Minutes:
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Name of Councillor asking Question |
Name of Cabinet Member Responding |
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Councillor McCarthy to the Cabinet Member for Housing
I welcome the comments about increasing engagement with residents at Milton Mount flats. However, residents at these flats have experienced ongoing issues with the new water pumping station with multiple failures being reported, no water, as well as instances with high pressures spikes causing leaks. The pumping station equated to the largest amount of money within the repair work and so these instances are upsetting for residents. Please can you establish the root cause of the pumping station failures in order to prevent any further issues?
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Councillor Irvine, Cabinet Member for Housing
Thank you for your question. I am aware of the problems at Milton Mount flats, but I wasn’t aware of the full details of the issue you mention. We have a dedicated and committed team of officers who are responsible for Milton Mount. I can’t guarantee that I personally will get to the root cause of the issue, but I will raise this at my next briefing and ensure the officers can establish the problem and how to resolve it. |
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Councillor Ayling to the Cabinet Member for Leisure & Wellbeing
Please can you kindly provide us with further information on how the Wellbeing van is doing around the town?
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Councillor C Mullins, Cabinet Member for Leisure & Wellbeing
The van is in its first year of deployment. The idea was to take the Wellbeing Service that we have at K2 Crawley out in the community and to harder to reach groups and be able to provide wellbeing advice and support. The overall cost of the vehicle was £83,000 but was achieved by working with partners. The vehicle is used within the community approximately twice a week and at events. The health screening continues along with wellbeing appointments and healthy lifestyles. When it was first used in March there were 50 interactions, but since its entire use there has been 650 people visit the vehicle. I think all parties involved need to be congratulated.
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Councillor Crow to the Leader of the Council
I noticed that Henry Smith MP had written to you about requesting that this council commemorates Holocaust Memorial Day every year and I think that request has particular merit. Have you responded or what is your response likely to be?
Supplementary question –
I would like to thank the Leader for his response and say I welcome his thoughts that the council would be looking to commemorate the event. I like the idea of reaching out to the Jewish community.
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Councillor Jones, to the Leader of the Council
Thank you for your question Councillor Crow. I will be responding to the MP but I wanted to provide the council with a response first. The Holocaust is one of the darkest chapters in humanity’s history and I’m very open to the council supporting an event to mark Holocaust Memorial Day in the new year. Discussions did take place towards the end of 2020 regarding a tree planting ceremony along with a plaque unveiling in the Memorial Gardens. However due to Covid the tree planting had to be cancelled, as did the event the following year due to increasing infection rates. This could be picked up for January 2024 and the council would like to reach out to any local residents from the Jewish community, along with other residents who would also be interested to take part in such a ceremony as we would like this to be an event that has a strong community involvement.
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Councillor Belben to the Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Development
At July’s Council, there was a written question as to why the Queen’s Square fountains jets had been out of order for some time. In your reply you stated that not only would the works on site be completed by the end of September but regular meetings were being held with contractors to see if the works programme could be reduced. Here we are in the middle of October (having had exceptional warm weather) and still the fountain jets are not working. Please can you provide an explanation?
You also said the council did not delay the work by taking any legal action against the contractors. What are the costs to date of fixing the fountain please?
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Councillor Nawaz, Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Development
You may have seen the area is now cordoned off and repair work is in progress. There have been supply chain issues for the fountain parts, and although now procured it has resulted in some slippage in the timescale. I regularly receive updates on progress and all contractors are working to complete.
I’m afraid I do not have the figures but I will investigate and respond to you. |
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Councillor Jaggard to the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission
I am slightly baffled by the recent HASC report. So please can the Chair of OSC explain minute 9, it is the data relating to Adult Service Public Health. Previously the HASC reports have been interesting and clear but this requires further explanation on the whole section, so please can you provide this?
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Councillor Ayling, Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission
I’m afraid I do not have the paperwork in front of me, but I will have a look into your question and provide a response. I am not on the HASC committee so I will need to liaise with Councillor K Khan and obtain further information.
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Councillor Millar-Smith to the Leader of the Council
I believe you said 300 citizenships have taken place? Please can you kindly clarify the figures?
Of those approvals that have received citizenship, how many people have approached the council for housing applications?
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Councillor Jones, Leader of the Council
To date there have been 6600 applications for British citizenship of which 3200 applications have been approved. 600 of these applications are from individuals already in the UK and 300 of those have already been approved.
I’m afraid I do not have the exact figures for you. I believe it is approximately 7 as of last week but this is the beginning of the process.
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Councillor Lanzer to the Cabinet Member for Leisure & Wellbeing
When Councillor Mullins, Councillor Jones and myself launched the Wellbeing vehicle in Queen’s Square did he appreciate the coincidence that the health and wellbeing colours used for the balloons at the launch were a close resemblance to the Irish Tricolour?
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Councillor C Mullins, Cabinet Member for Leisure & Wellbeing
Thank you for your question, I did appreciate the colours very much. |