Agenda item

Name of Councillor asking Question

Name of Cabinet Member Responding

Councillor Crow to the Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Sustainability

There has been a redesign of the patch teams and we were informed that this would increase the effectiveness and efficiency of grass cutting. It could be argued that every area across the town has not seen an improvement in the cutting of the grass verges, particularly throughout the summer. How much of a success has the redesign of the patch teams been?

Thank you for your answer.  Interesting you mention the different size of the patches. I did hear from a colleague that if an area received more complaints, they would receive greater attention and greater frequency of grass cutting.  I understand the issue of the weather as this has happened in previous years.

Councillor Jhans, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Sustainability

Thank you, Councillor Crow for your question. The first thing I would say with regards to the grass cutting programme is to stress how severe the weather has been.  The programme is dependent on the weather and having favourable ground conditions and this year has been extreme with the grass growing a lot faster.  Cutting has been a challenge but I can assure you that the teams have been out doing the best they can and working as quickly as possible to get around the 2 million m² in the borough. I understand your concerns around the recent restructure and the grass cutting schedule but there is no evidence to suggest the two matters are linked.  The frontline staffing levels are unchanged, and the patches are based on number of acres, shrub beds and level of demand generated.  The teams are slowly catching up with the grass cutting.

As far as I’m aware the teams try to be as fair and equitable in terms of the grass cutting. There will be some areas that do have more cuts than others for safety reasons due to sight lines.

Councillor Lunnon to the Leader of the Council

The England football team were led very ably by Gareth Southgate, former Crawley resident, and I wanted to ask the Leader how the Council could recognise this fantastic achievement and also whether he agrees with me that he’s led a team that’s been at the forefront of leading the fight against bigotry, homophobia and racism and showing leadership on that, that’s been somewhat lacking.

I welcome the Leader’s answer and I would like to mention that Crawley Athletics Club has someone going to the Olympics as a relay team member, Nicholas Baker.

Councillor Lamb, Leader of the Council

Thank you. It’s not only what the team have achieved on the field that is impressive, it’s the way they’ve gone about it. Had they won, they were going to give their money to the NHS, they’ve repeated stood up against comments and they have gone out of their way to support those on the hardest of incomes which has shown a team that is genuinely concerned for its country, not just when they’re playing with the ‘Lions’ on their shirt. 

In terms of whether we should recognise the achievements of Gareth Southgate, I’m forming a Cabinet Sub-group, of myself, the Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Sustainability who is responsible for naming various aspects of the town and Cabinet Member for Wellbeing who is responsible for much of the town’s leisure facilities.  These are those who able to take the decisions on these various aspects so we will consult together, along with the Leader of the Opposition prior to any formal announcement being made.  This does not necessarily mean calls for a statue will be fulfilled as we’ve seen previously where these have not lived up to expectations and we will only be criticised for spending money unwisely. But it is important to honour his achievements and recognise that this town has so much going for it.  We will go away and come back with a recommendation in due course.

Councillor Burrett to the Cabinet Member for Resources

You will recall a couple of Full Council meetings last year, you asked a series of questions about the existence or otherwise of a series of emails that may or may not have been sent by the Leader of the Council within the Labour Group and other people.   Now the situation has changed, and you’re now Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member with responsible for Freedom of Information and FOI requests, have you now received an answer that you are now satisfied with?

Are you admitting you may have wasted some of the Full Council’s time when there may have been more pressing issues to deal with?

Councillor Fiveash, Cabinet Member for Fiveash

That’s a good question, there were several. Emails sent internally within groups, even though council systems are not obtainable through FOI, and I was not entitled to them. The process was perfectly legal, and officers were correct in following the law.

No, I wouldn’t describe it as a waste of time as it was a request for information. But at the end of the day, you just have to move forward.

Councillor A Belben to the Chair of Licensing Committee

The committee includes I’m sure some new and experienced members.  Licensing is a very important committee, and people’s livelihoods are often at stake and there is important business within a licensing committee coming up.  Are you satisfied that all licensing committee members are trained?

