resolved 11,000 reported issues this ensured that our estate was available every day to our
4:39:14
hardworking teams right across our services we have also implemented a property asset manage management system
4:39:21
to tag and plan our work which Ena enables us to respond and work smarter as well as saving
4:39:27
money improvements at our libraries such as in March Cambridge and whis Beach have enabled our local communities to
4:39:33
work closely with us whilst investment in our office Estates in cambour March whiz beach Huntington and elely are
4:39:41
enabling us to work even closer with public sector Partners to ensure we continue this investment we have had to
4:39:47
take tough decisions about some of our older state but we haven't shied away from that even when the property
4:39:52
decisions we inherited were not properly thought through disposals such as at sington milroad library and soon to be
4:39:59
old shy Hall have seen offers exceeding guide prices bringing in more Revenue to support our future estate to be
4:40:05
sustainable and Greener our Rural Farms the largest holding of any local Authority in the UK Contin to thrive
4:40:12
this estate includes the biodiversity Net game site at Lower Valley Farm that has created over aund over a thousand
4:40:19
biodiversity units this is significant significantly enhanced its ecological
4:40:25
value our climate change and environmental strategy is driving our goal to use our estate to significantly
4:40:30
increase the planting of HED RS and trees across our estate in the next 5 years all of which is contributing to
4:40:36
our Target to ensure the county is net neutral by 2045
4:40:41
at North angle this joint ad Administration has fixed the Legacy MTH of the solar farm it inherited to ensure
4:40:47
it is now producing energy to sell locally into the grid we are applying the same strong financial grip with our
4:40:52
commercial estate which will take Brave decisions to deal again with the weeds We inherited when we took on this
4:40:57
Administration we've also looked to be Innovative in how we repurpose repurpose our estate with three former Farm tenant
4:41:03
buildings being converted to children's residential facilities to help manage our costs but most importantly mean
4:41:10
those children care for are closer to their support network and family we have in grip we have gripped our investment
4:41:16
estate taken taken the struggling estate we inherited and turned it around as a result now we no longer see that overrun
4:41:22
garden now we are starting to see the flowers bu and a clear path to enjoy the Serene Serene environment we have a lot
4:41:29
more to do but we are well positioned for local government reorganization through our driving of the one public
4:41:34
estate and partnership working by voting for the budget today you are voting for a well-run estate that everyone can
4:41:40
enjoy and be part of of thank you very much councelor goodliff I hope you've got
4:41:46
a a lovely speech too thank you chair in this budget
4:41:52
children and young people's committee are addressing two things one we recognize the need to reduce our overall
4:41:58
spend in the coming Financial years whilst not impacting the safety of Frontline Service delivery and two we
4:42:04
need to invest in services that need to grow to meet the increasing demand and complexity across our system Financial
4:42:10
pressure across children education and Family Services locally regionally and nationally have been growing
4:42:16
particularly in areas such as special educational needs and disabilities home-to-school transport and children's
4:42:22
social care placements with austerity stripping out support around families we have been and continue to undertake work
4:42:28
to address each of these areas in Cambridge against a backdrop of increasing demand and systemic failure
4:42:34
in the National systems we're saving to invest in our Frontline delivery in the multi- agency safeguarding Hub and
4:42:40
assess M services to ensure that children's needs are identified and assessed as quickly as possible so that
4:42:46
we can support where needed and intervene when necessary £ 490,000 investment in mash and the front door
4:42:53
assessment will increase our capacity and ensure that we can meet children's needs at the earliest opportunity we're
4:42:59
investing in our special education educational needs and disability services to create capacity needed to
4:43:06
enable all children in cambridgea to have the opportunity to thrive investing 92 5,000 in services for children with
4:43:13
SC to continue to improve the quality and timeliness of Assessments and plans
4:43:18
whilst also working with the DFE to deliver enhanced resource bases in conjunction with our local schools we
4:43:24
await their send system changes to address the failure of the 2014 send reform which has resulted in a system
4:43:31
which despite heroic efforts from staff students and families is not working and does not deliver good educational
4:43:37
outcomes for many students we welcome the changes signal signaled from the DFE regarding s system change and children's
4:43:44
the Children's Schools and well-being Bill we will work closely with the DFE to implement changes as they become
4:43:51
statute a further £740 million pound nationally was announced for the high needs provision capital allocations and
4:43:58
we will work to ensure that Cambridge has sees as much investment as possible to support our children young people and
4:44:03
schools in the areas where it is most needed we're rebuilding our own in-county local children's home
4:44:10
provision through our residential strategy which will bring children in care with the most complex needs back to
4:44:16
cambrid in cambrid County Council homes where we can better support them our residential strategy will see the
4:44:22
creation of two children's homes in Cambridge which will enable more children to be cared for inside of their
4:44:27
home county and get the right level of support from local Services there is an investment of £650,000 in this budget to
4:44:34
support this development and we're continuing to review our school transport arrangements to reduce the
4:44:40
growing cost in in this area a saving of £833 th000 will be made against our home
4:44:45
to school transport and Logistics following an independent review of our home to school and social care transport
4:44:51
delivery a program of change will be developed to incorporate some of these recommendations and ensure that almost
4:44:57
13,000 children and young people can attend school safety safely every day
4:45:02
we're set to receive 1.58 million pound from the children's social care prevention Grant this grant is for
4:45:09
direct investment in additional prevention activity for Children and Families through the implementation of
4:45:14
family help and Child Protection reforms it will also allow us to deliver against the planned new legislative duty to
4:45:20
offer family group decision-making meetings to All Families at the pre-pre stage thanks to investment from the
4:45:27
public health Grant we've been able to continue to offer preventative Services to Children young people at risk of
4:45:32
entering the youth justice system for the first time these services are having a positive impact on reducing the number
4:45:38
of firsttime entrance and supporting children at risk of criminal exploitation and it is essential we
4:45:44
continue to work with Partners on this key prevention program ensuring that we support our most vulnerable families
4:45:50
struggling with austerity in the cost of living crisis through the issuing of holiday school meal vouchers almost
4:45:56
24,000 children qualified for these in the recent Christmas holiday we continue to feed feedback from this scheme about
4:46:03
how vital these are and the difference that they make between being able to literally eat or not eat during school
4:46:09
holidays as well as as assisting parents to be able to make healthier choices while shopping I assume that we'll all
4:46:15
be supporting this budget here today thank you chair thank you very much councelor
4:46:21
Sanderson thank you very much chair I did speak um a little bit earlier about the work that we're doing on the communities committee so I won't um
4:46:28
repeat all of that again but I wanted just to start by thanking um our officer team also thanking the other members of
4:46:34
the committee particularly my vice chair councelor buat councelor dawnson liberal Democrat Spokes and councelor uh
4:46:41
chriswell the conservative spokes all of whom make excellent contributions to our deliberations throughout the year as we
4:46:48
know the County Council is committed to doing all it can to alleviate poverty and help address the pressures people are still experiencing through the cost
4:46:54
of living crisis and over the last year we've distributed 7 million pound of the government's household support fund to
4:47:01
support families who are struggling including holiday food vouchers to more than 22,000 children since April 2024 our
4:47:09
contract with the citizens advice Bureau has supported just under 3,000 people
4:47:15
