“Staying Close” scheme launched to support care leavers

Suffolk County Council have been awarded funding by the Department of Education for a three-year pilot scheme to support young people leaving care in Suffolk. The “Staying Close” scheme was launched on Thursday 9 August.

The aim of the scheme is to help young people from the age of 15 start planning for independent living with the assistance and support of residential care workers. This planning often only occurs close to the time a young person is due to move-out, causing unnecessary anxiety and distress. Early intervention and detailed planning from a younger age should help to alleviate this.

Young people will also continue to receive emotional and practical support from their children’s home and residential workers after they have moved out and started living independently.

MEETING WITH NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE; at this meeting the main issue we raised with her was the highways contract and lack of action by them when we report problems; we also highlighted the way the council failed to make use of COMMUNITY INFRASTUCTURE LEVY money to help with infrastructure after major developments.
Reduction in recycling rates harm “Greenest County” ambitions

Recycling rates in Suffolk have dropped over the past 4 years, from 51% in 2013 to just 47% in 2017. Meanwhile, over 50% of waste in Suffolk is incinerated – much higher than the national average of 38%.
Although incineration may be a better option than landfill, it is still less environmentally-friendly than other methods of waste disposal. Furthermore, there are concerns that the level of harmful particles released by incinerators could pose a serious threat to public health.
The Suffolk Waste Partnership, as part of the Greenest County Partnership, set a target of recycling at least 60% of municipal waste by 2020. These latest figures suggest we are moving further away from this target. If Suffolk County Council truly wants Suffolk to be the “greenest county”, we need to start focusing on environmentally-friendly methods of waste disposal and ways to increase recycling levels in the county.

SUPERFAST BROADBAND; Cllr hicks has promised that 98% of all premises will have this by 2020. This is approx.. 3000 new premises to be connected.

MIDSUFFOLK ;COMMUNITY INFRUSTRUCTURE LEVY; a new website will shortly be made public where anyone will be able to see how much was allocated for each development and how much of that would go to a parish.

COMMUNITY ACHEIVEMNT AWARDS; deadline 28th September. Still able to send in any nominations.

QUESTION TO COUNCIL LEADER THURSDAY; I am asking what the public leaders in Suffolk are doing about any outcome of Brexit.
REVIEW OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACES AND TOILETS; this is being done over the next few months.
GRANTS for SHOPS; this grant pot has now been launched and will be available for shops in villages across the district. I have trying to resolve the problem heritage have with the proposed sign for the shop.

APPEAL AGAINST APPLICATON AT BARKERS FARM; there will be an appeal with written responses ; deadline 26th October 2018