Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Over, Councillor North was in attendance as a substitute and chaired the meeting in his capacity as Cabinet Member with responsibilities for Communities.

Apologies were also received for Parish Councillors Henry Clark, Olive Leonard and Jason Merrill.

Minutes of the meeting held on 16 December 2015 were approved as a true and accurate record.

Minutes of the Extraordinary meeting held on 9 February 2016 were approved as a true and accurate record.

Hayley Thornhill, Intelligence Manager

The Intelligence Manager presented this item.

Discussions, comments and responses were as follows:

•           The IICT Team investment in communities was an approach to consult      with community stakeholders in a collaborative way to co-design          requirements for each community;

•           To identifying the communities vulnerable, would provide early intervention which could save the Authority money.  Development of a register which would outline who the vulnerable were, had been a consideration by the Authority in order to provide the right information in the right way to enhance communication. It was intended that through the Communities Strategy, the Council would formulate one system to identify who the communities vulnerable residents were so that support could be directed appropriately;

•           Investments would be explored to develop community led initiatives to support the vulnerable;

•           The Council’s Community Strategy aimed to introduce systems, such as the ability to identify unknown carers in order to provide an effective support network;

•           There were many multi-disciplined agencies, such as GPs that the Authority would engage with in order to provide the most efficient support network for carers and identify the vulnerable;

•           The Council would engage with the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and other organisations across Cambridgeshire over developments in respect of the investment in community’s initiative for services such as Adult Social Care; 

•           There were no frontline staff or services cuts planned in the delivery of the Community Strategy and the initiative had aimed to deliver services through a digital format;

•           The challenge had been to engage communities to become involved in service provision;

•           Peterborough had developed a unique approach and had recognised how services needed to change in order to work build a customer service experience;

•           Services that could be devolved to Parish Councils, may include taking over responsibility for grounds services or to run community services. 

•           The budget could work as a grant arrangement for devolved services. 

•           Parish Councils were crucial in identifying services for devolvement, which could involve project support from a community interest company or voluntary pathway enterprise;

•           It was envisaged that Parish Councils would need to design an approach to budget setting and timings for devolved services?

Peterborough had signed an expression of interest join a devolved Council, which was subject to approval at Full Council.  The services being run through the devolved Council would be for services such as highway repair, housing and development.

AGREED ACTION

To provide the Parish Council Liaison Members with a list of voluntary services that Parish Councils could take responsibility for under the Communities Strategy.

Matt Oliver, Youth in Localities (PCC)

The Youth in Localities Team Manager, presented this item.

Key points highlighted:

•           The approach needed for Youth Services;

•           How youth work can help parish areas;

•           Youth work vs work with young people;

•           Youth work in Peterborough;

•           Young people’s voices to be heard; and

•           Peterborough City Council’s involvement.

Discussions, comments and responses were as follows:

One of the youth projects currently underway had been the smart supper’s programme, which was funded by the government’s smart cities initiative.  This initiative involved residents attending a talk led by school students, who put forward community ideas.  Residents would be invited to vote on the best community idea put forward.

AGREED ACTION:

It was agreed that the Democratic Services Officer would distribute the presentation slides to Parish Councils.

Gemma Wildman, Principal Strategic Officer

The Principal Strategic Planning Officer, presented this item.

Discussions, comments and responses were as follows:

·         It had been advantageous to produce a better outline for development sites through the Peterborough Local Plan (PLP) consultation rather than face development from aggressive developers that had always appealed a refused a planning application;

·         The 2016 version of the PLP had been a refresh of the plan from 2011, which had been reviewed and updated for Peterborough’s housing requirements in-line with the predicted growth population; 

·         The draft PLP would be extended to 10 years instead of five; 

·         There was a Community Infrastructure Levy imposed on developments, where the funding collected would provide an infrastructure delivery schedule for predicted growth, such as the Fletton Parkway widening;

·         The team had engaged with the National Health Services over medical facility requirements, however, in the past the engagement had proved difficult;

·         Land development proposals for small pockets of within a village envelope could be put forward for planning development, however, 10 dwellings had been the threshold that the Council could consider.  This requirement was in place as the Council had to demonstrate to the planning inspector that there had been enough land allowance to accommodate windfall development requirements;

·         Community Infrastructure Levy funding would be available to Parish Council’s with neighbourhood plans at 15%.  The Governance Community infrastructure Levy (CiL) allocation of 15% would be held by the Parish Council, subject to an annual statement of how the money had been spent;

·         Better transparency around development and the CiL allocations may encourage Parish Council’s to engage in future proposals;

·         Peterborough had entered into a joint approach with Cambridgeshire, which had increased the housing allocation by around £2.5k as part of the Localism Act 2011 on top of the £4k outlined in the PLP.  It would not be appropriate to take on any more as this takes away the development for other areas;

·         The Authority would liaise with neighbouring authorities over the acceptable amount of housing development in their area that Peterborough could commit to.  There had been no indication that neighbouring authorities would not be able to meet their needs and had not been expected to add to the Peterborough’s housing pressure.

AGREED ACTION

It was agreed that the Democratic Service Officer would circulate the presentation slides to Parish Councils.