with advice to help them access all the benefits they're entitled to financial and non-financial resulting in an
4:47:21
additional 1.7 million pounds of income gained that's an average of £ 633 per
4:47:28
person however on the communities committee we recognize that we need to do all we can to address the causes of
4:47:33
poverty not just to deal with the symptoms that's why the council commissioned an independent poverty
4:47:38
strategy commission which is bringing together together various Representatives with diverse views to
4:47:44
lead the work and offer um some solutions alongside this commitment to
4:47:49
addressing poverty we continue to prioritize the development of our library service we're proud that we've
4:47:54
retained all of our 33 libraries and our mobile service which turned actually turned 60 years old earlier this year
4:48:02
the service received funding to develop the every Space Project in March Library which opened in September and for
4:48:08
Central Library in Cambridge where work is due to start this spring to create flexible spaces for Community use for
4:48:15
events and activities including the provision of facilities and equipment that will enable Services working
4:48:21
directly with young people to meet with them in a fit forp purpose space the library service continues to receive
4:48:28
funding to deliver the library presents which is a rich cultural officer in the heart of our communities and worked
4:48:34
successfully with colleagues in health to secure funding for confidential meeting pods which will be installed in
4:48:39
some of our libraries in the coming months the continued investment for libraries in next year's budget or this
4:48:46
coming budget which we're voting on which will will help more libraries to have flexible and adaptable spaces where we can provide access to a wide range of
4:48:53
council Services Works already begun at yaxley library with plans also approved for
4:48:58
elely and Cambridge Central Library ahead of proposals which will come forward shortly for Huntington Whitt and
4:49:04
Rock Road these developments have being carried out in collaboration with members of the asset and procurement
4:49:10
committee as councelor hathorne outlined in her remarks just a moment ago alongside the council's accommodation
4:49:15
investment program this investment provides opportunities for Council colleagues to work from and meet
4:49:21
residents in a location that's closer to our communities over the last 12 months
4:49:26
we've had a number of positives which I'm particularly proud of um and I'll just run through some of those um
4:49:31
briefly we secured funding from the integrated care system to host the high impact user service on behalf of the
4:49:38
wider partnership and mobilizing the offer at PACE we received praise from NHS England for the council's approach
4:49:45
and work on um achieving early outcomes we approved the domestic abuse strategy and we secured re accreditation
4:49:52
of the national white ribbon status raising the profile importance of ending violence against women and young people
4:49:59
we celebrate as I said 60 years of our mobile Library service which has visited over 400 different stops each month
4:50:06
across the county the registration service has performed just over a thousand ceremonies in Council rooms and
4:50:13
just over a thousand ceremonies in approved venues alongside the introduction of bespoke Ceremonies
4:50:19
following a successful trial in early 2024 so I'm very proud of the work we've done um chair and again thank colleagues
4:50:25
for their contributions and I'm proud to support the budget thank you thank you
4:50:31
councelor Sanderson uh our next speaker is councelor Dupre but we she have to wait for 20 minutes before we hear the
4:50:37
gems from her uh so I'm adjourning the meeting until halfast
4:51:09
3
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e
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e
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e
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uh right welcome back everybody if I could ask you to take your seats and we
5:10:54
will now hear from councelor Dupre when she's not being hared by
5:11:02
councelor [Laughter] nettinger okay not hared
5:11:10
to be brief given the amount of time that has already elapsed by far the most significant
5:11:17
expenditure in the remit of the environment and green investment committee is the cost of waste disposal
5:11:22
changes in regulatory requirements have increased this uh problem substantially and the expensive inflexible and
5:11:28
long-term contract we inherited from the conservatives is a serious hindrance I'm
5:11:34
grateful to officers for all their hard work this year keeping their eye on this particular ball as it moves so very
5:11:40
quickly and seeking to reduce the council's financial exposure this is also the year some of
5:11:47
the council's major energy schemes complete we've worked with Council staff to bring these schemes home which hasn't
5:11:53
been easy considering their high level of risk and previous poor oversight under our Administration the
5:12:00
council has a much better understanding of how to manage projects of this type and the energy team now leads the way on
5:12:07
risk within the council we're looking ahead now to new work on community energy schemes local area
5:12:14
energy planning and much more we expect to receive our tree and Woodland strategy and biodiversity strategy for
5:12:21
approval at committee next month we've contributed to some really important collaborative work on cambridge's
5:12:27
locally determined contribution to meeting National and Global carbon targets we've supported local flood
5:12:34
groups and further developed our flood risk action plans I would very much like to thank all officers responsible for
5:12:41
working with members to bring all those things about I'm very much in their debt
5:12:47
I welcome this business plan and budget which will enable this work to continue and I commend it to
5:12:53
members thank you councelor Dupre and finally councelor
5:13:03
Becket thank you chair I'm sure everyone wants to hear more about highways today um I think it's important to realize how
5:13:10
far we've come though four years ago we inherited a networking crisis in managed decline as publicly stated under the
5:13:17
administration years of underinvestment no permanent leadership gullies left untouched and overgrowing a maintenance
5:13:24
contract with no real concern for quality active travel team being disbanded no transparent system for
5:13:30
prioritizing repairs and an apparent bias towards Finland years of conservative rule have let us all down
5:13:36
and left our country desperate or County desperate for change and our country as well the journey has had many curveballs
5:13:42
thrown us along the way quite apart from a central government who simply doesn't give us enough funding for maintaining
5:13:47
our Network we've also had large major Railway coming to the area severe weather and of course not forgetting the
5:13:54
catastrophic inflation caused by LZ trust and the conservatives it's easy to forget just how deep the hole was but we
5:14:01
are turning the tanker through careful budgeting we've stopped the decline yes
5:14:07
we need central government to take responsibility help us reverse the Decades of damage done under the conservatives but the for the first time
5:14:13
in a long time we actually have what we need to prevent further deterioration
5:14:18
and we're seeing the results this year alone we've delivered 400 different projects a record amount of resurfacing
5:14:25
Gully emptying and Road lining the number of potholes reaching intervention level has dropped from
5:14:31
63,000 um in 201920 under the conservatives to an estimated 52,000
5:14:36
this year it's a sign of real progress and a big thank you to our delivery teams and local highways officers
5:14:42
including my own Andy for their tius work we have a long long way to go to bring our Network back to the state that
5:14:48
it needs to be but we are making that progress we are starting but our work isn't just about
5:14:54
fixing roads it's about building a better future our first cohort of Highways apprentices Nathan Alex Ibraham
5:15:00
Kieran and Harvey are on track to complete their program by January 2026 a massive well done to them and a thanks
5:15:06
to Carol and the team for supporting them we're also leading the way on sustainability most of our maintenance
5:15:12
vehicles and plant now run on hoo or electric fuels which is saving 80% in carbon emissions we're increasing the
5:15:18
use of recycled materials our cold laid binders in footwe treatments alone have cut carbon emissions by 40% we're
5:15:25
building on this using init Recycling and low carbon cement to drive further carbon Savings in the country first our
5:15:32
active Travel network and definitive Maps team have rolled out an active travel maintenance hierarchy this sits
5:15:37
alongside our traditional Main hierarchy for cars and allows us to Target types
5:15:42
of repairs effectively Dan Grant and the rest of Team thank you for your pioneering work transparency has been a
