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.
Question 1:
Cllr Julia Judd to Cllr Andrea Pellegram, Cabinet Member for Environment and Regulatory Services.
I regularly receive emails from residents complaining that their food, general waste and/or recycling bins have not been collected.
Residents are often unable to report missed bins on the Council web page, and the information about missed collections invariably does not apply to those whose bins have been missed.
In their recent annual report, Ubico published that they make 99.92% ‘collection accuracy’ in their Operational Performance section. This dazzling statistic is hard to believe as it does not represent the reality of resident’s day to day experiences across the district.
Could you please explain how “collection accuracy” is calculated including how a missed collection is defined?
Are missed collections attributed to operational failures (such as vehicle breakdowns or staff shortages) included in this calculation? If so, please can you provide the number of missed collections for green waste, general waste and recycling, broken down by reason (including operational issues)?
Question 2:
Cllr Len Wilkins to Cllr Juliet Layton, Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning.
The recently published “Service Performance Report 2025-26 Quarter 2 2025” includes a snapshot of Planning Enforcement cases and shows that 648 cases were active at that time with a clear upward trend in new cases.
CDC's organisation chart shows that two out of the four of the staff positions in this department are vacant and are interim appointments.
It’s clear that this department is under resourced and struggling to keep on top of its workload, what plans does CDC have to improve this unfortunate position?
Question 3:
Cllr Laura Hall-Wilson to Cllr Andrea Pellegram, Cabinet Member for Environment and Regulatory Services.
Earlier this month, we saw bin collections cancelled in Tetbury on Monday 5th January due to weather conditions, the weather continued to be very cold on Monday night and into Tuesday morning and the CDC website let residents know collections would be cancelled across the district. Yet to resident’s delight, the Lorries did in fact collect the bins in Tetbury on Tuesday 6th January.
Can you let me know why you don’t contact members of this council to update them and allow them to communicate with residents about bin collections and why the website gives seemingly contradictory information?
Question 4:
Cllr David Fowles to Cllr Mike Evemy, Leader of the Council.
Cotswold District Council recently published and distributed the taxpayer funded “Cotswold Together” magazine. A key focus of the publication were the Local Plan update and Local Government Reorganisation.
These are important issues which affect the whole District on which all members and parties have cooperated in attempting to deliver the best outcome for the citizens of the Cotswolds.
Despite this, the publication focusses entirely on the Liberal Democrats, why was there no engagement with the Conservatives concerning stories, overall content and format?
Question 5:
Cllr Ray Brassington to Cllr Mike Evemy, Leader of the Council.
The minutes of the meeting of Council held on 24 February 2025 record that a member of the public (Mr Peter Hooper) asked “what action the Council would take to provide more grave plots?for the ever-growing number of residents of Stratton”.?
In response, Councillor Joe Harris “acknowledged the frustration and suggested meeting up with Mr Hooper to explore the situation further”,?and “proposed that his Executive Assistant would arrange a meeting with Mr Hooper and relevant officers to find a resolution and provide clarity for people in Cirencester”.?
Could the Cabinet Member?currently?responsible for Cemeteries please provide an update on the current situation?with regard to?the availability of grave plots in Stratton and Cirencester??
Supporting documents:
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