Emerging library vision revealed as part of review. 

An emerging vision to design a twenty first century library service to suit the varied needs of communities has been unveiled by Cambridgeshire County Council. Plans are being drawn up for September but are expected to include a mixture of ideas put forward at the start and during the review as well as a package of new suggestions. 

It is proposed that no community will lose access to library services but changes may be made in the way they are currently delivered. Some communities may even get better access than they currently have. Ideas such as shared services across Councils, use of volunteers, staff restructuring and self service will continue to go forward. 

It will also look at whether other council services and even local business or community facilities such as Post Offices could share buildings making them real community hubs. Moving to shared premises has the potential of saving the council money from its overall budget as well as joining up services and creating income. This could also give the potential of putting library services in places that currently don't have them.

Cambridgeshire County Councillor David Harty, Cabinet Member for Libraries, said: "We are taking an overall approach to how we are delivering services which will allo us to make savings rather than the old fashioned local Government way of thinking in silos. The old ways of looking at budget lines and services on their own is not our way.

Like our communities we want to protect and join up services. They want them to suit their lifestyles and they want them fit for the twenty first century. We intend to look through our community's eyes to make these changes.  Our ideas will mean services in the future will be accessed by communities in more places, at more times and in more ways. We will create true community hubs. Every community will continue to have access to library services. We will work with individual communities to design with them and create a truly twenty first century service.

Our work in the review has shown that residents want to see much more joined up thinking and not to travel long distances between different services if they can all be delivered from one place. We are being innovative with services sharing facilities as well as looking in a commercial way at all the possibilities. We have already seen Post Office, doctors and other councils share our library facilities and believe this is a model that could be rolled out across Cambridgeshire.

This could mean that services are delivered from completely different or even brand new buildings but this will be decided by residents. Library services will be tailored by local communities for their own needs. Borrowing ideas from the commercial sector the council will also look at different sized libraries to suit community needs. This will be much like major High Street retailers who have a range of stores depending on the communities they are serving.

We are also looking at new dynamic ways of delivering services such as more online or e-books that are downloadable or could be rented. We have also looked at what is happening in the US and Australia with ideas such as book vending machines that could be used in places such as stations. As we planned we will be working up the details for September but this emerging vision aims to reassure residents they will continue to have access to library and other council services as part of community hubs."

The Government has just started a consultation on the way councils are financed, including the collection of non-domestic business rates. The Council is looking at what this means for the plans for a Trust. But clearly if the Government changes means the Trust would not make savings the Council would not pursue it as the business rates would come to the authority. 

Busway smartcard is just the ticket

A new Busway smartcard has been launched to allow passengers to travel on both Stagecoach and Whippet services with just one ticket. Council and bus operator bosses have developed the smartcard – which will be one of the first commercial multi-operator smartcards in the country – to give passengers more flexibility and a real 'turn up and go' service.

In addition to the multi-operator smartcard, Stagecoach and Whippet will still sell their own tickets for journeys on The Busway which will cost no more than ticket prices for the routes that had previously run on the congested and unpredictable A14.

A secure and easy-to-use area has been set up on the Council's website to sell smartcard tickets. Tickets will allow travel between destinations selected at the time of purchase and prices for ten single journeys using a smartcard range from £18 to £30 depending on the distance of travel. The website automatically calculates the cost of the ticket and a price table is also available.

Tickets will be despatched with ten single trips pre-loaded to the smartcard and then they can be topped up by paying the driver in cash when boarding any Busway service. The Busway connecting Huntingdon, St Ives and Cambridge opened on Sunday 7 August – you can now order a multi-operator smartcard by visiting www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/buswaytickets.

A new website, www.thebusway.info, has full details of the routes, times and fares for The Busway. It includes a link to the secure, easy-to-use area of the council's website which has been set up to sell the new smartcard.

Local County Councillor, John Reynolds, said: "Smartcards will give people another hassle free-way option for accessing The Busway as it gives the flexibility of using both bus operators' buses with just one ticket. It will be a great option for anyone who wants to turn up and get going straight away.

