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 Member Questions have been submitted for response:
Question 1: Cllr Tom Stowe to Cllr Juliet Layton, Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning.
Please could you confirm the current number of open Planning Enforcement cases and does the current level of staffing and resources within the Planning Enforcement team allow Cotswold District Council to deliver an effective and timely service?
Question 2: Cllr Tony Slater to Cllr Mike Evemy, Leader of the Council.
Following the O&S briefing on the latest LGR position I am concerned that the LGR work is taking too much time from our senior officers, who as a result, cannot dedicate their service to Cotswold District Council. CDC seems to have more of its officers leading workstreams and programmes of work than other district and city councils. While it is pleasing that our officers have the advanced skills to be picked for this important work, it distorts the fair share of costs between the other contributors.
As with the Publica transition, the estimated costs of £1.5m (already equivalent to around 900 band D taxpayers) do not account for the significant officer time, and the taxpayers of the Cotswolds are therefore paying more than their fair share for the reorganisation, and at the same time losing out on service that should be provided.
Please can you explain how these role allocations are weighted for fairness, and what additional backfill costs are envisaged to fill the void when officers are working on LGR?
Question 3: Cllr Tom Stowe to Cllr Mike Evemy, Leader of the Council.
Does Cotswold District Council own a camera drone? If so, how much did it cost and what ongoing/recurring costs to the council are there?
Question 4: Cllr Tony Slater to Cllr Andrea Pellegram, Cabinet Member for Environment and Regulatory Services.
Litter along our roads and lanes has become intolerable and is particularly visible in the winter months when the vegetation is dormant. Please can the member outline what steps are being taken to rid our beautiful countryside of this menace, as it is a poor advertisement for the Cotswolds?
Question 5: Cllr Jeremy Theyer to Cllr Andrea Pellegram Cabinet Member for Environment and Regulatory Services.
There will soon be an order being placed for the new bin truck fleet – what flexibility is there with these new vehicles once they are in operation to adapt for changes in recycling and waste collection legislation which may be imposed in the future by government?
Question 6: Cllr Len Wilkins to Cllr Patrick Coleman, Cabinet Member for Finance.
Cotswold residents have supported CDC and its predecessors for over 50 years. During this time reserves have accrued, we have a duty to ensure that Cotswold Council Taxpayers get the best return and value for money from these reserves. Could our representatives during the negotiations on LGR ensure our residents assets are protected and not lost to bail out other local councils in involved in the transition?
Question 7: Cllr Laura Hall-Wilson to Cllr Tony Dale, Cabinet Member for Health, Culture and Visitor Experience.
The report from the Town Centres Initiative has recently been published and for Tetbury one of the key recommendations is parking improvements. I hear from businesses and residents on almost a daily basis how they struggle with parking in Tetbury. Please confirm what measures you will be taking in reaction to this report, to improve the flow of cars and look at how to make parking easier for visitors to our town?
Question 8: Cllr David Fowles to Cllr Mike Evemy, Leader of the Council.
When the decision was taken to sell the memorial cottages in Cirencester, the Council gave notice to one of the tenants - the Living Memorial Historical Association - who ran their WW2 museum from one of the Cottages.
A promise was made that we would help the Association to store their collection and find a new home. Since when nothing has happened.
Given our armed forces are once again embroiled in another conflict, finding a home for this museum is even more relevant. Please could you update us on the current position?
Question 9: Cllr David Fowles to Cllr Tristan Wilkinson, Cabinet Member for Economy and Council Transformation.
Under the last Conservative government, Gloucestershire received considerable Government funding to invest in Growth hubs including the Growth hub at the RAU. This funding has now disappeared and the centre is now known as The Alliston Centre. This site was intended to be the beginning of a £100m investment announced in January 2023 to create an Innovation village’ on a 12 acre site at the RAU. Planning was applied for ‘phase 1’ in October last year.
Please could you update us on when work is going to start on phase 1, the status of the Growth Hub and the overall status in terms of investment funding for the Innovation project?