From our District Councillor
Thank you for re-electing me as your District Councillor. The turnout in The Swaffhams ward was 41.5%, which was higher than the District average of 31.5%, but lower than Reach and Swaffham Bulbeck Parish Councils where the turnout was 47.8% and 47.6% respectively. The results across the District were that the Council has 18 Liberal Democrats, 15 Conservatives and 6 Independents. No single party therefore has a majority. This will make it harder for the members to set a clear strategic framework for the Council. Nevertheless, I hope we will be able to continue to deliver good services.
One issue which the Council will be considering soon is whether or not to help fund Police Community Support Officers. These officers will be uniformed but will have fewer powers than regular officers. Their main role will be to work with the Community Safety Partnership and the local community to tackle low level crime, such as anti-social behaviour. Unlike regular officers they will not be pulled off their duties to attend incidents, except in the event of a major incident, so they remain in the community. The Home Office provides half of the funding and the rest of the funds have to be found locally. For the year to March 2004 the Police are finding the matching funds for 8 Community Support Officers. For future years they will only contribute half of the matching funds, leaving £48,000 to be found by the Community. The suggestion is that the District Council and Parish Councils who want the officers in their Parish should find this money. For the District Council a new cost of £48,000 would mean either cutting another service or raising the council Tax for a Band D property by about £1.50 per year (a 1.4% rise). I would be interested to hear your views on whether or not we should help to fund these Police Community Support Officers Šplease e-mail your views to me,or write to me.
Jubilee Gardens in Ely will now be fun for all the family. The Bandstand was formally opened in May along with a water feature and a childrens' play area. The Council's web-site has been awarded "content +" status in the latest government survey of all local authority web-sites. This is the 2nd highest award within the survey and only 10 authorities out of the total 508 surveyed were awarded the higher ranking of "fully transactional". Because of this, the Council was given a grant of £200,000 for 2003/04 to help us to meet e-government targets.