5:15:48
key priority for us gone of the days where schemes got approved based on who you know under Barry wy's leadership our
5:15:54
asset team has introduced a cross-party transparent framework for prioritizing maintenance so residents know exactly
5:16:00
why one scheme is prioritized over the other and a thank you to councel Gardner councelor sharp for sitting on the meetings agreeing that one and our
5:16:06
consense team has been at the Forefront of of managing large scale projects they worked over Christmas to finalize our
5:16:13
response to East West rail so thank you for your dedication on that there are too many teams to mention in highways
5:16:18
over the last four years our policy and regulations and parking teams have been working non-stop to keep up with all the work we've been delivering from robots
5:16:24
to 20 mph to parking regulations the silent Heroes of our team are the street Works teams dealing with a roughly
5:16:30
double the number of permits huge congestion troubles and a legislative framework that severely limits their
5:16:36
options and our contracts team which this year well in the last just over 12 months has saved 3.7 Million by holding
5:16:43
our contractors to account on both price and quality something which previous administrations just didn't do looking
5:16:50
ahead this year is pivotal with our finances finally on steady ground we can move from stabilizing the network to
5:16:55
rebuilding it this administration's 20 million in additional capital investment gives us flexibility to expand Frontline
5:17:02
maintenance teams improve drainage increase lhis bus Shel repair and enhance Communications for all of us the
5:17:08
extra funding will enable us to rethink how we handle potholes ensuring we deliver the best service possible and
5:17:14
for the long term we will begin developing our future highways operating model bringing some routine tasks back in house to ensure the best value for
5:17:22
every pound spent let's be clear this progress was not inevitable it took hard
5:17:27
work smart budgeting and a real commitment to making things better the conservatives had years to fix these problems and they failed they chose
5:17:34
neglect they chose excuses they chose decline we choose action and we are delivering
5:17:40
thank you councilor Beckett that completes the chairs of the policy and service service committees I have two
5:17:47
members who've already indicated they wish to speak I would be grateful if other members who wish to speak indicate
5:17:53
before councelor Thompson has finished her speech but first we begin with councelor
5:18:00
TIY is it on yeah thank you chair um yeah first of all um I'm so tired of
5:18:06
hearing oh the previous information b b b look you've been in charge for four years this administration's been in
5:18:12
charge for four years when you started in charge we were still isolating and freezing cold Halls because of covid you
5:18:18
can't keep blaming the previous administration for your mess the highways department has failed by any
5:18:24
measure come on it's failed just own it and what what is the next Administration going to say just imagine by some
5:18:30
miracle that you guys are still in charge what are you going to say then oh the mess We inherited from the same
5:18:35
people last time you can't keep using the same excuse people just don't believe it anymore my second is a bit of
5:18:41
a question I've got three remarks make this is the second bit of a question whose budget is this because as far as I
5:18:47
understand you haven't all the The Independents the labor party and the the liberal Democrats haven't all said their
5:18:53
standing in my under a joint banner and putting one candidate in each place a rainbow Alliance candidate if that's not
5:18:58
the case whose budget is this each one of you why is why is there not an independent budget amendment why is
5:19:04
there not a labor party Amendment why is there not a libm Amendment because we know that after May this council is
5:19:09
going to look very different we don't know in what respect it could be another rainbow Alliance but it's certainly not going to be this one so where are your
5:19:16
budget amendments you are very critical that the conservatives who I remind you are not in charge didn't put in an amendment neither did any of you
5:19:23
councelor becket's keen on calling people Hypocrites that's pure hypocrisy right there none of you have done the work you say should have been done as if
5:19:30
you automatically assume the same group's going to be in charge after May and it is not uh a third point I'd like
5:19:35
to make I'm afraid is a bit historic um I've stood here for better part of 15 years on and off making this same point
5:19:41
and I will make it this possibly last time um and that is this the reason I won't be supporting this budget isn't
5:19:47
because I disagree with much of it though I do it's because of the council tax rise because the trouble with this
5:19:53
eyew waterer and council tax bu is that you forget the people you hurt it's easy
5:19:59
to say if we don't raise council tax there'll be this effect and that effect and this person will get hurt and that person will get hurt but what you always
5:20:05
forget is all those people who are right on the breadline not the poor people who are already getting subsidies or not
5:20:11
paying council tax but those people who are barely managing of which there are thousands those people who are
5:20:17
struggling to pay the bills massive increases in energy bills often due to your part's policies massive increases
5:20:23
across the board some of which are conservative based I don't deny it I'm talking about normal people who've been
5:20:28
affected by the rising St rising cost of living and just can't afford year after year after year after year your endless
5:20:35
council tax advises I know it's hard work to deliver the things that we want to deliver without a council tax VI I
5:20:41
know it's going to mean a lot of difficult choices and I know that we are also on this side proposing additional spending I accept all of that I'm not
5:20:48
saying it's easy the trouble is it's not easy for those people who have to pay the bills and you never remember them
5:20:54
you couldn't care less about them those are the people I care about and that's why I won't be supporting this budget or
5:21:00
any budget that has any council tax wise if I'm reelected ever again thank
5:21:06
you thank you councel attorney councelor
5:21:11
Thompson thank you chair um the 2025 26
5:21:16
budget for children education and families represented a vital investment in the future of our young people with
5:21:22
18 2.7 million allocated including um
5:21:28
including 16.6 16 million in additional funding we are reinforcing key services such as
5:21:35
looked after children home to school transport and send provisions as councelor goodliff um stated earlier
5:21:43
I would like to just take this opportunity to thank all the officers for their hard work and Council goodliff as the chair of the CP however this
5:21:50
investment comes at a time of serious National challenges the demand for send support has soared Education Health and
5:21:57
Care plans have increased by 70% since 2020 driving up costs in transport and
5:22:02
Autism Services meanwhile profiteering in the private care sector has led to 42% % rise in placement costs forcing
5:22:11
more children to live far from their communities another area under pressure
5:22:16
is the youth offending service which was referred to earlier which plays a crucial role in keeping young people
5:22:22
away from crime Government funding Cuts threatened this service but we fought to protect it because we know that
5:22:28
prevention is key without early intervention more young people would be drawn into the
5:22:34
justice system leading to worse outcomes for them and greater cost for society
5:22:39
this budget strengthens early safeguarding increases local residential capacity for children in care and
5:22:45
improves sense support in mainstream schools it focuses on prevention intervention and bringing Services
5:22:51
closer to communities but let's be clear councils cannot continue to bear this
5:22:57
pressures alone we need real National reform sustainable funding and policies
5:23:02
that put children first despite the challenges we remain committed to ensure that young people in cambers get the
5:23:09
support they need we will continue to stand by them thank you thank you councelor Thompson uh
5:23:16
before I call councelor Dr buat uh is there anybody else who wishes to be added to the list of speakers for this
5:23:23
item councelor Dr thank you chair on this business about why does labor or the indendent
5:23:29
group don't bring amendments the clue is in the name of the joint Administration there's actually a joint Administration
5:23:35
agreement including agreeing a budget and we need to have have a balanced budget for the council by law as well so
5:23:41
I think maybe like there will be some reading necessary on the joint Administration um agreement back in 2021
5:23:48