"Smartcards are simple to use and further information is now available on the Council's website to help people get the ticket they need before the opening on 7 August. Stagecoach's existing day, weekly, monthly and our own smartcard tickets will be valid on Busway services as well as our existing routes in the county."

"Whippet's tickets on The Busway represent very good value for money, but the smartcard will give Busway passengers far more flexibility as they can use all buses running on the route. I think the card will be well used as it is exactly what people want."

Ticket machines are also in place along the guideway and passengers without a smartcard will be required to purchase a ticket before boarding the bus. Concessionary passes will also be accepted on The Busway under the same terms and conditions as other buses in Cambridgeshire. The Busway smartcards have an ITSO logo on the back of the cards to show they comply with national standards for smartcard tickets.

High court action against the guide Busway builder 

Guided Busway bosses have authorised the launch of multi-million pound legal proceedings against contractor BAM Nuttall. Cambridgeshire County Council is at loggerheads with the firm over a £64 million construction overspend on the scheme, which opened on 7 August. More than £6 million has been set aside for the battle – but critics fear the ultimate cost could be much more.

The council has already spent about £1 million on legal fees. Its Cabinet has now authorised the head of legal services to commence action in the Technology and Construction Court – which sits at the High Court – and to take 'all necessary steps to pursue those proceedings' in consultation with executive environment director.

Cllr Ian Bates, the council’s planning chief, said: “The council is taking all necessary advice to resolve the dispute and will not take rash action to jeopardise taxpayers’ money.  The Council has been pretty robust in public about criticising BAM Nuttall and seeing we have all been told legal action is inevitable.

The council says it will still try to reach a mediated settlement despite the authorisation of legal action, which focuses on the authority's belief it should pay BAM Nuttall the £87 million fee that was originally agreed, plus for delays and alleged defects.

The company says the project cost £151 million and believes taxpayers should foot the bill for the bulk of this. The council expects the cost of the legal battle to be about £6.5 million. A spokesman said this money was set aside as part of the busway budget.

Exhibition of the green dream

A low carbon exhibition centre and passenger facility at the Longstanton Busway Park and Ride site is set to become the greenest building in Cambridgeshire.

Construction of the building is underway and the Building Research Establishment – the independent body who assess environmentally friendly construction - have rated the design, features and proposed construction methods as 'excellent'. The building is the only one in Cambridgeshire rated as excellent and only three buildings in the East of England have achieved this level of environmental efficiency.

The building will have a ground source heat pump for environmentally friendly under floor heating, top specification insulation made of natural materials on the roof and walls and solar panels to generate electricity.

The new building – which will set a benchmark for low carbon properties on the proposed new town of Northstowe – will have a learning and exhibition centre to showcase environmentally friendly and low carbon living to encourage local residents to go green in their own homes. It will also include toilets for bus users and office space for park and ride staff. The construction of the building will be complete towards the end of the year.

Funding of £430,000 for the building was awarded to Cambridgeshire County Council following a bid to Government in partnership with Cambridgeshire Horizons and South Cambridgeshire District Council.

Government funding was only available for projects that demonstrate concepts and standards expected in Eco Towns, such as the proposed new development of Northstowe, in advance of the towns being built.

Local County Councillor, John Reynolds, said: "I am extremely keen, as are local residents, to make sure Northstowe is built to the highest possible environmental standards. I hope this building will really help set the benchmark for what developers and individuals can achieve. We aim to make all buildings as environmentally friendly as possible, but this building takes things to the next level and will be a glowing example for what could be achieved in and around the proposed new town of Northstowe."

New e-mail address for reporting street lighting faults

The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funded partnership with Balfour Beatty will replace most of the street lighting columns in the county with improved lighting levels and reduced maintenance and replacement costs over the next 25 years. With the change of contractor, there's a new email address to report all street lighting faults: enquiries@lightingcambridgeshire.com

A10 set to get lower speed limit and improved safety

A lower speed limit of 50 mph is proposed for the A10 between Ely and Cambridge which has seen 96 injury accidents in the last three years. The road was assessed under new national guidelines and found to meet the criteria for a reduction from 60 mph to 50 mph.

