Date: 03 October 2006 10:05

October Report 2006

Financial Outlook

The County Council's medium and long-term plan has revealed that there will 
be increasing financial pressure on the Authority that will probably worsen 
when the results of the next Comprehensive Spending Review are revealed.

Even though Cambridgeshire is already one of the most efficient Counties in 
terms of the cost of service delivery and the low level of Council Tax and 
intends to make year on year further efficiency gains of 2.5%, it will be 
hard to avoid significant service cuts next year and beyond to "balance the
books".

In respect of costs, inflation and demand pressures are currently running at 
above twice the level that is reflected in the grant settlement i.e. in 
excess of 5% for inflation and 4% for demand.

At least in the short to medium-term the impact of the Growth Agenda is also 
negative with the additional costs of providing and supporting additional 
infrastructure and services exceeding the extra funding gained from 
developers' contributions and increased council tax receipts.

Even if the Authority deemed it would be acceptable to raise the council tax 
above 5%, ie twice the rate of wage inflation, to maintain financial 
balance, it would be precluded from doing so by the capping criteria.

The most recent set of planning assumptions show that after delivering 
efficiency gains of 2.5% and raising Council Tax by 5%, some service cuts 
reductions would be required at a time when the County should be increasing 
its service capacity to deal with the expected large scale growth in 
population and the growing elderly proportion of that population.

On a more positive note, prompt and early action by the Authority has 
avoided the need to plan for the significant impact of the equal pay 
legislation that is hitting other local authorities. However it will be 
important to ensure that no funding is top sliced centrally to address this 
issue, which would be disadvantageous to the interests of Cambridgeshire.

Corporate Performance Assessment

The Council is preparing for a major inspection of performance and service 
delivery. The Corporate Performance Assessment and the Joint Area Review of 
children's services including education will take place during the same two 
weeks in January 2007. Led by the Audit Commission, the inspection team 
includes inspectors from a number of inspection bodies including Ofsted and 
the Commission For Social Care Inspectorate.

The result of the inspection will be incorporated into a star rating and 
Direction of Travel statement. Currently the council is rated as Three Star 
Improving Well. Our current aspiration is to move to three star Improving 
Strongly with a longer term aspiration to move to Four Star Improving 
Strongly - provided that such an aim fits with the Council's strategic 
priorities as confirmed by public consultation.

We are hopeful of achieving our aspiration. However, the Direction of Travel 
is judged in comparison against other Local Authorities so that, although we 
know that we are making very real progress, we will not know until the 
results are announced how we compare against other strong performing 
authorities.

New Huntingdon Office to Open in New Year

Scott House, the new County Council office presently under construction in 
George Street, Huntingdon, will officially open early next year.

Scott House is the Council's second purpose-built office to support the 
flexible workforce arrangements that are helping the Council make savings 
that benefit frontline service delivery. Built to accommodate 250 employees, 
the light and airy building will have open plan offices and space for
meeting rooms.

Conveniently for the new occupiers, the Guided Busway route, when completed, 
will pass close to the building, which has an excellent rating against the 
Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), 
which measures the environmental performance of buildings. It will also be 
the first Council location to be wireless-ready.

The name, Scott House, was chosen from the many entries to a Council-run 
competition for staff and the public. It creates a link to the well-known 
local statue, The Thinking Soldier, sculpted by Kathleen, Lady Scott, widow 
of Captain Scott of the Antarctic and mother of Sir Peter Scott. The statue, 
which stands in the Market Square, was donated to the town by Lady Scott in 
1923.

Fenland Schools in Line for £95m Cash Boost

Secondary schools in Fenland look set to benefit from £95 million of 
Government funding.The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme is a 
national initiative to refurbish or rebuild all secondary schools in the 
country over the next 10 to 15 years. Although aimed partly at improving 
schools' infrastructure,  its main focus is to improve outcomes for young 
people.

The County Council's Cabinet has agreed to accept the terms of the BSF 
initiative. This includes establishing a Strategic Partnership Board to 
ensure stakeholders are represented in developments.

BSF will be funded mainly through the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). All 
local authorities wishing to apply - including Cambridgeshire - must prepare 
a Readiness to Deliver statement by 13 October.

New Standards for School Meals

New government standards for school meals came into effect this month, 
phased in over three years.

Cambridgeshire Catering Services (CCS) - the County Council's in house 
provider - already meets the food standards and is well on the way to 
achieving new nutrient standards.

CCS has a business plan in place for the next four years to meet the cost of 
these standards and to recover previous years' deficits. Government grant to 
local authorities to transform school meals is also contributing towards 
these increased costs. The deficit has accrued due to the introduction of
the single status agreement, and other pressures such as premises costs. 
Also, there has been a significant drop in take up of paid meals over the 
last 18 months resulting from the Jamie Oliver television series, damaging 
parental perception of the quality of meals.

