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Agenda item

Member Questions

A Member of the Council may ask the Chair, the Leader, a Cabinet Member or the Chair of any Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affects the Cotswold District. A maximum period of fifteen minutes shall be allowed at any such meeting for Member questions.

 

A Member may only ask a question if:

a)    the question has been delivered in writing or by electronic mail to the Chief Executive no later than 5.00 p.m. on the working day before the day of the meeting; or

b)    the question relates to an urgent matter, they have the consent of the Chair to whom the question is to be put and the content of the question is given to the Chief Executive by 9.30 a.m. on the day of the meeting.

 

An answer may take the form of:

a)    a direct oral answer;

b)    where the desired information is in a publication of the Council or other published work, a reference to that publication; or

c)    where the reply cannot conveniently be given orally, a written answer circulated later to the questioner.

 

 

The following questions were submitted prior to the publication of the agenda:

 

Question 1 from Councillor Maclean to Councillor Layton, Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning.

During the construction of Victory Fields in Upper Rissington the developer created bunds made from waste material (arising from the demolition of military structures) around the perimeter of the village despite the original planning requirement to remove it from site. The planning permission was subsequently amended to allow this change but made conditions that the material be remediated (there was asbestos and other contaminating materials in the waste) and capped. The case officer’s report from 2018 states that the capping should be 1 m but the final capping layer used was 150 mm of topsoil which was then planted with grass and trees and had a network of pathways and play equipment built on them.

Last year, all the public open space was sold to Upper Rissington Parish Council for £1 in accordance with the 106 agreement and this land is now their responsibility. The parish council has some plans for installing equipment that may need foundations but are obviously extremely cautious about digging into possibly contaminated ground. At a recent public meeting there were several questions asked about this which the current Parish Council could not answer as none of them were serving at the time.

The case officer’s report also mentions the need for a long term monitoring and maintenance scheme. The parish council is unaware of any ongoing monitoring and has not been given any instructions for maintenance.

Please can CDC therefore help with supplying as much information as possible and in particular:

CDC asked for extra remediation of the waste bunds and the case officer’s report shows that this work was carried out by various specialist companies. Do we now hold any documentation or a certificate to show that the material in the bunds is completely safe and that it does not qualify as contaminated ground?

Has the waste material been capped with 1 m of capping as required and if so what is the nature of the 850 mm capping underneath the 150 mm of topsoil?

Please would CDC supply details of the ongoing monitoring and supply the parish council with instructions in particular about the care and upkeep of the capping layer that has sealed in the contaminated waste material?

 

Question 2 from Councillor Twells to Councillor Harris, Leader.

Please confirm how many meetings the Leader has had with Roz Savage, the Liberal Democrat MP for the South Cotswolds, since the general election.

Does the Leader agree with me that it is extremely regrettable that Ms Savage is campaigning against the Lime Down Solar Park development, which is projected to generate 500MW—enough electricity to power every home in the South Cotswolds and two other parliamentary constituencies? This hypocrisy would appear to make a mockery of the District Council's declaration of a climate emergency in 2019.

 

Question 3 from Councillor Twells to Councillor Evemy, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Transformation.

What was the total cost to the Council of sending officers and members to the LGA Conference in Harrogate in October? Please include the cost of registration, travel, meals and accommodation.

Many of my residents tell me they consider this sort of event to be little more than a taxpayer-funded jolly, particularly in an era of virtual meetings. What tangible benefits do you believe sending a delegation to that conference has delivered for Cotswold residents?

Minutes:

Member questions, supplementary questions and responses can be found in Annex A attached.

Supporting documents:

 

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