so just to clarify that we also had criticism earlier on in the debate that were not enthusiastic enough in our
5:23:54
speeches and I have to say I'm very enthusiastic about the work on the communities committee and I'm sure we have heard already and we hear more from
5:24:01
colleagues who are very enthusiastic and championing the work on their committees as well including cross party work because I have to say on communities we
5:24:07
work very well cross party and I think all the spokes have been enthusiastic and championing the work on the
5:24:12
communities committee one statistic one in six children in the county live in
5:24:17
poverty and in some areas this is as high as one in three and this of course disproportionately affects younger
5:24:23
families migrants disabled people and larger families so we really need the government to focus on this area to
5:24:29
remove the social Mobility cold spots in the country and that's why I'm really really proud that on the communities
5:24:34
committee we are making longer term investments that actually address of the structural inequalities we have in the
5:24:40
count the county the 2.2 million in anti-poverty strategy and action plan the 1.23 million 1.3 million in our
5:24:48
libraries I will focus on what we're doing locally especially on prevention on and on that long long-term effect
5:24:55
because indeed the government renewed the household support fund which is very welcome over 7 million we heard being
5:25:00
distributed from the household support funds to individuals and families last year but once again this is a shortterm
5:25:06
grant and we have to address the the root causes of poverty and inequality and therefore addressing the number one
5:25:12
concern of residents in our cambrid County area which is the cost of living
5:25:18
so we must think strategically on long term we do need multi-year settlements from for councils from government to
5:25:23
enable actually planning Beyond this immediate yearly budget cycle and
5:25:28
actually prioritize more preventative work and while welcome th those grants that renew or not every 6 months do not
5:25:35
provide the certainty our communities need and indeed our staff need in the council as well however despite the
5:25:41
challenging Financial pressures we have continued and also progressed new ways to think long term about those issues
5:25:46
and I will highlight very briefly three of them the income maximization work that councelor Sanderson touched on this
5:25:52
is really welcome and that's something that I think must continue regardless of the administration after May the closer
5:25:58
to communities work uh from the pilot project but also I also want to mention the cambri priorities Capital fund that
5:26:05
supported a range of projects from the olive Academy gym facilities to solar energy system at upwood Village Hall for
5:26:11
example to improving the cooking facilities at the commemoration Hall in Huntington all those projects and many
5:26:17
more support our communities dayto day at the very local level and third our poverty strategy which recognizes the
5:26:24
need to address the root causes it's an independent commission bringing together representatives from a wide range of
5:26:30
sectors and most importantly to me it actually draws on evidence from people who actually have experienced poverty
5:26:36
and having that lived experience shaping our policy is really really important going forward to be able to make sound
5:26:41
decisions on how we are able to allocate this investment in the months to come and the approach of the commission I
5:26:47
have to say is ground groundbreaking for cambrid here and the way they're were doing policies and I'm really really proud of that work and finally on
5:26:55
libraries I'm really proud to say that the registration services as well as our library service um are the highest
5:27:00
performing in the quality of life survey and I am glad to see many more residents signing up for a library cart and
5:27:06
enjoying those services so I very enthusiastic and very proud on of the work on communities celebrating 40 Years
5:27:12
of our mobile Library serving our Villages being re accredited for white ribbon status with new ambassadors
5:27:18
joining across the council our work on libraries of sanctuary as well welcoming new communities the cambri skills
5:27:24
performance to name just a few of those services so thank you to all committee members who work cross party on this
5:27:30
officers for their hard work and I hope you can support this budget enthusiastically as well thank you thank
5:27:37
you counc you let councel Dr SE thank you
5:27:43
chair um in his introductory remarks on the substantive motion to approve the budget and before the members of the
5:27:49
party opposite decided to take a leave out the books of a certain eccentric politician on the other side of the
5:27:55
Atlantic and flooded The Zone with their amendments Council count asserted and
5:28:01
Council attorney alluded to the fact that or alleged that this is administration
5:28:08
had wasted money and wasted opportunities and that only his party
5:28:14
could be trusted to ensure efficiency and look after taxpayers funds now I'm
5:28:19
not sure that this can be said to be true and I you've heard all the very
5:28:25
good examples of the achievements that the various uh committees have made over
5:28:31
these certainly past few years and the cost savings that have been achieved but I'm going to give you a small example of
5:28:38
something I was personally involved in and which not many members of this committee will know about shortly after
5:28:45
I was elected to this chamber about two years ago I had caused to inquire into the spending of some section 106 funds
5:28:52
that were due to be paid by a developer on certain triggers which should have been realized in
5:28:58
201617 the investigation by officers led to the discovery that under the watch of the previous administration the system
5:29:05
for monitoring developer obligations was to say the least rudimentary and unreliable and in the instance and which
5:29:13
I was interested a substantial sum in the order of a million pounds not
5:29:20
inconsequential uh was not accounted for and remained uncollected following an
5:29:25
internal audit the governance of section 106 and Cil and the accounting control
5:29:30
system related to it has been improved and the funds in question were recovered
5:29:36
just a few weeks ago there are residual risks and there may be other uncollected sums and I believe
5:29:42
that and hope that a deep dive investigation is in progress at the moment now this is an example only but I
5:29:50
think it illustrates that this Administration is as concerned about value for money and financial property
5:29:56
as any responsible counselors should be and that residents across the county can be assured that in setting our budget we
5:30:03
aim to meet our statutory duties and act in what we deem to be the best interests
5:30:09
with the council tax that we are a legally able to raise and the amounts available all budgets are to a certain
5:30:15
extent estimates and compromises as we have all got different
5:30:21
priorities I personally uh would have like to see more discretionary spending on preventative health
5:30:27
care and the initiatives that go with that but I would urge members to accept
5:30:33
the budget before us as a very reasonable compromise thank you thank you councilor
5:30:41
shayer thank you very much chair it's not a surprise that the opposition chose highways projects our public highways
5:30:48
matter to people they also matter to Industries and jobs and Leisure and education and connecting us all to each
5:30:55
other so I thank the council for the budget and I would also like to um ask
5:31:02
members to support it I would also like to thank the members of the highing transport committee for passing our
5:31:08
budget earlier on this has been a particularly productive year it is great to see the number of outstanding
5:31:14
potholes fall we have kept our nerve and continued to invest in proactive
5:31:19
treatments it is way better to stop potholes before they happen and as we catch up claw our way back to a properly
5:31:27
proactive maintained highways infrastructure that we can all be proud of again I want to thank our wonderful
5:31:33
officers and teams as was mentioned so far this year over 400 Capital
5:31:39
maintenance schemes alone have been delivered these are structures roads drainage paths and signals currently we
5:31:47
have teams on the b193 benck road in
5:31:53
Whitty the b381 chain Causeway we have teams in Ramsey kton Calon way and Kings
5:32:00
Hedges also on signals a number of strategic projects uh projects have been
5:32:06
completed March Broad Street sfam Heath Crossroads St NS Market Square very nearly there lots of local
5:32:14
highways Improvement and this year we have invested more so that we can deliver more this year in addition to
5:32:22
the clear Capital prioritization process that we've been talking about we've
5:32:27
created the active travel hierarchy active travel toolkit the new asset
5:32:33
management system is coming online and we're looking to design a a a new system
