State of the District

Alex Perkins, Liberal Democrat Canterbury City Council Leader, in the Council's state of the district debate

 

It has been a good year for the council. It really has! A genuine annus mirabilis!

We were top in Kent for collection of council tax 2003/04. Incredibly local people paid out 46.7 million in council tax while local businesses paid 37.3 million pounds in business rates. That is a total of 84 million pounds in local taxes paid by the local community and collected by this authority.. But how many of the public realize that only 6.25 million of the council tax is kept within the district. The bulk of the rest is paid to the county council. And of the business tax just 3.7 million pounds is returned to us in the form of redistribution from central government. That means a staggering 74 million pounds of your money is taken away from this district and spent elsewhere. That is a disgrace. And I will continue to campaign for a fairer system of taxation for local people – one that is fair, honest and respects the ability to pay!

No one should be surprised that we at the city council, under Liberal Democrat leadership and control, have such sound financial management. This year we were awarded a Finance and Office Services Charter Mark. A superb achievement. And I pay tribute to Jim and his team.

Under Jim’s stewardship [City Treasurer] we also launched the county wide council tax benefits take up campaign, and we remain the lead authority.

And we achieved excellent status in CPA – We have the 4th highest score of the 170 districts whose scores have so far been published. This is a truly remarkable achievement. At the recent LGA conference tributes were paid to this authority and the lead we have taken in several fields.

For example – we have The Highest recycling rate in the county by far - 30% for 2003/04

The New Rural Street Runner, which we launched in 6 villages and provides services to rural areas.

There has also been national acclaim following The Creation of the Multi Agency Public Safety Unit last November. In the 8 months that the PSU has operated, over 950 incidents have been reported with 72% of them being successfully resolved, 92% by non-enforcement means.

We should not forget that we also secured major funding for Surestart in the district

So what else have we achieved this year?

A development plan has now been agreed for the Tannery site – we were right to hold out for a better design!

Two Green Flags were awarded - to Reculver Country Park and to the Dane John Gardens

And I have signed an accord with KCC to refurbish our library and gallery. With the new Marlowe theatre these buildings will form the centerpieces of our new cultural quarter.

We are a Lead Authority working with the Government on the implementation of the new Licensing Act - to become law early next year. We didn’t ask the government to pass yet more duties to local councils and we have to fight to find the funds to properly implement them – but we WILL act in the best interests of local people in carrying out our new licensing duties.

The Opening of the Horsebridge community arts center has been a huge success too. Yet more evidence of our commitment to culture throughout the district.

In This Coming Year

The Canterbury A2/M2 links feasibility study, which we will be undertaking with KCC, is a major priority. The menace of traffic building up and clogging our city and district is now a reality. While Kent County Council are responsible for highways funding we have a duty to do whatever we can to try to fill the gap between public expectations and County under funding of our roads and transport infrastructure. We believe this to be the public’s key area of concern and we will continue to lobby the county and government for better funding.

The plans to reroute the A28 away from Wincheap and to build slip roads to link the A28 and A2 at Thanington are now accepted as priority schemes within the county. Now we merely await the funding to carry out these necessary works.

The Marlowe theatre project will be properly underway this year, with significant commitment from private investors and government-sponsored agencies. This represents a major plank of our policy of regeneration through culture. You see we believe that the identity of an entire city can be revived by a substantial programme of cultural regeneration, improving its status as a tourist destination and improving the quality of life for its inhabitants. Culture can also play a role in tackling problems such as social exclusion and promoting renewal……and is increasingly being used to tackle key priorities such as crime, education, health and unemployment

An Innovation Centre at the UKC will soon come under construction – hopefully by the end of this year. This will help to provide new and innovative industries within the district. Providing jobs for local people.

The New Whitefriars development will soon be completed. Over 100 million pounds worth of investment in our city. This will help to provide jobs and stimulate our retail economy.

We will continue to listen to local people. One of the principle actions here is the Opening of the new Contact Centre - to deal with the majority of calls from the public – helping us to continue to put local people first.

Another key aim will be to continue to work with our partner organizations to Provide more affordable housing for local people

We must Increase recycling even further in order reduce the need for landfill sites and incinerators in this district. We have seen off SWERF – now we have to continue to prove that we don’t need Kent County Council incinerators in this district. And the way to do that is to stay ahead of our recycling figures. Perhaps I might take a moment to pay tribute to a remarkable lady I met at the recent LGA conference. Cllr Patricia Turner MBE is the leader of mid Bedfordshire Council. She is a conservative….. And a very sensible one…….. Her authority was one of the first in Britain to introduce alternative weekly collections of landfill waste. Over seventy other authorities now also successfully use such schemes. She has invited you all to come to her district and see what a success they have made of this improved waste management system. I hope some of you will.

Public safety. Public safety remains at the heart of our community planning. We will continue to strive to improve public safety in the district - Canterbury already has amongst the lowest crime rates of any district in the county. And we welcome the continued cooperation of the local police in tackling these issues.

The new Community Safety Plan 2005-2008 will be published this year showing our districts priority areas. It has received wide scrutiny and all party support. It is a blueprint for a safer local community.

We continue to progress the Kingsmead project and move to the next phase of the Herne Bay pier development scheme. These in their different ways show our continued commitment to regeneration and partnership working.

Soon we will know the result of our bid to the Urban Cultural Programme - a government sponsored scheme – a direct result of our capital of culture bid - we may be in line to receive as much as half a million pounds. Further evidence of the economic and social benefits that we continue to draw from our bid to be capital of culture in 2008.

New or Growing Challenges

The expansion of Kent International airport at manston brings new opportunities and challenges.

The ongoing battle to protect our health services is also something that we need to monitor and place ourselves at the heart of. Whatever the spin, however it is sold to us – at every stage our health care provision in this corner of the county is under constant attack. We must continue to fight to save all our hospitals and services.

Tony Blair said Education Education Education. Well I say Traffic traffic traffic. We will fight to retain some input into the distribution of highways funding and we will seek from the County Council a better, fairer deal for local people.

We will also continue to protect our natural environment and conserve our ancient city and district. We will place ourselves at the forefront of environmental campaigning.

And we will Promote jobs by working with the business sector and by fighting to retain services within the city.

I think you will agree it has been a highly successful year. This council and our officers are now receiving national acclaim for the works we have carried out on behalf of local people in the district. I want to thank our staff and the many volunteers who have worked so hard to make this a better, safer place to live, work and play.

Together we are making a difference.