Your District Councillor

Charlotte Cane Tel. 742509

District Council Notes (Feb/Mar 2001)

We set our Council Tax Rate for 2001/02 at £64.21 for a Band D. Band D is always quoted because it is the average rate. People in Band A will pay £42.81 and people in Band H will pay £128.42. Of course, the bill that you receive from East Cambridgeshire District Council will be higher than this, because we collect the Council Tax for the County Council, the Police and the Parish Councils. A Band D household will receive a bill for £826.66 - £668.07 for the County Council, £68.04 for the Police, £64.21 for ECDC and £26.34 for the Parish Council. The total bill for a Band A will be £551.11 and for a Band H it will be £1,653.32.

If a household needs to have extra accommodation for a disabled person it may be possible to have a reduction in Council Tax. If you think you may be eligible for this reduction please contact Andrew Manning, our Revenues Manager, on 01353 665555.

The March Farmers Market was cancelled as a precaution against the spread of Foot & Mouth disease. The next Farmers Market is due to be held on the 14 April. Unfortunately, unless the occurrence of new cases stops soon, we may have to cancel that Farmers Market as well. If you want to check before travelling to Ely, please ‘phone the Council on 01353 665555. We have reviewed the collection of rubbish and decided that that should continue as normal, unless the landowner requests that their rubbish is not collected. Officers are not making any routine visits that involve crossing farmland and have therefore stopped their pest control visits. I know the various restrictions will be causing inconvenience and I apologise for that. But it is vital that we do all that we can to stop this disease from spreading into and around Cambridgeshire. We consult regularly with the National Farmers Union and the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food and the actions we are taking are a result of those consultations.

The Council, in partnership with the Health Authority and Primary Care Group, has drawn up a draft Health Improvement Strategy. We now want to know what local people think of the strategy before publishing the final version. The consultation will be launched on 12 April from 10.00 am at the Paradise Sports Centre. There will be opportunities for you to check aspects of your health and look at ways of improving your health. There will also be activities, such as face painting, so it should be fun as well. If you can’t get to the launch in Ely, there will be other opportunities to give your views. For example, the Health Improvement Roadshow will be coming to Reach Fair.

You should have received the latest edition of Connexions during March. Please let me know if your copy did not arrive. The Newspaper is available on tape for people who cannot read it – if you know someone who would find a tape version useful please let me know their name and address and I’ll get a taped version to them.

This edition of Connexions contains a questionnaire asking you how you would like the Council to be run. The Government has said that we must introduce new ways of working and making decisions. Initially they said we had to choose from three options. So last year we sought your views on which of the three options you preferred. The options were a Directly Elected Mayor and Cabinet, a Leader of the Council and Executive Cabinet or a Directly Elected Mayor and Council Manager. From these 3 you chose the Leader of the Council and Executive Cabinet. But people we spoke to, notably the Parish Councils, told us that they wanted us to retain the committee structure. This was not an option allowed by the Government at the time, but we continued to argue that it should be an option. At the final stage of the Bill the Government accepted a Liberal Democrat amendment in the House of Lords which allowed smaller Councils, like East Cambridgeshire, to retain a committee structure – this is called Alternative Arrangements. We would still have to change how the committees operated and could not have as many committees as we have now, but decisions would be taken by committees on which all parties were represented within a policy framework set by the full council. The government requires us now to consult on all four options before setting out the detail for the successful option. It is vitally important that as many people as possible give us their views so that we choose the option which most people want. Please do let us know your views, either by completing the ballot paper in Connexions or by voting on-line at www.eastcambs.gov.uk.

Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat Councillor for the Swaffhams and Reach

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