5:32:39
for procuring Road Works waiting for the asset to fail is
5:32:45
clearly a false economy so we made it a priority to stop the cumulative
5:32:51
accumulative damage destructive and ultimately extremely expensive managed
5:32:58
decline policy that we inherited we've stabilized and began the long road to
5:33:05
recovery our LED replacement program program will eventually save the equivalent of the ex electricity
5:33:12
consumption of 2,300 homes a
5:33:17
year the county sits at the Nexus of some of the most exciting developments
5:33:22
for the UK's future economy The Innovation Corridor the English economic
5:33:27
Heartland and the oxcam arc and all of these are dependent on and underpinned
5:33:34
by a broad selection of Transport op options more of our people will benefit
5:33:40
from being better connected within Cambridge here tackling transport inequality and poverty across our area
5:33:48
is not only a moral imperative it also makes good economic and Community wealth
5:33:53
building sense so once again I would like to thank the council for the continuing support thank you chair thank
5:34:01
you councelor shayer councelor count uh thank you
5:34:08
chair and uh I'll move on to highways as you'd
5:34:13
expect first issue um so the one thing I'd like to say is when when you pass your budget which I'm going to be voting
5:34:20
against is perhaps you heard today some of the concerns I have about the Matrix that you think is fair and we heard from
5:34:28
the back of the room that is it right to uh penalize somebody because they're
5:34:34
near an old aged person's home is it right to penalize them because busy because they got commercial center is it
5:34:39
right to penalize them if they're near a busy Junction and taking the reverse of what I was saying was in The Matrix as
5:34:46
as being the sort of what is the right way to go forward no I ask that you look at it not because you reverse everything
5:34:51
that I mentioned but the fact is if you get into an urban area you have all of those and it was only necessary to knock
5:34:59
us back once not put 24 Nails into the coffin to ensure that we never get
5:35:04
anything and that's the problem with the Matrix at the moment if you step back and look at it strategically and think
5:35:10
to yourself is this fair to the county you have so many repeat waiting that
5:35:15
favor C certain areas that it makes it inherently unfair that's not nothing we
5:35:21
can fix today but I do hope that when you go to the next uh the the whoever forms the next Administration they take
5:35:27
that comment seriously and walk away and look at it in regards to highways maintenance I
5:35:34
do completely agree with councelor Shaya and other people that spok today it's important not to look at this through
5:35:39
the end of how many potholes can we repair but how many can we prevent from getting to the pothole stage which is
5:35:46
such a shame today because we had 8.1 million pounds that could have been allocated in certain ways and the very
5:35:52
last Amendment suggested 6.7 million pounds go to structural carriageway repairs now I know councilor Becket has
5:36:00
reassured everybody and said oh Steve count he's not saying the right things there and I can assure everybody that's
5:36:06
going to highways m maintenance but that reassurance everything is going to highways and maintenance disagrees with
5:36:14
the h&t recommendation which we abstained on the conservative gra abstained on it went through to srmp
5:36:20
it's in the published papers it's even an oppress release that councelor Becka himself is part of and it prioritizes
5:36:29
things like bus shelters and trees and lots of things with only one uh uh
5:36:34
carriageway item being on the list so that's going to the March committee and
5:36:40
that'll be a cross-party thing I know we don't have the votes in March but I hope that the other members on that committee
5:36:46
listen to what was said today and try and get the majority of that 8.1 million pounds to repair our rows because
5:36:54
whether you agree with the coner is handling the finances best or not I can
5:37:00
tell you to from today today's debate what we are doing is listening to our residents better and you have the
5:37:07
evidence in your quality of life survey the one thing that the public are telling you is far far from adequate is
5:37:14
the quality of the roads and the Pavements that they need fixing and all those successful and wonderful things
5:37:21
that you've revealed to us about all the spends over and above statutory duties you're doing are not your resident
5:37:29
priorities your resident priority told you it was Rose but you have decided to spend it on all these other and I can't
5:37:35
disagree with them wonderful things but they're your priorities not the Public's
5:37:41
priorities I wish councelor net singer well in the fair funding bidding because
5:37:46
the labor government has already announced that councils such as us will be uh at the back end of the queue and
5:37:53
we will be penalized we know we'll be penalized um they're already doing it because what they give with one hand
5:37:59
they take away with the other 5 million pounds the employers rise National
5:38:04
Insurance contributions cost us it was 8.1 million gross 3.1 refunded so that
5:38:10
means that costs the camire taxpayer 5 million pound for the national employers contribution now when when uh the leader
5:38:18
of of the government goes out and says no working person will be affected by
5:38:24
this I'm sorry but you've just put 1.24% on the council tax bill just to pay for
5:38:30
that alone and I hope that liberal Democrats will Unite with me in the recognition of that because that is a
5:38:35
wholly owned labor cost to this Council there wasn't much said about
5:38:41
local government reform coming up but I do look forward to that and I do wonder what will happen we know that cambrid
5:38:47
City and South camps have lost their fiveyear land Supply I do wonder if after lgr maybe people doing five days
5:38:53
work for a 5-day week will actually be able to get enough plans through in time to actually not lose their supply
5:39:01
um 7 seconds I wish everybody well thank you very much chair thank you can count
5:39:07
cancel the shop thank you chair um yes just wanted
5:39:14
to touch on one or two points that have been raised um yes there might have been um gullies not cleared or um
5:39:22
quality of repairs not that good on highways when we came in but I'm still getting gullies are not cleared they
5:39:30
don't seem to have been done even under the 2-year cycle um white lining I had
5:39:35
an one of the three Junctions I mentioned where had two serious crashes
5:39:41
um the parish Clark emailed the lho and said and said you know we need that done
5:39:47
oh it's on a three-year program I then jumped up and down and said we've had two serious crashes there it got done
5:39:53
that shouldn't be the way it happened and qualities for repairs um whilst I
5:39:58
was driving here today um I had a call from a resident from one of my roads where we got a number of potholes um
5:40:05
repaired last um of last summer August September they're reappearing again
5:40:11
we've got the same problem in that particular area so quality is not great um and the other thing I just wanted to
5:40:17
touch on in terms of detail on the budget is and I've raised this for the last two years in children young
5:40:23
people's committee um around the home school transport um mainly want touch much on
5:40:29
children in in care but the home to school transport January last year um
5:40:36
the director said said we're looking at we've got um Savings in place we've got scheme in
5:40:43
place to reduce the costs unfortunately and I my comment to them was I wish you well but I don't think you'll achieve it
5:40:49
and sadly I've been proved right and again this year I look at the budget and
5:40:54
again if I look at the budget compared to um what we've actually spent it's a
5:40:59
lot lot more spent I know it's a difficult area I understand that it's not an easy Challenge and looking at Bry
5:41:05
I know it's sorry you through you chair um I know it's it's not an easy subject but we just need to be in some ways
5:41:11
honest with the budget that we've got a pressure there that we cannot we cannot um reduce that much rather than pushing
5:41:18
it in as I think um Council account mentioned with the 4 million reserving savings which presumably some of that
5:41:24
will be used by that but we just need to look at some of these costs that are really really difficult to manage
5:41:31
because of the the pressure we're we're facing thank you chair thank you counc
5:41:37
shop um I despite having closed the list have three members who have indicated they want to speak in addition um I have
5:41:44
no wish to curtail uh debate so I going to take those three members and we will then finish with councelor mkini who
5:41:51
ever such a long time ago uh reserved her right to speak and finally counselor and net singer so counselor
5:42:01
hunt thank you chair I didn't think you'd noticed me um I really just wanted
