WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?

No need to phone a friend or ask the audience, Cambridgeshire residents can feel like millionaires, thanks to Cambridgeshire Together being handed £9 million to invest in our future.
Cambridgeshire Together – a partnership of key organisations from across the county – is being given a £9 million Local Public Sector Agreement (LPSA) reward grant, for hitting key targets agreed with central government.

The multi-million cash injection is being stretched over two years and is being used to improve our quality of life. It will do this by helping Cambridgeshire Together meet priorities set out in the three-year delivery plan, the Local Area Agreement (LAA).

Cambridgeshire County Council’s Cabinet, the accountable body for the money, gave final approval to the spending of the extra money at its meeting at 10am today (Tuesday 7 October).

Councillor Jill Tuck, Chairman of Cambridgeshire Together and Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, said: “This is fantastic news for Cambridgeshire. By using this additional funding to meet LAA priorities we can ensure it creates lasting benefits and improvements. The money will help partners maximise all their resources and ensure high quality services are delivered to benefit local people.”

The money is split between five Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) - multi-agency partnerships within each district (Cambridge City, East Cambridgeshire, Fenland, Huntingdonshire, South Cambridgeshire). LSPs ensure new community services and projects really meet the needs of people in their locality.

Seventy new projects have been identified for the £9 million to be spent on. Organised by themes the public rated as most important, they include Organised by themes the public rated as most important following a wide-ranging consultation, they include:

· Domestic violence
· Public health (smoking cessation and childhood obesity)
· Road safety
· Older people
· Alcohol related harm
· Community engagement/empowerment

The projects will make real differences to peoples’ lives including:

· Working with homeless people with alcohol dependency
· Encouraging energy efficiency
· Providing road safety measures
· Development of community facilities
· Extra funding to regenerate town and rural communities
· Lowering anti-social behaviour by young people

A full break down of the agreed spending can be seen at http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/democracy anf follow the links to the Cabinet agenda.

Further information about the LAA and a copy of the Vision can be seen at www.cambstogether.org.uk/

Notes for Editors:

For further information contact Matthew Hall, LAA Communications Officer on 01223 699284, matthew.hall@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

District Council contacts:

Cambridge City Council
Antoinette Jackson, Director of Customer & Democratic Services
on (01223) 457004
antoinette.jackson@cambridge.gov.uk

East Cambridgeshire District Council
Tony Taylorson, Communications and Media Manager on (01223) 699285
tony.taylorson@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Fenland District Council
Terry Brownbill, Press and Public Relations Officer on 01354 622573
terry.brownbill@fenland.gov.uk

Huntingdonshire District Council
Suzanne Engelbert, Senior Communications and Marketing Officer
on (01480) 388257:
Suzanne.Engelbert@huntsdc.gov.uk

South Cambridgeshire District Council
Georgina Hayward, Communications Manager on (01954) 713289
georgina.hayward@scambs.gov.uk

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EDITOR’S NOTES

Who are the partners on the Cambridgeshire Together Board?
Age Concern Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire ACRE
Cambridge City Council
Cambridgeshire County Council
Cambridgeshire PCT
Cambridgeshire Police Authority
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Voluntary Sector Infrastructure Consortium
East Cambridgeshire District Council
Fenland District Council
Fire and Rescue Authority
Greater Cambridge Partnership (Business sector)
Huntingdonshire District Council
South Cambridgeshire District Council

What is a Local Public Sector Agreement (LPSA)?
An LPSA is a voluntary agreement between upper-tier local authorities and government. It improves the delivery of local public services by focusing on targeted outcomes, with support from Government. It allows local authorities and their partners to tackle local improvements for local people.

In Cambridgeshire, the LPSA has been a means of successfully stretching performance in many of the LAA topic areas initially negotiated with central government.

Payment will be stretched over two years with a split of 50 per cent revenue and 50 per cent capital.

Most of the LPSA reward grant is evenly distributed to the five Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs). A partnership agreement was signed in 2003 setting out how this distribution would work.

What is a Local Area Agreement (LAA)?
The LAA is a three-year agreement setting out the priorities for a local area, as agreed between central government and the local area.

Cambridgeshire is represented by Cambridgeshire Together who has been working with central government to decide on the county’s priorities.

Cambridgeshire’s LAA includes:
· 34 priorities with central government
· 17 statutory priorities around education
· five locally agreed targets

Cambridgeshire Together partners work to deliver services that improve the well-being of residents by meeting these priorities.

Cambridgeshire's LAA runs from 2008 - 2011.

What’s the Vision?
The Vision is Cambridgeshire's long-term sustainable community strategy.

It comprises of key priorities to help meet the challenge of a changing county

Each district also has a sustainable community strategy put together by Local Strategic Partnerships. These local priorities have been used in the Vision to ensure we meet your needs in the future.

The Vision's priorities are organised into five themes:

· Managing Growth
· Economic prosperity
· Environmental sustainability
· Equality and inclusion
· Safer and stronger communities

Cambridgeshire’s LAA is the delivery plan for the Vision. The Vision covers 2007 – 2021.

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