Speed tests also showed on average traffic was travelling around the 50mph mark in the stretches of road which currently have a 60 mph limit. The current 40 mph from the A1123 roundabout to Stretham will remain the same. The order to reduce the limit will be published and residents will be able to raise any objections.

Cambridgeshire County Councillor Steve Criswell, Cabinet Member for Community Infrastructure, said: "This is part of our countywide review of speed limits following national guidelines on reducing speeds. There are a number of villages along this route and nearly 100 injury accidents in the last three years. Anyone who drives this road knows how congested it gets and the accidents that are on there, it is hoped the new speed limit will improve this."

Cambridge cycling improvements shortlisted for national awards

CCC has been shortlisted in the National Transport Awards for its work on cycling improvements in Cambridge as part of the Cycle Cambridge initiative. The winner will be announced on 6 October 2011.

Cycling in Cambridge increased from 18 to 21 per cent between 2008 and 2011 thanks to investments in new and improved cycling infrastructure, cycle training, events and promotions delivered by the County Council in partnership with organisations including Cambridge City Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council, Sustrans, Travel for Work Partnership and the Cambridge Cycling Campaign.

Increasing cycling levels helps to reduce congestion and demand for parking spaces in the city and contributes to improved health for individuals.

We’re still pushing to get the A14 improved

The County Council say they are committed to "major improvements" on the A14. The Council’s executive director of environment services, said: “We had a meeting with the DfT in which we decided we needed a short-term solution to ease the problems as well as a long-term plan. Options are being explored at the moment which don’t cost much at all and there will be another meeting within the next couple of months, so progress is being made.”

Local County Councillor, John Reynolds, said: I have been campaigning for years for major improvements on the A14, and have been lobbying for these to be done as quickly as possible. We will continue to fight to make sure the voice of Cambridgeshire residents is heard in Government to get the best scheme as soon as possible.”

Northstow  update

Proposals for the new town of Northstowe are to shortly be re-launched by the Joint Promoters (Gallagher and the Homes and Communities Agency). The master plan for the whole site is currently being reviewed and plans for the first phase of approximately 1,500 homes are being drawn up. In May a workshop was held with the Northstowe Parish Forum, involving members of neighboring parish councils, district and county councillors and comments made are informing the on-going review. The Northstowe Parish Forum met in July and will next meet in September to consider the Joint Promoters emerging proposals.

Public consultation on the Joint Promoter’s initial proposals will be held in September / October 2011. A planning application for a first phase and a revised site wide master plan is expected in early 2012.

The South Cambridgeshire District Council has recently received an Environmental Impact Assessment Scoping report from the Joint Promoters for the first phase. This report seeks to identify the significant environmental issues, which will need to be investigated and included as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment, which will accompany a future planning application. A copy of the scoping report can be viewed on South Cambridgeshire District Council’s website.

Trading Standards become 'primary voice' to support business

Cambridgeshire County Council's Trading Standards team has become a 'Primary Authority' to provide business across the county and further afield with clear, concise and top level support and advice.

A Primary Authority (PA) promotes consistency with businesses which trade across the boundaries and that one local authority (normally the one where the Head Office or main manufacturing process is based) takes a lead role in advising and supporting that business.

PAs enable the establishment of statutory partnerships between businesses and local regulators and puts the advice given on a higher footing and ensures that all authorities, wherever they are based, have to have regard to the advice that businesses are given by their 'home authority'.

In Cambridgeshire, the PA authority will provide:

• Cambridgeshire Businesses will be provided with 10 hours free advice, with a charge levied for any extra advice necessary.
• Allow the business to benefit from the developing expertise of Trading Standards staff relevant to their operation
• Help and assistance to resolve a dispute or financial claim that occurs anywhere in the country.
• Drive down the cost of complying with legislation - such as labelling standards - by consulting a single authority
• Provide timely, tailored advice to business with the assurance that it will be respected by all local regulators
• Businesses based outside of Cambridgeshire will be able to sign up to the scheme, but will be charged for all advice they receive.

