Agenda and minutes
Venue: Conference Chamber, West Suffolk House, Western Way, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 3YU
Contact: Christine Brain: Democratic Services Officer
Email: christine.brain@westsuffolk.gov.uk
Media
Items
No. |
Item |
128. |
Substitutes
Any member who is substituting for another
member should so indicate, together with the name of the relevant
absent member.
Minutes:
The following substitution was declared:
Councillor Jim Thorndyke substituting for
Councillor Terry Clements.
|
129. |
Apologies for absence
Minutes:
Apologies for absence were received from
Councillors Simon Brown, Terry Clements, Sarah Pugh and Marion
Rushbrook.
Councillor Paul Hopfensperger was also unable
to attend the meeting.
|
130. |
Minutes PDF 117 KB
To confirm the minutes of the meetings held on
10 June 2021 and 8 July 2021 (copies attached).
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The minutes of the meetings held on 10 June
2021 and 8 July 2021 were confirmed as correct records and signed
by the Chair.
|
131. |
Formal decision making on 'minded to' decisions
Taking into account the ‘minded
to’ decisions made during the non-decision making virtual meeting of the Overview and
Scrutiny Committee held on 10 June 2021, the Committee is required
to formally resolve the following matters:
1. Minutes of the
meeting held on 18 March 2021.
2. Review of Council
Markets – Membership:
-
Councillor Ian Shipp (Mildenhall)
-
Councillor John Burns (Haverhill)
-
Councillor Marion Rushbrook (Smaller Markets/Clare)
-
Councillor Patrick Chung (Bury St Edmunds)
-
Councillor Michael Anderson (Newmarket)
-
Councillor David Palmer (Brandon)
Minutes:
Taking into account
the ‘minded to’ decisions made during the
non-decision-making virtual meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny
Committee held on 10 June 2021, the Committee was required to
formally resolve the following matters:
1. Minutes of the
meeting held on 18 March 2021.
2. Review of Council
Markets – Membership:
-
Councillor Ian Shipp (Mildenhall)
-
Councillor John Burns (Haverhill)
-
Councillor Marion Rushbrook (Smaller Markets/Clare)
-
Councillor Patrick Chung (Bury St Edmunds)
-
Councillor Michael Anderson (Newmarket)
-
Councillor David Palmer (Brandon)
It was then proposed by Councillor Margaret
Marks, seconded by Councillor Tony Brown, and with the vote being
unanimous it was:
RESOLVED:
That:
1)
The minutes of the meeting held on 18 March 2021, be confirmed as a
correct record, and signed by the chair.
2)
The membership of the Markets Review Group be approved.
|
132. |
Declarations of interest
Members are reminded of their responsibility
to declare any pecuniary or local non pecuniary interest which they
have in any item of business on the agenda, no later than when
that item is reached and, when appropriate, to leave the
meeting prior to discussion and voting on the item.
Minutes:
Members’ declarations of interest are
recorded under the item to which the declaration relates.
|
133. |
Announcements from the Chair regarding responses from the Cabinet to reports of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee
Minutes:
The Chair informed member he attended Cabinet
on 20 July 2021 and presented the Committee’s report from its
meeting held on 8 July 2021. As per the
minutes above, the Chair thanked the Leader of the Council for
attending its meeting and presenting the Draft West Suffolk Annual
Report 2020 to 2021, and updated Cabinet on the nominations put
forward on the Appointments to Outside Scrutiny Bodies (Suffolk
County Council Health Scrutiny Committee), which were noted by
Cabinet.
The Chair also updated Cabinet on the Markets
Review Group as a standing item.
|
134. |
Public participation
Members of the public who live or work
in the district are welcome to speak and may ask one question or
make a statement of not more than three minutes duration relating
to items to be discussed in Part 1 of the agenda only.
If a question is asked and answered
within three minutes, the person who asked the question may ask a
supplementary question that arises from the reply.
In accordance with government
guidance, the Council has developed general protocols on operating
buildings safely in order to reduce the risk of the spread of
coronavirus and will apply to members of the public registered to
speak.
We would therefore
strongly urge anyone who wishes to register to speak to notify
Democratic Services by 9am on the day of the meeting so that advice
can be given on the arrangements in place.
There is an overall limit of 15
minutes for public speaking, which may be extended at the
Chair’s discretion.
Minutes:
The following members of the public spoke
under this agenda item:
1. Vivien
Gainsborough Foot, Chairman of The Churchgate
Area Committee and Member of the West Suffolk Council Air Quality
Group made a statement in connection with Item 11 on the
Agenda, “Work programme update and suggestions for
scrutiny” on 20mph speed limits and anti-idling.
Chair and members thank you for
allowing me to speak. My name is Vivien
Gainsborough Foot, Chair of the Churchgate Area Association (CAA),
and represent the residents and business associations for the 620
houses in the grid. We have a
membership of over 300 residents and businesses and are an active
and articulate group. The CAA has
formed a Sub-Committee of the West Suffolk Council Air Quality
Group and we focus on pollution and the enforcement of the 20mph
zone in the Bury St Edmunds town centre.