5:42:07
to say and it'll be very brief but when members are voting they should look at
5:42:12
these figures and realize this is tax paid money that's being paid many people
5:42:18
have paid 20 or 40 or even 45 and just because someone lives in a larger house
5:42:25
as some do some particularly elderly widows and widowers where they have a
5:42:31
cap a large house but they don't have much income this is every penny we take
5:42:38
we should think very very carefully about and we should really realize that
5:42:44
it's net cash paid and the figures we've got here are only part of a picture for
5:42:50
what everybody pays and I have to say I'm very proud to come from East cams
5:42:56
where we don't put up the council tax thank you chair thank you councelor hunt councelor
5:43:03
Hoy say similar to council hunt in the sense that um I think we do always forget we talk about people in poverty
5:43:09
but we always think about those forget about those people who are just about managing and there's a lot of elderly residents in my division who I speak to
5:43:16
who are really struggling um Energy prices are increasing I know people like to blame the war on Ukraine conveniently
5:43:22
for getting this push to Green energy which again BP are pulling out of today because it's not making profit that is
5:43:28
massively impacting on energy bills we've got massive impact on council tax as we keep raising it every year and and
5:43:35
people are really starting to struggle and then when they had their winter fuel allows taken away from them as well £300
5:43:41
is a lot of money for people to lose and so people are really struggling and we have to make these decisions you know we
5:43:47
can't take these decisions lightly now I also understand that upper tier authorities also are in a difficult
5:43:52
position I understand that there are these pressures on social care and we can't always manage those we don't know who's going to come in through the door
5:43:58
so it is very difficult um whereas perhaps districts do have a little bit of an easier ride of it so I do think
5:44:04
it'll be interesting with local government reform and there was just something I picked up on that councelor se mentioned um about the 106 there is
5:44:11
actually currently nearly a million pounds of 106 contributions unspent for education and it's very disappointing
5:44:18
because the special educational needs School in March has been delayed and we were told it's been delayed because um
5:44:24
so medigate as well and WIS Beach wants wanted to expand and we were told that couldn't expand because the scnd school
5:44:30
in March was going to be built but that's been delayed um and so we've basically got close to a million pounds
5:44:36
now of unspent 106 money for education in Finland and we are being told that we
5:44:41
can't have any new schools any new school expansions so I very much hope obviously I don't expect any kind of
5:44:47
answers today um because I obviously I know I've just raised this but I would appreciate if people could look into this because we need these places
5:44:53
urgently for local children thank you councelor ha and councelor Dr
5:44:59
vanen thank you I just wanted to say I think we need to acknowledge for adult
5:45:04
social care and Public Health covid recovery and the altered landscape that
5:45:10
it has given us have been a huge part a really big deal of the work set out for us at the beginning of this
5:45:16
Administration um it would be remiss not to thank our fantastic team of officers
5:45:22
throughout this Administration for um enabling us to do the work that has been
5:45:28
done and I would extend that thanks to everyone on the committee um it has been a very productive four years and a very
5:45:35
enjoyable thing to work together um neighborhood work is really becoming
5:45:41
underway now and I think that's a big achievement it will grow it will be built upon that allows prevention uh in
5:45:48
in many forms I would like to pay tribute to the officers who had the vision for care together the care maker
5:45:56
Enterprises which have proliferated in all five of our districts please look them up they in your neighborhood thank
5:46:03
you to the officers uh it's really taking off and finally councelor howt rightly um
5:46:11
referenced the strengthening of the Care profession that is can't put a price on
5:46:16
that it's so important it's in it's in much better shape than it was and
5:46:22
finally I would like to pay sincere tribute to the Joint Administration it's
5:46:27
not it's probably not going to appear on a single leaflet but I think that the
5:46:33
debate that we've had the differences of opinion the New Perspectives coming from all
5:46:39
Corners has actually been a generator of ideas it has produced maybe better ideas
5:46:46
nobody has all the answers um so I would really like to thank councelor howt and
5:46:52
all colleagues in the joint Administration um U I'm very proud to've
5:46:57
been part of it thank you thank you very much uh councelor
5:47:04
mkini thank you very much chair um a speech in two halves let me see if I can do it um there's quite a few speeches
5:47:12
from the opposition recently starting with counc Tini ending with the last few that spoke before Susan all around the
5:47:19
same theme I have absolutely no doubt that councilor TIY councilor count
5:47:25
everybody believes honestly that they would like to raise council tax by 0% I believe that they have had four years to
5:47:32
show us how to do it how to make the numbers add up they all have the same access to the same
5:47:37
spreadsheets they have now wasted four years of showing us how exactly to do it and there's always a new excuse and this
5:47:43
year oh my God we not even going to propose a budget amendment at all I have to register my absolute disgust of the
5:47:50
way that this went I you know they've both they've all been counselors longer
5:47:56
than I have I've only LED my group for the last five years I have never ever ever contemplated not putting forward
5:48:02
the budget amendment and you can quote me on that and what is to decide how to
5:48:07
spend public money is the first job that you have when you are elected if you can't even do that there's no point to
5:48:12
you um uh what what else thank you very much to everyone change the tone now
5:48:19
going to become happy now I cannot possibly say anything about how amazing
5:48:25
it has been to work with the joint Administration thank you so much to all my colleagues I wish every single group
5:48:30
leader in this room could say the same that I can say which is that I have a very very supportive group of people who
5:48:36
all put the weight in and you can see the result in front of you um it is extremely important to recognize that in
5:48:43
setting this B business plan and the B the budget for the County Council we do more than simply approving a series of
5:48:49
financial decisions this is about how we put our vision into practice Greener fairer more caring there is always more
5:48:56
work to do there have been a few little discussions about lgr we must not let
5:49:03
that be a distraction running this Council should take precedence over arguing in circles about what councils
5:49:09
will succeed this one I do wish the new government well with the Devolution agenda giving more power more
5:49:16
efficiently more locally is the right thing to do still a lot of work for us to do before that happens after more
5:49:23
than a decade of sustained austerity measures and successive economic failures caused by the conservative
5:49:29
government with this new government we can turn at least a new Leaf but the work has only started we have a firmer
5:49:36
commitment to a fairer funding formula for Cambridge here than we have ever had before from any government but judgment
5:49:42
is rightly withheld until we can see it actually happen last year I expressed the wish that for this administration's
5:49:48
final budget the local government settlement would be signed by somebody other than Michael Gove I did get my
5:49:53
wish as did the country we're all very happy about that there are operators out there who are determined that only anger
5:50:00
Despair and rage should be expressed but there is also hope we need to lead by example and good stewardship so look at
5:50:07
what we're doing and thank you very much thank you for that and finally councelor
5:50:13
ninger thank you um I also want to reiterate thanks to officers and to the
5:50:18
Joint Administration and counselors for the massive amount of patient difficult work produced to balance a budget and
5:50:25
managing the risks and challenges for the future that we Face colleagues Across The Joint Administration have
5:50:31
worked together listening to the priorities of cambri residents and thinking about long-term invest
5:50:36
Investments needed for the future of our County I'm really proud of the unity of the joint Administration and it is
5:50:43
telling that three political groups of this administration were able to come together to deliver sound finances for
5:50:49
our residents and it's in a way it seems the members of the conservative group were not councilor count has talked