 
A group of leading Cambridgeshire business has already signed up to the Cambridgeshire Trading Standards scheme, including Ridgeons, Wesland Horticulture, Plasti-Kote, Spearmark, Windhorse Trading, Touch of Ginger and Kimbolton Fireworks.

The Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, Nick Clarke, said: "We can see many benefits of this partnership - not least being able to work closely with businesses, support economic prosperity and protect our communities by ensuring public health and safety is as good as it should be."

The Cambridgeshire PA scheme has been launched in conjunction with the Local Better Regulation Office, who implement the scheme nationally. Locally Trading Standards Officers has already undergone additional training to prepare them for their new Primary Authority role.

Andy Young, Head of Quality at Spearmark, said: "Given the increasing number and complexity of EU Directives and Regulations, The Primary Authority initiative gives Spearmark the confidence that its business practices are effective and compliant.  A transparent and proactive relationship with Trading Standards is seen as a positive step forward."

Site and Finance Manager Joanne Garner, added: "PlastiKote is delighted to be working alongside the Cambridgeshire Trading Standards in order to provide our customers with the very best quality products and customer service."

E-Cops 'Have your say' forum

Would you be willing, if appropriate, to visit police by appointment?

That’s our next question on the ‘Have your say’ forum. The force introduced an appointments system two years ago and in January this was extended to include police ‘surgeries’, inviting victims and witnesses to attend police stations across the county for non urgent matters that do not require police attendance at a crime scene. Feedback from those that have used the new system have been positive.

The purpose of the surgery system is to enable the public to visit police at a time convenient for them while at the same time saving operational hours for emergencies and crime investigation. The intention is to make the service as flexible as possible to meet the needs of the public while reducing the amount of hours officers and staff spend travelling between jobs.

We want to know, if it was appropriate, would you be willing to attend a ‘surgery’ appointment at a time convenient to you at your local station or would you still prefer to wait for a home visit?

Have your say – visit our website and add your comments to the ‘Have your say’ forum: www.cambs.police.uk/newpolicingapproach/haveyoursay Have your say on police appointments.

Your Life, Your Choice

The provision of consistent and comprehensive information about support and care is a key element in Transforming Adult Social Care.  Cambridgeshire's new information and advice facility, called Your Life, Your Choice, combines a website with a streamlined set of leaflets to provide people with access to information at a time and in a format that suits them, as well as encouraging them to think more widely than just traditional care services.

The new website went 'live' on 13 June and provides easy-to-navigate details about adult social care in Cambridgeshire. Individuals seeking social care information for the first time, service users and carers will be able to access Your Life, Your Choice in places such as libraries and Citizen's Advice Hubs or directly via the Your Life, Your Choice website, www.yourlifeyourchoice.org.uk.

The key to the success of Your Life, Your Choice will be awareness of the facility by the general public and a comprehensive communications plan is in place to promote the website and availability of information through libraries.

Information for social care professionals and care providers only will remain on the County Council website.

Could you take the leftover challenge?

The waste reduction campaign Love Food Hate Waste will be challenging shoppers at the Grafton Centre eco day to cut their food waste in order to save money every month.

On Friday 15 July, people were given the opportunity to compete in the 'Lovely Leftover Challenge’. Contestants had just 10 minutes to rustle up a delicious dish using ingredients that represent typical leftovers that could be found in anyone's fridge.

Councillor Peter Murphy from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Waste Partnership, which is running the campaign, said: "An incredible 8.3 million tonnes of food waste are thrown away by UK households every year.

"This campaign is a great way of helping residents in Cambridgeshire to save up to £50 a month, and reduce their impact on the environment by reducing food waste. The Love Food Hate Waste campaign helps to provide simple tips and advice on how to reduce food waste, including recipes for using up leftovers, menu planning and storage solutions to prolong the life of food. I am sure anyone who comes along to the event will learn a lot and have fun."

