Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors S Dalton and C Day.

1.      Councillor Scott declared a personal and prejudicial interest in Agenda Item 5.1, Older People’s Accommodation Strategy Implementation by virtue of her position as Chief Executive of the National Care Association and advised that she would leave the room during discussion of the item.

2.      Councillor Holdich declared a personal and prejudicial interest in Agenda Item 5.4, Peterborough Local development Framework: Peterborough Site Allocations Document (Preferred Options Stage by virtue of his ownership of land adjoining one of the sites included in the report, and he advised that he would leave the room during discussion of the item.

3.      Councillor Cereste declared a prejudicial interest in Agenda Item 5.2, Partnership Agreement – Health and Adult Social Services by virtue of his position as Chairman of Peterborough Primary Care Trust and advised that he would leave the room durum discussion of the item.

4.      Councillor Cereste declared a personal, non-prejudicial interest in Agenda Item 5.6, Budget 2010/11 and Medium Term Financial Plan to 2014/15.  

The minutes of the meeting held on 14 December 2009 were agreed and were signed by the Leader as an accurate record.

There were no updates reported.

Note: Monitoring items are listed for information purposes only and are not subject to the Council’s call-in mechanism.

Cabinet received the Annual Audit and Inspection Letter for 2008/2009, prepared jointly by its external auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Audit Commission Relationship Manager and reviewing the Council's arrangements and progress in relation to the Audit of the Accounts and the Use of Resources.

CABINET RESOLVED TO:

Approve the Audit and Inspection Letter 2008/2009.

REASONS

          The Council was required to consider the statutory Audit and Inspection Letter and make appropriate arrangements in response to recommendations.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS

          The External Auditor may have taken on board responses received prior to its formal publication, though he had a duty to produce and arrange for the publication of the Annual Audit Letter as soon as reasonably practical. No specific alternative options were submitted for consideration.

The strategy outlined how extra care housing would be developed across Peterborough to provide high quality housing with care and support for older people across the city and agreed that plans for the existing residential homes managed by NHS Peterborough be developed.       

The Strategy for Older People’s Accommodation and Housing Related Support, adopted in 2007 addressed local needs and the views of older people and has led to much progress and improvements in the availability and quality of services for older people in Peterborough. In order to continue to improve services and ensure all older people benefit from high quality support, there is a need to continue to develop more extra care housing to provide significantly better services to people currently living in NHS Peterborough managed residential care.

Cabinet were advised that new extra care accommodation is already benefiting many people who have moved into the schemes.  These services can now be offered to people who are already receiving residential care in our NHS Peterborough managed homes.  Engagement with residents and families began last year by offering all ten permanent residents at Coneygree Lodge, Stanground, a place in St Edmunds Court or another extra care scheme.  Individuals could opt for alternative services if they choose but a place in extra care was guaranteed for each of them.  Once permanent residents have moved, there will longer be a need to continue to run Coneygree Lodge and it is anticipated that it will close by the end of March 2010.

Places at St Edmunds Court will also be offered to residents in the other NHS Peterborough managed residential homes. In due course, as more extra care schemes come into operation, similar guaranteed offers will be made to permanent residents at The Croft and at Peverels.  Once permanent residents have moved, again, these buildings will no longer be required.  It is proposed to complete these changes by the end of 2012. Services at Greenwood House and Welland House will be further developed to provide very specialist residential services for people whose needs cannot be met in extra care housing or standard residential care.  Because of the issues with the buildings outlined above, these services would need to be re-provided in new buildings in the medium to long-term.  Work will commence to identify the best option to fund and achieve this.  The land and buildings for all five homes are owned by the City Council.  In the short-term, these services will continue to be run by the provider arm of NHS Peterborough.

NHS Peterborough has engaged with residents, their families and staff within the five residential homes it manages on an ongoing basis since the strategy was agreed.  Regular meetings and letters have kept people up to date with the work to review services.

CABINET RESOLVED TO:

It is recommended that Cabinet approves the next steps required over the next three years to deliver high quality services for older people now and in future years.

REASONS

The recommendations are designed to achieve  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.

The current Partnership Agreement between the Council and Peterborough Primary Care Trust (made under Section 75 of the National Health Service Act 2006) expires on 31 March 2010.  A new agreement has been drafted which makes provision for the continuation of the existing partnership arrangements.

          The Council undertook a review of the partnership in 2009 to inform these renegotiations.  Both partners are committed to an outcome focused partnership which operates in the best interests of local people through a simple and workable partnership agreement. The agreement allows for the continued integration of health and adult social care through lead commissioning of services by the PCT, pooling of budgets and the operation of integrated services.