5:50:56
about our priorities in this budget and he is right the council this budget does reflect our joint Administration
5:51:03
priorities including 56 million pounds for highways we will never know what the conservative
5:51:08
priorities are as they didn't bother to do the work to make any choices they just put forward a wish list we could
5:51:15
all do that but it is not going to help our residents in any way this Council provides critical
5:51:21
services for the most vulnerable residents in our communities I'm proud that as leader of this Administration
5:51:26
I'm able to bring forward a budget which not only includes massive investment in our highways but also includes new
5:51:32
Investments to improve our ability to support looked after children and retains the key investment in youth
5:51:38
Justice to prevent young people in danger of being drawn into criminal behavior from following that path this
5:51:45
investment in particular is likely to lead to huge savings for the public purse in the long term and it was very
5:51:51
much a key political Choice by joint Administration members who are truly committed to keeping more of our young
5:51:58
people safe and giving them the opportunities to thrive I'm not clear whether the conservative group have even
5:52:04
noticed this investment which shows just how little care they have shown both for the actual financial position of the
5:52:10
council or for our more vulnerable residents so thank you so much to all
5:52:15
members of The Joint Administration who have worked really hard to agree these priorities to our officers who have
5:52:21
worked tirelessly to estimate spending accurately and balance future risk against current needs and to the
5:52:27
residents of cambri we know times are tough and members of this side of the chamber have worked very hard to
5:52:34
together to deliver better Services as efficiently as possible and we will continue to do so for a Greener fairer
5:52:40
and more caring cambrid thank you thank you very much councelor ninger
5:52:46
I will now take a vote on the motion can I ask the Democratic services manager to conduct a recorded vote by taking an
5:52:52
electronic vote on the motion Mrs R could you please start the vote members in favor of the motion
5:53:00
please press the button underneath the word yes members against the motion please press the button underneath the
5:53:06
word no members wishing to abstain please press the button underneath the word
5:53:19
abstain chair I'm now closing the
5:53:27
vote chair the result of the vote is 30 votes in favor 13 against and no
5:53:33
abstentions the motion is therefore carried thank you Mr road that concludes the debate on the proposed business plan
5:53:39
for 2025 to 30 we move on to next item 8 which is recommendations to full Council
5:53:45
from the strategy resources and performance committee treasury management quarter 2 update 20242 which was discussed by straty
5:53:52
resources and performance committee on the 17th of December 2024 which is about when my man flu started can I ask the
5:53:59
chair of the strategy resources and performance committee councelor net singer to move that the recommendation set out on page three of the council
5:54:06
genda be adopted and ask the vice chair councelor mkini to Second councelor net singer I stay
5:54:14
move and IO second uh and are you reserving your right to speak is anybody
5:54:19
giving a speech on this item at all yes but I don't really intend to use it fair enough right uh who wishes to
5:54:28
contribute to this item nobody councel M skini thank you chair all good
5:54:39
there seems to be General consensus in support of the recommendation if anybody disagrees please raise your
5:54:45
hand I see no objections we will take the recommendations as carried we move on to item number nine which is the
5:54:51
Constitution and ethics uh committee recommendations uh the proposed changes to the Constitution can be found on page
5:54:58
60 of your agenda I'm going to ask the vice chair as chair of the Constitution and Ethics Committee to move that the
5:55:04
recommendations that set out in the report be adoped opted and I will second the recommendations as the vice chair
5:55:10
Vice chair thank you very much I'm happy to um propose the recommendations a b
5:55:15
and c as per the agenda thank you very much do you wish to speak for up to five minutes I will do a quick brief run
5:55:22
through um there was a working group cross party working group that was pulled together on this that made the recommendations to the group that the uh
5:55:29
committee that met on the 11th of February there was General consensus across the group that U we would adopt
5:55:35
those recommend that the council should adopt those amendments which basically were more of a Tiding up exercise to Cod
5:55:41
codefi what our existing rules and regulations said so the Constitution became rather than a massive change to
5:55:48
it became more more clear so that that's the idea of this and uh other than I think there one one um recommendation
5:55:54
that we had from one member who asked for uh a tracking system to be on put on for the Amendments which I think is now
5:56:00
been provided um everyone was quite happy with that and the recommendation came from the committee near unanimously
5:56:06
that uh it should be approved thank you thank you very much does anybody have anything they wish to add to this debate
5:56:15
no I see um that seems to be General consensus in support of the motion if anybody disagrees please raise your hand
5:56:23
uh no so I will take that as carried we move on to agenda item 10A a set out in
5:56:28
the agenda Cambridge and Petersburg combined Authority and overview and scrutiny committee oral questions which will be dealt with in accordance with
5:56:34
the protocol set out in Annex one of part 4.1 although that of course might have all changed Council procedure rules
5:56:40
of the council's Constitution can I remind you that councilors may ask questions for a response by the
5:56:45
council's appointee on the combined Authority and its appointees to the overview and scrutiny committee which relate to the decisions of the combined
5:56:52
Authority board and overview INR committee as set out in the generic report provided this summarizes the
5:56:59
decisions made by the combined authorities formal committees and is included on page 70 please can you raise
5:57:06
your hand if you wish to ask a question of council net singer the council's appointee on the board you will have two
5:57:12
minutes in which to ask a question and one for a supplementary with up to a maximum of two minutes for a direct oral
5:57:18
response to each and the maximum time spent on this item will be 20 minutes counselor Dr
5:57:25
bulat thank you chair I would like to ask a question on on the combined Authority so I welcome the mayor's
5:57:30
decision last week to progress with franchising following the recommendations from the transport
5:57:35
committee as well as the cpca board following that but I'm concerned that the last seven routs that were supposed
5:57:41
to be subsidized by the meril preset um under the plan for bus improvements are delayed and this included a range of
5:57:47
routes including the express Cambridge to Huntington the STM to Cambridge for example and a number of important routes
5:57:53
for our County while I I welcome the mayor freezing the council the preset in
5:57:59
a way recognizing those delays I am concerned that we do have a system at the moment whereby operators could pull
5:58:05
out l minute therefore making communities lose out in the process and I heard very mixed messages on this
5:58:11
situation so my question is do you think that the does the leader think the situation would be avoided or be any
5:58:17
different within the franchise system and when do we expect those last seven routs to be operational if we have a
5:58:23
timeline on that thank you councelor net singer thank you very much for the question um so I think there um has been
5:58:31
uh considerable frustration um not to say rage about the way in which stage
5:58:37
coach have behaved over the um bidding for those routes and then expecting that they would be able to um bid at one
5:58:43
level and get a much higher value for for the contract when it actually happened and that is an outrageous way
5:58:49
for them to have behaved um it is also deeply frustrating um in terms of when
5:58:55
those routes are likely to be um on the roads I think May is probably um the the
5:59:02
the nearest that it's going to be um the franchising process will take much
5:59:07
longer than that but it will in the end mean that we are not left at the mercy of um commercial providers behaving in a
5:59:16
um deeply unpractical and possibly unethical um manner in that in the way
5:59:22
that happened so it will improve that in the longer term it will not make a shortterm Improvement to um the the
5:59:29
speed with which those routs are able to come forward and I know just how many people are very very much looking
5:59:35
forward to having having those buses on the roads thank you councelor Dr B do you have a
5:59:40
