Yesterday at Shire Hall the Leaders, Chairs and Chief Executives/Chief Officers of Cambridgeshire’s six councils and key public services (Police, Fire and Health) all met.

It is always my pleasure to chair this meeting but as you can imagine, with such able individuals in attendence, it is always a challenge. If something needs doing, this is the group to do it.

Topics considered today included:

Progress on better joint working on waste collection and disposal;

Agreement of a new data sharing protocol with a presumption to share data across the County’s public services;

Agreement of work plans to better utilise resources through:
possible pooling of business rates, testing aligned approaches to localised council tax benefits, expansion of family intervention project, exploring use of LGSS by other public services.

Sign-up to an economic development work programme including:
a joint statement setting out spatial planning principles,
more joint work on energy security, testing the idea of striking a ‘city deal’ with the Government.

A very good meeting with a strong shared commitment to driving Cambridgeshire forward.