Alconbury visit

This morning I joined Mark Lloyd on a visit to meet with the owners of Alconbury, which was recently announced as our new Enterprise Zone.

The owners, Urban & Civic, were clearly excited about the EZ status for part of the massive former airbase. We had an interesting tour of the site and a chance to discuss a range of topics.

Clearly, Urban & Civic are committed to working with district and county councils and as importantly local people. I am excited about the potential for thousands of jobs and the willingness to accept apprenticeships as a significant part of that mix. We also discussed super fast broadband, involving local people and companies, marketing and transport. Clearly a forward thinking company.

To round off the visit I met up with an old pal of mine Andy Thayne, who is the RAF representative on the remaining USAF base. The good part was we promised to catch up soon, and we have known each other for 30 years, the bad part was the Andy and Mark also agreed to catch up on my past!!!

Economic Growth

And then there were two. Northstowe and Alconbury both development sites, meeting a need and yet complimentary.

Northstowe will provide much needed housing relief for Cambridge to help stimulate research within Cambridge and now Alconbury leading as an enterprise zone. This could be a match made in heaven if Alconbury could pick up the Development of R & D rather than it always going overseas.

Of course we also have a significant manufacturing base in Peterborough to finish off the whole package. The challenge now is to effectively let the world know about this exciting opportunity.

Meeting with leader of Lincolnshire County Council

On Thursday 25th August I had the pleasure to meet with Cllr Martin Hill. He is my opposite number in Lincolnshire County Council.

As you would expect we have a number of similar concerns and issues to deal with. Of course, at the top of our list was the challenge of providing effective services against a backdrop of reduced funding. We are both aware how difficult it is to budget for and provide adult social care for an increasingly elderly population. We must celebrate the fact we are all living longer lives but we must also face up to the reality that this costs more. We will continue to innovate and transform our services to squeeze the last drop out of our budgets and agreed to share lessons learnt.

I picked up a number of ideas from Martin and offered some suggestions in return. It is good to share experiences with peers to check direction of travel of ideas.

Super fast broadband

Building on my Cabinets recent decision to press ahead with super fast broadband for the county yesterday I chaired the first meeting of the delivery group. Note the name of the group DELIVERY, not steering, planning, review, or consultation. This is so important we all need to get on with it.

The group included county council, Peterborough City Council, health and Universities amongst others. Also pleased to see the new enterprise zone at Alconbury represented and the LEP. This group was chosen as they are all key to the delivery of super fast broadband and to how it may be exploited.

We will meet quarterly. Key to moving forward will be to decide on the procurement method given that substantial amounts of private and public money is being spent. We will meet in the next few weeks to approve this as we don’t want to wait for the next quarterly meeting.

Fortunately we have experienced officers to help us understand the many rules and regulations involved in this area of procurement and more importantly to get on with winding our way through them. All very necessary, I am sure, but I can’t help feeling frustrated by red tape.

A significant to do list was created which I will have my beady eye on to make sure is completed in a timely fashion.

Arbury – how can we help?

A few weeks ago, after a visit to the excellent Manor school, I asked officers some searching questions about Arbury.

I want to know why the reputation is poor, yet when I walk through the area it feels like a great place, lots of open space, clean and non of the obvious signs of deprivation that some other cities suffer from. The schools are excellent, there are busy shops, community centres, a library and places for kids to play.

So, is there a problem and if so what are we doing to fix it? Or was there an issue a few years ago which has long since been sorted but the Arbury “brand” has been tainted?

I have made a number of visits to the area since becoming leader and am becoming increasingly frustrated that we have a very small area within our wonderful city of Cambridge that is suffering. With the combined resources of the county council, city council, schools and strong local communities surely something can be done to either fix what is broken or set about mending the tarnished brand of Arbury.

Yesterday we had a very positive meeting of the city and county councillors, community leaders, youth workers, family intervention officers and others to see what are the issues and what can be done. I don’t presume to have the answers. However, I am certain that people at this meeting can make a difference if only we can provide a way for them to be heard. Now, I can do that.

