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I arrived a little late which was a shame as I wasn't quite organised and missed out on the distribution of the written answers. The question from Denis was first to be addressed, and whilst I didn't hear the initial comments, I was there for some discussion on the need for a special sub-group to fully review the issues raised - see Denis' full question and written responses.
I think it's valuable that lessons are learned from the issues being faced across Arbury Park, but my personal concern is that a goodly proportion of these issues could have been sorted before they became significant - for example, the painted render, the incorrect location of some of the houses, the missed S106 trigger points, but it seems the practice to watch these things happen, then not be able to fix them, claiming we'll learn the lessons for 'next time'! I question whether we are really learning the lessons...I suspect mostly not, and whilst I cannot claim to know how efficiently SCDC are operating, I definitely get the impression that lack of resources in all areas is a significant issue - nobody to closely monitor adherence to the design code, nobody to check up on the trigger points etc etc.
The results is a 'best efforts' standard fropm SCDC that is simply not acceptable enough - the answer will inevitably be a combination of more resources (money!!) and some reviewing of efficiency, working practices and priorities...so nothing simple or quick then, but as residents and tax-payers we should absolutely not become complacent, apathetic, patient or tolerant...we are the customers here and we are always right, so let's be persistent and keep on with what we want.
My first question related to the on-off nature of the parish review that has resulted in an unnecessary delay of 4 months, and I do maintain the delay is unnecessary - read Catriona's reply, then carry on here...
Catriona outlines the straightforward history to why we are at this point with the Electoral Arrangements committee shortly to be asked to approve the resumation of the parish review process which was effectively stopped back in September. The reason it was stopped was because SCDC decided to spend their time opening a discussion with Cambridge City Council about a review of the City/District boundary instead. But if agreed, this process was never going to take less than 2-3 years and we wanted the parish review to continue so that something could be done in the interim. We lost, but didn't give up, instead we had a number of meetings with SCDC during which we again presented the case for an Arbury Park Parish Council (even an interim one) that could take things forward now whilst decision were made about the longer term future of the City/District boundary review.
During this period SCDC looked in to the City/District boundary review process and discovered that it will take at least 3 years, possibly longer (no surprise here!) and have now agreed to ask to resume the parish review process. By the time this re-starts we will have lost at least 4-5 months and we will have missed the opportunity for an Arbury Park Parish Council being instituted in May 2008...instead it will be May 2009, or possibly sometime later in 2008, but this will likely be problematic!!
There was no real reason for this delay, the parish review consultation could have continued during the City/District boundary and it certainly didn't need to wait for a review of the new government legislation that will affect parish reviews in the future.
The Winners? No-one. The Losers? Impington Parish Council and Arbury Park residents.
My second question was intended to prod a few people and provoke some thought, discussion and hopefully action. With residents having been on site for over one year now, I was concerned that the community development plan was not yet out of the draft discussion phase. SCDC helpfully clarified that we are the first development to have a dedicated community development worker (funded by the S106 monies) and that they have no funds for community development.
This certainly explains the situation but it does seem a little less than ideal! Again, it seems that SCDC are doing what they can, but do not have the resources (money!!) they really need. Having said that SCDC said they felt very 'prodded', so hopefully this is a 'good thing'!!
I was chatting about all of this with anbother resident earlier today...I really don't want to be seen as a complainer, whinger, continually dissatisfied or unreasonable, but I am most certainly wanting to champion the Arbury Park 'cause' and am learning quickly that for this to happen at a time of constrained resources, the cause must be heard, and somewhat regularly! And withn the focus beginning to shift towards the new Northstowe development we have to simply keep on sticking to our agenda!!
ps. I am concerned that people are getting bored with my voice...if you agree (or disagree) with anything I've said, please do post a comment here, start a thread in the forum...this is definitely a case of the more the merrier!!! |