Cryptic Council

On the agenda for the Planning Meeting 17th January 2017 Item 6 the following is stated:

What was the correspondence? None was appended to the online agenda. I awaited the minutes.

And the minutes say:

No clearer then.

And what is 2900/16/FL? Apparently it had already been approved by the District Council on 6th January 2017. Waste of time.

Cambridgeshire County Council Elections 2017

This is happening on 4th May 2017 in tandem with the Mayoral Election for Cambridgeshire.

Predicting the result is probably too far out as all the candidates for each Division have yet to be announced. I would predict a Conservative win. This is a close call and is very close to the Conservatives being the largest party with the current status quo.

The devil will be in the detail. Due to a reorganisation the number of seats are dropping from 69 to 61.

Why the Conservatives lost in 2013?

This was a shock to the Conservatives. Not to me. The Conservative vote had been falling year after year. The main insurgent party was UKIP. The secondary insurgents were the Independents. Labour did well against the Liberal Democrats in Cambridge but not against the Conservatives. UKIP and Independents denied the Conservatives a majority. Labour simply didn't.

Many of the seats UKIP gained were two seats with the seats split with the Conservatives. Many of these seats have gone and this helps the Conservatives.

Why should the Conservatives win in 2017?

With 61 seats up for grabs this means 31 seats needed for a majority.

Cambridge looses 2 seats 14 to 12
East Cambs looses 1 seat 9 to 8
Fenlands looses 2 seats 11 to 9
South Cambs looses 1 seat 16 to 15
Huntingdonshire looses 2 seats 19 to 17

The loss of seats hurts the opposition rather than the Conservatives. UKIP, Labour, Liberal Democrats and the Independents get hit. Therefore without the campaign even starting the Conservatives should win. This election is for the Conservatives to lose rather than win.

Here is my first prediction. 

Conservatives 32
Liberal Democrats 16
Labour 7
UKIP 3
Independents 3

UKIP will get hammered in the north of the county. The Liberal Democrats could do well and Labour could do well in Cambridge City rather than anywhere else. Independents should do well in St Neots. 

Pavements are for pedestrians not cars!

The pavement is there for pedestrians to walk on rather than the road. Yet a few drivers in Cambourne feel it is alright to invade this space to park their cars. below are some examples:

DY64FFO

DV16ZKO

EF07 FTT

AJ12XOS

Even Cambridge Water gets in on the act!

The verge is not for parking! 4

The driver of HV56FYD also feels the verge is for parking!

The verge is not for parking! 3

Not enough space on the drive. Lets park KY62 DJJ on the verge rather than on the road. Let the taxpayer pick up the expense of repairing the verge. How unsightly!

The verge is not for parking! 2

Yet another driver (T3 OOV) who cannot be bothered to park their car properly!

The verge is not for parking! 1

What is with it with some residents of Cambourne. Parking on the verge tears up the verge which then has to be repaired by the local council.

Will the owner or keeper of YJ66 KKL pay to have the verge repaired? I doubt it.

You might live in from Cambourne if you've been accused from lying through your tooth

you've been accused of lying through your tooth!

Because you can't sign on at Cambourne Dental Care.

District Council to review the number of Parish Councillors

At the meeting of the Civic Affairs Committee on 9th December 2016 the SCDC has decided to start a Community Governance Review as Cambourne Parish Council wants to increase the number of Parish Councillors from 13 to 19.

Ron says: I'm awaiting the public consultation to put my views on this weird scheme forward.

How not to run a Parish Council!

In the report about the Governance Review it is stated that: "CPC is a large council with a busy and frequent meeting schedule." The report lists number of meetings as thus:

I'll look at the last council meeting.

Full Council: 16 Meetings a year.

