South Cambridgeshire District Council has published its proposed priorities for the year ahead - setting out a bold programme of environmental action and community support.
Plans for the next 12 months will see major progress on the Council’s Being Green to Our Core priority, including the ongoing roll-out of weekly food waste collections and continued construction of a solar energy park to help power the Council’s growing fleet of electric bin lorries.
The draft Corporate Action Plan for next year was agreed by Cabinet Members at their meeting today (Tuesday 3 February) and goes forwards for discussion at the Full Council meeting on Tuesday 24 February.
Expanded funding for Service Support Grants
Alongside environmental action, the Council plans to significantly strengthen its support for the voluntary and community sector. A total of £900,000 over three years - £300,000 per year - has been made available through the Service Support Grants programme, offering long-term funding agreements for groups delivering community support and development services across the district.
An additional £49,650 is also available for the years ahead to support services that help prevent and relieve homelessness. This investment supports a wide range of activity including mental health and wellbeing services, advice provision, independent living support, cost-of-living assistance and community projects.
Continuing support for Mobile Warden schemes
The draft Corporate Action Plan outlines ongoing funding for Mobile Warden Schemes, which provide crucial support for older, disabled and vulnerable residents - ensuring they can live safely and independently in their own homes. These schemes form a core part of the Council’s work to promote healthy and supported communities.
Boosting financial resilience and tackling the cost of living
With many residents still facing financial pressures, the Council plans to continue providing its comprehensive cost-of-living support package. A budget of £449,000 is set aside to help residents through the next two years through schemes such as emergency food and energy support, workshops, budgeting and debt advice, white goods and furniture for vulnerable people and laptops with digital training.
The Low-Income Family Tracker will continue to proactively identify households at risk of financial hardship and ensure they are claiming the benefits they are entitled to, helping prevent crises before they escalate. In the last year alone, this scheme supported South Cambridgeshire residents with more than 1,000 successful benefit claims – worth an estimated £4 million over the lifetime of those claims.
Next steps for the Greater Cambridge Local Plan
The Council continues to work on the new Greater Cambridge Local Plan through its Greater Cambridge Shared Planning (GCSP) service with Cambridge City Council. It will be the first joint Local Plan for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire. This marks a major step in planning for the region’s future - ensuring new homes, jobs and supporting facilities can come forwards sustainably while protecting the region’s environment, character and quality of life.
Elsewhere, GCSP, which was recently crowned the Royal Town Planning Institute’s Local Planning Authority of the Year, will be supporting the Council’s engagement with the Cambridge Growth Company and its response to the Government’s ambition to establish a development corporation to take forward the national priorities for Greater Cambridge. This is all whilst continuing to process around 6,000 planning applications a year.
Delivering facilities for growing communities
The draft Action Plan continues the work to deliver new community facilities at Northstowe.
This includes the new permanent community centre for phase one – the Unity Centre – which is scheduled for completion within the coming months, helping ensure Northstowe has new, state of the art spaces to support its growing and thriving community.
Cllr Bridget Smith, Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, said:
“This plan shows our commitment to making South Cambridgeshire greener, fairer and better connected. Introducing weekly food waste collections, progressing our solar-powered electric bin lorries, and delivering our greenest Local Plan ever all demonstrate our determination to tackle environmental challenges head-on. At the same time, our expanded Service Support Grants, cost-of-living assistance and ongoing support for Mobile Warden schemes underline our commitment to supporting our communities.”
Balancing the budget
A £5.24 per year, below inflation, increase in Council Tax for the average band D home is due to be discussed by councillors at their Full Council meeting in February – to help protect essential frontline services in the face of continued rising costs.
It would mean the average band D home charge for South Cambridgeshire District Council would become £180.64 per year. It is expected that this would still maintain the Council’s position among the lowest 25% of taxing District Councils in the country.
This comes after the Government recently reduced the amount of Business Rates which local authorities can retain. This means councils must find ways to cover the shortfall. For South Cambridgeshire, this has resulted in an overall loss of around £3 million in funding when considering changes in other grant arrangements too.
South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Lead Cabinet Member for Resources, Cllr John Williams, said: “We know every pound matters, and that’s why we’re proud South Cambridgeshire continues to have one of the lowest District Council Tax rates in the country. Most of what residents pay doesn’t stay with us - it goes to the County Council, Police, Fire and Rescue, parish councils and to the Combined Authority Mayor. Less than half of our own budget comes from Council Tax, so we work incredibly hard to stretch every penny, especially as costs rise. A small increase of £5.24 a year for the average Band D home would help us keep the services people rely on running smoothly - from planning and waste collections to supporting vulnerable residents. Our focus is always on protecting the things that make a real difference to everyday life in South Cambridgeshire – and the big cut in Business Rates that the Government allows us to keep locally means we have had to find ways to help protect vital services.”
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