Agenda

Appendix 3 and its associated schedules to the report relate to information which following a public interest test the public is likely to be excluded by virtue of paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of Part 1 of the Local Government Act 1972 because it contains detailed cost reports that may impact a future procurement process and commercially sensitive information on existing business models.

Public appendices can be found here Cambridge Civic Quarter: Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee - Cambridge City Council

The Council notes:

·      The significant increase in need for emergency food in Cambridge, with Cambridge City Foodbank providing more than 17,000 emergency food parcels in the last 12 months, a 74% increase on the same period in 2020/21.

·      That for the first time in its history, the majority of people Cambridge City Foodbank supports with emergency food will be repeat rather than one-off visitors, demonstrating that a higher proportion of people who experience food security in Cambridge now continue to experiencing hunger and hardship on an ongoing basis.

·      That around 5 in 6 low income households on Universal Credit are going without at least one essential like food, a warm home or toiletries[1],  which shows that the social security system is not providing people with enough to afford the essentials.

·      That 9.3 million people in the UK face hunger and hardship, meaning their household is more than 25% below the Social Metrics Commission poverty line. This represents one in seven people in the UK, and one in five children. Without action, a further 425,000 people are projected to face hunger and hardship by 2026/27[2].

The Council resolves:

·      To support the promotion of the campaign by Cambridge City Foodbank, Trussell and Joseph Roundtree Foundation to introduce an Essentials Guarantee[3] , a law which would ensure that the basic rate of social security support is always enough to afford the essentials that we all need to live.

·      To instruct the Leader of the Council to write to the Chancellor and Secretary to the Department for Work and Pensions in favour of the introduction of an Essentials Guarantee.

·      To instruct the Leader of the Council to write to Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge and Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs, Ian Sollom, MP for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire, and Pippa Heylings, MP for South Cambridgeshire, to request that they write to the Chancellor and Secretary to the Department for Work and Pensions in favour of the introduction of an Essentials Guarantee.

Council notes:

a. The lack of street lighting on Nuns Way Recreation Ground and on the Pulley play area of Kings Hedges Recreation Ground 

b. Widespread community concerns about this lack of street lighting, which has left residents feeling unsafe and led to increased concerns around and incidents of anti-social behaviour, particularly in winter months when there are more hours of darkness.

c. The appalling arson attack on the new Pulley play area and equipment in September 2024, which was recently installed with £163,000 of council money and £75,000 wooden castle was burnt.

d. Office for National Statistics data shows that four out of five women and two out of five men feel unsafe walking alone after dark in a park or other open space.

e. Research has identified a consistent correlation between higher light levels on pedestrian paths and greater public confidence in using said paths.

f. A review of evidence by the College of Policing found that improved street lighting reduced violent and property crime by 21% on average

Council calls on:

a. The Director of City Services to conduct a feasibility review and explore the installation of street lighting at Nuns Way Recreation Ground and the Pulley play area, as well as parks and open spaces throughout the city where issues with lighting have been identified and for the for this feasibility review to be reported back to the relevant committee.

b. The Executive Councillor for Open Spaces and City Services to urgently develop a policy to address issues of safety and anti-social behaviour in the aforementioned areas in conjunction with the local community, including a feasibility review of installing street lighting, and to subsequently report this policy and findings to the Council .

Notes:

BBC News, ‘Arson investigation under way after play park fire’, 1 October 2024, link

Office for National Statistics, ‘Perceptions of personal safety and experiences of harassment, Great Britain: 2 to 27 June 2021’, link

Fotios, S. and Castleton, C., (2016), ‘Specifying Enough Light to Feel Reassured on Pedestrian Footpaths’, Leukos, 12(4), link

College of Policing, ‘Street Lighting’, link

Council notes that

1.    The Post Office has proposed to close Cambridge’s city centre “Crown Office” on St. Andrew’s Street; 

2.    That a local campaign and representations succeeded in securing a withdrawal of an earlier such proposal;

3.    The current Post Office located in a prominent and accessible high street location close to public transport, is routinely busy and widely used by residents across the city as well as by its many visitors; 

4.    The Post Office is a wholly-owned government corporation, representing the nature of the public service that it provides and the social impact it makes.

Council believes that:

1.    It is a legitimate expectation that a growing city such as Cambridge, which includes a large tourist sector, continues to maintain a standalone Crown Office in its centre to complement the network of franchised postmasters serving neighbourhood areas and sparsely populated areas, who combine their service with other businesses; 

2.    That the alternative, as proposed in the previous exercise, to integrate the main post office as a subordinate activity of a corporate retailer, will not be acceptable on grounds of visibility, accessibility or trusted public service ethos;

3.    The withdrawal of this public service provider operating in its own right from the city centre would be a regrettable erosion of diversity on the high street, removing an important ingredient of many people’s wider purpose in going there.  

Council resolves to make representations against the proposed closure in Cambridge and authorises the Chief Executive to communicate these within the appropriate Post Office consultative channels and to urge the two MPs representing the city to intercede directly with the government to support these representations.      