At the last Full Council Meeting on 6th December 2016 the agenda ran to 23 items. Of these 17 items:
Items 1 to 3 are legally required.
Item 4 Police report.
Item 5 Chairman's Announcements
Item 6 Clerks Report - where he informs everyone what hard work he does.
Item 7 Residents Correspondence - None received.
Item 8 County and District Council Matters. The County Councillor didn't attend and the Chairman (Cllr Crocker) is also a District Councillor. This item could be deleted.
Item 9 Financial Statement - There is a Finance and Policy Committee. This item should be moved to this committee.
Item 10 Pedestrian Crossing - This item should be moved to the Planning Committee.
Item 11 City Deal - This item should be moved to the Planning Committee.
Item 12 Governance Review - This item should be moved to the F&P Committee.
Item 13 Website - This item should be moved to the F&P Committee.
Item 14 Timebank - This item should be moved to the F&P Committee.
Item 15 South Cambs Awards - This item should be moved to Leisure and Amenities.
Item 16 Land Transfers - This item should be moved to the F&P Committee.
Item 17 Traffic Matters - This item should be moved to the Planning Committee.
Item 18 General Correspondence - Items contained should go to other Committees.
Item 19 Committee Reports - Vital part of the committee system that these report to full council.
Item 20 Exclusion of Press and Public - Legal requirement because of Item 21.
Item 21 Staffing - Staffing issues must not be considered by the whole council. These should be considered by a small sub-committee of F&P or by F&P as a separate item.
Item 22 Re-admittance of Press and Public - Legal requirement.
Item 23 Date of next meeting.

The problem with Council meetings is they are too long. There is a scheme of delegation of powers to committees. If this was followed with a much better scheme then Council would do much less than at present and committees more. This is the crux of the problem. Far too many decisions are taken at Council when, properly, they should be taken at Committee level.

How would a proper committee system work?

On a 8 week cycle there would be 1 one Council meeting every 2 months. 1 Planning Committee meeting a month which could be held on the same night as a council meeting when that is held. 1 Finance and Policy meeting every 2 months and 1 Leisure Meeting every 2 months. This would increase the number of F&P + Leisure meetings by 1 each. Cut the number of Council meetings from 16 to 6. Cut the number of Planning meetings from 26 to 12.

Instead of having 52 meetings this would be cut to 30.

Following a the delegation scheme would mean the Committees would be more powerful. Council Meetings would be short and to the point.

Ron says: The way the Parish Council is working is a lot of effort for little return. More meetings doesn't mean a well run Council. The problem, as I see it, is the clerk and the chairman know how to run a small council which meets monthly. This means work is concentrated on Council Meetings. This is wrong. The work of this size of council must be concentrated on the Committee system. The number of meetings could also be cut if the Planning Committee was cut too!

Website - Make the Council Legal

According to these minutes the Parish Council is going to update their website.

What should the upgrade include? Firstly, to make the Parish Council legal. The Localism Act 2011 Chapter 7 Section 29 (7) states:

(7) A parish council must, if it has a website, secure that its register is published on its website.

The website therefore must publish the councillors register of interests on its website.

The second legal requirement is the Parish Council must publish a valid Publication Scheme on the website.

Other documents for publication are Code of Conduct and Complaints Procedure.

What else should be published and not legally required?

I would say the following:

Councils Accounts.
The Constitution.
Standing Orders.
Scheme of Delegation

Ron says: The first priority for a Council to make itself legal.

St Evenage Tourist Board complaint.

A spokesperson from the St Evenage Tourist Board has contacted this blog about the Xmas Tree in Upper Cambourne. The SETB statement is a follows:

Each year we get a minibus up to come and see the christmas lights in Cambridgeshire. We always call in to Cambourne to laugh at the christmas lights and wonky christmas trees. This year we are very disappointed as the wonky christmas trees are straight. The tourists were not happy. It has become a tradition to come and see the wonky christmas trees of Cambourne. Now we can't. 

Our three tourists said "Bring back the wonky trees".

Not that they could find the one in Upper Cambourne to start with. The lights were not working. Is this the start of another tradition of having no working lights on the xmas tree? It seems strange after being able to see the glow of the lights from the Cambourne Leisure Centre from the A14.