Contact: Tony Stephens, ext 6938 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 The following decision is sought:

That the County Council offers to part-fund Community Safety Initiative - Street Lighting bids received from parish, districts, town and borough councils as set out in the attached appendix.

1.2 The budget is provisionally allocated to projects pending consideration of alternatives to achieve 2.5% efficiency savings on projects and programmes, work with the local community and more detailed design work.

2. Reason

2.1 This decision supports Aim 4 (Building Strong and Safe Communities) of the Corporate Strategy by working with local councils to improve safety and responding to local community concerns.

2.2 The overall County Council funding for Community Safety Initiative this year will be £64,739. This is made up of £60,000 from the Local Transport Plan for 2005/06 plus a carry forward of under expenditure from 2004/05 of £4,739. The total expenditure for 2005/06 including funding from the districts and parishes is £141,478.

2.3 It is proposed to allocate the available funding to secure a reasonable spread of provision across the county having regard to priority assessments. Schemes submitted should meet some or all of the following criteria:

(i) provision in response to a strong local need;

(ii) provision in response to a known or accepted night-time crime issue. Recommendations arising from consultations with the Police will be given favourable consideration as will local Neighbourhood Watch requests;

(iii) provision of a demonstrable highway safety benefit; and

(iv) schemes are to be funded on the basis of 50:50 up to a maximum contribution of £2,500 by the County Council. For schemes over a total of £5,000 the remainder of the costs will be funded by the District/Parish or a combination of these Councils.

3. Other Options Considered and Rejected

3.1 No other options were considered appropriate for the delivery of the scheme objectives or to the principles of the programme.

4. Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Decision Maker or Other Executive Member Consulted - None.

5. Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee - Not applicable.

6. Reason(s) for the Matter being dealt with if Urgent - Not applicable.

Approved by: Date:

Councillor K B Estlin

290/ALS