Minutes:
(A) Mr
Boulter asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:-
“1. Can
the Leader explain why the contract for grass cutting was taken from Blaby
District Council when the work was satisfactory?
2. Why
is the quality of cutting this year so poor?
3. What
is the Leader going to do to rectify the situation?”
Mr Pain replied
as follows:-
“1. The
agreement for Blaby District Council to carry out the work expired on 28th
February 2018. There was no requirement
for the agreement to continue when the County Council can carry out the
service, the County Council’s service having seen evidence of significant
improvements in 2017.
2. Unfortunately,
no mapping or route information was provided by Blaby District Council to the
County Council and it was therefore necessary in advance of this year’s grass
cutting season for the County Council to undertake digital mapping. I am afraid this absence of information has
inevitably meant some grassed areas being excluded. It has also become apparent that Blaby
District Council had been cutting grassed areas which are not part of the
public highway and should not be being cut out of County Council funds. This is likely to have been a reason for some
complaints.
3. Pending
a proper digital database being created using knowledge accumulated this year,
an instruction has been given to cut areas which are ‘in dispute’ for the
remainder of the 2018 grass cutting season.”
Mr Boulter asked the
following supplementary question:-
“I thank Mr Pain for his answers. However, he didn’t answer the question I asked. The question I asked was question number two: “why is the quality of grass cutting this year so poor”? He chose not to answer that question. Now, unless he’s been to the district I represent he won't have seen it. It’s absolutely disastrous, we've got haystacks in parts of the area where the grass has been piled up by the mowers, it could well catch fire if something doesn't happen soon and so I’d like the answer to the question please.”
Mr Pain replied as
follows:-
“I believe we have answered the question, especially in point two. We have explained that, in the Blaby area, we have bought this back in-house. That's good for the Leicestershire taxpayer because of the economies of scale. As all members know, we now do our own grass cutting rather than subcontract it out. I have had some very positive comments about grass cutting this year in other areas. With reference to Blaby and the Blaby area and the Oadby and Wigston area, that has now been brought back in-house but, as you know, we have a great service where people can find out what areas are being cut in their area online. We don't have that digital information for Blaby and the Oadby area. We have answered the question directly; because we don’t have the digital database at the moment we are suffering some issues in that particular area but, generally speaking, we have a good quality service in Leicestershire and I do believe that we have answered the question in point two.”
(B) Mr
Charlesworth asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:-
“1. Is
the County Council still paying any recycling credits to Districts?
2. If so, which Districts are
still being paid and how much is paid and for how long will the payments
continue to be made?
3. What advice did County
Council take on its proposal to withdraw recycling credits and who from?
4. In the report on dry
recycling credits that went to Cabinet on 16th September 2016,
option 4 was approved. However, the
Districts wanted option 2. This means
that the Waste Disposal Authority (County Council) and the Waste Collection
Authorities (District Councils) did not agree that payments should not be made. Will the County Council review that mistaken
decision?”
Mr
Pain replied as follows:-
“1. Yes.
2. The
objection and direction notices that were issued following the Cabinet decision
of 16th September 2016 came/will come into effect between 1st
April and 1st October 2018 depending on the end dates of the
districts existing recycling contracts.
Recycling credits will continue to be paid until the effective date of
the notices. At the current time the
only district still receiving recycling credits is Melton Borough Council.
All districts will continue to receive recycling (or reuse) credits for
materials that are not within the scope of the issued objection / direction
notices or any local agreements.
The recycling credit rate is £56.14 per tonne in 2018/19.
3. The
County Council took advice from the Director of Law and Governance, a leading
counsel (Q.C.) and a waste management consultant.
4. No.”
(C) Mr
Bill asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:-
“In the recently
published report on the A5 Strategy – “Supporting Growth and Movement in the
Midlands 2018 – 2031”, a report which will be generally supported by everyone,
there is a reference towards the back of the report to the “Action Plan for
Delivering Improvements along the A5 Corridor”.
