Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report from the Urban Growth Project Manager.

The report outlined the arrangements for the next rounds of S106 priority-setting, which had been agreed following consideration by the Community Services Scrutiny Committee on 16 October. A short presentation was given to highlight what these changes will mean for the North Area and to provide an update on the progress of S106-funded projects previously prioritised by NAC.

Members made the following comments in response to the report:

     i.        Welcomed the progress made to date.

    ii.        Stated that the new arrangements in relation to S106 funding for the indoor sports, public realm and public art contribution types would allow larger projects to be delivered.

   iii.        Welcomed the new approach to tracking progress on existing S106 projects, which will posted on the council’s Developer Contributions web page (www.cambridge.gov.uk/S106) in due course.

  iv.        Accepted that a grant-funding approach to the next (third) S106 priority-setting round was a good idea, provided that this did not limit the area committee’s ability to prioritise project proposals in future priority-setting rounds. The Urban Growth Project Managers replied that this risk had been highlighted in the scrutiny committee report earlier that month. He said that, in the next priority-setting report in February 2015, NAC would be reminded of possible proposals which might come forward in the fourth round in order to inform its decisions of which grant-funded options to prioritise in the third round.

   v.        Raised concerns that that insufficient notice had been given for a public consultation meeting regarding the proposed BMX track improvements next to Brown’s Field community centre. The Urban Growth Project Manager apologised and will remind officers of the need to provide more notice of consultation events in future.

In response to members’ questions, the Urban Growth Project Manager stated the following:

  vi.        The improvements to Buchan Street community centre are on target to be delivered in late December 2014.

 vii.        Scoping of works needed to improve lighting for the Nuns Way multi-use games area had highlighted that it may be more appropriate for the project to be taken forward with Repairs and Renewals funding, rather than S106 funding. This (and an update on devolved funding available by contribution type) will be confirmed in the report to NAC next February.

viii.        Member suggestions of better sign-posting of the Chestnut Grove play area will be passed on to officers scoping those play area improvements and developing the project appraisal. Given that £50k of S106 funding has been allocated to this priority project, the appraisal will be reported to the Area Chair, Vice Chair and Opposition Spokes for sign-off.

  ix.        Community Development officers continue to liaise with county council counterparts over the county council’s proposals for the development of community meeting space at Milton Road Library (an NAC 2^nd round priority project). An update on progress will be included in the February 2015 report to NAC.

   x.        If further scoping work on the detailed proposals for a priority project reveals that more (or less) S106 funding may be needed to deliver the project, this can be considered at the project appraisal stage. Project appraisals for projects over £75k will be reported back to the area committee for approval.

Mike Sargeant: What is the position regarding Chesterton Sports Pavillion?

The Urban Growth Project Manager undertook to look into this matter. S106 contributions with specific stipulations about how/where they should be used were outside the scope of S106 devolved decision-making by area committees.

Action

In conclusion, the Urban Growth Project Manager reminded Members that the priority setting of proposals for S106 funding would require the area committee to make some difficult decisions. To enable area committees to decide their local priority projects at a single meeting, ward councillors will be asked to identify their short-listed proposals at the start of that meeting. In the fourth priority-setting round later next year, the area committees will be asked to identify a smaller number of priority projects (compared to the first and second rounds) involving project management/delivery by the council so that the council can implement projects effectively within the available staffing capacity.