Issue - meetings

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.

1          Cllr R Kain referred to the cancellation of HS2 and stated that the Council had already committed £11.2m to the cancelled project, of which, he was led to believe £8m had already been spent on remedial works. It was his opinion that the Council had no true understanding of its budget or deficit until compensation claims had been presented to central government. He asked if the Council would now suspend what he described as the discriminatory green bin and car parking charges to communities across the Borough where car parking is currently free, and which would have a devastating economic effect on towns that did not have the retail offer or facilities, such as permanently staffed police stations; ambulance stations or fire stations found in larger towns where charges were currently in force. He felt that these should be halted until an accurate assessment of the Council's projected finances could be ascertained.

In response Cllr S Corcoran, Leader of the Council, stated that he had spoken in his announcements about the challenging financial situation the Council faced which was largely due to circumstances out of its control, including additional demands on its services due to the cost-of-living crisis and higher than forecast inflation and interest rates. The announcement about HS2 had certainly not helped and therefore it seemed perverse to stop taking the actions that were known as necessary just because it was not known what further problems the Government was going to cause. The Council would be arguing very strongly for compensation for all the costs that the Council had incurred in preparing for HS2 coming to Crewe, mainly development and design work. It was not remedial work. Cllr Corcoran noted that several councils had issued section 114 notices with government commissioners appointed who then closed libraries, increased charges and Council Tax. He did not want to see that happen at Cheshire East Council. The Council was going to be taking difficult decisions that were necessary and sadly, given that the national economy had been crushed and the ongoing uncertainty around government decisions, he feared that the Council may need to do even more to achieve a balanced budget next year.

Cllr C Browne, Deputy Leader of the Council, responded that it was clear that the Council needed to do everything it could to cut costs and to find innovative non-council tax ways of raising revenue, and this was simply not the time to stand still, close our eyes and hope for the best. Cllr Kain had described the proposals to introduce charging to areas where parking was currently free as discriminatory. Cllr Browne thought that those parts of the borough that have had to pay to park for many years, whilst others have had a free parking, could say that the current charging regime was discriminatory. The proposals did not advocate a ‘one size fits all’ approach and the proposals for most towns, including Alsager, included a mixture of lower, medium, and high tariff spaces reflecting existing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48