Questions from County Councillors
Any county councillor may, by giving notice to the Proper Officer by 9 am two working days 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.
Decision:
Question from Councillor John Howson to Councillor Yvonne Constance – see Annex 1.
Minutes:
Councillor John Howson had given notice of the following question to Councillor Yvonne Constance:
How many responses were received to the consultation on the Closure of Walton Street that ended on 29th May?
Councillor Constance replied:
As this consultation only closed recently the detail of responses received in all formats (online, via email, postal and as petitions) is still being analysed, therefore the full breakdown is not yet available, but I can confirm that we received 487 responses online, and have recorded 147 emails so far, the final number is not yet known. We have also received at least three petitions.
Supplementary Question:
That is a very significant response and demonstrates the depth of feeling on the issue. If I may, I would like to ask about something that has arisen from the consultation but was not a part of it.
Residents of Lekford Road have pointed out there is a 7.5 tonnes weight limit on their road. They would like to know how that weight limit is enforced and what further measures might be taken to prevent heavy vehicles using their road?
Reply:
I am very aware of 7.5 tonne weight limit on Lekford Road. St. Margaret’s Road is the designated route for heavier HGV traffic. We are aware that there does seem to be greater use of Lekford Road and we have informed Trading Standards who are responsible for enforcement. We are working with Lekford Road residents who have agreed to carry out a further traffic survey in the hope that we can resolve the issue. We are not sure how we can stop heavy vehicles from using Lekford Road, but we are looking for a solution.
Councillor Howson replied:
The present signs are described by the government as in the Signs Giving Orders classification – the addition of ‘for access’ makes the issue more complicated, one solution could be to remove the ‘for access’ from the signs.