CABINET RESOLVED TO:

1.   Approve the Partnership Agreement for Adult Social Care and Health to come into place from 1 April 2010 on expiry of the existing agreement

2.  Delegate authority to the Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care to approve amendments to the agreement to reflect new risk-sharing arrangements when they are introduced as set out in paragraph 4.7 of the report.

REASONS

The Council delegates its statutory adult social care functions and responsibilities to the PCT.  The Partnership Agreement sets out how the two organisations pool their committed budgets and commission all health and social care services. The Partnership Agreement is supported by an Annual Accountability Agreement which sets out the strategic and performance objectives to be delivered, the funding to be provided by each party, the charges to be made for social care services, and the eligibility criteria at which people were entitled to receive those services.  The current Annual Accountability Agreement for 2009/2010 was included in the Medium Term Financial Strategy approved by Full Council on 25 February 2009.  A new partnership agreement must be entered into by the end of March 2010 to support the integrated arrangements for health and social care in Peterborough.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS

Do nothing – this is not a valid option as in order for the Council and the PCT to jointly commission all health and social care services under Section 75 of the National Health Service Act 2006 a partnership agreement needs to be put in place setting out the terms of the pooling of the committed budgets and commissioning arrangements.

The Council’s urgency procedure was invoked in respect of this report and the Chairman of the Sustainable Growth Scrutiny Committee was informed in accordance with the Council’s Constitution.

Cabinet received a report on work already undertaken and consultation events held as part of the bus service review. All subsidised bus service contracts were incorporated into an initial overview assessment.  From this assessment, the Local Link rural, morning and evening bus journeys warranted further assessment due to the low numbers of passengers carried and relatively high subsidy per passenger journeys.  Patronage data from on-bus ticket machines and physical on-bus monitoring was analysed and used to assess the number of people impacted by the proposed changes. 

A further review of all subsidised bus services will take place after a 12 month period.  This review will ensure that the recommendations have achieved the anticipated outcomes. 

CABINET RESOLVED TO:

Approve the final proposals to amend the subsidised bus network as follows:

·               cease the following journeys on bus services:

o        402 - all journeys, with replacement available on Call Connect or commercial services.  Contracts to be provided to eligible school transport students.

o        404 - all journeys, except Sunday journeys, with replacement available on Call Connect or commercial services.  Contracts to be provided for eligible school transport students.  Revise Sunday journeys.

o        406 - all journeys before 0845 and all journeys after 1813, with replacement available within walking distance on Citi 2.  In addition, other minor journey withdrawals, with replacement available within walking distance on Citi 2.

o        407 - all journeys after 1728, with replacement available on Citi 1 and Citi 6.

o        408 - Minor journey withdrawals and amendments, with replacement available on Citi 1 and Citi 3.

o        410 - all journeys withdrawn between Newark and Dogsthorpe, with replacement available on Stagecoach Citi network.  In addition, all journeys after 1815 withdrawn and Sunday service withdrawn, with partial replacement available on Stagecoach service 37.  Service extended from Newark to Newborough to replace 411, timetable reworked as a result.

o        411 - all journeys, except those carrying eligible students withdrawn, with replacement on reworked 410 timetable.

·               enter into a partnership arrangement with Lincolnshire County Council to deliver a Call Connect service;

·               reallocate funding and introduce one Call Connect service for the West area (from western edge of authority boundary to East Coast Mainline), with the intention of introducing a second vehicle for the East area at a later date;

·               retain service LL403/413 - Glinton and Peakirk with a revised timetable;

·               retain combined service LL410/411, as detailed above.;

·               retain service 342 - Thorney to Whittlesey on Fridays;

·               renew the existing de-minimis agreements with commercial operators to provide a number of journeys;

·               reallocate funding to provide additional journeys on a 3 month trial basis to increase the frequency of more popular daytime journeys that are showing an increasing tread in passenger numbers from hourly to half hourly.  Should the trial not show a further increase in passenger numbers the trial to be ceased and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63.

The report was submitted to Cabinet following approval of the Council’s Local Development Scheme by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. The purpose of the report was to enable Cabinet to agree for public consultation in March 2010 the Site Allocations Development Plan Document (Preferred Options Version).

The Core Strategy sets out the vision, objectives and overall strategy for the development of Peterborough up to 2026, together with a limited number of policies that are core to achieving or delivering that strategy. The Core Strategy is accompanied by a ‘key diagram’ which shows pictorially some of the key elements of Peterborough’s development strategy, but it does not have a ‘proposals map’ drawn on an Ordnance Survey base. This is the primary role of the Site Allocations Document.