Northamptonshire to taste Cambridgeshire’s best

Cambridgeshire's provider of school meals has won a major contract to supply meals to pupils in Northamptonshire. Cambridgeshire Catering Services (CCS) – which is part of Cambridgeshire County Council – has won a £13.7 milion contract to supply school meals to Northamptonshire from September 2011.

All the meals will be prepared and delivered from CCS's production centre, which is based in Huntingdon. The contract will initially be for four years, with an option to extend this by a further year. CCS already provides meals to over 200 schools across Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Essex and Rutland. A total of 17,000 children in Cambridgeshire now have a school meal every day.

Uptake of school meals in Cambridgeshire has risen from 31.5 to 40 per cent in the last three years. This equates to an extra 600,000 meals a year. The price of a school meal has remained at £2.00 for the last two years. CCS has also introduced a pre-ordering system in some schools to ensure the most popular meals do not run out.

Local County Councillor, John Reynolds said: "This is excellent news, which is testimony to the high quality of food coming out of CCS' production centre. It is a tribute to everyone involved in the production and distribution of school meals in Cambridgeshire that we have won this important contract from Northamptonshire."

Jigsaw funding helps piece together Cambridgeshire's past

A groundbreaking project in Cambridgeshire to help communities get to grips with their local archaeology has been given a £360,000 cash boost by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Oxford Archaeology East and Cambridgeshire County Council have been awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund grant for the Jigsaw community archaeology project.

Jigsaw is a five year scheme, running until August 2016. The Jigsaw website and information leaflet will be available to provide information about the project and explain how to get involved.

The project is in response to feedback from Cambridgeshire's communities that they want to get more involved in local archaeology. This grant will support community archaeology in Cambridgeshire for the next five years and should be the start of very exciting times for anyone who has an interest in archaeology or wishes to develop one.

Jigsaw is a project which will help to set up new local community archaeology groups (Archaeology Action groups). These will be trained and supported by two new Community Archaeologists to investigate, research and help protect the county's archaeology. It will provide volunteer opportunities, schools resources and support local involvement in heritage.

In addition to setting up new groups, the project will also invite existing archaeology groups to join the project and benefit from training and equipment which the project will provide. Jigsaw will create a Community Resource of equipment which groups can loan for free to help them run their digs and surveys.

Local County Councillor, John Reynolds, said: "This is fantastic news, the Jigsaw project has been a long term aim of both ourselves and the archaeologists at Cambridgeshire County Council. This lottery grant will now allow us to provide opportunities as never before for the huge number of people who have an interest in their local heritage and archaeology throughout the county.

"There is a tremendous interest both locally and nationally in our past and archaeology. Our archaeology events are very well attended and this money will help strengthen the work we are already carrying out with our partners in the community. Archaeology Action Groups will be set up throughout the county, in each of the five districts, so wherever you live the project can offer something for you."

Cambridgeshire future transport

The report is to give you an overview of the proposals for the Cambridgeshire Future Transport project to help inform local members and communities of the emerging plans and how they can be involved.

Improving local passenger transport is one of the top priorities for the people of Cambridgeshire.  However, faced with a need to cut costs in all areas of passenger transport, including public, home-to-school and social services transport, and recognising that other public bodies, including health and district councils also provide transport funding and services, Cambridgeshire County Council called a Transport Summit in March Town Hall in February 2011.

There was agreement amongst those at the Summit, including organisations with an interest in the financing and delivery of transport, to work collaboratively to see what could be achieved working across organisational boundaries.

Following the Summit, the partners have been working together to find better ways to provide transport solutions to meet the needs of communities.  One of the main opportunities identified is to bring together the funding currently spent (£34 million) by different departments in the County Council and other public bodies on providing transport, potentially avoiding duplication and making savings.

