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 6 December 2018.
Five questions were received by the deadline.
The first question was received from Councillor R.W. Sider, BEM.
Question 1
“The 9th of November 2018 saw the council holding a special Service of Remembrance for schools to mark the Centenary of the end of the Great War, and was the largest gathering of young people ever seen at Knowle Green. That said, will the Leader and members of this council join me in congratulating the Head of Corporate Governance who worked tirelessly in the organisation and planning of this special day, together with Head of Neighbourhood Services and her team who executed the plan with supporting council staff. In essence will the Leader agree with me that this was a fantastic team effort where everyone played a significant part in its success.”
The second question was received from Councillor Q. Edgington.
Question 2
“Following on from the question relating to the additional invitation to the Queen’s Royal Garden Party. Do you agree with our Group that the second tickets should be given to Councillors only and preference given to long serving Councillors?”
The third and fourth questions received were from Councillor J. Sexton.
Question 3
“The Borough Bulletin has just dropped through residents' doors. Pages 12 and 13 highlight Christmas activities around the Borough? Why is there no mention of the Christmas Fayre in Ashford or any other town other than Shepperton or Sunbury? It is too "Leader patch" centric - who has sanctioned this? Can the Leader confirm that the Leader and Cabinet Member for Communications were given the opportunity to sign this off?”
Question 4
“On page 19 of the Bulletin - "County Services under threat" - In the final paragraph it is stated that Spelthorne because of the scale of the forthcoming cuts by Surrey County Council to services, will no longer be able to step in and fill the gap? What gap is this? The different responsibilities between Surrey and Spelthorne are clear? What Services are Spelthorne taking up that Surrey are statutorily obliged to carry out? I might also ask did the Leader not think that the said item was somewhat hostile to its big brother, Surrey County Council?”
The fifth question was received from Councillor D. Saliagopoulos.
This question contained information relating to a matter which is exempt within the meaning of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 and by the Local Government (Access to information) (Variation) Order 2006 Paragraph 3 – Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).
The question and response will be dealt with in private (Part 2).
Minutes:
The Mayor reported that five general questions had been received, in accordance with Standing Order 15, from Councillors Sider, Edgington, Sexton and Saliagopoulos. The questions and responses were read aloud at the meeting.
1. Question from Councillor Sider:
“The 9th of November 2018 saw the council holding a special Service of Remembrance for schools to mark the Centenary of the end of the Great War, and was the largest gathering of young people ever seen at Knowle Green. That said, will the Leader and members of this council join me in congratulating the Head of Corporate Governance who worked tirelessly in the organisation and planning of this special day, together with Head of Neighbourhood Services and her team who executed the plan with supporting council staff. In essence will the Leader agree with me that this was a fantastic team effort where everyone played a significant part in its success.”
Response from Leader of the Council:
“Thank you Cllr Sider for highlighting this event.
As councillors will have seen on the video earlier, this was a tremendous occasion for the Borough. I was particularly keen that the Council marked the 100 years of the ending of World War 1 and I am pleased to say that I believe we have done the borough proud.
On Saturday 10th November, Madame Mayor hosted a performance of the Armed Man at Staines Methodist Church and this was a great success [as you have already heard]. There was of course our usual support for the remembrance services on Sunday 11th which are mostly organised by the community but assisted by the Council in terms of road closures.
The schools event on 9 November was a very special occasion. I would like to pass my thanks on to Michael and Jackie as Councillor Sider has mentioned, but I would also like to mention a number of other people who made the service possible:
· The 14 schools in Spelthorne who supported it and sent around 400 children.
· Rev Michael Burley, your Chaplain Madame Mayor
· Nick Pollard of Spelthorne Museum
· Our Sponsors for their financial and practical support: Shepperton Studios, Bretts, Staines Prep School and Cushman and Wakefield.
· Staines Brass Band
· 135 Geo Squadron from Ewell
· The children who participated and the teachers who organised all the logistics of bringing pupils out of school for such an event
· Our staff here at Knowle Green and the Depot, too numerous to mention, who all volunteered to make this a special day.
