Richard Kemp 0803

Schools Organisational Review
The Suffolk County Council has announced recommendations for the future of school organisation in the Haverhill and Lowestoft areas.
The recommendations for the Lowestoft area include:

Developing a new high school in the south of Lowestoft. The proposed site is the current Pakefield Middle School site. There will be a competition to run the new school in line with new government guidelines
Retain all village primary schools and expand all primary school age ranges to accommodate two extra year groups, for children aged 10 and 11.
Relocate some primary schools, onto bigger or more central sites which will help the schools to better meet the needs of the communities they serve.
A new combined post-16 centre for Lowestoft. A competition will be organised by the Learning and Skills Council to identify the most suitable provider for the area :

The recommendations for the Haverhill area include:

Expansion of the two existing upper schools to cater for the full secondary age range.
Encourage federation between Castle Manor Business and Enterprise College and Burton End Community Primary School and federation between Samual Ward Arts and Technology College and Westfield Primary School. Creation of these formal partnerships helps to minimise the disruption young people experience when they change school at the age of 11, by creating even closer links between the schools.
Retain all village primary schools and expand all primary school age ranges to accommodate two extra year groups, for children aged 10 and 11.
Relocate some primary schools, onto bigger or more central sites which will help the schools to better meet the needs of the communities they serve.
Post 16 provision should undergo further investigation in partnership with the LSC (Learning and Skills Council).

As part of these recommendations, all middle schools in these two areas would close, with young people remaining in primary schools until the age of 11 before transferring to a secondary school.

The proposals will be debated at the Cabinet meeting on 4th March and more details can be found here: www.suffolk.gov.uk/sor

2008-2009 Budget
Suffolk County Council’s Administration has passed its budget which will see a council tax increase of 3.75% for 2008-09 at the meeting on 5 February 2008.
The County Council had received a better than expected settlement from the Government which led to an extra £10 million in 2008/2009. Savings of nearly £12 million of were proposed in 2008-2009, with £5.7 million being cut from Adult Care Services, £2.1 being cut from Environment and Transport and a further £2.1 being cut from Children’s Services.
The council tax increase of 3.75% will see tax for a Band D property increasing from £1,035.18 to £1,073.88.

The budget papers can be found here:
http://apps2.suffolk.gov.uk/cgi-bin/committee_xml.cgi?p=detail&id=1_10784

‘Scamnesty’ comes to Suffolk
The national campaign is part of the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) scams-awareness month. Suffolk County Council's trading standards and recycling teams have joined forces to provide dedicated ‘scamnesty’ bins at libraries across the county. People can use these bins to dump scams they get through their letterboxes, from foreign lotteries to prize draws to get rich quick schemes and bogus offers.

The bins will be collected from libraries at the end of February and passed on to trading standards officers to investigate further. Officers have also set up a dedicated email address for people to forward online scams and emails. This will go direct to trading standards for investigation and the address is scams@tradstan.suffolkcc.gov.uk.

How do you know if it’s a scam?

If it seems to good to be true, it probably is.
If it asks for you bank details or personal information.
If it promises £££s but only in exchange for a processing or admin fee first.
If it promises money for doing nothing.
If it is a selling scheme based on gifting money or recruiting others, then it’s more than likely a chain letter or pyramid selling scam.
If it has semi-official ‘stamps’ and forms on the front implying it is a legal or important document. It may also say ‘important documents enclosed’ or ‘this is not a circular’.
If it is a lottery or prize draw based abroad for example, Spain or Canada, as in most of these cases, British law enforcement authorities cannot take action.

There will also be information at the scamnesty bins about how people can sign up for the Mail Preference Service to be taken off junk mailing lists.

Local Government Review of Suffolk
As mentioned in my previous reports the Government announced in December that only 5 of the 9 unitary bids had met all criteria and that Suffolk (and Norfolk) would be subject to a Boundary Review. The Boundary Committee has now met with representatives of the 7 local district/borough/county authorities in Suffolk and an outline timetable has now taken shape:

3 March - 11 April (Stage 1): submission of 'concepts' for new councils in Suffolk and Norfolk
14 April - 4 July (Stage 2): the Boundary Committee will talk to Authorities and other stakeholders about the ideas put forward
7 July - 26 Sept (Stage 3): draft proposals published and public consultation
29 Sept - 19 Dec (Stage 4): final considerations and decisions by the Boundary Committee
31 Dec 2008: the Boundary Committee aims to report to the Secretary of State

As you can see, timescales are tight. However there will be a chance for consultation once the initial suggestions for new authorities are finalised. Again, further information will appear on their website (http://www.boundarycommittee.org.uk) and I will keep you up to date as the process moves along.