The improved arrangements are intended to deliver benefits for communities through a more efficient, effective and co-ordinated approach to transport by:

• Strengthening the link between community needs and the provision of transport   
• Improving transport provision by bringing together transport budgets and priorities across Cambridgeshire and linking the organisations involved in providing transport – this could help to make savings and provide opportunities for these to be reinvested locally
• Focussing more on local needs – by encouraging decisions to be made locally and to target available funds to meet community needs
• Stimulating commercial market innovation and allowing new solutions for local needs to emerge while maintaining quality and standards
• Opening up opportunities to create new commercial and community transport ventures.
• Through schemes such as small franchises or linking new routes to existing commercial ones.
• Exploring the potential to improve accessibility to services, whether by taking people to services or services to people

 
The aim of Cambridgeshire Future Transport is to take a whole-county approach to changing the way transport is provided; and indeed looking beyond the County boundaries in recognition that people often wish to travel to or from other locations.

Such a fundamental change could not be implemented in one go, so pathfinder projects are being developed to test different approaches in different places.  The lessons learnt from the pathfinders will be used to inform more substantive arrangements across Cambridgeshire.

Over the next few months, discussions will take place among the partners to explore the potential for a co-ordinating transport body, ‘Transport for Cambridgeshire’, which would potentially:

• Bring together resources and budgets from the various funding bodies, including all County Council, district and city council and health transport budgets. 
• Develop a single point of contact and information for customers and clients.
• Provide procurement and business support for local providers, help develop local consortia to deliver transport services and, where appropriate, commissioning transport services.
• Ensure that passenger transport across Cambridgeshire meets policy and statutory requirements

 
Local communities will be encouraged to determine local transport priorities and the best way of providing transport to meet them.  This may be through forming Local Transport Consortia which will be financially incentivised to encourage better efficiency and innovation, while ensuring provision of transport tailored to local community needs.

We are open-minded as to how such consortia may be formed and how they will operate. To help understand the potential solutions, three pathfinder schemes are being developed:

• Testing the potential for private enterprise franchises for services to provide additional capacity in locations of greatest need and to complement existing provision.  This could see new companies coming forward to run local transport services, with the support of Transport for Cambridgeshire.
• A locally led review of all transport services in parts of the north of Cambridgeshire, including linkages to neighbouring counties.  This pathfinder builds on work already undertaken by the Fenland Transport and Access Group linked into the Shaping Fenland project.  Work has been undertaken to map travel patterns and understand the needs of communities.  One example being investigated is the provision of a scheduled minibus service to connect with commercial bus service routes to improve access to Doddington Community Hospital and potentially save money by combining current transport services. 
• An external review of transport in the west the county to determine potential benefits that could be delivered by a social enterprise model for transport delivery.  This pathfinder has been brought forward because Huntingdonshire District Council had already done a lot of preparatory work and wanted to make early advances, but felt it has only limited resources to progress the work at this time.  It is anticipated that better transport provision may be possible by taking a more commercial view towards transport network planning to better utilise existing transport, whilst ensuring financial gains are used to improve local services.

 
One or more of the pathfinder schemes are likely to go live by the end of the year and, subject to evaluation of the pathfinders, the broader roll out will take place over the next few years.

There will be no further reductions in bus subsidies until work has been undertaken on the pathfinders and wherever possible a withdrawal of subsidies and the introduction of alternatives need to go hand in hand.  Public consultation will be undertaken before any significant changes are made to local transport provision.

North West Cambridge – progress note – August 2011

This is an date on the proposed developments within the North West Cambridge quadrant and the on-going work of the Local Authority partners. Local Authority Officers are working with developers and other partners to ensure that detailed planning work progresses in a way that is appropriate and relevant to each individual site.

Community Engagement

The next Community Event will be held in October 2011, information on the date and venue will be advertised shortly. The event is being organised by the City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council and will be a drop in with the focus on the University Site outline application consultation. Local Authority officers and University representatives will be present to answer.

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

Follow Cambridgeshire County Council on

      Facebook – www.facebook.com/CambridgeshireCC.

      Twitter – www.twitter.com/CambsCC.

      Cambridgeshire County Council – website.