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75 NAC S106 Devolved Decision-Making: Taking Stock and Moving Forward PDF 34 KB
Minutes:
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 2nd
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.