This report covers April-May. You can read it here or download the PDF by clicking the button below.
Joint District Councillors’ Report April/May 2021
District councillors’ monthly report for the communities of Histon & Impington, Orchard Park and King’s Meadow.
Your Councillors are always ready to help. If you have any questions about these – or indeed any other – matters, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Steve Hunt: 01223 455180 Cllr.HuntS@scambs.gov.uk
Martin Cahn: 07826 748407 Cllr.Cahn@scambs.gov.uk
Pippa Heylings: 07837 228416 Cllr.Heylings@scambs.gov.uk
You can also follow us on our webpage & blog at http://hiopcouncillors.org, on Twitter @pippa4hiop @stevehunt4hiop, and on Facebook @pippaheylings4hiop
Covid-19
The incidence in South Cambridgeshire has dramatically reduced to approx 10 per 100,000 at present. However there is concern about the resurgence of the new Delta (Indian) variant and in particular the outbreak in Bedford where the incidence is about 15 times greater. There is a slight suggestion of a spread of the virus east out of Bedford, however it has not yet impacted South Cambridgeshire and the Bedford outbreak now appears to be declining slowly. It is generally felt that the current outbreak is being well controlled by effective and active contact tracing and isolation. The eligible age for vaccination is now reduced to 25 and all young people in this age group are encouraged to be vaccinated – in view of the age profile of the community, this should affect many of the residents of Orchard Park.
EU Settlement Scheme Deadline
The deadline for applications for the EU Settlement Scheme is 30th June. It is vitally important that any residents to whom this applies register before the deadline to ensure that they will be legally entitled to remain. For eligibility criteria and other information please see the Government website at https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families/eligibility. There is also a wealth of information and advice at campaigning groups like the3million (https://www.the3million.org.uk/) and Settled (https://settled.org.uk/en/)
If you know of any affected residents who may be unaware of the importance of this, or who may be struggling to apply, or for any other reason at risk of missing the deadline, please get in touch and we will put them in touch with organisations that can help.
Council meetings
The first “hybrid” meetings of the council have taken place – including a Full Council and a Planning Committee (which incidentally considered the L2 development in Orchard Park). So far the meetings have proceeded relatively smoothly. Most meetings can be accommodated in the Council Chamber, but the cost of Full Council meetings, which have to be held in the exhibition hall in Duxford, which is large enough for 45 socially distanced councillors, is reported to be £7000 per meeting. Members of the public and officers are encouraged to appear online for safety reasons, but members are obliged to meet and vote in person for decisions to be valid. Four district by-elections were held and four new members were elected – the most relevant to Orchard Park are Cllr. Paul Bearpark in Milton and Waterbeach (replacing Cllr. Hazel Smith) and Cllr. Corinne Garvie in Girton and Dry Drayton (replacing Cllr. Douglas de Lacey). You will note that there has been a change of control in the County Council and we welcome our colleague and Parish Council member Ros Hathorn as the new county councillor for the area.
Business Support
Further support is available via the restart scheme to provide support to businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care, and accommodation sectors. Businesses must be paying business rates and the amounts available are fixed sums in bands depending on the business rate payable. The deadline for applications is 30th June.
Hunter’s Close
South Cambridgeshire has purchased ten affordable units on the new development off Impington Lane. These include one-bedroom flats (6), and a three-bedroom house for rent and 2-bed (2) and three-bed (1) houses for shared ownership. Applicants should apply for the rental properties through Home-link: https://www.home-link.org.uk/choice/ (or should write to cbl@scambs.gov.uk if they are already registered) and for the shared ownership they should write to sales@domovohomes.co.uk
Neighbourhood Plan
The Neighbourhood Plan for Histon and Impington was approved by referendum on May 6th with over 90% of those who voted (on a turnout of over 50% of registered electors) voting in favour. It was formally ‘made’ by the District Council in the following Full Council on 20th May 2021. It is now being passed to the Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development to make minor non-material amendments in consultation with the Lead Member for Planning and the Chair of the Parish Council to form the final adopted planning documents guiding development in the village. We congratulate and thank the Neighbourhood Plan team members and contributors who worked so hard to develop and bring the Plan to fruition.
Business Rates
In 2020/21 the Cambridgeshire Business Rates Pool was set up with South Cambridgeshire being the pool lead and administering authority. The purpose of setting up a business rates pool is to minimise or if possible avoid the payment of 50% of business rates growth in the district to Central Government. Because of the way the pool was set up it has been possible to eliminate any payment to Central Government and an initial estimate was that this would benefit the Council to the tune of £1.1m. It was agreed by members that this would be passed to the Renewables Reserve.
The provisional outturn has now been calculated and the pool benefit to the Council is £1.431m an increase of £0.331m on the estimate.
Overall the additional income retained for use within the County as a result of the Pool is £5.846m.
SCDC Response to East-West Rail consultation
SCDC has submitted its response to the EWR Consultation. Read it here: https://www.scambs.gov.uk/council-responds-to-east-west-rail-consultation/
Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan
This plan is going out to consultation from the County Council – but it also has a big impact on local planning in this area and so is significant to the district. We have reservations about the provision in our area and in particular this needs to be integrated with the proposals in the Neighbourhood Plan. It is important that all those affected express their views. Further information can be found on https://consultcambs.uk.engagementhq.com/ccc-local-cycling-and-walking-infrastructure-plan-consultation-2021.
Meetings of Councillors in April-June 2021
Meetings in April
| 8th | All-Member Briefing | Pippa, Martin, Steve |
| 13th | Planning Cttee | Martin, Pippa |
| 13th | Briefing on Cambourne Business Park | Pippa, Martin, Steve |
| 14th | JDCC | Steve |
| 14th | OPCC | Martin, Steve, Pippa |
| 15th | Full Council | Pippa, Martin, Steve |
| 20th | Scrutiny & Overview Ctee | Steve, Martin |
| 22nd | All-Member Briefing | Pippa, Martin, Steve |
| 27th | Ouse Fen and Fen Drayton Lakes RSPB Reserve – visit | Martin |
Meetings in May
| 4th | Full Council | Pippa, Martin, Steve |
| 14th | OPCC | Martin, Pippa |
| 20th | Full Council/Annual Meeting | Pippa, Martin, Steve |
| 18th | Scrutiny & Overview Ctee | Steve, Martin |
| 26th | Planning Ctee | Martin, Pippa |
| 28th | Grants Ctee | Martin (Sub) |
Meetings in June
| 4th | Full Council | Pippa, Martin, Steve |
| 9th | Planning | Pippa, Martin |
| 9th | OPCC | Martin, Steve, Pippa |
| 10th | Civic Affairs Ctee | Martin |
| 14th | Climate Change and Envt Ctee | Pippa, Martin |
| 15th | 5 Year Land Supply briefing | Pippa, Steve, Martin |
| 21st | HIPC | Pippa, Steve, Martin |
| 22nd | Scrutiny & Overview Ctee | Steve, Martin |
hiopcouncillors 