The Performance Plan 2006

Northstowe and other Major Growth Areas.

Regional planning policies and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Structure Plan require the building of 20,000 homes in the district by 2016, largely at the new town of Northstowe and urban extensions to Cambridge. This is the biggest single issue facing the Council.

In 2005/06 progress has been achieved by: -

• Continuing the development of the Local Development Framework, including Area Action Plans for Northstowe and other major developments.
• Working with partners to evaluate and make recommendations on the planning application for the Northstowe development, including initial steps to develop the Section 106 Agreement.
• Developing proposals for community facilities and governance arrangements for Northstowe.
• Establishing a Growth Areas Project Team to co-ordinate the Council’s approach to the new developments.
• Putting together a team with the skills and capacity to address the issues facing the Council in this area, in particular working with Cambridgeshire Horizons who have made resources available to finance relevant skills.

In 2006/07 the Northstowe and other Major Growth Areas activity will be to: -

• Take the LDF through its remaining stages, including a public enquiry, with a view to adoption by the Council in 2007.
• Continue to assess the planning application submitted for Northstowe and development of the Section 106 Agreement.  The process of working with partners to evaluate and make recommendations on the planning application is a major undertaking, requiring substantial input from a range of Council services and disciplines. The position might be complicated by the fact that further applications are now expected for the same development.
• Develop proposals for key aspects of the Northstowe development, including the Town Centre, Civic Hub, Governance arrangements, Community Services and Renewable Energy.
• Achieve a co-ordinated approach to the development through the Growth Areas Project Team, including consultation and stakeholder involvement and the development of outcomes and targets for the LAA.

More detailed milestones are given in Chapter 9.

Improving Customer Service. 

The Council has a vision of excellent customer service and efficiency enabled by integrated computer systems. We want to meet the needs of those who wish to access services through modern technology (such as the website)  and continue to provide a responsive service to those who wish to use the telephone or letter.

In 2005/06 progress has been achieved by: -

• Agreeing customer service standards covering all outward facing services and training throughout the Council to develop a culture of customer care.
• Transferring services to the Contact Centre, including completion of Phase 1 (Revenues, Housing, Environmental Health and Building Control) and Phase 2 (Planning, Benefits and Electoral Registration).
• Continuing to improve customer service given by the Contact Centre.
• Achieving 100% electronic service delivery and the achievement of a number of Government “Priority Outcomes”.
• Publicising the availability of services on the Council’s web site in South Cambs Magazine.
• Improving our website, with the result that www.scambs.gov.uk has been ranked 59 out of 464 in a survey of all local authority websites, well ahead of neighbouring authorities in Cambridgeshire.

In 2006/07 the main Improving Customer Service areas of activity will be to: -

• Implement and launch our Service First customer service standards.
• Integrate Phase 1 and Phase 2 Contact Centre Services with the Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) system and integration with back office systems to improve customer service.
• Extend the transactions available on the web-site.
• Achieve further improvements in the performance of the Contact Centre in terms of calls dealt with at first contact (76%) and satisfaction with how the call was answered (91%).
• Carry out business process reviews, under the Transformation Project, to enable services to be more customer focused.
• Develop the Service First project, including the first combined half-year report on customer service standards and complaints.
• Use techniques such as mystery shopping to check and improve customer service standards.
• Review compliments and complaint procedures.
• Carry out further customer service and complaints handling training for staff.

More detailed milestones are given in Chapter 9.

Affordable Housing. 

The provision of affordable housing remains one of the Council’s priorities. In 2005/06 284 units of affordable housing were completed. Partnership work continued to achieve maximum affordable housing at the major new developments of Cambourne, Arbury Park, Northstowe and other locations. Policies were included in the Local Development Framework (LDF), which will increase the provision of affordable housing up to 50% in major new developments. The Council has been successful in winning the highest level of resources in the sub-region from the Housing Corporation for the next housing programme, which will provide resources for 600 units of affordable housing over two years.

In 2006/07 the main Affordable Housing areas of activity will be to: -

• Continue partnership work with a view to the completion of 300 affordable housing units in 2006/07.
• Complete an appraisal of Council owned land and property to identify opportunities for affordable and special needs housing.
• Agree a programme of housing development to be financed from commuted sums from Section 106 Agreements.
• Implement the preferred option for the redevelopment of the Windmill estate.
• Work with partners to agree the extent and means of delivery of affordable housing at Northstowe.
• Review and update the Council’s rural exception site policy, which can be used to inform/develop the affordable housing supplementary planning guidance (SPD).