Agenda item

Any county councillor may, by giving notice to the Proper Officer by 9 am on the working day before the meeting, ask a question on any matter in respect of the Cabinet’s delegated powers.

The number of questions which may be asked by any councillor at any one meeting is limited to two (or one question with notice and a supplementary question at the meeting) and the time for questions will be limited to 30 minutes in total. As with questions at Council, any questions which remain unanswered at the end of this item will receive a written response.

Questions submitted prior to the agenda being despatched are shown below and will be the subject of a response from the appropriate Cabinet Member or such other councillor or officer as is determined by the Cabinet Member, and shall not be the subject of further debate at this meeting. Questions received after the despatch of the agenda, but before the deadline, will be shown on the Schedule of Addenda circulated at the meeting, together with any written response which is available at that time.

Councillor  John  Goddard  had given notice of the following question to the Cabinet Member for Transport:

"In view of the surplus in the on-street parking account in respect of Oxford City Residents' Parking Zones, will the  Cabinet consider returning some portion of this money to residents who have been over-charged?"

Councillor Rose replied:

No.

Supplementary question: Councillor Goddard asked whether the Cabinet Member felt it was worthwhile to explain to residents why charges that should be cost neutral were not. Councillor Rose replied that this matter had been fully discussed elsewhere and that there was a net loss on the parking account. He added that the majority of yellow line enforcement was within Oxford City. He suggested that the City Council could take the provision on and also commented that having had the loss drawn to his attention he would need to review permit charges.

Councillor Zoe Patrick had given notice of the following question to the Cabinet Member for Transport:

"Is it correct that there is a policy not to spray weeds on pavements and gutters?  If so, what is the projected additional cost to the council in having to replace pavements which deteriorate?   (For example the new pavement between Stadhampton and Chiselhampton).  Will the Cabinet consider adopting a more flexible policy which allows spraying in some areas by agreement with parish and town councils? " 

Councillor Rose replied:

“The decision was taken that the £2.3m needed to spray the weeds across the county was not cost effective.  The clearing of noxious weeds is still undertaken and we work closely with the Royal Horse Society and assist their volunteers who pull the ragwort by providing bags and collecting waste.

Members will recall that we set up an Area Stewardship Maintenance Fund this year to provide local members with the flexibility to allocate some funds in their Locality to issues that they agree are of importance to the community. If weed spraying is considered to be a priority then Councillors within each locality can consider whether this is something they would wish to fund.

You make particular reference to the new pavement between Stadhampton and Chiselhampton.  Before any new surface is laid the area is weed treated which should stop weed growth for at least two years, and is covered by an indemnity.  If weed growth returns within this period the work would have to be redone at no cost to the council.”

Supplementary question: Councillor Patrick thanked the Cabinet Member for the information about the Stewardship Scheme and queried whether her understanding was correct that if it was applied for the funding would be given. The Cabinet Member replied that the Council was rolling out the scheme. The funding was split into localities and it was for local members to agree how the money was to be spent.

Councillor Jean Fooks had given notice of the following question to the Cabinet Members for Police & Policy Co-ordination and Safer & Stronger Communities:

" In the Big Society report, Agenda item 8, I see that recommendation c ‘asks officers to work with community groups to enable them to take over buildings to facilitate continuity of provision as much as possible from 1 September. ‘

Please could the Cabinet member explain what is meant by this recommendation? There is no reference that I can find in the report to this recommendation, although it is of course something which community groups would welcome. Does it mean that existing youth workers will be able to help community groups to maintain youth provision through August and into September, before new staff are advertised for and taken on by community groups?”

Councillor Heathcoat replied:

Recommendation (d) is a reference to the work that has and will go on across the council to make sure that where we are ceasing to provide youth services and a big society solution has been agreed by Cabinet, we will work with community groups to help them, as far as possible, to be up and running by 1 September 2011.

Supplementary question: Councillor Fooks referred to the very short timescale and queried whether there could be a extension. Councillor Mallon replied that the Council would do everything it could up to 1 September and that he expected that the new provision would be up and running by then. He could not agree any extension.

Councillor Anne Purse had given notice of the following question to the Cabinet Member for Transport:

"A recent story in the media reported that there were proposals made at a recent scrutiny committee meeting that local parishes should pay for salt in the winter if they wanted it more. Please can you confirm whether, in places where salt bins have been purchased ( e.g. by Parish Councils or by the City Council in Oxford), the County Council will indeed continue to refill these bins for use on local roads as was the deal at the time the bins were bought ?" 

Councillor Rose replied:

“Our policy is to fill grit bins at the beginning of the winter period and then to replenish them when required as long as this will not compromise winter activity on keeping the main routes open. As members will know there has been extreme pressure on our salt stocks over the last two winters which has meant we were unable to refill grit bins routinely. I am currently looking at a better way of managing this to ensure that communities have improved access to an adequate supply of salt over the winter.”

Supplementary question: Councillor Purse queried whether it would be a good idea to give some publicity to the plan as she was aware that some Parish Councils were unsure of the position. The Cabinet Member replied that the intention was to finalise plans during August and to then communicate these to all parish Councils.