On page 8 of this action plan there is a reference to a statement
dealing with Nutts Lane, attributed to Leicestershire
County Council, that there is “insufficient evidence to suggest that HGVs are
using it as an alternative route to and from the A5……”.
As is this totally
contrary to what is happening on the ground, as will be borne out by all the
residents who have to live with these vehicles on a daily basis, can the
evidence (I will be more than pleased to supply this evidence) that this road
is indeed being used as a short cut to avoid congestion at the Dodwells Bridge Roundabout please be taken into account and
this passage in the report revised?”
Mr Pain replied as follows:-
“The report to which
you refer was produced by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council and was
considered by their Council on 12th June 2018. It refers to a draft Action Plan (Appendix C
of that report) that is still being considered by the A5 Partnership, along
with the draft A5 Strategy. The quote to
which you refer on page 8 is not attributed to Leicestershire County Council
(it shows the ‘delivery responsibility’).
The report also
noted in paragraph 3.13 that ‘The A5 Strategy Action Plan is a rolling
document that will be updated frequently during the life of the Strategy’. The
draft Action Plan is being updated by relevant parties of the A5
Partnership and your additional evidence would be welcomed to feed into this
update. If appropriate the County
Council will suggest updates to this action plan for areas where it is
currently listed as having ‘delivery’ responsibility.”
(D) Mr
Bill asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:-
“At the Scrutiny
Commission meeting on 6th June, there was a report entitled
Leicestershire Towns which advised on County Council activity supporting the
development and economic prosperity of Leicestershire Towns. In the reference to Hinckley there is an
assertion that “Traffic conditions have improved following implementation of
zones 1 – 3”. Whilst conditions might
have improved for walkers and cyclists, traffic conditions as a whole across
Hinckley and Burbage grow worse by the day.
Can I please ask to see the evidence on which this assumption is based
as it is contrary to everything we are witnessing here in the town?”
Mr Pain replied as follows:-
“In paragraph 46 of
the report, it states that “Traffic conditions have improved following
implementation of zones 1 – 3”. £5.96
million of improvements for pedestrian and cyclists, along with improvements to
parking have led to increased numbers of pedestrians and cyclists using roads
in Hinckley.
The trend for all
market towns has been an increase in congestion, primarily in peak
periods. However, the study of congestion
in Hinckley between 2016 and 2017 using the latest available Department for
Transport data indicates that traffic speeds have increased on a number of the
roads where improvements were made as part of zones 1 – 3. For example, on Coventry Road and Rugby Road
where improvements were made to off road infrastructure for walking and
cycling, average traffic speeds have increased.
Roads identified in
zone 4 show no improvement and support the case for the Council to continue to
look to secure funding for the measure set out in the £15.89 million package of
measures in zone 4. The Council has
already secured £5.73 million of funding towards these measures, which, if the
remaining funding can be secured, will be implemented by 2019/2020.”
Mr Bill asked the following
supplementary question:-
“First of all, I do welcome the reply in as much as it says that traffic speeds have increased on roads, and particularly along Coventry Road and Rugby Road, as it's been my concern for the last 45 years to try to keep the speeds down on those roads. I look forward to the evidence on which that is based. I also would just draw attention to my original question, which was to ask to see the evidence on which the assumption is based that traffic conditions have improved across the town. In particular, I would like to ask that evidence is taken into account of the queues of traffic getting in and out of the town at peak times and other times of the day because this has increased. I think people will not agree with the statement which has been made by the County Council that traffic conditions in Hinckley have recently improved.”
Mr Pain replied as
follows:-
“Just a general point, when this investment was made, Liberal Democrat members were clambering over themselves to take the credit for the initial investment into zones 1 – 3. We have already put on record that we would like to make further investment in terms of zone 4 and we're pursuing funding for that. We have some of it. I have to say the data has come from the Department for Transport themselves. Traffic flows have increased, therefore that is an improvement on what it used to be. I believe we've answered the question once again by stating this data has come from the Department for Transport.”