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.
Minutes:
1. Mrs Sue Helliwell, representing Alsager Town Council, used public speaking time to ask a question concerning recent land clearance of open space on Cheshire East owned land in Alsager. She was aware that there was Japanese Knotweed on the site and asked whether Cheshire East guaranteed that this would be removed with a lifetime guarantee. She also asked that if the Council went ahead with the sale of this site, that all money raised would be regenerated back into the town of Alsager.
Cllr D Stockton, Regeneration Portfolio Holder, responded to say that the money could not be ring fenced for Alsager, as it was required for all of Cheshire East. He stated that any Japanese Knotweed would be cleared, but any guarantee would be for the contractor to give. He also undertook to provide a written response.
2. Mr A Wood used public speaking time to refer to the proposed closure of Chelford market and the development of the site. He asked the Council to consider the final decision in respect of this carefully.
The Leader of the Council, Cllr Rachel Bailey, responded to say that this was a private enterprise, but that the Council had engaged to look at alternative sites and would continue to do so with interested parties.
3. Cllr. Carolyn Lowe, representing Sandbach Town Council, used public speaking to address Council in respect of the budget and options for change regarding recycling centres, which included the closure of the Arclid site. She stated that the Town Council strongly objected to the proposal and would like to work with the Council to explore other options before any decision was made to close the site and remove it from the budget.
4. Mrs J Deans used public speaking time to support the comments made by Town Cllr Lowe and stated that the tip was well used and easy to get to.
The Leader of the Council responded to say that this would be fully considered as part of the budget debate and that the speakers’ comments would be taken into account.
5. Mr J Parry used public speaking time to welcome the progress being made with the Middlewich Eastern Bypass. He thanked the Council for its work and for listening to the residents of Middlewich. He was glad that Chester Road has now been declared an Air Quality Management area, but felt there was also a need for this to be done on Lewin Street, having read in the local papers that the Council had said that the levels were just belowthe maximum. He asked the Council to go back to these figures and look at them again, especially over the past 12 months. He stated that the current pollution level was not going to decrease due to increased development in Middlewich and Sandbach, putting extra strain on Lewin Street. He also referred to the impending opening of a fully operational Waste Transfer depot, which he considered would increase traffic levels significantly.
The Communities and Health Portfolio Holder, Cllr P Bates, responded to say that pollution levels on Chester Road, Middlewich indicated that levels of nitrogen dioxide NO2 were above the annual mean objective in 2013 and 2014 and only slightly below the objective in 2015. The Detailed Assessment completed as part of the Council’s 2016 Annual Status Report had indicated that there would be an ongoing exceedance and as such the area would be declared an Air Quality Management Area in the next few weeks. The levels on Lewin Street had showed a decreasing concentration of NO2 from 2013, and in 2015 the levels had been below the objective by a small margin. The Council had undertaken a detailed assessment of the area in the same Annual Status Report and concluded that, at present, there was no likelihood of an exceedance. However, this situation would be kept under constant review and should the results in 2016 show the need to revisit the above then the Council would do so. Further, the Council had put an additional 3 monitoring sites along Lewin Street to further increase its knowledge of pollution in the area. The Council had committed to reviewing the Air Quality Action Plan for the Borough within 2017, and work had commenced on this. There would be an opportunity for public engagement with the process to ensure that proposed actions met the needs of the area.