Since my last report there has been a full cycle of Committee meetings; the next Cabinet meeting is Thursday Feb 21 evening.

At the Cabinet Meeting on Thursday Jan 17 the Cabinet raised the rent for houses in Southwell, some increases will be over 6% on top of rises of 6.8% in the previous year. The Cabinet also agreed to look to commission external management of the Palace Theatre in line with the Working Party’s recommendations. Councillors have already been sent the motions that were passed by the Council relating to the East Midlands Ambulance Service and the Sherwood Forest Hospital Trust with both our votes in support.

My colleague Julian Hamilton raised his frustration that little regard has been given so far to linking in the new National Civil War Museum to the Palace Theatre next door. We argue that this would make ideal adjacency for the daytime Museum audience for example on tactics in the Civil War.

I asked a question relating to the timetable of East Midlands trains through Fiskerton. I raised this matter with the Town Council last month as there was a discussion [taken in private on the request of EMT and the Council], and we are still awaiting the results of these considerations.

A meeting of the External Relations Overview and Scrutiny Committee had a presentation from the Sherwood Forest Foundation Hospitals Trust which we both attended. Issues raised included the potential future of Newark Hospital and its services. A later presentation also heard from the CCG for Lowdham. One matter is the tension between increasing expensive admissions to the acute hospital compared with the CCG’s expectation of maximising treatment, including day case surgery, close to or even at home.

A task & finish group of ERPOS Committee which included Julian Hamilton has concluded a report on the NHS changes which covers the CCG. It will be issued shortly by the committee, and we will report on its deliberations in our next feedback

The Council is moving, from May, away from a Cabinet system, where all of the decisions are made by just six Councillors, all from one party, to a Committee system,. In the new system three Committees will decide operational matters within a strategy set by a Policy Committee. All parties will now be involved in decision making, and there will be representation by Southwell Councillors in nearly every Committee. This is an important step and Peter is involved in the details of how this will operate. He is proposing that the systems being implemented are reviewed after a year so that residents are assured that the decisions reflect local views.

On planning, it is likely that there will be two Planning applications for the Old School site as we understand that both the developer and Heritage group has made application for assessment by the NSDC planning committee although this will not come to the next meeting of the District Council.

The next meeting of the Cabinet is on Thursday Feb 21. Decisions on car parking in Newark and Southwell are scheduled to take place. The Cabinet are also considering their budget for 2013-4, in which they are proposing a stand still Council Tax. This zero increase in Council Tax is due, in part, to a grant to enable this from Central Government. It should be noted that the Town Council will not receive such help. Somewhat oddly, the Cabinet will also discuss the extension of the ‘green waste’ collection scheme. This will be undertaken by Mansfield District Council. However, we have already received an application from MDC to do so. This collection service is long overdue, and we hope that it is successful.

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