Lastly I would also like to advise councillors that 100 trees were planted in Laleham Park to mark the Centenary. A commemorative plaque has been placed next to this Centenary wood and I encourage councillors to visit the park and see it for themselves. I would like to thank Jackie and all of the grounds maintenance staff who planted the 100 trees. This is another fantastic achievement for the Council.
As you mentioned before Madam Mayor we believe there to have been 851 armed forces personnel from Spelthorne lost in World War 1. It is our intention to plant a total of 851 trees to honour them. We have started with 100 in Laleham Park and I will be announcing shortly our future plans for further planting.”
2. Question from Councillor Quentin Edgington:
“Following on from the question relating to the additional invitation to the Queen’s Royal Garden Party. Do you agree with our Group that the second tickets should be given to Councillors only and preference given to long serving Councillors?”
Response from Leader of the Council:
“Thank you for your question Councillor Edgington. As I said in my response to Cllr Saliagopoulos’ supplementary question at the last Council meeting, the nomination of attendees is within my remit so if you or any other opposition Group would like to put forward somebody of merit, I and my Group would be happy to consider them on that basis.”
In accordance with Standing Order 15.2 Councillor Edgington asked the
following supplementary question:
“Can you not answer yes or no rather than repeating your previous answer?”
Response from the Leader of the Council:
“This is really quite straightforward and I have nothing else to add.”
3. Question from Councillor Sexton:
“The Borough Bulletin has just dropped through residents' doors. Pages 12 and 13 highlight Christmas activities around the Borough? Why is there no mention of the Christmas Fayre in Ashford or any other town other than Shepperton or Sunbury? It is too "Leader patch" centric - who has sanctioned this? Can the Leader confirm that the Leader and Cabinet Member for Communications were given the opportunity to sign this off?”
Response from the Leader of the Council:
“All the Christmas events we were made aware of at the time of compilation in October were published in the winter Bulletin. The Communications team have confirmed that they would have been very happy to include details for the Ashford Christmas Fayre if it had it been brought to their attention by the organisers or local councillors. Unfortunately it was not.”
4. Question from Councillor Sexton:
“On page 19 of the Bulletin - "County Services under threat" - In the final paragraph it is stated that Spelthorne because of the scale of the forthcoming cuts by Surrey County Council to services, will no longer be able to step in and fill the gap? What gap is this? The different responsibilities between Surrey and Spelthorne are clear? What services are Spelthorne taking up that Surrey are statutorily obliged to carry out? I might also ask did the Leader not think that the said item was somewhat hostile to its big brother, Surrey County Council?”
Response from the Leader of the Council:
“Surrey County Council are looking to make £85m savings across the county for 2019/20 to balance their budget. This is on top of the additional in year savings of £40m they implemented during the current year. Surrey County Council potentially has an underlying cumulative budget gap by 2023/24 of more than £200m. As the article highlighted Surrey County Council is currently consulting on 5 areas of services where they are proposing to make savings.
Spelthorne Borough Council with its Health and Wellbeing health partners is responding to all of these consultations, which close on 4th January 2019. In particular we are seeking to ensure that County understand the relatively higher needs of Spelthorne’s residents compared to most other parts of the county, particularly with respect to the Children Centres proposals and that they clarify how those needs will be appropriately supported.
Whilst the statutory duties of County Councils and Districts and Boroughs are relatively clear, these differences are not always clear to residents, and periodically we have run items in the Borough Bulletin to summarise the differences.
Until the details of Surrey County Council’s transformation proposals are known it is difficult to comment on the potential. We are not currently aware of any proposals for SCC to transfer services it has a statutory responsibility to provide to districts and boroughs.
We have a duty to protect our residents, to make them aware of likely cuts and to seek to mitigate the effects where possible.
I do not accept the article was critical of Surrey County, the article was intended to be factual and help encourage a good level of response for their consultations. The article makes reference to the funding reductions SCC have suffered. Having said that, it is a fact that as a result of the £10m net additional income we are now generating annually from our investment properties this council is not in a similar position to Surrey County and some of the other Surrey councils of having to making drastic cuts to the provision of services for their residents, The article merely clarified this point.”
5. Question from Councillor Saliagopoulos
The fifth and final question was received from Councillor Saliagopoulos. As it related to an exempt matter and was required to be dealt with in private session, Councillor Saliagopoulos stated that she would like a written response.
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