Agenda item

The Leader, or his nominee, to answer questions from Councillors on matters affecting the Borough, in accordance with Standing Order 15.

 

Note: the deadline for questions to be considered at this meeting is 12 noon on Thursday 11 July 2019.

 

The following questions have been received to date:

 

Councillor R.W. Sider BEM

 

“Will the Leader and members of this Council join me in congratulating Team Spelthorne who took part in this year’s Surrey Youth Games at Guildford, and in doing so with 10 other boroughs competing, topped the medals table with 5 Golds, 5 Silver and 3 Bronze medals?

 

And, will members also join me in thanking the Council Leisure staff who undertook the arrangements to partake in these games, and to the many coaches who freely gave up their time to coach and encourage these young people?”

 

Councillor L.E. Nichols

 

“Could the Leader please explain why he feels that it is not appropriate to have any councillors from the official opposition on the Local Plan working group?”

 

 

The Mayor reported that four general questions were submitted by Councillors R.W. Sider BEM, L.E. Nichols, J.H.J. Doerfel and Mrs S. Dunn.

 

Question from Councillor Robin Sider BEM:

 

“Will the Leader and members of this council join me in congratulating Team Spelthorne who took part in this year’s Surrey Youth games at Guildford, and in doing so with ten other boroughs competing, topped the medals table with five golds, five Silver and three bronze medals?

 

And, will members also join me in thanking the Council leisure staff who undertook the arrangements to partake in these games, and to the many coaches who freely gave up their time to coach and encourage these young people?”

 

Response from the Leader, Councillor Ian Harvey

 

 “Thank you for your comments Councillor Sider.   I, and I am sure all Members, will join us in congratulating Team Spelthorne on their success.

 

This was the 23rd Specsavers Surrey Youth Games and team Spelthorne were particularly successful in achieving the medals that you refer to. We entered 24 teams, which meant that we also won the award for entering the most teams.

 

Around 350 young people aged 6-16 from all areas of the borough enjoyed up to seven weeks of free coaching across 12 different sports in the lead up to the event. 180 children went on to represent Team Spelthorne at the Games at Surrey Sports Park in Guildford on 15 &16 June.

 

This year saw a change of ethos to the Games where there was a greater focus on encouraging new participants into sport, in particular those from a less advantaged background, or those who are inactive. For many of the participants this was their first experience of a sporting event, with some being introduced to the event through our `Fit and Fed’ initiative and the carers event which we held in February.

 

As Cllr Sider mentioned, the event is totally reliant on our coaches, the majority of whom are volunteers from local sports clubs. Spelthorne is very lucky to have such dedicated people. The leisure team are pleased to manage Team Spelthorne’s participation in the games and are delighted with the team achievements this year.”

 

Question from Councillor Laurence Nichols:

 

“Could the Leader please explain why he feels that it is not appropriate to have any councillors from the official opposition on the Local Plan working group?”

 

 

Response from the Leader, Councillor Ian Harvey:

 

“Thank you Cllr Nichols for your question about the Local Plan Working Party.  I refer you to my previous response to Mrs Doerfel.

 

I would also add: All councillors will be able to play a part in the development of the local plan even if they are not part of the working group. 

 

The Local Plan is still in the engagement and scoping stage.  The planning team will engage with all ward councillors prior to the preferred options consultation which is due to go out in November. 

 

I remain open minded as to who will be on the working party in the future. If any councillor demonstrates a willingness to engage with their colleagues in an objective, constructive and non-political way and who has an obvious talent that can be contributed, then I may be persuaded that membership should be offered to such a councillor.  I would also wish to ensure that any new councillor had proved their worth by demonstrating a positive contribution to the life of the Council.

 

I would not consider it appropriate to offer membership to any new councillor who had demonstrated their unsuitability by refusing to take advice from officers, shouting at officers and advisors in training meetings or by seeking to politicise the Local Plan by misleading the public about the risk to open spaces, or indeed any other obviously misleading statements.  You will therefore appreciate my reluctance to consider any new members at this time.  Perhaps when newer members have learnt how business is conducted in the Council then the time will be right to look again at the issue.”

