In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 35 and Appendix 7 to the rules, a total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to speak at Council meetings.
Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned, where there are a number of speakers.
Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given. It is not a requirement to give notice of the intention to make use of public speaking provision. However, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours notice is encouraged.
It should be noted the members of the public wishing to speak on Local Plan matters will have an opportunity to do so at the reconvened meeting, commencing at 10am on Friday 26 February 2016 (See agenda item 20).
Minutes:
Ms Jane Smith used public speaking time to address Council regarding badger culling and bovine TB and asked what Cheshire East Council’s stance was on allowing the culling of badgers on its land.
Cllr Sam Gardner, Cabinet Member for Open Spaces, thanked Ms Smith for raising this issue and responded as follows that Cheshire East Council was aware that parts of Cheshire East were defined by Natural England/Defra as ‘high risk’ or ‘edge of high risk’ in terms of bovine TB. A range of measures were already in place for private landowners and, if appropriate, for Cheshire East Council, which was a landowner with tenant farmers. These measures included robust biosecurity and vaccination, measures which the Council had itself undertaken on its own land.
Cheshire East would keep this matter under review, taking full account of the relevant science and research. No cull had yet been authorised in Cheshire East and in the meantime the Council would continue to work with farmers, community groups and the TB eradication group to raise awareness and share best practice around bio-security and farm management.
Mr Bob Jackson used public speaking time to ask the following question:-
"I would like to highlight the current state of domestic rubbish tipping on the pavements in Crewe and the state of the alleys where people dump mattresses, fridges, furniture and bags of rubbish.
This is causing considerable distress to residents, especially the elderly, and is creating the impression of Crewe being a filthy, neglected and uncivilized town.
This has been going on for years and the Council has adopted a coping strategy where people know that if they dump any rubbish on the street it will be collected within a couple of days. There are a few who now treat this as the norm and socially acceptable.
It is not.
Crewe is in desperate need of a dedicated warden to investigate who is responsible and then to educate or actually prosecute when they are identified.
There is not a short term fix because education is not just for our generation but for the next.
I would like to ask why there is an apparent reluctance of Cheshire East Council to do anything to resolve this situation. "
Cllr Glen Williams, Deputy Cabinet Member for Communities, responded, as follows:-
“The issue of increased fly-tipping and side waste incidents in Crewe has been raised by local elected Members. The Council is committed to dealing with fly-tipping and side waste, and has a two pronged approach based around collection and enforcement.
Collection - Ansa clear away any side waste and fly-tipping that is reported to them through the call centre. The resource currently devoted to this operation, in the south of the borough, is a pick-up vehicle and two operatives full time to deal with the worst affected streets in Crewe. This team not only collect fly-tipped rubbish/side waste but also visit known hot spots on a regular basis.
Enforcement - The community wardens will attend incidents of fly-tipping, side waste and littering to determine if there is any evidence that might lead to enforcement action being taken. This could be via a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) or prosecution through the courts.
During 2015, we saw a monthly increase in the number of fly-tipping incidents. The average number of incidents per month during the 2nd half of 2015 was 220, compared to 146 for the same period in 2014. The highest number of reports was in January 2016, when we has over 300 incidents reported. 85% of all reported incidents are in the south of the borough and predominantly in Crewe. Based on this evidence and the concerns reported by local elected Members in Crewe, as part of the Council’s budget making process for next year, we have committed an additional £75,000 to address this issue. The resources will be focused on three areas of work towards reducing fly tipping and side waste within Crewe. Ansa will continue to collect any waste but the community wardens will be involved with:
a) Education – employ two full-time community wardens to educate residents on how to use the existing refuse services properly. This action to concentrate on those residents without proper refuse storage arrangements, those in houses of multiple occupancy, students and those for whom English is a second language.
b) Engagement - These wardens will also engage with the local community to harness the groundswell of support for action to improve the local environment. To encourage civic pride.
c) Enforcement – as Cheshire East is an enforcing council the two full-time community wardens would take a pro-active rather than a reactive approach to fly-tipping ‘hot spots’ and against ‘usual suspects’ to persuade them to desist and to warn away others. This to include action against irresponsible landlords. Cases prosecuted to be publicised.
This will be a 12 month trial that will be carefully monitored to determine the benefits”.
Mr Stuart Redgard used public speaking time to address Council regarding his concerns in respect of the inappropriate parking of Royal Mail vehicles and asked why the Council did not use its civil enforcement powers to prevent this.
Cllr David Brown, Cabinet Member for Highways, undertook to follow this up with Royal Mail.
Mr John Allen, representing Global Justice Macclesfield, used public speaking time to address Council concerning the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). He considered that the TTIP was undemocratic and that the tribunals were unaccountable and that given the fees were paid by the taxpayer and would impact on the Government there should be corporate lobbying. He supported the Notice of Motion submitted by Cllr Janet Jackson relating to this matter.
Mrs Sylvia Dyke used public speaking time to address Council in respect of her concerns regarding the selling off of grazing land and pasture for development and asked that the Council ensure that its policies provide for a balance between what developers got and what was saved for grazing.
Alsager Town Councillor, Sue Helliwell used public speaking time to ask the Council to write to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, in support of Children’s Centres and requesting the retention of them.
Ms Maeve Kelly used public speaking time to address Council in respect of
the public consultation regarding Children's Centre de-designations closure and reduced funding to Children's Centres, which had been considered at the recent Cabinet meeting. She was concerned that the feedback from the consultation in respect of this issue had not been taken into account in any of the recommendations in the report to Cabinet.
Cllr Rachel Bailey replied that this matter would be debated as part of the item relating to the budget, to be considered later in the meeting and it would not, therefore, be appropriate to respond a this stage.
Mrs Charlotte Peters Rock used public speaking time to address Council regarding the background of the removal of day care, overnight respite care, dementia care and assessment, and the proposed removal of what she considered to be vital children’s services. With the advent of Cheshire East Council’s involvement within Caring Together, she had been hoped that services would improve. She referred to issues around accountability for social care services and considered that this lay with the Council.
She requested a written response from the new Leader of the Council.