Parish Report December 2006 Tresco |
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Future Schools Structure in Suffolk - Recommendations
On Friday 1st December, the Policy Development Panel unanimously agreed to recommend to the Cabinet that a two-tier structure of education for our children and young people be adopted throughout the County. Alongside this recommendation is another which recognises the need to look at the present systems in place for education 14-19 year olds.
The Cabinet will meet on January 9th 2007, to consider the proposals in full. If further steps are subsequently taken recommendations will go to full council at its meeting in March 2007. It is vital that our children and young people stay at the centre of any educational policies which may be put into practice. Any decisions around how these recommendations are implemented must continue to reflect this.
Further information can be found at this website:
http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/EducationAndLearning/SchoolOrganisationReview/
Government grant settlement for County council
Suffolk County Council’s administration have said the council will continue to face financial pressures on its budget for next year, following the announcement of the Government provisional grant settlement.
The government's formula revenue grant for Suffolk County Council for 2007-08 is set to be £133.2million. The administration has announced this will leave it a shortfall of some £22m next year.
Proposals for this year's county council budget have been discussed by scrutiny committees over the last month. The final meeting in the series will be at 2pm on Tuesday 12 December, when the Resources, Finance and Performance Scrutiny Committee will look at all the budget proposals and the views of the scrutiny committees.
A report on the government settlement will be presented to the next Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 19 December. On 6 February, the Cabinet will make its final budget recommendations to full Council. The administration will then propose the level of council tax and the budget for 2007-08 at full council on 22 February.
County unveils plans for new fire stations
A new fire station for Ipswich and training centre are among a number of planning proposals released by Suffolk County Council.
Detailed planning applications have been submitted under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI). This is a scheme whereby over £20 million of Government funds will be available to rebuild and refurbish fire stations across Suffolk.
This is the biggest building programme for the authority in recent years and these applications affect anyone who lives and works in the county. I would urge everyone to look at the plans and give their views. It is vital that people let the administration know what they think of the stations during this consultation period. Formal responses should be sent directly to Suffolk County Council.
Further details of the plans can be found here: http://apps2.suffolk.gov.uk/cgi-bin/committee_xml.cgi?p=doc&id=1_8778&format=doc or by contacting the Project Director, Chris Garlick on 01473 264333
Local Government White Paper released
The new White Paper on local government, Strong and prosperous communities, has been published and is available on the Department for Communities and Local Government website (link below).
There are several very important changes proposed, including: specific proposals for service improvement which needs to be driven by individual choice and community involvement in decision-making; proposals around the importance of local government leadership which suggest a range of changes to council constitutions, including legislation will change the available executive options to three: a directly elected mayor; a leader elected by the council but who must have a four year term of office; a new model of a directly elected executive (i.e. each member of the cabinet directly elected by the public). Councils will also be enabled, but not required, to move to a system of all-out elections.
The role of ‘city regions’ and the role of local government as a strategic leader and ‘place-shaper’ are discussed, as are proposals to develop Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) and Local Area Agreements (LAAs). The Paper sets out a new performance framework which aims to reduce the number of nationally set targets and it emphasises the need to drive efficiency. More specific support to councils and their partners is promised in addressing community cohesion issues. No timetable is given however for any legislation.
Further information can be found here: http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1503999
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