More on this as we move forward.

Relative poverty

Comparing ourselves with others seems to be a human trait. We compare wealth, what sort of cars we have, how we look and where we live. We use relative judgement rather than absolute. Often we use this relative judgement to make ourselves feel more successful even though it makes others feel bad about themselves. Not a pretty human trait.

Compared with the poorest parts of Africa, where clean water, housing and any form of transport is not available for many then even the poorest individual in this country would appear relatively rich.

There are some inner city estates in this country that suffer real relative poverty and affect a large number of people.

In our own county there are two very small areas, within Kings Hedges, that can be classed as deprived by technical definition. This deprivation is real and something we should focus our attention on solving, as local authorities and community leaders.

BUT, it seems most unfair and unjustified for Arbury and parts of Kings Hedges to suffer from a poor reputation when in fact they are vibrant, cohesive communities situated amongst wide open green spaces.

Schools, both primary and secondary, are out performing schools in other areas, the area is supported by excellent community centres and the place is clean and tidy.

Bad enough to prejudice a deprived area, even worse to prejudice an area unfairly.

Vice Chancellor shares vision for Cambridgeshire

For some time I have wondered why the county council and the university don’t work closer together. In particular, I am keen to develop and share a common vision for Cambridgeshire so we are all pulling together.

The university is a significant organisation with an extremely strong brand internationally. Yesterday I had a meeting with Prof Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, the Vice-Chancellor and Jonathon Nicholls the registrar with Mark Lloyd in attendance. It was a really helpful meeting and it seems the first significant meeting of minds between our two organisations for some time.

We both took away a todo list and a commitment to work more closely together to attract investment and business to the whole of Cambridgeshire.

A significant milestone.

Cambridgeshire success story

The week starts with the gloomy national news that almost 40 percent of households have seen their finances deteriorate and income from employment has fallen for the eleventh month running.

Despite this national back drop it really struck me that Cambridgeshire is making fantastic inroads into bucking this trend and building infrastructure for a secure economic future.

The facts speak for themselves.

The Busway saw more than 55,000 journeys during its first week of operation and extra buses are being put on from next month to meet passenger demand.

A county council project to connect almost every home in Cambridgeshire to superfast broadband will receive £6.75 million of Government funding, some from the council and a large chunk from the private sector (£50m).

Around 8,000 new jobs will be created on the 370-acre section of the Alconbury Airfield site, which has been selected by the Government as an ‘Enterprise Zone Scheme’.

And finally, Cambridgeshire students have been praised for their hard work in this year’s A-level exams and early indications suggest results across Cambridgeshire’s schools have risen again.

It’s facts like these that make me proud to call Cambridgeshire home.

Autonomy bought by HP

I was grateful that HP contacted me to let me know about them acquiring Autonomy, before I read about it in the press.

Not only did I get an email but also a phone call the next day. This is good in a number of ways. Firstly, it means that HP are working the patch which reinforces their commitment to our county and secondly they recognise the county council as being important to successful business activity.

I gave a positive message to HP and let them know we welcomed them to Cambridgeshire. I was able to get an assurance from HP that they intend to remain in our county and that they value the skilled workforce here. I was also able to discuss, in general terms, our ambition to make Cambridgeshire the best place to do business.

We agreed to meet up once the take over dust has settled. I am hoping more, not less, of HP’s activities come to Cambridgeshire.

Northstowe

One of our barriers to economic success is the lack of suitable housing in many areas of the county. We are particularly short of housing to support the growth of Cambridge as the tech centre of Europe.

Several years ago Northstowe was selected as the site for a new town to ease housing pressure on Cambridge. The guided busway was built, partly, to provide excellent transport between Northstowe and Cambridge.

Unfortunately, the recession has meant that the houses have not yet been built. It is now time to reinvigorate this process.

Last week I had a meeting with SCDC colleagues, the developers and the HCA. At this meeting I reaffirmed the counties determination to see Northstowe built, and as quickly as possible. All parties were keen to move forward.

A14 improvements remain an essential part of the plan.