Agenda item

Please note that Councillors are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the officer named above (acting on behalf of the Director of Resources) by noon Friday 9 July 2010  Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

Details of any questions received will be circulated to Councillors prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website.

The Chairman reported receipt of questions from Councillors Ernie Clark, Helen Osborn, Peter Colmer, Jeff Osborn, Jon Hubbard, Steve Oldrieve, Trevor Carbin and Chris Caswill.

Details of the questions and responses given were previously circulated and attached as Appendix A to these minutes.

 Supplementary questions were made in some cases summarised as follows:

Cllr Helen Osborn – Special Education Need (SEN) provision – sought an assurance that sufficient resources would be made available to deal with SEN.

Cllr Grundy explained that SEN review was governed by legislation and confirmed that there was no question that requirements under SEN would not be continued.

Cllr Peter Colmer – consultation on the Wiltshire Community Plan – asked whether it would be more appropriate to undertake the consultation through community area partnerships rather than a ‘top down’ approach.

The Leader confirmed that the consultation exercise was to ensure the Plan reflected views of the community and that the consultation would include community area leaders.

Cllr Jeff Osborn – recommendations of audit carried out by KPMG – referred to the 50 recommendations from the audit out of which 18 had been highlighted as red.

Cllr Fleur de Rhe Philipe explained that the number of recommendations were to be expected due to the transitional period and confirmed that all recommended actions had been completed.

Cllr Jon Hubbard – collapse of property values – given that property values had collapsed and benefits from disposals would be negligible questioned whether savings would be made ahead of clear directives on the future of local government.

Cllr John Noeken agreed that the Council needed to constantly keep progress of the workplace transformation under review. Given that property prices were currently depressed, he confirmed that the Council was not in a hurry to dispose of its properties. This would be kept under review by the workplace transformation board which had last met on 9 July 2010.

Cllr Jon Hubbard – cost of producing ‘Your Wiltshire Magazine’ against effectiveness of it being used as a vehicle for consultation – questioned the benefits of the magazine and questioned whether the amount spent on producing it could be better spent on providing frontline services.

The Leader emphasised that front line services were not being cut. The production of the magazine was being kept under review and that the Council was working with its partners to make it a public sector magazine. Without the magazine, individual services would have to undertake their own separate consultation which would then collectively cost more. The magazine was never intended as a vehicle for public consultation or for publishing statutory notices. The magazine served the purposes of keeping members of the public informed and in providing an opportunity to challenge the Council with its feedback.

Cllr Steve Oldrieve – Adopted notice of motion on fair trade – asked how the motion was being incorporated into the Council’s procurement policy and toolkit and the contract regulations.

Cllr John Noeken confirmed that it would be reflected in guidance to the contract regulations.

Cllr Trevor Carbin – consultation on the future of waste collection: collection of food waste – questioned why an option of providing food waste collection had not been included in the consultation exercise.

Cllr Toby Sturgis explained that collection of food waste was expensive and that there was a lack of suppliers willing to collect this type of waste. He confirmed that the consultation referred to continuing to investigate this type of collection.

Cllr Caswill – Area Board grants – asked what the proportion of Area Board funding could be used to fund projects which fell outside the criteria of the Community Grants Scheme. He also questioned whether Councillors should promote their own preferences.

The Leader explained that when she attends her own Area Board, she does so as a member of that Area Board rather than as Leader of the Council unless she is specifically asked to respond as Leader. Decisions made were democratically made. She also confirmed that as a local member she would consult the local community and parish/town councils on schemes they wished to pursue.

Cllr Caswill – state of the roads – asked for confirmation that the current state of the roads was due to a lack of investment in highway repairs and asked whether the response given was an early indication that the road repairs budget was being ring fenced.

Cllr Tong referred to under investment on roads by previous administrations of the Council. He also explained that roads were inspected regularly to enable an assessment to be carried out each year. Repairs were carried out on a priority basis. He confirmed that all that could be done within budgetary constraints was being done.