Issue - meetings

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 Zoe Patrick had given notice of the following questions to the Leader:

“1.        Why has no single member champion produced a report (to be published on the intranet) since January, and some for considerably longer than that?”

Councillor Mitchell replied:

“Champions' reports were due on 31 March 2010 and on 30 June 2010.  Given that 31 March was immediately before the calling of the General Election and the commencement of a period of purdah, I took the view that members would be busy campaigning and that Champions' reports might fall foul of the purdah rules and were, therefore, best avoided.  I have reviewed and changed some of the Champion positions.  They all know they are expected to produce quarterly reports and these are being collated and finalised at the moment and should be on the Intranet by the end of this month.”

“2.        What is the status of the "member champions" mentioned in the Business Strategy 2010-2013 dated June 2010? Cllr Shouler was appointed at Cabinet on 22nd June 2010; when were the others appointed? Will they be providing quarterly reports?” 

Councillor Mitchell replied:

All of the Champion Appointments were made at Agenda Item 14 (see Annex to the report) at the Cabinet Meeting on 22 June 2010. 

Councillor Jean Fooks had given notice of the following question to the Leader:

“3.        Is the Leader intending to appoint someone to take over as Design Champion? As he clearly has had difficulty finding someone to appoint in the last six months, has he considered asking a member of another group?”

Councillor Mitchell replied:

“The position of Design Champion has been discontinued on the advice of the last Champion.

Councillor Jean Fooks had given notice of the following question to the Cabinet Member for Growth & Infrastructure:

“4.        Can the Cabinet Member give an update on the progress of the City/County partnership bid for Plugged-in Places funding, and any information on the performance of the two electric vehicles on loan to the Council?”

Councillor Hudspeth replied:

“Plugged-in Places

At the end of June 2010, the City and County submitted an expression of interest for the second round of Plugged in Places.  This application was supported by a range of other partners.

We have subsequently met with the Office for Low Emissions Vehicles (OLEV) and were advised by them that our Expression of Interest was good. 

The new Government has made policy commitments to this agenda, most clearly in the coalition agreement which announced they will mandate a national charging infrastructure for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.  We are further advised by civil servants that Ministers are taking an active interest in the Electric Vehicle arena and are considering the detail for how to take forward the wider OLEV programme, including the Plug-in Car Grant and Plugged-in Places.

However, we also understand in discussion with OLEV, that decisions are being taken in the wider context of a need to reduce the budget deficit and unfortunately, at this point in time, no firm decisions  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72