Melbourn Library gets its Access Point...
Melbourn's Community Hub opened on 1 February – it's located in the High Street and is the new home of the volunteer run Melbourn Library Access Point. More information about the new community facilities can be found on the Shape Your Place website.
... with Sawston on its way to gaining a new community hub
Plans to create a community space in Sawston – providing a new home for the library and other services to benefit local residents, including a children's centre – have taken a big step forward.
Capital funding of £1.25m has been allocated within the County Council’s budget – which was approved at full council on 18 February. While plans are still to be confirmed, it is envisaged the new community hub, adjacent to Sawston Village College's Marven Centre site and the existing library in New Road, will include multi-purpose rooms which would allow for flexible use of space.
Local County Councillors Tony Orgee and Gail Kenny, said “We’ve been working hard for the last year to secure a replacement for the library and it's fantastic news we now have the opportunity to create a community space which will offer so much more than just a library service for the people of Sawston.”
The final plans, once developed, will be subject to the normal planning process.
Cambridgeshire County Council agrees tough budget to meet £38 million in savings
On 18 February, Councillors agreed draft budget proposals designed to meet the huge savings required for 2014/15 and the following years – showing public services are in for 'tough times' to meet nearly £149m in savings over the next five years, with some services needing to be cut or reduced as the Council has already saved £128 million in the last three years.
The County Council's Cabinet backed proposals for the Council to stick to its already agreed plan and, like many other authorities across the country, increase Council Tax by 1.99% to help protect frontline services.
Councillors also agreed an amendment which would see around £1.4 million spent on transport improvements, children’s centres, mental health services, adult social care and winter gritting (see next item Transport main winner in alterations to the budget).
A decision to withdraw funding to Cromwell Museum has also been deferred for an extra year to give more time for plans to be developed to find alternative management solutions.
Cambridgeshire is one of the hardest hit authorities in the country and has had a reduction in the Government’s Settlement Funding Assessment of 20.9% (£29.9m) over the next two financial years.
The County is also the lowest funded for education in the UK – yet has the fastest growing population. This means the Council is seeing more and more demands on its services, especially for those who are the most vulnerable, as more people need them or are living longer and require more expensive care services.
Increased population puts a £9m strain on the Council’s budget every year, while inflation also annually adds extra pressure on decreasing funds.
Cambridgeshire County Council is expected to make savings over the next year (2014/15) of around £38m, following savings of £42m last year (2012/13) and a further £32m in the current financial year (2013/14).
There's more about this in the County Council's press release.
Transport main winner in alterations to the budget
After listening to the public and opposition groups, the Conservative Cabinet is earmarking an extra £500,000 to invest in transport improvements. A cross-party group of Councillors will be formed to decide how this money is spent.
An extra £200,000 will also be put into children’s centres and an additional £200,000 for mental health services in order to support these services through a period of transformation – although it's not clear what's meant by 'reducing the savings targets by £300,000' in older people's service and in learning and physical disability services.
However, the mild winter so far means the Council has not spent all of its gritting budget, meaning £200,000 can be held back and put into next year’s budget.
An innovation grant of £28,000 is also being created to encourage innovative new ways of providing public transport services.
The extra cash – nearly £1.5m in total – has come from £1m money saved from capital building projects and £500,000 from improved Council tax collection rates.
Council's new website
The County Council will be launching its new website in early March. Previews of the website, to enable early feedback before the formal launch, have been given to staff and Councillors.
The website has been specifically designed to focus on key user information and services requirements and will be fully mobile device compatible.
Users of our site beaware! Existing links from this (SCCA) site to the new council site (e.g. list of all councillors) may disappear – history is not on the side of developers remembering, or even thinking of, other organisions and their sites' outward links. If you find a link – any link – doesn't work, please let this site's webmaster know: peter@buzzassociates.co.uk. Thank you.
Sports Relief – 21 March
Following five years of providing a call donation centre, Comic Relief, has once again asked the Council's Contact Centre to provide this service.
Over 80 volunteers from across the organisation will be staffing the phones from 6.30 pm to 12.30am on the evening of Sports Relief, 21 March.
Interestingly, the number of call donations centres have decreased, as more of the public choose to donate online, however, the County Council's excellent performance means it has been selected again.
Marketing of Castle Court
With the County Council continuing to look at sharing assets and buildings with other public bodies, as it has been doing successfully through its Making Assets Count programme, notice boards to market the Castle Court building on the Shire Hall site in Cambridge are now up.
This has understandably started to generate some interest, although it does not mean a move is imminent as plans are developed to plan the move and determine an approximate timescale.
Trading Standards – changes to the law that may affect your business from June 2014
The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 that come into force on 13 June 2014 make significant changes to consumer law.
The main change is extending the current seven day cancellation period applicable to certain consumer contracts to 14 days.
Generally speaking, this applies if you sell goods, services or digital content to consumers over the phone or internet, or enter goods or services contracts with consumers away from your business premises.
It also introduces requirements in respect of all contracts entered with consumers, including the need to ensure the customer understands what goods and services are being provided and there are no hidden costs.
In addition, refunds on cancelled contracts can be delayed until goods are returned. However, if you have not provided the right information to the consumer then the length of the cooling off period could be extended.
The Trading Standards Institute will shortly be publishing guidance for businesses on the Distance Selling Hub. For guidance on the new regulations, visit the government's BIS website.
More information
For background information on the County Council's activities (including A14 improvements), John has compiled two reports: 'February 2014' (taken from Council documents, so littered with Council-speak) and a more general 'Early February 2014' document – to access them, please click on the 'Atachment' links at the bottom of this page.
Contact John Reynolds
County Councillor John Reynolds
4 Holly Trees
Bar Hill
Cambridge
CB23 8SF
T 01954 200 571
F 01954 200 571
M 07720 379699
E john.reynolds@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Contact Cambridgeshire County Council
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