Minutes:
(A) Mr
Mullaney asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:
“Given the news that the County Council is to get an additional
nearly £2 million towards bus service improvements, would the County Council
please reconsider the decision to withdraw funding for the 159 bus service from
Hinckley to Coalville? The Service was one that was used by people in many
rural areas like Newbold Verdon, Market Bosworth and Barlestone
as well as Hinckley and Coalville. Restoring the subsidy to get the 159 bus
service running again would be welcomed by people in many towns and villages in
the County.”
Mr O’Shea replied as follows:
“The County Council has been awarded £1.78m Bus Service Improvement Plan Plus (BSIP+) funding in the current financial year and as a result, the Passenger Transport Policy Strategy (PTPS) review work on the supported bus services has been paused to allow a light touch refresh of the PTPS approach that better reflects the Government’s aspirations for this additional funding.
Following that, the review of the current contracted services against this revised policy approach will restart from late 2023 into early 2024.
The objective is to continue to support services that align to our revised policy approach (reflecting the additional funding) while ensuring we do not continue to pay for the lowest value services. It is not our intention to reinstate any services already withdrawn or to revisit subsidy arrangements for services that have ceased prior to the BSIP+ funding award. The BSIP+ funding will allow us to retain our existing subsidised bus services, the cost of which significantly exceeds the current budget while giving us the opportunity to help reshape our public transport model to a more sustainable one appropriate for a rural county like Leicestershire.
A briefing on this matter was issued to members on 1st June and has been appended to the response to this question.”
Mr Mullaney asked the following supplementary question:
“I'm sorry that the 159 subsidy couldn't be restored, it was a service that a lot of people used and appreciated in Hinckley and the villages. In the appendix that was part of the response to the question it does mention that there is to be a pause to the review of the 26 subsidised services, including the Hinckley to Nuneaton service that goes through my area. Can the Lead Member offer some specifics to the residents that use those services as to what the term pause actually means? Do we take it that the pause to the review is in effect a permanent pause and those services won't be reviewed in future; is it a matter of next financial year; is it a matter of a few months? Could the Lead Member give any sort of specifics to residents who might be concerned as to what exactly that time frame mentioned there is?”
Mr O’Shea replied as follows:
“A pause is a pause: it means it's going to start again. We have been given this money that will temporarily let us pause [the review], but then all services across the County will be reviewed again later on in the year because the money will not last beyond the year. It will be paused for a temporary period but we will be looking at it across the whole piece, so that we can look at what is best for the whole County. We don't want to cut bus services at all, and you appreciate that, but we are guided by the finances that this Council gets from Government. We want to do the best for our citizens, that's why we are pausing it, being able to have this money to look at it in more detail.”
(B) Mr Hunt asked the following question of the
Leader or his nominee:
“1. Understanding that our school meals service, like others across the country, is under severe cost pressures, is this the opportunity to seize the moment and take another step to meet our Net Zero Carbon target by replacing red meat with alternative proteins?
2. What alternative proteins do we currently use to replace meat?
3. As well as helping to meet Net Zero, and the more healthy diet that climate change will impose on younger generations, do we know what cost savings might be achieved by such a switch?
4. Do these meet Government standards?”
Reply by MR BRECKON
“1.&2. Our current menu only includes red meat three times in the two-week cycle, this is organic beef mix which is used to create bolognaise, as well as pork in sausages and roast pork.
We already use alternative protein sources (lentils) to reduce our red meat content in our bolognaise recipes.
As part of our vegetarian option which is available daily to all schools (should they select it) we use a beef free mince (meat free product made of soya) in items such as vegetarian bolognaise. However, we also offer a cottage pie which is produced with a creamy white sauce and vegetables.
We currently do not widely use mycoprotein ingredients because they are a more costly alternative.
Each week on our menu we offer a meat free day.
3. At this time, we do not believe there would be any significant cost saving benefit in further reducing our level of red meat – in part this is because of the infrequency of serving it and the comparative expense of certain alternative products.
4. All our menus meet the government standards, including our vegetarian options. As a Local Authority Provider, we will always ensure that this is the case. A meat free alternative would continue to meet these standards if the levels of protein met the standards.”