Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee on Monday, 9th July 2012 at 17.00

Cambridge City Council is to hold a Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee on Monday, 9th July 2012 at 17.00.

The meeting is to cover a very broad range of subjects. I intend to seek to use the public speaking slot to make the following points:

• I think the title of this meeting should be changed to reflect, and highlight, the fact it now acts as as the council’s police and crime scrutiny committee. This aspect of the council’s work has shifted from Community Services following Cllr Bick, who has retained the position of executive councillor for policing as he has become leader. It is not obvious to those following the councils work that the Strategy and Resources scrutiny committee has taken on this role, presumably to save Cllr Bick from attending another meeting. Work on, for example Cambridge’s Resolution Panels, has shifted from the community services committee to this one, meaning new councillors will have to come up to speed on the proposals.
• On the Neighbourhood Restorative Justice Panel proposals I have the following suggestions and comments:
  • Make it a proper, high quality, experiment, so the results can inform future policy decisions for Cambridge and decisions taken elsewhere.
  • Consider having magistrates on the oversight board, and holding oversight meetings in public.
  • Note there will be an encouragement, and inducement, for those admitting criminal offences to take part if the alternative is court or police issued summary justice.
• On broadband the hefty report to the committee doesn’t effectively detail the current state of affairs in the city. Aspirations appear low given what is already on offer. Cambridge should be seeking to way ahead of the national minimum aspirations, and in my experience it generally already is. I think that when public money is being put into provision of broadband there is a need to focus not only on provision, but contracts and pricing. Minimum length eg. 12 month contracts are an issue in a city with a high turnover of population, and within that a high rate of people, particularly but not only, students, moving from place to place within the city. Service issues such as the speed of getting a new account set up (effectively names changed on an account) are also I think matters councillors should consider. In terms of infrastructure provision, I think if public money is to be put in to Cambridge City it should be on fibre optic to the premises, and the council should lobby Virgin Media to stop calling their fibre to the cabinet service “fibre optic”. I think the council’s major influence here ought be through planning process.
• The Cambridge Tax is on the agenda.
  • Have institutions which may get discounts as charities; have they been identified yet – are the colleges included in the map of the BID area as a source of votes; knowing they won’t have to pay any resultant tax?
  • Is the council preparing to be in a position to decide if, or not, to use its veto (provided for by Regulation 12 of the The Business Improvement Districts (England) Regulations 2004)?
  • The impact on the city as a whole and make up of the city centre should be considered
  • Is it right that the committee is being recommended: “To agree the mechanism through which the Council will exercise its vote”, yet there is no such mechanism being recommended? Is the alternative of abstention being considered?
  • My view is the decisions relating to the public realm should be made by democratic elected representatives. Taxing and spending should also be the preserve of democratic parts of the state; there is no ongoing democratic element of the BID proposals after the referendum.
• Consultation process is on the agenda, a follow up on a consultation consultation the council ran. I note the List of 2012 Consultations doesn’t list to detailed content on closed consultations, when consultations close, even before decisions have been made, content disappears, or becomes hard to find, on the council’s website; as a current example (see the Castle and Victoria Road Conservation Area Consultation).