Councillor Lentill’s Report on SCDC meeting of 27 February 2024
On 27 February South Cambs met to discuss the budget. The debt ceiling, taxes, and council house rents went up. All those promised savings from the Four-Day Week Trial haven’t amounted to much. You’ll be glad to know that remuneration for us councillors is also going up (backdated), despite a verbosely elegant speech from your not-especially humble correspondent arguing that this might tend to annoy residents. As with last year’s rise, my ill-gotten gains will go directly to registered charities in Over & Willingham.
With the exception of three late-arriving rays of sunshine, it was a bleak and gloomy picture overcast by the botched Four-Day Week Trial, the elephant in the room (or maybe the bull in the china shop). I am 100% in favour of our society moving towards more 4in7 working models. I know from my own family set-up how beneficial a day away from the regular grindstone can be, especially for those of us with young children. However, the proposed (and imposed) 5 Days Pay for 4 Days Worked model was successful in Rejkavic ONLY because it had been adopted across the economy, public and private. No one was left behind. Other, more inclusive approaches were available but not considered. It goes to show why debate in public policymaking matters. Big ideas need a lot of little adaptions if they are going to be successfully adopted. Want to go fast? Go alone. Want to go far? Go together.
So I am pleased to say that, towards the end of the meeting, South Cambs’ got together and got some really useful work done. The final item on the agenda – proposed by the immediate past Chair, Cllr Anna Bradman means that “Future decisions, services and policies made and adopted by the Council should be assessed through Equality Impact Assessments to determine the impact of changes on people with care experience, alongside those who formally share a protected characteristic… This Council will treat care experience as if it were a Protected Characteristic.”
The penultimate item on the agenda, standing in the name of Cllr Heather William (leader of the Conservative opposition) requested “that the Cabinet expands its Cost of Living Support scheme to include providing free sanitary products to those who may not be able to afford them.”
The antepenultimate item, standing in the name of Councillor Daniel Lentell (Independent, Over & Willingham), but drafted and redrafted by the LibDem’s Cllr Judith Rippeth and Labour’s Elizabeth McWilliams supported the council’s move towards accreditation from White Ribbon, the UK’s leading charity engaging men and boys to end violence against women and girls by addressing the root causes through the application of good auld fashioned education, education, education.
Anti-domestic violence, anti-period poverty, pro-Kids in Care measures were passed with unanimous, cross-party votes of acclamation. Want to go far? Go together. Mrs Landingham! What’s next?
