Well, that was interesting.  Today’s meeting of East Cambridgeshire district council’s Shareholder Committee (the committee which represents the council’s interests in its own ‘East Cambs Trading Company’) was asked to recommend the company’s business plan to the full council – and refused to do so.  Company directors were sent back to do some more homework, and a rewritten business plan will come to the next meeting of the Shareholder Committee.

So what went wrong?  Well, councillors have been more than a little irked that Palace Green Homes – the company’s house-building arm, responsible for such projects as the Barton Road houses in Ely – decided it wanted to move offices to Fordham, and plans for this were quite advanced before even senior Conservative councillors knew.

But questioning from me and from Conservative councillors today centred on the financial figures given to councillors, particularly for the company’s grounds maintenance operation. The salary bill for this team is expected to increase by almost £100K in the next two years, while its earnings before tax are projected to fall from £131K to less than £50K over the same period.  Transport costs are also set to increase, from under £60K to nearly £90K.

I’ve got other concerns too.  There are clear conflicts of interest between the council, the company, and the Combined Authority which is lending the company a lot of money – and there are some people on all three.  The company is aiming for only 25 per cent of the homes it markets over the next five years to be affordable – that’s less than the requirement the council asks of commercial developers.  (That’s partly because so few affordable houses will be generated by the scheme to refurbish the MOD homes at Princess of Wales in Ely).  And the company has been given the power to take unlimited loans from Mayor Palmer’s Combined Authority, rubber-stamped by only one named officer and one named councillor.

Finally, the Barton Road scheme included a payment by the company to the council, for an affordable home to be built somewhere else in the district. The money has been paid over, but there is no news about where, or when, the affordable home will be built.

Liberal Democrats in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough enjoyed a well-attended conference in Histon today.  I was particularly pleased to chair a session with Dame Carol Black (Principal of Newnham College Cambridge) and Dr David Cleevely, tech entrepreneur and start-up business funder, who joined us to discuss their work as part of the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Independent Economic Commission.

The purpose of the Commission was to examine how the Mayor’s Combined Authority could meet its commitment to the Government to double the size of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough economy in the next 25 years, and its final report was published in September last year.  Carol and David discussed a wide range of issues including the enormous health inequalities between the north and south of Cambridgeshire and their relationship to work, and different ways in which growing the three different economies (Greater Cambridge, Greater Peterborough, and the fens) might be addressed.

Chris Powers of Cambridge Stays and Cambridge parliamentary spokesman Rod Cantrill updated the conference on the latest twists and turns of Brexit.  Mark Robertson, Principal of Cambridge Regional College, provoked a lively discussion about post-16 education, and South Cambridgeshire councillor Neil Gough described the emerging plans for the ‘Oxford-Cambridge corridor’ including rail and road connections and large numbers of new homes.

As the local county councillor for Pymoor, I have been asked to consider objections received in relation to the proposed 30MPH speed limit on various roads in Pymoor.  I have written today to the county council as follows, to support the proposed change to the speed limit:

‘I have considered the proposal to reduce to 30MPH the current 40MPH speed limit in Main Street, Straight Furlong, Pymoor Lane and School Lane in Pymoor.

I am aware that the proposed speed limit was advertised as required by legislation, and have considered carefully the two resulting letters of objection.

I have read and understood the contents of the officer’s report entitled Objections to 30mph Speed Limit in Pymoor. After having taken note of the objections therein and considered the officer’s recommendation I support the implementation of the proposal as published.’

East Cambridgeshire District Council has opened its consultation on its draft Private Sector Housing Enforcement Policy 2019.

The council tries to work with landlords to improve housing standards without enforcement, but also needs to ensure that where appropriate, enforcement action is taken where landlords are reluctant to maintain properties to a satisfactory standard.

The policy has been revised to include new and amended legislation. It sets out the council’s approach to enforcement which the council says is designed to be fair to responsible landlords and to also deal effectively with non-compliant or rogue landlords.

View the draft Private Sector Housing Enforcement Policy 2019

If you would like to make comments on the policy, please complete the two-minute survey below

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/VJ8BVB8

The consultation will last for eight weeks, closing at noon on Tuesday 19 March 2019.  Any responses received after the consultation deadline cannot unfortunately be considered.

I spent much of today at a meeting at Shire Hall of a panel considering bids by local groups for the council’s Innovate and Cultivate funds.  During the meeting, I noted in the paperwork that several pieces of work by the council itself, notably supporting adults with learning difficulties into employment, were currently the subject of funding bids by the council to the European Social Fund.

Brexit means the loss of the opportunity for the county council to bid into this fund.  Existing funded projects would presumably complete their term, but thereafter these funds would dry up, creating funding gaps for the council itself but also for other organisations in Cambridgeshire who also currently enjoy the benefit of European Social Fund access.

I have written to ask the council whether its work on Brexit preparations covers this area of risk, and whether it knows how much money is currently attracted into Cambridgeshire, that will be lost when access by the UK to ESF funding will cease.