Council notes:

·      That the River Cam at Sheep’s Green received Bathing Water Designation in May 2024, following a Labour motion at Full Council in July 2023.

·      That a main goal of the application was to provide information on pollution levels to help swimmers to swim safely and to create a ‘Driver’ to increase efforts by Anglian Water and the Environment Agency to improve water quality.

·      Serious concern over the Environment Agency’s monitoring during the 2024 bathing season (15 May to 30 September 2024) has recorded E. coli levels ranging from 980-6400 colonies/100ml at Sheep’s Green and that this gives a strong indication the water classification will be “Poor”.

·      That once the Environment Agency’s classification is available, the City Council will display a notice at Sheep’s Green showing the classification.

·      That if, as anticipated, the classification is ‘Poor’, notice will include advice against bathing.

·      That Anglian Water has allocated £4.6m for a study and subsequent upgrades to Haslingfield Water Treatment Works under its 2025-2030 AMP8 business plan, subject to receiving Bathing Water Designation and subsequent approval by Ofwat (link: https://www.anglianwater.co.uk/siteassets/household/about-us/pr24/anh01-our-plan-2025-2030.pdf).

Council resolves:

·      To write to the Environment Agency and Anglian Water once the bathing water assessment is made available, welcoming the increased availability of information about the quality of water and its suitability for bathing.

·      If the result of the assessment is ‘poor’, to use that letter to express concern at the indications of unacceptable levels of faecal pollution revealed by the monitoring and to highlight the risk this poses to the health of swimmers and other recreational water users on the river Cam.

·      At the same time as expressing concern, the letter should demand that agencies involved take urgent action to investigate and address the causes of pollution, as required by the Bathing Water Act 2013, and that they keep this Council informed on progress with a report to the Chief Executive every six months.

The Council should request that their investigations must include:

·      The adequacy of the performance of Haslingfield Water Treatment Works and Foxton Water Treatment Works, and the unacceptable frequency of storm overflows.

·      The frequency and impact of overflows from sewage pumping stations in Harston, Hauxton, Haslingfield and Grantchester.

·      The frequency and impact of bursts in the Rising Mains connecting Haslingfield, Harston, Hauxton and Grantchester to Haslingfield Water Treatment Works.

·      Potential misconnections into surface water drains flowing into Hobsons Conduit, Vicars Brook and Paradise Local Nature Reserve, which then flow into the River Cam just upstream of Sheep’s Green.

·      The murky (turbid) water in the River Cam, and whether this may be impeding the natural action of sunlight which would otherwise help by degrading faecal bacteria released upstream.

Background

The 2024 bathing water season, with weekly monitoring by the Environment agency at Sheep’s Green, has now finished for the year. The resulting classification won’t be released until sometime in November, but from the results already available online it’s obvious that, as expected, the classification will be “Poor”.

This classification is what we all expected,  ...  view the full agenda text for item 6d

Council notes:

That HMOs provide an important, positive first step for many Cambridge residents to move into and find work and start their journey on the housing ladder;

That dwellings being converted to HMOs for over 6 people must obtain planning permission for change of use to HMO usage  (a sui generis use) and that HMOs for five or more persons not forming a single household must obtain a licence from the City council, enabling conditions to be inspected and enforced;

That smaller dwellings, with three or four persons forming two or more households, count as an HMO but do not require planning permission (as they fall under Permitted Development)  or a licence to operate;

That conditions in some HMOs are not acceptable, particularly in those smaller units which do not require planning permission or a licence and which have been converted and may lack the necessary health and safety adaptations;

That our Enforcement teams already work hard to identify smaller HMOs in poor condition, but without a central register of such properties, this is very challenging;

That currently, many tenants are afraid to complain about poor conditions for fear that they may then be evicted and lose a reference for a future rental, though we note that the proposed reforms to evictions would assist in strengthening tenants' rights in this area, which is very welcome;

That the proposed Renters' Reform bill may include a requirement for landlords and properties to be registered on a national database, which we also strongly welcome;

That because demand for HMOs exceeds supply, there is a risk that more poor quality HMO provision will be available and tenants will have little choice but to accept this, despite very high rents.

Council Believes:

That increased council intervention in the standards of planning and operation of HMOs is appropriate, particularly so long as Cambridge is experiencing an overall shortage of housing, and that the council must optimise and apply the range of power that it has, and may gain in the future, across its services in order to secure a fairer deal for tenants.

Council Resolves:

To ensure that the emerging local plan requires that all HMO properties that require planning permission for construction and/or for change of use are considered under the emerging new policy covering HMOs;

To ask officers to prepare a report on the case for and feasibility of one or more Article 4 directions within the city boundaries, which would remove Permitted Development rights for smaller HMOs (currently Use Class C4) and instead require planning permission for all new builds and for change of use for existing housing stock to be used as HMOs for more than two people;

To ensure that all HMOs that require planning permission meet minimum space standards and that a record is kept of such properties.

