In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, opportunity is provided for Members of the Council to ask the Chairman, the appropriate Cabinet Member or the Chairman of a Committee any question about a matter which the Council, the Cabinet or the Committee has powers, duties or responsibilities.
Questions must be sent in writing to the Monitoring Officer, at least 3 clear working days before the meeting. (Calculated from midnight to midnight).
Minutes:
The Mayor reported that five questions had been submitted by Members. However, one of the questions, which had been submitted by Councillor McGrory, had subsequently been withdrawn.
The questions, as submitted, together with a summary of the responses, are set out below:-
Question 1 - Submitted by Councillor Fletcher
At a recent Council meeting the then Cabinet Member stated that there was not any money in this years budget to act on the results of the speed limits review which had been taking place under the County Council and was concluded in the summer of 2009.
This speed limit review had been mentioned, on a number of occasions, at the Congleton Highways Committee and so both former District and County Councillors were fully aware of it.
Why was no money included in the 2009/10 budget to start implementing the recommendations of this review?
Will any money be included in the 2010/11 budget to implement the most urgent recommendations and thus make Cheshire East roads safer?
The Leader of the Council responded:-
The Speed Limit Review was carried out under a cross-Cheshire road safety initiative (commenced prior to the formation of the new Cheshire East and Cheshire West & Chester Councils). With regard to implementing the recommendations, an approach was adopted in this Council, that work would be concentrated on preparing a priority list of schemes that could be taken forward in 2010/11 to represent a contribution to a coherent programme of safety schemes with all proposals fully considered within a local context. Monies for this implementation work will be included in the 2010/11 highways budget but until the wider budget setting process is completed the specific allocation cannot be determined.
Question 2 - Submitted by Councillor Fletcher
It is understood that Cheshire East Cabinet retained 40% of the central Government road safety grant for 2009/10 for other uses, which is more than the former Cheshire County Council used to retain.
Since reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured on Cheshire East roads is a priority can the Cabinet Member advise what percentage of the grant for 2010/11 he will be retaining for other uses and thus will not be spent on making Cheshire East roads safer?
The Leader of the Council responded:-
Cheshire East has allocated all of the government road safety grant during 2009/10 towards road safety initiatives. 40% of the grant was allocated to the Cheshire Road Safety Partnership and the remainder of the grant was allocated to support road safety activities undertaken by the Council, for example
* Road Safety education and promotion
* Road Safety capital investment schemes
The allocation of the Road Safety grant for 2010/11 is currently an element under consideration within the wider budget setting process.
Cheshire East’s Road Safety grant allocation for 2010/11 is £1.17m - the proportion to be allocated to the Cheshire Road Safety partnership is under consideration and will be confirmed by the end of February.
Question 3 - Submitted by Councillor Flude
The recent decision not to impose car parking charges in some towns within the Borough has prompted many of the residents of Crewe to ask, will the new Cabinet Member for the Environmental Services now reconsider and remove the anomaly in Crewe of the 50p car parking charge on Sundays?
The Leader of the Council responded:-
Can I thank Councillor Flude for her question.
The Council currently receives approximately £50,000 per annum from the Sunday tariff in some of the former Crewe & Nantwich Borough Car Parks. (Christhurch West, Church Lane, Bowling Green and Bowers Row Car Parks are however currently free on a Sunday.)
The '50p All Day' charge is subject to review as part of the current 2010/11 budget consultation process.
There is a refund scheme associated with the Victoria Street car park that serves the ASDA supermarket which essentially means this facility is already free to the customer if they wish to take advantage of this offer.
A decision on the remaining car parks will be taken following the outcome of the budget consultation.
However, I would remind Members that there are no plans to increase the existing tariffs for 2010/11.
I do regard this 50p charge as anomalous and intend to look at it.
Question 4 – Submitted by Councillor Cartlidge
As this Council prepares its budget for 2010/2011.
How many Consultancy Companies, Special Advisors and Agency Staff in senior management positions are at this time contracted to this Council?
What is the total cost of these contracts?
The Resources Portfolio Holder responded:-
Having clarified that this relates to positions in the top three management tiers, I can confirm that we:
· are currently obtaining specialist advice from three providers at a cost of £73,100 a year.
· And we have engaged 2 Interim Managers through an external supplier at a cost of £1,255 for each day they are engaged.
· In addition, we are partners with Cheshire West & Chester Council in a waste treatment capital investment project involving five external advisers. The costs to date for this project have been £2.9m and the majority of this was funded by Cheshire County Council prior to April 2009.
Urgent Question
Being satisfied as to the reasons for urgency, the Mayor agreed that Councillor Cartlidge could ask an additional urgent question, relating to the bidding process for the launch of a National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering, as 25th January (the date of the Council meeting), was the deadline for submitting expressions of interest. He stated that the CWEA would be submitting a bid, on behalf of Cheshire and asked what, if any, update could be given on the bidding process and regarding the location favoured by the CWEA. He considered it important that that the Council was involved in the process.
The Prosperity Portfolio Holder indicated that a written response had been prepared for Councillor Cartlidge and that he would respond further, if Councillor Cartlidge required additional clarification.