Agenda item

In accordance the Council Procedure Rules, opportunity is provided for Members of the Council to ask the Mayor or the Chair of a Committee any question about a matter which the Council, or the Committee has powers, duties or responsibilities.

At Council meeting, there will be a maximum question time period of 30 minutes. A period of two minutes will be allowed for each Councillor wishing to ask a question.  The Mayor will have the discretion to vary this requirement where they consider it appropriate.

Councillor R Moreton stated that he had beenworking alongside residents of his ward trying to resolve issues with damp in social housing properties.  He felt it was only going to get worse with the cost-of-living crisis as residents would not be able to heat their homes. He stated that he was now working alongside social housing providers in Congleton to try and get the long-standing issues resolved but felt that this was a massive problem across the Borough.  He asked if the Council could write to all social housing providers across the Borough to make sure they are dealing with resident’s complaints regarding damp in their properties as a matter of urgency.      In response Councillor N Mannion, Chair of Economy and Growth Committee state that the Council had written to all the registered providers that had housing stock in Cheshire East asking them for an appropriate contact with regard to the related issues of damp, mould and heating and these details would be circulated to Members in due course.

Councillor J Clowes referred to the monies announced byMichael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. In particular to social care and asked that a clear and concise breakdown of those monies be prepared for Councillors; and in particular for the Adults Social Care and Health Committee. She referred to the £500 million which had been announced by the then NHS Secretary of State, Therese Coffey, and stated that she understood that the Council would have received £1.2 million of the £200 million which was allocated to Local Authorities but now had been told that the £300 million allocated to the NHS would be distributed through the Better Care Fund.  This had to come to Local Authorities and Councillor Clowes asked for an understanding as to how that was going to be spent. She asked for details of how next year’s funding would support the Council and for details of any known additional funds available such as the New Homes Bonus.    In response Councillor J Rhodes, Chair of the Adults and Health Committee responded that the Council welcomed all financial support from the Government, but funding was not meeting the inflationary costs in the adult care budget. She undertook to provide a written response in relation to the money announced by Michael Gove.

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Councillor L Anderson stated that she was looking at downsizing her house and had looked at a house built three years ago. She had been somewhat shocked to find that the house had an EPC rating of ‘E’, which was one of the lowest ratings. She asked what the Council could do to encourage developers to have better standards for energy ratings, and whether any new builds by the Council e.g., new schools, be the highest EPC rating as possible if not more.    Councillor M Warren, Chair of Environment and Communities Committee, responded by stating he was surprised that situation existed given the drive on EPC rating and undertook to provide a written response to that.     

Councillor S Corcoran also responded by stating that he thought it wasdisgraceful that houses were being built now that would have to be retrofitted within a few years.  He stated that Oxfordshire County Council had sought through their Local Plan to insist that developments were built to high energy efficiency standards and that this had been ruled out by the Government Inspector.   He was pleased that building regulations were being improved but thought they needed to be improved by a lot more so that all new build houses were built to high environmental standards and hoped that this would be incorporated into the Council’s new Local Plan as it was developed over the next few years.

Councillor S Carter asked if the Leader of the Council agreed that the Council’s financial problems this year were caused by overspending in Crewe, and if he did not, were there any other factors that made the Councils financial situation very difficult.   In response Councillor S Corcoran stated he was delighted to see that investment was going into Crewe and that it was long overdue. This was not the cause of the financial difficulties the Council was now facing. The problems were due to the very high inflation and continual cutting of government funding to Councils. There were also the pressures that the Government was putting on local authorities to deliver more services, particularly noticeable in Adult Social Care - the Council had an aging population and was obliged to provide these services.  Also, in Children Social Care the Council was legally obliged to provide these services, and the Government reforms that were introduced are leading to significant increases in those demand.

Councillor R Bailey referred to the Airband contract that was due to end in March.  A statement had been published that 3,000 new full fibre connections had been made across the County of Cheshire and asked how many of these connections had been made in Cheshire East.  Councillor N Mannion, Chair of Economy and Growth Committee, undertook to provide a written response.

Councillor C Naismith referred to the local elections in May 2023 and the expectation that voters would be required to produce photo ID at polling stations. He asked what plans the Council had to mitigate the impact on voters potentially being disenfranchised by this.    In response Councillor S Corcoran stated that it was the responsibility of the Returning Officer of this Council to get that message out to voters in Cheshire East that they will have to provide photo ID to be able to vote in the May 2023 elections and understood that the Government would also be promoting this.   He felt it would disproportionately affect younger people who might not have photo driving licences or passports and therefore the Council needed to be mindful of the demographics in getting the messaging out there.  He was also aware that the LGA had asked for the implementation to be postponed because it would be a very difficult and expensive administrative task to implement by May 2023.

Councillor A Gregory stated he was the Cheshire East representative on the Peak District National Park Authority and reported that on 2 December 2022 the Peak District National Park Authority had approved their new Park Management Plan and their Landscape Plan and asked if members know about these documents.   Councillor N Mannion, Chair of Economy and Growth Committee, responded that the Council was a consultee with regards to those two key strategies and undertook to circulate a link to these documents to all Members.

Councillor Redstone asked what provision would be made for free parking at Christmas, over and above the free days that would normally be offered to Local Town Councils and what was the Council doing to support shopping on the high streets this Christmas.   In response, Councillor C Browne, Chair of Highways and Transport Committee, stated that currently each town had four days free parking per year to use at their discretion. In addition, several car parks had free parking after 3pm to encourage shopping. No charges applied on Christmas Day which was a nationwide policy.    He understood the request was to look at the Christmas holiday period, from 19to 31 December, which equated effectively to a 12-day period of free parking. The difficulty was it was impractical to think that this could be applied to one single town. If that principle was to apply across the Borough, officers had calculated that the cost of doing so would be approximately £180,000 to the Council. At the current time the Council could not afford to add £180,000 to the £8.7 million pressure that already existed. If, however a Town or Parish Council wished to come and discuss with Cheshire East Council the question of suspending parking charges, and said Town or Parish Council was willing to discuss reimbursing Cheshire East with that loss of income then that might be something the Council could consider going forward.