Regarding pollution, I refer to the
Suffolk County Council Health and Wellbeing Board report of July
2021, which states clearly that there is responsibility at every
level to improve air quality by providing training and resources to
increase the technical knowledge of transport and planning officers
and strengthening wider communication to the public and the CAA
looks forward to seeing some action on this.
Referring to the West Suffolk
Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting in January
2019, the options considered were:
a)
To undertake a targeted campaign to effect behavioural change,
which was adopted, but we have seen nothing of this on our
streets.
Under the 2002 Regulations of the 1995
Environment Act, stationary vehicle idling is an offence, and
powers have been given to local authorities to issue fixed penalty
notices to drivers who allow their engines to run unnecessarily
whilst the vehicle is parked.
Option (b)
considered by the Committee was to adopt delegated powers under the
2002 Regulations to issue Fixed Penalty Notices to drivers leaving
their car engines running. This was
rejected but does West Suffolk Council now employ Civil Enforcement
Officers to ticket illegally parked cars.
The CAA is
requesting that these officers be trained to enforce
anti-idling. We see cars idling all the
time, which is damaging to our children’s lungs.
The CAA has
produced an anti-idling video on its Facebook page, and we plead
with you all to put your full weight behind West Suffolk
Council’s traffic management to tackle this issue.
The 20mph zone is
widely ignored and causes more pollution. The police have no enforcement policy. The streets in the grid have not got sufficient
sight lines for the CAA to employ speed indicator devices and I
would urge this Committee to argue for Siemens SafeZone speed
cameras, which records encrypted data.
The data is forwarded to a computer for decrypting and can then be
viewed by the police who can then issue notices on a pending
prosecution.
Thank you
Chair.
2. Glynis Horton,
a local resident from Bury St Edmunds made a statement in
connection with Item 11 on the Agenda, “Work programme update
and suggestions ...
view the full minutes text for item 134.
|
135. |
Consideration of Councillor Call for Action PDF 124 KB
Report number: OAS/WS/21/016
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The
Committee received report number OAS/WS/21/016, which sought
potential solutions on the impact of the Eastern Relief Road and
A14, J45 on the Moreton Hall residential area, by means of
convening a Councillor Call for Action (CCfA) Hearing.
CCfA came into force on 1 April 2009 and provided a mechanism
whereby any Member of the Council may refer to the Overview and
Scrutiny Committee any local government or crime and disorder
matter which affected their ward or division.
On
10 June 2021, the Committee had resolved to refer the Councillor
Call for Action (CCfA) submission presented by Councillor Trevor
Beckwith to a CCfA Hearing on 2 September 2021. The purpose of the Hearing was to seek a potential
solution to the problems being encountered by
residents.
The
following documentation was attached to the report:
Appendix A: CCfA Meeting Plan detailing the
sequential order of speakers and witnesses
Appendix 1: Councillor Beckwith’s completed
CCfA request form, in accordance with the District Council’s
CCfA protocol;
Appendix 2: CCfA SCC post meeting letter – 5 October
2018
Appendix 3: CCfA Complaint against SCC
Appendix 4: CCfA Stage 1 response and email exchange
Appendix 5: CCfA SCC final response to complaint
Appendix 6: CCfA Map
Appendix 7: Written report from SCC officers
Appendix 8: Photographic evidence provided by
(witness)
The
Committee was informed that as this was the first CCfA Hearing
undertaken by West Suffolk Council, a set procedure would be
followed.
The
Committee would gather as much information as possible from a
variety of organisations and witnesses who had been involved with
the issue with the focus on attempting to reach a potential
resolution to the problem. The meeting plan, attached as Appendix
A, had been prepared using the CCfA protocol and the procedural
order of the Hearing followed this plan.
Having welcomed all speakers and witnesses to the Hearing, the
Chair asked Councillor Beckwith to explain to the Committee his
reasons for instigating the CCfA. Councillor Beckwith provide the
following statement to the Committee.
Councillor Trevor
Beckwith’s opening statement:
As some members of the Committee would not be
familiar with the area, Councillor Beckwith referred members to the
annotated map, attached at Appendix 6 to help clarify the
narrative.
In September 2017, the £15m Eastern
Relief Road (ERR) was opened, funded by the former Council (St
Edmundsbury Borough Council), Suffolk County Council and the New
Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership.
At the official opening, a speaker said,
“it will also bring much wider benefits to our families and
communities for years to come, relieving some of the local
congestion and providing better access to The Sybil Andrews Academy
and community leisure facilities that were based
there”. I fully support that
aspiration and deeply regret that the wider benefits to our
families and communities had not worked out. Along with local residents I hope to demonstrate
what was needed to restore residential amenity to that enjoyed
before the ERR opened.
The project incurred a £4.5m overspend,
due mainly to Highways England requirements for the ...
view the full minutes text for item 135.
|
136. |
Suffolk County Council: Health Scrutiny Committee - 7 July 2021 PDF 112 KB
Report number: OAS/WS/21/017
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Margaret Marks, the Council’s
appointed representative on the Suffolk County Council Health
Scrutiny Committee presented report number OAS/WS/21/017.