Councillor Jaggard, Chair of Licensing Committee

We do have some important business coming up. The last couple of licencing meetings were actually training meetings. They were compulsory training for all committee members because as you say licensing is extremely important. One was looking at the taxi licensing and the other looked at alcohol and pub licensing. There are a number of complex reports coming up and we need to ensure that all councillors are fully trained as we may face legal challenges in the face of improper decisions. It was compulsory training and unfortunately of the 14 councillors that were required to attend, only 7 attended both sessions so this results in 7 fully trained councillors. Disappointedly 4 councillors failed to attend both sessions and this includes the newly elected Vice Chair and also the Deputy Leader.  These sessions will need to be re-run but will be at a later date and will incur further time and cost, which is disappointing.

Councillor R Burgess to the Mayor

Apologies but I did not hear whether or not you were going to formally write to Gareth Southgate congratulating him and the team on the achievements in the Euro 2020 tournament. If so, I apologise but if not, please can I urge you to do so in your formal position as Mayor on behalf of the town congratulating him and his team (both playing and non-playing) on their collective achievements.

Councillor Malik, The Mayor

Thank you, Councillor Burgess, this is something we will look into.

Councillor Eade to the Cabinet Member for Wellbeing

I wanted to make you aware of the state of the children’s playground at the end of Ashburnham Road in Furnace Green?  The ground is slippery, dangerous and the mats have grass growing through them. It was only refurbished a few years’ ago but the maintenance is not being kept up to date. I have photos I can forward for information.

Councillor C Mullins, Cabinet Member for Wellbeing

We have a lot of unsupervised play areas, but we have a working group to look at the urgency of different sites. Please send me the photos and site details. I will be able to investigate fully during the daytime but some of the sites are old but we do have a programme of refurbishment, but I will investigate.

Councillor B Burgess to the Cabinet Member for Public Protection and Community Engagement

At WSCC, a CRB/DBS is automatically carried out following elections, in your present Cabinet role what are your thoughts about renewing the practice here especially as we have so many new councillors?

Councillor Jones, Cabinet Member for Public Protection and Community Engagement

I am happy to look into this matter a little further however I am personally not unhappy with the current arrangements the council has. I am aware of what WSCC has done in the past. I can re look at the process, but I am happy with the current arrangement and the council’s child safeguarding policy, which was reviewed last time I was Cabinet Member and possibly more recently.

Councillor T Belben to the Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Sustainability

We know during lockdown that lots of families have bought dogs so can you tell me please the amount of fines that have been issued in the last 6 and 12 months for dog fouling?  Also do you think if dogs had to be kept on leads whilst on public pavements it would result in less fouling because they would be under control?

Councillor Jhans, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Sustainability

Thank you for your question.  I’m afraid I don’t have the figures on the number of fines and incidents, but I can send these through to you. On your point about keeping dogs on leads, I think owners need to take personal responsibility for their dogs.

Councillor S Mullins to the Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Sustainability

Please can you tell me more about the additional funding received for the green homes grant?

Councillor Jhans, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Sustainability

Thank you, a successful bid has been received to extend the green homes grant, the local authority delivery scheme.  This includes solar PV panels and solid wall insulation.  To be eligible households need to have a gross annual income of £30,000 or less or have an energy efficiency score of D or lower.  Letters have been issued to eligible households as well as notification via social media.

Councillor Burrett to the Cabinet Member for Resources

There is a commercialisation seminar next week and quite a few issues raised will be pertinent to Councillor Fiveash’s portfolio, relating to a lot of the internal support services and opportunities for commercialisation.  I wanted to ask him as a new portfolio holder there, if he is totally on board with the council’s commercialisation agenda?

Councillor Fiveash, Cabinet Member for Resources

Yes, I’m on board with the agenda. What I don’t want to see is everything else being forgotten about. I don’t have an issue with the commercialisation programme as such as long as we keep our focus on the social side of what we do.

Councillor Crow to the Leader of the Council

Does he think that Lewes is the only borough East Sussex council that is a member of the Greater Brighton Economic Board, given that Brighton is within East Sussex?  Does he find it odd that Lewes is the only East Sussex council that is a member whilst we have a few West Sussex members?

Councillor Lamb, Leader of the Council

Not necessarily, Eastbourne have been having conversations about whether it would be worthwhile signing up. If there is such strong feeling amongst so many West Sussex councils and if there’s a need for a voice larger that our own current geographical footprint to make a louder voice out there to address our concerns it may be that we don’t fill those current bodies to provide that voice or make a delivery in any reasonable form.