Subject to proper consideration through the current plan making process, seek to retain the measures already in place in Policy 48 regarding positive HMO development in the new local plan;  ...  view the full agenda text for item 6e

This council notes;

·      Wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation has declared a national ‘Butterfly Emergency’, with results of this summer’s Big Butterfly Count showing a marked and hugely concerning decline in numbers.

·      Overall, participants spotted just seven butterflies on average per 15-minute Count, a reduction of almost 50% on last year’s average of 12, and the lowest in the 14-year history of the Big Butterfly Count. The majority of species (81%) showed declines in the number seen this year compared with 2023.

·      Butterflies are increasingly being recognised as valuable environmental indicators, both for their rapid and sensitive responses to subtle habitat or climatic changes and as representatives for the diversity and responses of other wildlife.

·      Insects are the largest proportion of terrestrial wildlife (more than 50% of species), so it is crucial that we assess the fate of insect groups to monitor the overall state of biodiversity. Being typical insects, the responses seen in butterflies are more likely to reflect changes amongst other insect groups, and thus the majority of biodiversity, than established indicators such as those based on birds.

·      The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world (ranked 189 out of

·      218) and Cambridgeshire is one of the most nature depleted counties in the UK. Almost 15% of all species in the UK are at risk from extinction.

·      The Council declared a Biodiversity Emergency in 2019.

·      The Cambridge Biodiversity Strategy and associated Park Biodiversity Tool Kit contain many actions that benefit butterflies, moths and other invertebrates in formal and informal parks and open spaces. Different species have diverse lifestyles and habitat requirements, and it is important to consider all of these, not solely nectar sources, when promoting their conservation.

·      The Cambridge City Herbicide Reduction Plan has discontinued herbicide use across all council owned sites, including parks, car parks and housing areas.

·      The use of butterfly and bee killing neonicotinoid pesticides were repeatedly approved for emergency use under the previous government, so this council welcomes the new government’s pledge to ban them in the Countryside Protection Plan and thanks the Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner for his vital work on this.

This council will;

·      Review the council’s Biodiversity Strategy in 2025 aligning with the emerging Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

·      Work with our partners on the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Local Nature Recovery Strategy steering group to ensure the maps and priorities align with the existing Cambridge Nature Network.

·      Create Butterfly friendly Areas by providing a range of butterfly food sources and habitats in our open spaces, with planting and leaving areas uncut or with reduced cutting.

·      Establish The Cambridge Butterfly Trail, by signposting to the Butterfly Areas and register these ‘Wild Places’ on the Butterfly Conservation Wild Spaces website Let's Create Wild Spaces - Wild Spaces , aligning with the Cambridge Nature Network.

·      Invite Cambridge residents to join the Butterfly Conservation Wild Spaces network with their own Butterfly friendly Areas, which can be as small as a flowerpot or window ledge.

Butterfly Square — Biophilic Cities

Butterfly  ...  view the full agenda text for item 6f

Background

On Thursday 23 May 2024, Cambridge City Council unanimously approved a motion on Palestine and Israel. This followed three separate statements made by the Mayor and personal statements from the three political group leaders.

In addition, the city council has posted links to the main charities providing support for Gaza here https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/support-for-gaza

As part of this motion, the council wrote to the then government calling upon them to:

a.    Press for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, Israel and the rest of Palestine and to make every effort to resume the peace process. 

b.    Work to ensure that international humanitarian law is upheld and that civilians are protected in accordance with those laws. 

c.    Work to ensure that civilians have access to humanitarian support, including unfettered access of medical supplies, food, fuel and water. 

d.    To immediately revoke all licences for arms exports to Israel and suspend arms sales to Israel. 

Active Motion

This council notes that currently 73 countries are subject to a non-financial sanction under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018. It notes that 38 of these include a direct arms embargo.  Israel is not one of the countries subject to a UK sanction.

The council notes that since the recent change in government a new country, Belarus, has been included in the list of countries subject to a UK arms embargo on 31 October 2024. Israel has not been added to that list.

The council notes that the government has changed since it wrote its original letter and resolves to write again to the new secretary of state for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, the Rt Hon David Lammy to repeat its requests.

This council also notes that the United Nations International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is commemorated annually on November 29. The council therefore resolves to mark this solemn occasion by flying the Palestine flag at the Guildhall at the first convenient date.

Notes

The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is observed by the United Nations on or around 29 November each year, in accordance with General Assembly mandates contained in resolutions 32/40 B of 2 December 1977, 34/65 D of 12 December 1979, and subsequent resolutions adopted under agenda item “Question of Palestine.”

On that day in 1947, the General Assembly adopted resolution 181 (II), which came to be known as the Partition Resolution. That resolution provided for the establishment in Palestine of a “Jewish State” and an “Arab State”. Of the two States to be created under this resolution, only one, Israel, has so far come into being.

The Palestinian people, who now number more than eight million, live primarily in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem; in Israel; in neighbouring Arab States; and in refugee camps in the region.

The International Day of Solidarity is an opportunity for the international community to focus its attention on the fact that the question of Palestine remains unresolved and that the  ...  view the full agenda text for item 6g