Agenda item

The Chairman stated that no written questions had been received under Procedure Rule 8.6.

Councillor Clark, in the absence of Councillor Booth as Leader of the Opposition, asked the following questions under Procedure Rule 8.4:

·         Councillor Clark congratulated Whittlesey on its wonderful tribute to Remembrance Day in the Whittlesey Garden of Rest, the crochet knitted figures represented many of the forces that gave so much for the country in the two world wars and he feels that Whittlesey members should be very proud of its residents who put on such an impressive show. He stated that after finding a parking place he walked along the main street, did some shopping and had something to eat and drink and enjoyed his visit to Whittlesey but on speaking to residents, parking seems to have been taken up by people parking in Whittlesey and travelling through to Peterborough to work, etc., avoiding parking charges in Peterborough and asked if the Leader was aware of this problem and if so what is he doing to address it? Councillor Boden responded that he was pleased that Councillor Clark enjoyed his visit to Whittlesey and the knitted works that have been found in the Garden of Rest and elsewhere in Whittlesey are the work of volunteers, nothing to do with the Town or District Councils and he is pleased that Councillor Clark agrees that it has had a massive impact on anyone who comes to Whittlesey and sees it for themselves. He stated that there are parking issues in Whittlesey and there is an element, which has been in existence for many years, of individuals who park in Whittlesey and then get the bus into Peterborough but it is really difficult to do much about it because if restrictions are introduced then it is going to potentially harm individuals who are working in the Town Centre so the available options are being investigated but he wants to do this as part of a comprehensive parking review, both on-street and off-street. Councillor Boden expressed the opinion that this issue has been stymied by the County Council for several years now and he is hoping that things will move forward after the elections but he is loathed to start things on a piecemeal basis just looking at the off-street parking issues when it needs to be undertaken holistically.

·         Councillor Clark asked for an update on the Saxon Pit creating dust, noise and smell and did the Council go ahead and purchase the monitoring equipment? Councillor Boden confirmed that the Council did purchase some additional monitoring equipment, which is not at Saxon Pit it is some distance away by the Park Lane school and it is operating and the information is being published as to what it is showing. He stated that it is really valuable to have that in conjunction with knowledge of what the wind direction is at any particular time as it can assist the Council significantly in trying to identify when people report a problem with odour allegedly from the pit or even a problem with dust so the objective data can be looked at and see what it says and if it does confirm what it is that people suspect is happening.

·         Councillor Clark referred to the White Paper on Local Government reorganisation published today and the area has many tiers of councils, with many expected to increase their share of the Council Tax meaning a possible big increase when the Council Tax bills are sent to residents. He referred to the comments of a former leader of the Council, Alan Melton, on Look East regarding the salaries paid to 10 Chief Executives in Cambridgeshire, there being too many councillors and too many support staff. Councillor Clark stated that Michael Hesseltine, a former housing secretary, once said there are many councillors and officials sending around papers and achieving very little and he would suspect that with the plethora of directives, policies and standards now sent by e-mail is the justification for these officers and multi-layered Local Government in Cambridgeshire and beyond prompting the Government to look into Local Government structures, efficiency and value for money and service delivery. He asked if the Leader supports Local Government reorganisation? Councillor Boden responded that nothing is perfect in this world so he would very much welcome Local Government reorganisation, although not necessarily what is being proposed by the Government at the moment. He stated that the numbers quoted from Alan Melton are probably correct and he does not dispute the principle of them but there is an issue in that democracy comes with a price, you do not get democracy for free and there needs to be a structure to support democracy and it is a matter of what level of democracy should there be. Councillor Boden made the point that Cambridge could save a significant amount of money in a whole host of different ways and by the local council just being run from Cambridge but do residents really want decisions made about their bin services, grass being cut or their Electoral Services controlled from Cambridge, questioning when does Local Government stop being local. He stated that this is a very legitimate debate to have and if taken to extreme Local Government would be best controlled from the centre as the more that is controlled from the centre the less worry there is about all of the costs that Councillor Clark was referring to but that removes the locality and localism from Local Government, with there being one significant step in the removal of Local Government back in the 1972 Local Government Act where Fenland was created. Councillor Boden made the point that there are still people, even in the Chamber, who hark back to the greater amount of democratic accountability which there was with smaller local authority bodies than exist now but things have to move forward and cost efficiencies have to be recognised, however, it is much too early in the process to start talking about specifics but there is a trade-off do people want to save every single penny by making Local Government more remote or do they want to keep a considerable amount of control in the hands of local people. He feels this is a legitimate debate that will be needed in the future.