CDC starts negotiating for the sale of Careline. The reason is that the viability of the service is now under threat from competitive service providers. There are reasons why we have found ourselves in this position. Some of these could perhaps have been avoided or at least foreseen. If a sale is agreed and it would have to be approved by the Executive Board, there would be a five year service level agreement that ensured existing customers would seen no difference over that period in the service received.
If it ends up being sold, I will be sorry as it was one of our jewels but we failed to apply the commercial expertise to its management that I in particular highlighted several years ago.
I will be returning to the subject.
Full Council. The first time held at 19:00. Not a bad turnout but come 21:20 it felt late.
The Council approved the suspension of the Local Development Framework in the light of continuing uncertainty about the capacity of Apuldram waste water treatment works and future improvements to the A27. An additional factor was the scrapping of regional housing targets and the absence of any guidance in their place. It is now going to be the responsibility of local authorities to determine their housing numbers but within what limits remains to be clarified. In the meantime we will continue to assess planning applications against saved policies of the former Local Plan, and will protect ourselves from non compliant applications by maintaining a rolling five year housing land supply. That supply is based on 450 to 480 housing units per annum.
Presentation on the advantages of Foundation Trust status for the merged St Richard's and Worthing hospitals. Formal consultation will take place in the fall. Not immediately obvious what advantages over present NHS Trust status in terms of financial independence. And in terms of openness we wait to see whether its boards will meet in public. Just one representative from local authorities on the supervisory board seems inadequate in terms of democratic accountability.
The potential impact of government cuts of around £1.2 billion in grants to local government is now being studied by officers. We won't know the extent of the cuts until the settlement for the next four years is announced in October. It is already clear that we will not be able to provide the current level of services in the future. The effort to save costs/ increase revenue in last year's service reviews will look like a picnic compared to the changes we will be faced with making in the new environment. New models of operation will be looked at including strategic alliances with neighbouring authorities including County to share service provision, and outsourcing. The start of this exercise is ranking services in terms of essential, needed and mandatory. There is no doubt that as members we will have difficult decisions to take.
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Chaired a members seminar on energy management attended by 15. Energy accounts for about 3.5 per cent of the Council's revenue budget and the proportion is set to increase as world energy prices rise over the next decade. We use a public sector procurement organisation to purchase ahead on our behalf in the wholesale market that ensures we get good value for money.
We are already taking action in our main buildings to reduce energy use and the new CHP at Westgate, our largest energy user, coming on stream in August is expected to save us over £100K in energy costs. We have installed low energy lighting at Avenue de Chartres and some photovoltaic cells at East Pallant House. But these actions are not doing much more than helping us to stand still. As the government support grant reduces we will need to do more.
A very good public meeting convened by NMPC to consider CDC proposals for new affordable housing of up to 15 units. The proposals are in response to known need for more units in the parish as indicated on the Council's housing register. There was concern about the effect on infrastructure, waste water treatment, already inadequate in storm conditions, road congestion. But the testimony of two of the audience of 24 who are clearly in need of accommodation was telling. At the meeting of parish council afterwards there was unanimous support for proceeding to the next stage.
However when subsequently raising with officers the need for improvement in sewage treatment in the parish before new units were built I received the unsatisfactory response that while the EA continued to give support for small schemes not exceeding 10 units being added to the Apuldram treatment plant without requiring additional capacity, we could proceed with the proposals.
On the matter of separate sewage plants, a potential solution, it appears the EA in Chichester district will not support because of the cost of maintenance. Elsewhere they will permit them. This needs exploring. At the moment my position, reflecting deep concerns among residents, is that this scheme should not proceed until we get more satisfaction than I have received re sewage treatment. If however the parish council is less concerned then its view rather than mine should prevail.
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