District Wide March 2011 - Huntingdonshire District Council

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News District council tax stays We plan to stay a low tax council The district council tax will not increase this year. In 2010 the national average was £168 (Band D). Ours was £124, which is £44 less than the national average and a total saving of over £440 against the average since 1999. With our zero increase this year the benefit will continue. Your council tax bill As well as the amount you pay to us, your bill also includes what we are required to collect for Cambridgeshire County Council, the police, fire service and your town or parish council. If you have questions about their council tax, contact them direct using the details in the leaflet that comes with your bill. What do you get for your money In the coming year we plan to spend £82m providing a wide range of services. These include: • A refuse collection and recycling service, which thanks to your support is one of the most highly rated in the country. We collect from 70,000 homes and achieve a 59 per cent recycling rate. • Five leisure centres, which offer a vast range of activities. We continue to invest in these centres each year to meet the high demand with the costs being covered by customers. There were 2.3m visits last year. • Managing 3,447 car park spaces across the district. • Dealing with around 1,500 planning applications per year. • Keeping the town centres, villages, and residential areas clean and tidy. • A closed circuit television system with cameras in our town centres and other key locations. • Housing advice and housing and council tax benefits services, which in the current economic climate, have had a major increase in demand. • Collecting council tax and business rates from every home and business. Capital investment In order to maintain a low council tax many capital projects have been reduced or stopped. However, we will continue to deliver the following: • The Huntingdon West Relief Road will cost around £10m and provide additional housing, shopping opportunities and relieve traffic congestion. Funding will come from developers’ contributions and land sales. • A proposal to extend our One Leisure centre in St Ives, providing it can demonstrate that the extra income from customers will exceed the costs. • A new multi-storey car park in Huntingdon to allow the redevelopment of Chequers Court and part of the Sainsbury’s site and car park. Income from parking will repay the investment. All this for £124 The council tax only covers about 9 per cent of our total spending. £42.3m comes from the government to fund benefits and other activities, £15.5m comes from fees, charges and rents, £10.4m will come from government general grants and we will use £3.6m of reserves to cover the deficit. £m Gross Revenue Spending 82.4 100% Specific grants (mainly benefits) -42.3 51.3% Fees, charges and rents -15.5 18.8% Recharges (mainly to capital) -1.3 1.6% Interest -0.7 0.8% Net Spending 22.6 27.4% Funded by: Government general grants -10.4 12.6% Government reward grants -1.1 1.3% Council Tax -7.4 9.0% Deficit met from reserves -3.6 4.4% Neighbourhood Forums The next meetings are taking place on: • Monday 4 April at Fourfields School, Yaxley • Wednesday 6 April at The Corn Exchange, St Ives • Monday 11 April at The Priory Centre, St Neots • Wednesday 13 April at the Civic Suite, Pathfinder House, Huntingdon • Tuesday 19 April at Ramsey Community School, Station Road, Ramsey All meetings start at 7pm and everyone is welcome. As well as finding out what is going on locally, you can also raise any issues about crime and disorder and help to determine local policing policies. For more information visit www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/ getinvolved Contact us for all your printing needs We now offer a full range of design and quality digital print services to residents. Whether you are producing posters or leaflets for a school, voluntary group or charity, or you simply need invitations for a personal event – we can provide these for you. Our range of services includes: • graphic design and artwork • colour and black and white printing • posters, flyers, banners, forms, folders, newsletters, invitations and reports • finishing services including laminating, perforating and binding • scanning • ID card production We provide an efficient and competitively priced service. We would be pleased to have a chat with you about any of our services or to provide you with a quote. For more information email documentcentrestaff@huntsdc.gov.uk or call 01480 388038. 6 March 2011 district wide
News the same 2010/11 Spending – good news We expect to have saved about £1.7m by the end of March mainly through good management. Re-negotiations of recycling fees and concessionary fares amounted to £0.3m, pay savings amounted to over £0.6m from awarding a zero pay award to many of our staff and holding posts vacant wherever possible. Leisure centre savings exceed £0.2m and successful appeals to reduce business rates amounted to £0.2m. This has been taken into account in our future financial plans and will make our reserves last a little longer whilst we identify future savings. We will only spend what we have For many years we have used our capital and revenue reserves (money in the bank) to keep the tax level down. They are now largely spent so our spending will be limited to what we get from council tax, government grant and the fees and charges from services (mainly leisure centre and car park users). We will spend £2.2m less in 2011/12 than we planned to last year, and we expect to reduce staffing by 124 posts over the next four years. Priorities With scarce resources in the future we will have to concentrate on the services you tell us are a priority: • You want the district kept clean and your rubbish collected and recycled. You also want us to support safe and strong communities. • Many people suffer housing problems and we need to help them. Others are vulnerable or disadvantaged and need our help to live independently. • We also need to encourage new jobs, homes and facilities whilst safeguarding the environment and successfully managing the impact of growth. More information Our budget and medium term plan provides more information and can be found on our website www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/ budget For more information, or if you have comments or ideas about how we present financial information to you, contact Steve Couper on 01480 388103 or email steve.couper@huntsdc.gov.uk 27 March 2011 is Census Day You may have already received your questionnaire through the post. You need to complete it so we can take a snapshot of the population as it stands on one day – to give a consistent picture for the whole country. The answers you give should be about the people living or staying with you on 27 March 2011, even if you fill in your questionnaire before, on, or after that date. You can complete it online, or fill in the paper questionnaire and send it back as soon as possible. Completing the census online is straightforward, convenient and secure. On the front of your postal questionnaire you will see your personal internet access code needed to sign in. You will need to use your code every time you access your online questionnaire. Simply go to http://2011.census.gov.uk for further more information. Remember that every householder is required by law to complete and return the census, and you could face prosecution if you don’t provide this information. All the information that you give remains confidential for 100 years. Rural broadband comes to Broughton Work on potential solutions to problems with access to broadband in our more rural areas continues. Our economic development team is working with the county and other district councils to develop a broadband strategy for Cambridgeshire, and preparing to bid for central government funding to help. Meanwhile a solution has been provided for one of our villages. A new high-speed broadband service has recently been launched in Broughton. The ‘fibre to the home’ service is provided by a company called Vtesse and enables connection speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. Residents and businesses interested in taking up this service can find more information at www.vtessebroadband.co.uk. district wide March 2011 7
Page 1 and 2: YOUR COUNCIL YOUR DISTRICT district
Page 3 and 4: welcome contents March 2011 News 05
Page 5: news Heroes Welcome We have launche
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Page 11 and 12: a clean ‘green’ and attractive
Page 13 and 14: the diary APRIL AND MAY Your local
Page 15 and 16: CROMWELL OPEN ART EXHIBITION Entrie
Page 17 and 18: Scudamore’s Self-Hire Season Tick
Page 19 and 20: safe, vibrant and inclusive communi
Page 21 and 22: safe, vibrant and inclusive communi
Page 23 and 24: healthy living health Noise Action

District Wide March 2011 - Huntingdonshire District Council

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