supplementary just to say thank you I think it's very important we have this on the public record especially see some of the misinformation circulated as as
5:59:47
we approach election time thank you anything to add I just want to Echo the
5:59:53
point that um councilor bu has said about the fact that there is a great deal of misinformation out there um and
5:59:59
uh on this topic but also on a number of others and um the more people can try
6:00:05
and make sure they get their uh information from reliable sources the better that will be thank you thank you
6:00:10
very much councelor Thompson um thank you chair um I just wanted to inquire
6:00:15
about um currently on the busways you know we have a crisis um we don't have buses the buses are really full one of
6:00:22
the biggest complaints that I get is that um Sage coach does not open its
6:00:27
middle doors which is really interesting because that would help with the flow through and the onboarding and the tiger
6:00:34
passes and everything else something I keep on raising but I get nowhere with I'm hoping you know situations like this
6:00:42
could improve with the was franchising but I'm hoping in the meanwhile if that's something that um cpca could pick
6:00:49
up you know little things do matter um for our um residents and um it might be
6:00:55
a health and safety issue but I'm not quite sure the problems that they have raised in the past that they can't open
6:01:01
all the doors at all the bus stops because there isn't enough pavement but on the the busway this is not the case
6:01:08
Thompson this is strictly speaking a matter for the combined Authority but I'm sure Council net singer will have
6:01:13
some positive comments to make thank you um I think that it
6:01:19
probably would be possible to make it so that when the contracts for franchising are put forward they require um
6:01:27
particular mechanisms and ways of working um I really hope that when we come to um working with bus operators
6:01:35
over franchising it will not be necessary to write every little detail into those contracts because we will be
6:01:42
able to have a collaborative relationship with um the bus providers and bus companies in our area to try and
6:01:49
build um a really successful integrated transport system I think that's what
6:01:54
everybody in the area would like and is working towards um we don't seem to have
6:02:00
that relationship at the moment and that's frustrating um but I think it's worth working toward Awards um I think
6:02:06
the County Council itself has a role to play in that um as the owner of some of those strategic assets um and I think we
6:02:13
need to work closely with the combined Authority um now that that franchising decision has been made to make sure that
6:02:19
we are um using our assets as effectively as possible in a way that
6:02:25
enables the combined Authority and the county to work together to support that kind of integrated transport which will
6:02:30
be of great benefit to our residents uh councel Thompson no okay thank you very very much uh does anybody
6:02:36
else have a question for counselor net singer no in which case can you please raise your hand if you wish to ask a
6:02:42
question of counselor's Bradham and gack the council's appointees to the overview and scrutiny committee again you have two minutes in which to ask a question
6:02:50
and one for a supplementary with up to a maximum of two minutes for a direct all response to each councelor count to whom
6:02:55
would you like to address your question councelor gack or councelor Bradham um
6:03:01
I'll councel gold sack and if if it's uh if there's any time left perhaps you'll allow councelor Bradham to add in but
6:03:07
I'll I'll address it to councilor goldsack if you like um so um my question is um just just a moment ago we
6:03:15
heard um councelor net singer being asked about the um problems with the procurement of the bus services and the
6:03:21
missing ones and my area is affected by by one of those and and the blame was laid fairly um squarely on the shoulders
6:03:29
of stage coach so I'd like to ask Mark councelor Mark goldsack as a member of
6:03:34
the on committee does the on committee um change uh share share the view of
6:03:40
council net singer that stage coach is the only person to blame or is there anything going on to actually get to the bottom of what's gone wrong thank
6:03:48
you Council gulack if you'd like to answer the question in relation to the meetings that have taken placek thank
6:03:54
you um yeah in relation to the question asked by uh Dr bull of of the leader I
6:04:00
nearly came in then but uh thanks for Steve for asking the question uh on behalf of of the overview and scrutiny
6:04:06
committee we have voted for a full review of bus procurement methods
6:04:13
because whilst I am in agreement with the councelor net singer uh of the
6:04:19
situation of stage coaches Behavior Uh there is firm belief at the on committee
6:04:24
that that's not the only issue here I can share one example with you it is alleged by another bus company a smaller
6:04:31
bus company that they weren't allowed to bid for this because the service had to be provided using brand spanking new
6:04:38
buses which actually precludes the bidding of many of the existing bus companies because they haven't got the
6:04:44
cash to go and buy brand spanking new bus companies for small oneoff services so we have we we've got a full inquiry
6:04:51
from the O details of which will come out at the next meeting to have a look at the whole aspect of bus procurement
6:04:57
which is I must say has been welcomed by the cpci officers uh in terms of what it may uncover and find and I'm hoping we
6:05:04
uncover and find some improve movements for the next round for the franchising exercise thank you councilor GAC uh
6:05:10
councel Bradon did you have anything you wanted to add to that thank you chair I just um thank you councilor goldsack for
6:05:18
giving a very good summary of what was said at the last meeting and just to be clear that the overviewing scrutiny
6:05:24
committee has a very clear remit to improve uh the quality of papers going
6:05:29
forward to um the board and I think we've been doing that it's also notable
6:05:35
that the best value notice that had been applied to the combined Authority has now been lifted and that's partly due to
6:05:42
the hard work that's gone into a much stronger monitoring and oversight
6:05:47
capacity at the combined Authority and yes absolutely we're looking at all of the aspects of improving Bus Service
6:05:54
delivery uh so thank you very much thank you councelor count did you have a supplementary y yeah thank thank you
6:06:00
very much both for your responses um uh just you know one of the things you may want to check out is the other room was
6:06:05
circulating that uh an insistence on double decker buses when one of the routs go under a sing Single Decker
6:06:12
bridge I mean you know who could make these things up but that's what I'm being told um but I also like to add
6:06:17
from my particular area Christ Church is is lacking a service because of this um but when when Christ Church found out
6:06:24
they weren't nobody discussed anything with them a whole Parish Council was left out discussions of you're going to
6:06:29
get a service and I know it's the same I believe in eelam who Council gold represents uh and we discovered that
6:06:35
actually you know that their desire was a bus to upwell which is in a neighboring County but when they asked
6:06:42
the combined Authority actually speak to them after this franchise had failed to materialize for a bus service that
6:06:48
wasn't their priority but a priority the um they were told no it doesn't work outside and I'd ask that if you're going
6:06:54
to improve the procurement to look at that as well talk to your parishes talk to your residents before deciding what's
6:07:00
good for them and then if it does fall outside the county see how you can make it happen not dismiss it because it's An
6:07:07
Inconvenient Truth count uh councelor goac did you want to add anything to that I'm Frid I'll come back very
6:07:13
quickly and that is to say that part of the remit is cross border cross count border bus supply because it affects
6:07:19
every border o of Cambridge here so that's Bedford North hampire suffk Norfolk etc etc Lincolnshire um so we
6:07:27
are that is part of the remit of the investigation that that will be undertaken I shall look forward to
6:07:33
reading it as my parishes border both hartfordshire and bedfordshire uh councelor Bradham did you have anything
6:07:40
further to add councel goldsack has covered it very thoroughly um but certainly
6:07:46
crossborder um transport links are being considered because it's recognized we do
6:07:51
not live in isolation and necessarily public transport needs to go between our counties thank you Splendid any other
6:07:58
questions for the on Representatives no in which case we move on to the next item which is written
6:08:05
questions and we haven't had any so that concludes our business for the day have a very safe journey thank you very much
6:08:10
everybody for your
6:08:34
contributions e
