Agenda item

To deal with written questions which Councillors may wish to put to the Chair of the Council, the Leader of the Council, a Cabinet Member, a Chair of any Committee or Sub-Committee or Councillor appointed to an outside body in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 12 (if any).

Four questions have been received by the deadline of 11 September and will be sent to Councillors in an agenda supplement.

The Chair of the Council advised that four written questions had been received from members in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 12 and had been published in an agenda supplement.

a)    Question 1 - Councillor Macleod asked a question to the Leader of the Council, as set out in the agenda supplement, in relation to test and trace provisions in the area.

Response - Councillor MacCleary passed the question to Councillor Nicholson. She responded that she had discussed great concerns over the lack of test and trace capacity in the area with the Director of Public Health and felt that the current private sector provision with the lack of lab capacity was letting communities down. She agreed to recommend that the Leader writes to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on this issue, but also said that she wanted, through the Outbreak Control Group for East Sussex and the Health and Wellbeing Board, to meet with regional NHS and public health leaders to agree what action could be taken locally.

Councillor Macleod advised he did not wish to ask a supplementary question.

b)    Question 2 - Councillor Manley asked a question to the Leader of the Council, as set out in the agenda supplement, with regard tothe lack of funding allocated to Lewes cycling and walking groups from the Emergency Active Travel Fund.

Response - Councillor MacCleary advised that the Council had engaged with East Sussex County Council (ESCC) and was very disappointed that the District schemes had not received funding, but he confirmed he would continue to look for opportunities for future bids to ESCC. Councillor MacCleary asked Councillor Bird to respond in detail. Councillor Bird outlined the details of the funding process on Tranche 1 and 2 and the process by which the Council had drawn up its bids, including consulting with a walking and cycling forum with input from SUSTRANS and the National Park Authority.  He was very disappointed to have had the schemes rejected and felt this was a lost opportunity. He advised that the schemes that had been accepted for the Active Travel Fund were improvements to the Falmer to Woodingdean Cycle path and a number of school street improvement, only one of which was in Lewes, and some drop kerbs improvements. 

Councillor Manley advised she did not wish to ask a supplementary question.

c)    Question 3 - Councillor Manley asked a question to the Cabinet Member for Recycling, Waste and Open Spaces, as set out in the agenda supplement, in relation to addressing litter on the A27 and other trunk roads, and steps already taken with the Department for Transport.

Response - Councillor Carr responded that the latest update from the Department for Transport (DfT) stated that in order to transfer to Highways England (HE) responsibility for the clearance of litter along HE-managed Trunk Roads, HE must raise a formal request to the Secretary of State for the transfer of litter clearance responsibility.  To date, HE had not objected to the proposal and AOne+ (Highways England’s contractor) was supportive.  In the interim, street cleansing team resources had been reallocated to enable two teams to take advantage of any litter picking opportunities which did arise on the A26 and A27 sections in the District.  There were currently no road closures on the A26 or A27 scheduled before Christmas, but the team were ready should closures be notified.  In addition, it was understood HE was investigating new technology to help identify littering offences, but this could be a shared cost.

Councillor Carr suggested that, following on from the Council’s motion of  25 February 2019 which requested that the DfT transfer responsibility of litter clearance responsibilities from local authorities to HE, that she write to Highways England to ask it to progress the transfer of responsibility by raising and pursuing a request with the Department for Transport.

As a point of order, Councillor O’Keeffe advised that she would advise Councillor Carr of any closures of the A26/A27 that she was notified of as a County Councillor.

Councillor Manley advised she did not wish to ask a supplementary question.  Councillor Carr offered to provide a full copy of her response to Councillor Manley.

d)    Question 4 - Councillor Clay asked a question to the Cabinet Member for Planning and Infrastructure, as set out in the agenda supplement, in relation to how the Council was responding to the Government consultation on changes to the planning system.

Response - Councillor O’Brien confirmed she had also been contacted by residents with concerns about the proposals, including the binding target of the number of houses to be developed per year, the new zoning system of growth, renewal and protection which took away some of the local say on development, the changes to infrastructure payments which enable community facilities to be funded as part of developments, and a rise in the threshold above which developers must provide affordable housing from 10 to around 40 homes, which would result in a significant reduction in affordable housing.  Councillor O’Brien confirmed that the Council would be providing a full and robust response.  In addition, Officers were setting up a session for all Councillors to be informed of the proposals, so that their thoughts could be incorporated in the response to Government.

Councillor Clay advised he did not wish to ask a supplementary question.