All land within the City Centre is excluded from the Site Allocations Document as any detailed allocations for new development in this location will be determined via the forthcoming City Centre Area Action Plan (CCAAP).

The key features as found within the Document included:

·           Housing

·           Employment

·           Gypsy, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople

·            Safeguarding Land

·            Other allocations -the document identifies (or reconfirms existing) boundaries for:

o      The Urban Area

o      The City Centre (CCAAP boundary)

o      The District Centres

o      Local Centres

o      The Villages (Village Envelopes)

CABINET RESOLVED TO:

1.        Approve the publication of the Peterborough Site Allocations Document (Preferred Options version), together with associated supporting documents, for six-week public consultation starting in March 2010; and

2.        Agree that the document be resubmitted to Cabinet following the consultation exercise for approval of any amendments before its submission to Full Council.

REASONS

Cabinet was recommended to approve the Site Allocations Document (preferred options version) for public consultation because it will help deliver the City’s growth targets set out the Core strategy, will encourage and support investment in the City, will provide more clarity as to what and where the Council wants to see growth occur (subject to consultation) and will provide local residents with an opportunity to comment on proposals.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS

It is a statutory requirement to produce the Site Allocations Document therefore the alternative option of not producing this document was rejected.

Alternative sites could have been recommended for development, but this would have meant such sites were either or both: (a) contrary to the Core Strategy, (b) contrary to sustainable development principles.

The draft version of the POIS was approved by Council on 10^th December 2008 and was followed by an extensive public consultation exercise and further evidence gathering since that date. Cabinet received a report recommending that the Planning Obligations Implementation Scheme (POIS) be approved as an adopted Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)and that further work be undertaken by officers on the potential of implementing a Community Infrastructure Levy in Peterborough.

CABINET RESOLVED TO:

1.         Adopt the Planning Obligations Implementation Scheme (POIS) as a          Supplementary Planning Document.

2.         Endorse further work to be undertaken by officers on the potential of          implementing a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) in Peterborough.

REASONS

Cabinet was recommended to approve the Planning Obligations Implementation Scheme (POIS) as an adopted Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) because it will add considerable weight to the document when considered in determining planning applications and any planning appeals.

Cabinet was also recommended to endorse further work to be undertaken by officers on the potential of implementing a Community Infrastructure Levy in Peterborough because draft government regulations indicate that POIS-style levies may eventually become unlawful.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS

The alternative option of not progressing the POIS as an SPD was rejected, as the Council would not have a policy document of considerable weight for planning purposes.

At its meeting on 14 December 2009 Cabinet had approved for consultation purposes its draft budget. Cabinet received a further report on the budget proposals detailing comments made during the consultation exercise including from all Scrutiny Committees and Commissions, Neighbourhood Councils, the Youth Council and members of the public.

CABINET RESOLVED TO:

Having regard to the consultation comments and statutory advice detailed in the report:

1.                  Agree that the following be approved and recommended to Council on the 24 February 2010:

a)      That the MTFP is set in the context of the community strategy (MTFP section 1).

b)      The Budget monitoring report for October 2009 as the first draft of a probable outturn position for 2009/10.

c)      The revenue budget for 2010/11 and indicative figures for 2011/12 to 2014/15 (including capacity and savings proposals).

d)      The capital programme for 2010/11 to 2014/15, associated capital strategy, treasury strategy (updated to be compliant with the new Treasury Management Code of Practice) and asset management plan.

e)      The medium term financial plan for 2010/11 to 2014/15.

f)       The council tax increase of 2.5% for 2010/11 and indicative increases of 2.5% for 2011/12 to 2014/15.

g)      To spend at the level of the Dedicated Schools Grant for 2010/11 to 2014/15.

h)      The proposals for reserves and balances.

i)        The Annual Accountability Agreement with the Primary Care Trust for 2010/11.

j)        The approach to budget management in 2010-11, including the need to approval of spend through the Council’s gateway process, and the proposed extent of delegation, (within the ‘budget and policy framework procedures rules’), to be requested from council to ensure that the financial targets in the MTFP are delivered

k)      The challenging financial position in future years, and the need to start planning early for meeting the financial deficits indicated in the later years of the MTFP.

l)     The financial arrangements for neighbourhood councils

2.         Note that the council tax to be formally set on 24^th February 2010 will be subject to the notifications of precepting bodies in respect of their budget requirements, and appropriate resolutions will be prepared for Council.

REASONS

This is a monitoring report to inform Members of the Council’s financial position compared to its approved budget for the year.  It is recommended that Directors continue to work with Portfolio Holders, service managers and budget holders to bring forecasts within Departmental cash limits with appropriate corrective action.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS

None required at this stage.