The report, prepared by Councillor Margaret
Marks, set out what was considered at its meeting held on 7 July
2021. The focus of the meeting was
on:
-
Introducing new members to the work of the Committee
and providing background information to the structure of the NHS,
following the elections held in May 2021.
-
Information on the current Clinical Commissioning
Structure and the proposed changes to Integrated Care
Systems.
-
West Suffolk Hospitals New Hospital Project; Maternity Services and
Whistleblowing Report
Councillor Marks referred to
page 59 of the report and explained that dentistry was
significantly under-funded and responsibility for this service was
about to be transferred from NHS England to the newly created
Integrated Care Services (currently called the Clinical
Commissioning Group).
The Committee considered the
report in detail and asked questions to which Councillor Marks
provided comprehensive responses. In
particular discussions were held on the shortage of General
Practitioners (GPs), nurses and midwives; dentistry which was
significantly under-funded; dementia clinics in GP surgeries and
mental health services for young people.
In response to a question
raised regarding dementia services, Councillor Marks explained that
every doctor’s surgery was an independent practice and
independently owned and they contract to the NHS for services they
feel they can provide. Therefore, they
would only take on a dementia service if they felt they were
capable of delivering that service.
In response to a question
raised regarding staff shortages, Councillor Marks stated there was
a “peoples plan”, which was starting to address the
staff shortages, in particular the peoples plan was looking at
retaining midwives and maternity nursing.
The Committee also discussed
health, which had recently been
added to Councillor Sara Mildmay-White’s Portfolio and
suggested a written report setting out the role be included as an
item for its 11 November 2021 meeting.
There being no decision required, the
Committee noted the report on the Suffolk County Council
Health Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 7 July 2021 from
Councillor Margaret Marks.
|
137. |
Cabinet Decisions Plan: 1 September 2021 to 31 May 2022 PDF 155 KB
Report number: OAS/WS/21/018
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee received report number:
OAS/WS/21/018, which informed members on forthcoming decisions to
be considered by the Cabinet for the period 1 September 2021 to 31
May 2022.
The Committee considered the Decisions Plan
and did not request any further information on items contained in
the Plan.
There being no decision required, the
Committee noted the contents of the 1 September
2021 to 31 May 2022 Decisions Plan.
|
138. |
Work programme update and suggestions for scrutiny PDF 127 KB
Report number: OAS/WS/21/019
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee received report number:
OAS/WS/21/019, which updated members on the current status of its
rolling work programme of items for scrutiny during 2021 to 2022
(Appendix 1), including working groups, and two work programme
suggestion forms submitted by Councillor Diane Hind (Appendix 2 and
3).
At its meeting on 8 July 2021,
Councillor Diane Hind agreed to complete a work programme
suggestion form for the Committee’s consideration at its
September 2021 meeting focusing on anti-idling. Attached at Appendix 2 to the report was the
competed work programme suggestion form proposing that a review be
undertaken to introduce “fines for idling”.
On 27 July 2021, Councillor Diane Hind
approached the Chair of the Committee about a potential scrutiny
topic relating to possibly carrying
out a review of 20 mile per hour zones and their signage and
possibly requesting that Suffolk County Council arrange for 20 mile
per hour zones (or limits) to be extended, adequately signed, and
enforced. Councillor Diane Hind had
prepared a suggestion form, (Appendix 3) to undertake a
review.
Councillors Diane Hind and Julia Wakelam
presented their suggestions and drew relevant points to the
Committees attention and referred to the public participation which
the Committee had heard earlier in the meeting.
The Committee considered in detail each work
programme suggestion and officers provided comprehensive
information to questions raised to enable members to reach a
decision as to whether to include the suggestions into its forward
work programme for 2021 - 2022.
In relation to Appendix 2 (fines for idling)
Councillor Diane Hind acknowledged the various pieces of work being
undertaken by the Council in the Environment Action Plan in
relation to air quality and suggested, instead that it receives a
progress report on the various initiatives. Councillor Diane Hind further suggested that
Parking Services be asked to start educating and
asking drivers as soon as possible, when idling, to switch off
their engines, as this would not require any contractual changes to
be made. Members suggested more
education was needed for drivers, and having more proactive
campaigns, for example, targeted advertising at petrol stations
with literature on pumps about anti-idling.
In relation to Appendix 3 (20mph zones and
signage) Councillor Diane Hind advised that a number of local
authorities were introducing 20mph limits as part of a safe system
approach. However, zones would need to
be accompanied with traffic calming measures. In response, officers advised that the current
process to implement 20mph zones was the responsibility of
SCC. The Council would need to be very
clear about what it wanted to achieve by carrying out a review,
which would be a significant piece of work and resource
intensive. Officers suggested the
Council could work with communities where an interest had been
identified by supporting them through the set process with SCC.
Members supported 20mph limits in the right
areas, but felt it needed to be promoted more to make it easier for
councillors and their residents to pursue further in their
localities with their Suffolk County Councillor. ...
view the full minutes text for item 138.
|
|
In this section
|