Decision details

Public Question

A member of the public asked a question as set out below.

 

Mr Bond raised the following points:

       i.          Chesterton Community Association had made a bid for s106 funding.

     ii.          A comprehensive review was required to look at facilities currently available in Chesterton and further ones that may be required in future. Queried the reference to the splash pad in the Officer’s report.

   iii.          Chesterton Community Association was an established organisation and registered charity. It would be willing to enter into a service level agreement with the City Council to represent residents’ views and ensure appropriate facilities were established in the area.

   iv.          Facility usage could be expected to rise once they were in place (ie they wouldn’t be unwanted).

 

The Executive Councillor for City Centre and Public Places responded:

       i.          The Officer’s report was in response to residents’ views that a lot of play equipment was put in on a piecemeal basis without the City Council checking if it was needed.

     ii.          A splash pad was proposed at the request of a councillor. There may not be sufficient resources to implement it in the current financial year.

   iii.          Welcomed the proposal for the City Council to work with Chesterton Community Association as a single point of contact for recreation ground users.

 

The Sport & Recreation Manager said that a number of capital projects were being worked on this year. Various facility projects for Cherry Hinton Pavilion would (jointly) come forward next year.

 

Matter for Decision

This was the second of two S106 reports on the agenda. Between June to August 2015, the council ran its latest S106 bidding round, inviting proposals and grant applications for projects which could help to mitigate the impact of development in Cambridge through funding from generic, off-site developer contributions.

 

Around 65 bids were received in the latest bidding round. Of these, 30 were proposals that needed to be considered by the Executive Councillor.

 

All proposals received had been assessed against the council’s criteria for the use of off-site S106 developer contributions.

 

Of the 30 proposals featured in the Officer’s report, 15 (with revisions to a few projects) were eligible for S106 funding, feasible and ready to be considered. If all 15 are prioritised (as recommended), this would equate to over £360k of S106 funding allocations for strategic/city-wide projects in this portfolio.

 

Decision of Executive Councillor for City Centre and Public Places

The Executive Councillor agreed to:

 

       i.          Prioritise the following proposals from strategic/city-wide S106 funds, subject to project appraisal and grant agreements (as appropriate):

 

Recommended projects	£	S106 type	Ref.
Improve access to Hodson’s Folly	£15k	Open space	D1
Mill Road Cemetery access and main footpath improvements	£175k	Open space	D3
Sheep’s Green watercourse improvements & habitat creation	£40k	Open space	D4
Grant for Mill Road ‘gateway’ sign (the estimated costs are likely to be revised)	£42k	Public realm	F3
Grant to Cambridge Live for Syd Barrett public art commemoration	£10k	Public art	G1
Grant to Chesterton Community Association for Chesterton mural	£3.4k	Public art	G2
Grant to Growing Spaces project in King’s Hedges for public art	£2k	Public art	G3
Grant to Historyworks for History Trails	£15k-£20k	Public art	G4
Grant to Historyworks for ‘Sounds of Steam’ project	£15k	Public art	G5
Grant to Friends of Mitcham’s Corner for Mitcham’s Models at Christmas	Up to £6k	Public art	G7
Grant to Newnham Croft Primary School for stained glass window	£12k	Public art	G8
Grant to Kettle’s Yard for public art at North Cambridge Academy	£15k	Public art	G9
Grant to Rowan Humberstone for public art at front of 40 Humberstone Road	Up to £2k	Public art	G12
Grant to St Matthew’s Primary School for ‘The place where we stand’ performance	£15k	Public art	G13
Grant for Trumpington Stitchers’ wall-hanging about life in Trumpington	£7.5k	Public art	G14

 

     ii.          Ring-fence £100,000 of public art S106 contributions for small-scale public art grants to local community groups and organisations in future bidding rounds across 2016 and 2017 (see paragraph 5.3 of the Officer’s report).

   iii.          Develop proposals for large-scale public art projects - to be commissioned by the council and to reflect the city’s identity – and to report these proposals to the Community Services Scrutiny Committee from early 2016.

 

Reason for the Decision

As set out in the Officer’s report.

 

Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

Not applicable.

 

Scrutiny Considerations

The Committee received a report from the Urban Growth Project Manager. He brought the report up to date by amending the figure in recommendation 2.1 ‘F3’ from £34k to £42k as set out below

 

Grant for Mill Road ‘gateway’ sign (the estimated costs are likely to be revised)

£34k £42k

Public realm

F3

 

In response to Members’ questions the Sport & Recreation Manager said that the East Chesterton Recreation Ground did have a mains water supply, but the infrastructure was not in place to connect it to the proposed splash pad. This added to the costs of the proposed project.

 

The Committee unanimously resolved to endorse the recommendations as amended.

 

The Executive Councillor approved the recommendation.

 

Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any Dispensations Granted)

No conflicts of interest were declared by the Executive Councillor.