 

In accordance with Standing Order 15.2, Councillor Laurence Nichols asked the following supplementary question:

 

“Would the Leader please spell out in clear terms why he has broken a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ previously made to Councillor Sandra Dunn to include myself on the Local Plan Working Party?”

 

The Leader, Councillor Ian Harvey responded at the meeting that he had previously offered to explain this to Councillor Dunn in private and he was not going to do so in public for self-evident reasons.

 

Question from Councillor Jan Doerfel:

 

“In the light of significant concerns that the Council’s proposed ‘Local Green space methodology’ (which was to form part of the Local Plan) will leave 70 out of 71 currently protected urban open spaces (I.e. important green spaces of value to the community across the whole of Spelthorne) without any protection, will Cllr Harvey confirm that these 71 green spaces will remain protected and that none of them will be opened up for development?”

 

 

Response from the Leader, Councillor Ian Harvey:

 

“Thank you for your question Councillor Doerfel.

Open spaces are protected from development by national policy even if they are not designated in local plans. National policy provides a designation called Local Green Space for councils to apply locally as an additional tier of protection if they are demonstrably special to the community.

We consulted on a local methodology for assessing land to be considered for the designation and received a large number of responses that felt the scoring system would discount the majority from consideration. Officers have taken those comments on board and as a result have removed the scoring element from the methodology in favour of a judgement-based assessment.

Despite what has been erroneously claimed by some Members, the methodology we consulted on was not intended to reduce protection of open spaces in the urban area or devalue their contribution to our communities but we have listened to the concerns and made changes to it. To apply the Local Green Space designation to all our open spaces in the urban area would dilute its effect.”

 

Question from Councillor Sandra Dunn

 

“In order to facilitate transparency about the Council's significant development plans, and given the time constraints of consultations open for public response, can the Council please provide the consultation documents available for Ceaser Court, Thameside House and other Knowle Green Estates projects on the Council website?”

 

Response from the Leader, Councillor Ian Harvey:

 

“Thank you for your question Cllr Dunn.

 

Knowle Green Estates Ltd (KGE) is a council owned company and in some cases it is making the planning applications on sites which it will later manage if they are given planning consent. 

 

Where KGE consults with the public directly, adverts are placed in the local press, on the Council’s website and on social media, two weeks prior to the two day events taking place. These two day events are held on a Friday afternoon and evening and all day Saturday to maximize attendance. Also, hand delivered letters are sent to local residents’ houses advising of the consultation event dates/times. So far this has comprised 500 – 700 dwellings per project.  This accords with best practice guidelines.

 

I am of course aware of what I believe to be the issue behind this question and can confirm that our officers “went the extra mile” and stayed for almost an hour past the closing time for the consultation discussing this and other non-specific matters with the person concerned.

 

Once the planning application is submitted, notices are sent out to nearby occupants by the Planning Department and all documents are publicly available on the Council’s website for inspection.

 

There is a statutory consultation period of 21 days however the planning department tends to receive and consider all the public written comments up until the Planning Committee meeting.

 

As all Knowle Green Estates applications are major applications, this means the public have around 13 weeks to provide their comments. Furthermore, they can also speak for three minutes at the Committee Meeting if they wish to voice their views.

 

This provides a highly transparent process and gives the public plenty of opportunities to comment on applications.

 

We will review what material is made available on the Council website and seek to ensure that all the relevant material is available and clearly signposted.” 

 

In accordance with Standing Order 15.2, Councillor Dunn asked the following supplementary question:

 

“As the website is sometimes perceived as being difficult to navigate, please can we put this information on the front page as we do for the third runway?”

 

The Leader, Councillor Ian Harvey responded at the meeting that if this was appropriate and possible then we would be happy to action. He would pass Councillor Dunn’s comment to the Council’s Communications Team.