The recovery plan includes promoting to parents the excellent quality of the 
meals on offer, aiming to meet the government's targets of improvement in 
take up over the next two years. This now has to be sold to parents across 
Cambridgeshire.

An important strand of this strategy is working closely with schools and 
educating pupils to change their food tastes to enjoy the foods on offer.

Move Towards Reducing Landfilled Waste

On 26 September Cabinet approved the appointment of local waste management 
firm, Donarbon Ltd, as the Preferred Bidder for the Waste PFI Project. This 
follows a period of exclusive negotiation with Donarbon earlier in the year, 
which helped to resolve a number of outstanding issues with their bid.

This means that the Council will now work with Donarbon over the coming 
months to try to conclude a satisfactory contract. If these detailed 
negotiations progress well Cabinet and Full Council will be asked to make a 
final decision on whether to award the contract to Donarbon in February 
(Cabinet) and March (Council) 2007.

Donarbon's proposals include expanded composting facilities for the 
recycling of garden and kitchen waste and a new Mechanical Biological 
Treatment (MBT) facility to be located at their existing Waste Management 
Park on the A10 north of Cambridge to treat waste which is not or cannot be
recycled.

Plan to Encourage Recycling and Greener Quarrying

County Council Cabinet has recommended that no new landfill sites are opened 
up in Cambridgeshire and that more emphasis should be put on recycling.

The Council has said more emphasis should be put on the development of a 
large network of modern waste recycling facilities.

Councillors also propose that new quarries should be located where they can 
help protect and enhance the environment.

The recommendations form part of the emerging Minerals and Waste Plan for 
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough debated by Cabinet. The public will have an 
opportunity to comment on all the options including those preferred in 
November during a six-week consultation period. Further consultation will 
then take place around September next year on a firmed-up plan prior to an
examination in public. The Councils have a duty to prepare and consult upon 
this long-term strategy for dealing with mineral extraction and waste 
management.

There are a range of challenging issues tackled by the plan, including the 
moving of the Cambridge Water Treatment works and the building of new 
Household Waste Recycling Centres. We will be sending you information about 
these through the post.

New Fair Bus Scheme for Cambridgeshire

From 1 October bus pass holders will be able to travel free anywhere in 
Cambridgeshire or Peterborough. Transport chiefs from across Cambridgeshire 
joined forces to scrap the Government bus pass scheme and replace it with a 
much fairer system.

The highly criticised current scheme, set down by Government, meant people 
aged 60 or over, as well as those with disabilities, could only travel free 
in their own district. County, District and City Council chiefs, as well as 
bus operators in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, have agreed to deliver a 
free scheme - this allows eligible passengers to cross district and city 
boundaries in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough for free.

The new system will mean bus pass holders in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough 
will be able to travel for free across district and city council borders 
between 9.30am and the last bus, Monday to Friday and all day at the weekend 
and bank holidays. This also applies to Park and Ride buses and a few other 
routes out of the county.

Despite getting no money from Government for concessionary bus fares the 
County Council has also agreed to cover any overspend. This has been made 
possible because the County Council is on target to meet tough Government 
targets for increasing the number of passengers on buses, which will attract 
financial rewards.

Think Pink and Ride to Help Save Lives

This October a hot pink Cambridge Park and Ride bus will help save lives and 
try and raise over £50,000 for Cancer Research UK.

Cambridge's award winning Park & Ride service will be joining forces with 
Cancer Research UK to raise money for their 'All Join Together' campaign in 
support of breast cancer research.

On every Tuesday in October when you step onto any Park & Ride bus and buy a 
return ticket for £2, (or £1.50 ticket for Babraham to Addenbrooke's 
Hospital journeys) Stagecoach will automatically donate £1 (or 75p if the 
£1.50 ticket is purchased) to Cancer Research UK.

The County Council-led initiative will be reminding people to Think Pink
with a bright pink Park and Ride bus which will be touring the city.

But, it doesn't stop there. Park & Ride is run as a partnership and this 
October all the partners are asking people to 'Think Pink'. A whole host of 
different events will be held throughout the city during October encouraging 
people to donate to this worthy cause.

Sickness Levels on the Road to Recovery

The number of sick days taken by staff working for the County Council is one 
the lowest of any local authority in the country and better than many 
private sector companies.

Sickness absence for the year 2005-06 was an average 6.1 days per full-time 
employee, down from 6.3 days recorded in the previous year - the national 
average for comparable local authorities was 10.9 days and private sector 
companies on average recorded 7.5 days sickness during 2005-06.

Cambridgeshire County Council employs some 18,000 people - equivalent to 
around 13,000 full time staff - and its sickness absence level in 2005-06 
was the second lowest when compared to nineteen other county councils across 
the country.

John Reynolds