Agenda item

Presentation attached.

Councillor Mason welcomed members of Cabinet and Russell Beal from Anglian Water to the meeting. He also thanked Russell Beal for providing a presentation prior to the meeting.  

Members made comments, asked questions and received responses as follows: 

1.    Councillor Miscandlon asked how COVID-19 had affected the Fenland projects. Councillor Mrs Laws said that from a Whittlesey perspective, approval has already been gained for the interactive flood signs; land has been awarded and permission given for the power source, with 24/7 staff support. It will not affect the installation as the contractors are still operating following social distancing and safety guidelines. Should approval be given for the Heritage Centre and Heritage Walk then these will have to go out to tender and we will have to wait to see how the contractors will manage that.

2.    Paul Medd said that it is remarkable that given the unprecedented nature of the pandemic all the projects have continued with the minimum of disruption. There was some impact during the first lockdown when the trades and builders’ merchants had to shut but this  second lockdown some of the original restrictions do not apply so we are hopeful that these projects will be able to continue without much further disruption.

3.    Councillor Mrs French said that March had put £100k towards civil parking enforcement but they were not aware until recently that they may have to match fund the High Street bid, for which a bid had been put in for £11.3m. However, the Mayor of the Combined Authority has agreed to give another £1.1m, so we have £2m hoping to match fund and wait anxiously to see if we will get anything.

4.    Councillor Booth said he was frustrated over the lack of detail about anything being done for the villages in Fenland, saying they make up over a quarter of the population yet are scantly mentioned. The applications on the few projects stated in the report have been generated through those local communities. He pointed out that he has also repeatedly commented in respect of Wisbech 2020 Vision; it is not just Wisbech but also the surrounding area where there are also areas of multiple deprivation. Also, the primary schools in the surrounding area feed into the secondary schools at Wisbech. The issue of attracting the best teaching talent is one across the whole of the north of Fenland. More attention needs to be paid to the villages who are the poor relatives when it comes to receiving funding in our area.

5.   Councillor Yeulett said given the current and future national funding problems, how sure are we that these projects will come to fruition and is the funding readily available for them? Councillor Boden said the funding for the county council projects has already been set aside in the budget for this year so is guaranteed; the money put forward for the Combined Authority has also been budgeted for so is also confirmed as available.

6.   Councillor Boden addressed Councillor Booth’s comment and said that the CPCA money is specifically for the market towns rather than Fenland as a whole; unfortunately, Councillor Booth is therefore correct that this money is not being targeted at the villages. That was the decision made by the Mayor and the Combined Authority and is part of a much larger project across the whole of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and is not restricted to Fenland.

7.   Councillor Miscandlon thanked everyone for their updates so far. He is glad to see the projects are still going forward with minimal delay; we all accept that due to COVID-19 there will be some delay. He thanked officers and Cabinet members for their progression of the projects within the Fenland area.

8.   Councillor Wicks said there is one project that he does not think falls within the remit of this area, being more Highways England. There is the upgrade to the Guyhirn roundabout. He asked how we are moving forward with the dualling of the A47 through to at least Wisbech to start with. Rowland Potter advised that Highways England are continuing to progress the Guyhirn roundabout project and he will circulate more comprehensive details post meeting. In respect of the dualling works, he said they did progress a Project Control Framework State Zero Highways England standard of documentation to get that scheme into their programme and negotiations are ongoing. Highways England are proposing to undertake a review of that project control framework documentation work internally with their own consultants. We are negotiation whether that will be fully funded by themselves or if they will seek funding from us to enable that to happen. The purpose of that review will be for them to identify whether additional work will be required for them to include it in their own development programme. This may not be the outcome that members expect to hear but the Combined Authority will continue to push hard for that scheme and our negotiations have borne fruit in terms of engagement with Highways England. He will keep members informed of progress. Councillor Mason thanked Rowland for his update and welcomed him to the meeting.

9.   Councillor Seaton said that it should not be underestimated the frustration of the A47 alliance that comprises of all the councils and districts that surround the A47. Ongoing talks are happening, it is still on the radar and it has the full support of the Mayor and the CPCA and it will create opportunities for housing and commerce along that dualling when, not if, it happens.

10.Councillor Mrs French said she has a meeting on 18^th November on the A47 and although she is not sure of the agenda hopes there may be some update then.

11.Councillor Booth asked if any members aside from Councillor Boden had any comment to make regarding the rural areas. He also asked if any of the main Wisbech 2020 projects had been progressed bearing in mind the issue with COVID-19 as he understood the project group had not been meeting. Russell Beal said the work is continuing but more in the background this year; although the steering group has not been meeting the individual organisations have been doing a lot of support work around COVID-19, particularly for the Ferry Project, Wisbech Community Farm, and the College of West Anglia.

12.Councillor Miscandlon said he was concerned that we have to come to a meeting such as this for an update and asked if all councillors could be kept informed more regularly with basic updates, barring any commercially sensitive information. Councillor Mason endorsed Councillor Miscandlon’s view and said regular information would be useful.

13.Paul Medd agreed that there is a whole range of projects going on that members should be regularly briefed on. In respect of Wisbech 2020, one of the things FDC was tasked to do prior to the pandemic was to undertake a governance review. The core vision group tasked officers to undertake a review on what may exist post 2020 and this work has been impacted upon by the pandemic but it is still a piece of work that is progressing and he should hope to have that brought forward soon.  Councillor Booth thanked Paul Medd for his update, saying members need to see progress against delivery on this project.

Councillor Mason thanked everyone for their attendance at today’s meeting.